| Quote: |
| John France, 'Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades', 1000-1300, Chapter 13, Note 24:
"The tactic of stabbing under the armpit recurs in Primatus's account of the Battle of Tagliacozzo of 1268, and Delbruck, Medieval Warfare, pp. 353-7, criticized the notion as the invention of a later writer on the basis of soldiers' tales, but Delbruck did not know the sources himself: in particular, he did not know that the story is found in Andrew of Hungary, and was relying on the studies of others. Oman, Art of War, vol. 1, pp. 502-3, studied the battle of Benevento at length and supposed that this tactic was designed to avoid German plate armour. Runciman, Sicilian Vespers, pp. 109-11, follows Oman and repeats this myth. However, there is no mention of plate-armour at Benevento: the accounts stress the close order of the Germans." |
The topic again reared its head on one of my Facebook groups, so I tracked down Andrew of Hungary's Latin text.
https://www.dmgh.de/mgh_ss_26/index.htm#page/577/mode/1up
"62. De modo prelii.
Et sicut torniamentum percutiendo, non ecian infringemdo, iuxta solitum exercetur,
sic Theotonici sociique docti ab eis gladiis suis longioribus, securibus atque clavis percutiendo
prelium exercebant, distantes ab adversaries spacio longitudinis gladiorum; sed nostri
Gallici velut se agiliter infigentes, auto velut caro cum ungue se suis hostibus unientes, ex
brevibus spatis suis eorum latera perfodebant, ut vitam demerent corded tacto. Clarum est
etenim, quad infra ipsos exerciti belli strepitus doctor belli Dei, scilicet illustris rex Karolus,
tamquam brachium Domini virtutum fortis in prelii ac potens ex sapientia pariter et
audacia, quas a voce tonitrui magni contraxerunt, milites suos ad insudandum prelio sic
ore region hortabatur: 'Punctim infigite, milites Christi, punctum transfigite'! Nec mirum,
circumspectus etenim militum adiutor et doctor legerat in libro de arte militari, quod
nobiles Romani nullum alium meliorem modum pugnandi arinvenerint quam punctum fire
hostes."
Which Google Translate gives as this:
62. On the method of combat.
Just as a tournament is conducted by striking rather than by shattering,
so the Teutons and their allies trained by them waged battle by striking with their longer swords, axes, and maces, keeping a distance from their adversaries equal to the length of their swords; but our
Gauls, thrusting themselves nimbly in locking with their enemies
as closely as flesh to the fingernail pierced their flanks with their short blades to take their lives by striking the heart.
Indeed, it is evident that amidst the din of battle, the master of God's warfare the illustrious King Charles,
acting like the mighty arm of the Lord of Hosts, strong in combat and powerful through both wisdom and
the boldness inspired by the voice of great thunder?exhorted his soldiers with these words
to exert themselves in the fight: 'Thrust with the point, soldiers of Christ; pierce with the point!' Nor is this
surprising; for that prudent commander and instructor of soldiers had read in the treatise on the art of war that
the noble Romans had discovered no better method of fighting than thrusting the point at the enemy.