Medieval Infantry

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When people think about Medieval Warfare, what comes to mind first are Knights as well as Men at Arms, and fair's fair they were important and would be honed to a fine edge. However they were only part of the equation. Here's a rough guide to Medieval Infantry.

Note

This is a fairly big complex thing with a lot of local details and variation. Depending on who you ask or what the setting is, the "Medieval" period can stretch from the fall of Rome to just before the discovery of the Americas; even if you limit yourself to Europe, there was a lot of complexity in how some cultures raised and armed their armies. There is a lot of fine detail that will be glossed over here.

For the average fa/tg/uy dabbling in Fantasy and Tabletop settings, this would probably be helpful in adding some complexity to your settings, just remember that "Medieval" worlds are mishmashes of things that just "feel" Feudal locked in Medieval Stasis, who cares if you have potatoes in your setting, most neckbeards can't even agree on whether or not gunpowder belongs in the setting.

Levies

Raising in army during the Medieval era meant mobilizing your country's manpower, whether they know how to fight or not. Nobles would, of course, be obligated to answer their liege's calls and bring along their retainers, but either they or their liege may also round up "volunteers" from the lower classes. These are the levies, and they are basically conscripted peasants put under arms. A medieval lord could raise a levy in times of war, gathering up young men as part of their feudal obligations; all men of certain ages were required to show up and the nobles would take those they needed or how many they could support; there are laws that actually regulated how many men could be raised, for how long, and for what purpose, including exemptions for certain professions from mandatory service (a peasant under arms is not one tending the crops and paying rent, especially if he ends up dead).

Most of the time, levies would supply their own equipment, so large armies composed of ill-equipped peasants are either desperate for bodies, or fighting off invaders. They were a bit better on the defensive, protecting hearth and home. Levies were common in the Dark Age (such as the Fyrds) but they became less important into the High Middle Ages, when heavy cavalry became more common and could be relied upon to reliably trounce farmers with minimal training and basic equipment.

Even if you have a lot of them, for every battle of knights getting stabbed with spears or clubbed with a Goedendag, there are even more records of knights running over peasants. It takes a lot of training to stop a cavalry charge head-on, and even more to reliably respond to changes in the battlefield, or to even just stay together once things get serious, so when the stirrup and lance led to heavy cavalry, armies would consist of trained retainers or professionals, and it was not until the middle ages fully ended that levies became important again as nations finally became organized enough (Again) (and the weapons simple enough) to raise large levy forces and also equip them and train them.

In terms of armament, they'd most commonly be armed with polearms, typically a spear, and a wooden shield. Besides being easy to use and easy to train with, especially in dense formations, they're also cost-effective. In terms of armour they generally had at least a basic helmet and a few of the luckier ones might have basic torso armour. A hastily raised army of levies that can form a shield wall can be surprisingly effective bulwark against an invasion if used correctly; especially of used defensively with fortifications. But if routed, they’ll be as vulnerable as fish in a barrel. You might also be able to raise forces of archers as well as most Peasants would probably have a bow already to help put food on the table. Axes or other heavy weapons are also good as they need a minimal of training to be functional.

Examples of Levies

• Fyrds: How the Anglo-Saxons organized their armies before they became the English, of which we know quite about because their kings wrote shit down; because the Anglo-Saxons were culturally Germanic, they fought like the Vikings that were invading their lands. A Fyrd would be composed of levied men, the newfags following the lead of the more grizzled neckbeards among them.
• Ashigaru: The Japanese equivalent. Eventually they would be refined into solid fighting forces.

Urban Militias

Similar to levies, but in towns and cities; being a step-up in the ladder, they could afford better equipment and they generally wanted to be there. Also often better equipped as cities were usually richer per-capita. Still not the best trained and equipped force you can get as seen at the Battle of Visby; where the Danish king’s professional army all but annihilated the city’s militia. Excavations of the mass graves there (oddly well preserved and not looted due to the sheer number of dead as well as the summer heat risking rapid decay when they just died), showed equipment varied from simple mail and polearms to brigandine and battle axes.

