02-05-2014, 11:18 PM
In Renaissance warfare heavy cavalry were nobles? What period do you define as Renaissance?
Regarding the crusades - Knight Orders were not nobles, they were professional military organizations.
That said, nobles at that time had very good military training. Their individual training was often not worse than that of professionals, mercenaries, Knight Orders, etc. But there could be problems with unit training, because when men were called to war, often men who didn't know each other ended up in the same unit.
There were units raised by families, clans or rich aristocracts - such units usually included only people who knew each other and trained together, so they were better than "territorial units". Discipline and cooperation were much better in units which consisted of men who knew each other and trained together.
Medieval European nobility was - after all - a warrior caste, just like Medieval Japanese nobility.
In Early and High Middle Ages almost every male child of noble birth was trained to become a warrior.
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BTW - do you count a noble who becomes a regular soldier as a noble, or as a regular soldier?
Of course that the society was divided into nobles, peasants, burghers, priests, etc.
But the most interested in warfare were always nobles - burghers had more interest in trade and crafts, peasants in farming and animal husbandry, priests in praying and converting people. So of course professional units of regular soldiers were also recruited from among the nobles - to a large extent. There were some burghers and peasants among them too, but largely nobles. Commoners started to serve as regular soldiers on a massive scale only in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when the age of massive armies and general conscription came (the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, the US Civil War, WW1, WW2).
Before that burghers and peasants often fought in wars - but usually as militias or levies, not regulars.
I think that units of regulars and mercenaries were still dominated by recruits of noble birth.
Before Napoleon, war was - like in the 21st century - fought mostly by professionals and warrior castes.
The 19th century and the 20th century with massive armies consisting of conscripts are exceptions.
Regarding the crusades - Knight Orders were not nobles, they were professional military organizations.
That said, nobles at that time had very good military training. Their individual training was often not worse than that of professionals, mercenaries, Knight Orders, etc. But there could be problems with unit training, because when men were called to war, often men who didn't know each other ended up in the same unit.
There were units raised by families, clans or rich aristocracts - such units usually included only people who knew each other and trained together, so they were better than "territorial units". Discipline and cooperation were much better in units which consisted of men who knew each other and trained together.
Medieval European nobility was - after all - a warrior caste, just like Medieval Japanese nobility.
In Early and High Middle Ages almost every male child of noble birth was trained to become a warrior.
===================================================
BTW - do you count a noble who becomes a regular soldier as a noble, or as a regular soldier?
Of course that the society was divided into nobles, peasants, burghers, priests, etc.
But the most interested in warfare were always nobles - burghers had more interest in trade and crafts, peasants in farming and animal husbandry, priests in praying and converting people. So of course professional units of regular soldiers were also recruited from among the nobles - to a large extent. There were some burghers and peasants among them too, but largely nobles. Commoners started to serve as regular soldiers on a massive scale only in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when the age of massive armies and general conscription came (the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, the US Civil War, WW1, WW2).
Before that burghers and peasants often fought in wars - but usually as militias or levies, not regulars.
I think that units of regulars and mercenaries were still dominated by recruits of noble birth.
Before Napoleon, war was - like in the 21st century - fought mostly by professionals and warrior castes.
The 19th century and the 20th century with massive armies consisting of conscripts are exceptions.
