Flemish mediaeval military

[cutepuppy]

Although I must admit the Dutch language does not have a word for 'flail'.

It does have a word for "flail": "(dors)vlegel".

btw, I bought a book by J.F. Verbruggen a few weeks ago, which has a large section on flemish foot soldiers and some famous battles they fought. Maybe I'll post some interesting quotes.

[Mr White]

It does have a word for "flail": "(dors)vlegel".

btw, I bought a book by J.F. Verbruggen a few weeks ago, which has a large section on flemish foot soldiers and some famous battles they fought. Maybe I'll post some interesting quotes.

If you could give me the title of the book I could look it up. (How old ist this book?)

[Watchman]

First time ever I've seen the Godendag described as a "chain" weapon, I must say. Some sort of big spiky club is what most read it as. Weren't flails more of a Bohemian Hussite thing ?

Side note: Medieval weapons terminology in contemporary sources tends to be... inconsistent at best. Keep that in mind.

[Mr White]

What I found about the goedendag ( or the godendac as it was called by the French) was that it was a club reanforced with metal on the end and one spike. It was about 1,5 m and the Flemish actually called it a pinned staff. Just look at this website http://www.liebaart.org/goeden_e.htm

But what would be the real ability of this weapon? Yes it's cheap and very effective against armor but was it the cost/effectiveness of the weapon that made it so infamous or could it have been a weapon of choice for a Flemish nobleman.

PS I know some have commented on it before but were the Flemish goedendag men to be compared to ordinary urban and vity militia across Europe or were they more skilled? ( And how skilled would that than be?)

(linked the site -Kraxis)

[Kraxis]

That was the very weapon I tried to explain earlier... Now I have only been at that site concerning that Godendag, but it does seem rather extensively worked out. They have written accouts, some image of the time and archeological evidence.

Sure it could have ben more detailed, but it was not the intention of these guys to give a professional account of the weapon.

[Watchman]

Well, they don't seem to have measured up to the standards of the Swiss halberdiers... but that might just be the weapons, too.

But as a rule of thumb the commoner militias from areas with strong heavy-infantry traditions (such as the Low Countries, whose spearmen had been sought after mercenaries already in the Early Middle Ages) tended to be of a markedly better quality than was the norm of such troops. Differences in actual weapon skill were likely minor (althoug the quality of gear might well be a step better), and in any case not very important; the vital point was unit-level cohesion, drill, moral fibre and espirit de corps. Even a horde of peasants in a tight clump with sharp sticks can blunt a heavy cavalry charge *if* their nerve holds; if it doesn't, no amount of skill or armour will save them.