On the other hand, if properly led and motivated, urban militia could stand up even to the flower of French knighthood, which was arguably the best in the world, as was aptly demonstrated during the Battle of Courtrai, otherwise known as the Battle of the Golden Spurs, due to 500 spurs taken from the dead knights by the victorious Flemish.

In Fantasy and Tabletop, Urban Militias are often a colorful bunch, representative of the city's diverse guilds and professions, if not their city's races as well.

Retainers

The professional and semi-professional classes, they became more important once it became clear that spamming the board with bodies was not going to win wars; unlike the levies above, retainers had to answer their liege's call-to-arms, either themselves, or by supplying someone to take their place; in exchange for their service, they were often granted land or privileges. The exact specifics of the agreement varied between class and time periods, but it's useful to think of their status as being dependent on how much of their time was actually spent as a "soldier"

Examples:

• Men-at-Arms: A broad term to describe all the full time professional soldiers, what we normally think of as Knights but could be a mercenary instead. Basically all Knights were Men-at-Arms, but not all Men-at-Arms were Knights. Besides paying for their own equipment, they'll also raise retainers to form a lance of troops that join the company. Men-at-Arms evolved over time from heavy cavalry to heavy infantry; the former using lances as their main weapon, and the latter switching to some heavy two-handed weapon such as a Pollaxe when full-plate armor allows one to ditch a shield. Can either be feudal lords with their own lands, an attache in the service of one, or a professional under the employment of the royal guard.
• Huskarl: To continue with the Anglo-Saxon examples, House-carls were professionals warriors on retainer and in the direct service to a noble.

Yeoman

Unlike serfs or tenants, yeomen owned a plot of land of their own, which they themselves tended to when not at war. This meant they had more income than Paul the Peasant but they were also required to use some of that money to buy gear and serve as soldiers, and not to mention tend to their land.

In some countries, Yeoman as professional soldiers are also specialists in a particular area of war; England was famed for its Yeoman archers, as they trained relentlessly to be the best archers in all of Europe.

Sergeants

Full time common-born warriors retained by a noble. A lordling will find a big strong guy from his peasantry (often one of the better Levies) and tell him that he has a job for him. He gets more training than a levy does, a regular wage and room and board as well as better arms and armour (usually helmet and some chainmail early, eventually giving way to brigandines and breastplates later on, or just a gambeson if you're unlucky and/or your knight is poor). In peace, having a big strong dude who's good in a fight and owes everything to you is a good asset to have to collect taxes, guard gates, go out on patrol, provide general security, handle criminals, etc, and he can train up levies. In times of war, these guys can be your heavy infantry and oversee levies. They’re the first step below professional soldiers in standing armies.

And yes, the modern NCO rank is named after them. There is a similar feudal rank called a serjeanty, but they're only related by the root word of "servant." Sergeants are commoners serving as muscle and paid a wage, serjeanties was like being made a landlord in exchange for providing the King with some niche service in perpetuity, like rubbing his feet.

Mercenaries

Professional hired muscle. These guys are the highest quality soldiers you can find without having to maintain permanent standing armies. However, while they are well trained and well armed, they’re ultimately loyal to whoever can pay them the most unless they’re from a culture where honor and reputation are sacrosanct. Expect to spend a lot of time negotiating contracts and terms. And pray once the contract expires that they don’t get hired by your rivals. Or that they don't pillage your city if you can't pay for them anymore. Or that they don't end up aimlessly wandering your lands once the contract is concluded, harassing the populace as little more than glorified brigands. Mercenaries can come from any number of countries and vary wildly in composition. They may also possess skills that the employing military lacks, such as archers or cavalry, to make up for gaps in their unit composition.

