In the Central Middle Ages, Western European armsbearers also waged war under the banner of the cross, in expeditions known as the crusades. Many armsbearers flocked to Iberia to take part in the wars aimed at taking the peninsula from the Muslim powers who had conquered it in the eighth century. Major conquests by potentates from Germany conquered the territories east of the River Elbe (territory in what is today Poland and the lands surrounding the Baltic Sea). Most famously, an army of Normans captured England in 1066, before they and their successors turned their attention to the surrounding lands of Wales, Ireland and Scotland in the years and decades that followed. In the centuries that followed, bands of acquisitive armsbearers such as Normans, famous then as now for their aggressive character and lust for adventure, captured a range of territories in different parts of Europe and beyond. Around 1100, the danger of external attacks diminished, and Western Europe went on the offensive. In the centuries down to about 1100, Western Europeans fought significant defensive wars against Vikings from Scandinavia, against Magyars from Eastern Europe (the area that is now Hungary), and against Muslim forces which exerted pressure northwards from the Mediterranean. The beginning of the Central Middle Ages witnessed a significant change in the course of Western European history, and the overall character of the wars that its inhabitants generally fought. The period 1000 to 1300 is worth considering in its own right, separately from the era that went before and that which come after. While there was a degree of development in the technology of weapons and armour over the period, there was no great transformative revolution throughout these centuries, warfare remained largely dictated by the length that an archer could shoot an arrow, and by the strength of the arms that wielded swords and spears. As a result, the interests of landowners often shaped warfare military activity was invariably conducted by the ruling elite in order to protect their own land, or with the aim to capture new territory from a rival.

The most essential fact to bear in mind is that the key to Western European society in the Central Middle Ages was land, or, more specifically, the ownership of land. To understand how Western Europeans conducted warfare in the Central Middle Ages, it is important to have a sense of some of the key features of politics and culture in this period. It was the last of these – the warriors – who attracted much attention from contemporary chroniclers and historians. These three groups – or ‘Orders’, as they were known – consisted of: those who worked, those who prayed, and those who fought. From around 1000, contemporaries began to formulate a view of society which divided its members into three groups, according to the functions that they performed in society. The prevalence of martial conflict was a fact of which observers at the time were aware. In the period between 10, an era often termed the ‘Central’ or ‘High’ Middle Ages, warfare was one of the defining features of society in Western Europe. Study Guide by Swansea University Historians Parents and Guardians Guide to University.

Feudalism in the middle ages knights