ABSTRACT
Infantry were an element in all the wars of the period: in 984 their skills extricated Lothar and his cavalry from a difficult situation in Lorraine; their steadiness fought off Barbarossa’s attacks on the carroccio to win the victory of Legnano on 29 May 1176, and they were vital to the victory of the Florentines at Certomondo on 11 June 1289. The development of sergeancies and the hiring of mercenaries, so evident from the late tenth century, are arguments against the idea of a universal obligation. It is not hard to account for the presence of sizeable numbers of infantry who took part in campaigns. In England and elsewhere, the thirteenth century saw the raising of large infantry armies, but their quality was generally poor. In the fourteenth century, with the development and frequent use of Commissions of Array in England, forces which were in some real sense regular began to appear.