Examples:

• Dogs of War: - The WHFB equivalent of mercenaries and brigands
• Swiss Mercenaries: Swiss mercenaries who have gone off to find their fortune in the wars of other countries, they were famous for their discipline and the effectiveness of their pike squares. The Swiss Guard for the Pope hold a number of unique distinctions such as: oldest military formation in history, being the only armed group to still formally call there soldiers "halberdiers" and being the only foreign military group a modern Swiss citizens can legally join.
• Varangian Guard: The personal bodyguards of the Byzantine Emperor, they were originally Norse mercenaries in direct service to the Emperor. The use of foreigners as the Emperor's guard was important because of how political the role was. While local ethnic groups’ restlessness in the Empire and internecine politicking in the Empire made Greek subjects impossible to hire reliably for fear of coups, the Norse’ honor-bound reputation made them impartial bodyguards; also helped that they can legally loot the treasury if the Emperor can die of natural causes on their watch in a tradition called polutasvarf.

Knights

Now, let us be clear, knights were specifically NOT infantry, but they could dismount and fight on foot with various degrees of success. English knights, in particular, were famous for this tactic during the Hundred Years' War. Having dismounted knights nearby boosted infantry's morale immensely, sending clear message that nobles won't just gallop away on their horses if things go south (as they did all too often).

Obviously, sometimes knights had to fight on foot. During the Crusades, Arab chronicles sometimes describe "Frank" knights becoming loci of resistance during sieges, with their heavy armor withstanding tremendous punishment. One man in a narrow spot could hold attackers at bay long enough for defenders to regroup and provide backup: often in those cases, it wasn't skill at arms that allowed knights to distinguish themselves (they primarily trained to fight on horseback, after all), but equipment and morale, standing firm where levies fled.

Similarly, while a sapper's job was generally considered unbecoming of a noble, some knights were all too eager to lead the glorious charge through the freshly-dug hole in the ground. The most famous example, perhaps, is Arnaud Guillaume de Barbazan's duel with Henry V of England in tunnels underneath Melun. Once again, equipment often gave such knights an edge over regular sappers, and their mere presence encouraged lowborn grunts.

And of course, sometimes a knight would have his horse shot from under him and he'd be left footslogging it with the riffraff.

Slave Soldiers

The practice of slave soldiers was a large part of several Islamic empires and Sultanates, because similar to the Varangian Guard above, they were foreigners who were theoretically alienated from political intrigue and were loyal only to their owner.

They were often taken from conquered territories and raised as slaves, but the meaning of this was complex, because though they were "owned", those that survive the brutal training would emerge as well-trained soldiers, or even as well-educated members of the bureaucracy; the Schola Progenium's process of making Commissars and Stormtroopers are pretty close comparisons, since they were indoctrinated and trained just as hard since childhood and emerge as symbols of their liege's authority. Additionally, their Islamic commanders had the authority to execute them for cowardice and insubordination but this was a power that was rarely used while serving more as a motivator for their soldiers to fight seriously. And while the Ottoman Jannisaries were mostly infantry, the Egyptian Mamluks and Persian Ghilman were primarily cavalry, trained in the image of furusiyya or Islamic Knights.

Oddly enough the Islamic dynasties which raised slave soldiers went out of their way to treat them pretty well. Giving them good rations, nice barracks, other luxuries and a degree of respect in society (such as retirement and the ability to marry any woman from the palace harem that the Sultan didn’t want anymore). The idea was that they'd owe everything in their lives to the Sultan and see him as a father figure to whom they owed everything. For a time at least this worked, but eventually the slave soldiers developed a sense of collective identity. These guys eventually became so powerful and influential that they became kingmakers. It was serious enough that there are multiple dynasties founded by Mamluk slave-soldiers; Ottoman Jannisaries were also known to have abuse their close connections with their Sultan for personal gain.

Examples

• Janissonaries: The most infamous fighting corps in the Ottoman Empire. They were usually recruited from boys captured in the Balkans and (while originally effective) were a major source of resistance against modernization advocated by the Young Turks (and their Young Ottoman predecessors) before being defeated once the Turkish Revolution and the breakdown of the Empire occured.
• Unsullied: The Slave Soldiers and eunuchs of Game of Thrones, famous for their unbreakable morale and lack of self-identity.