pt 6
Self-interest and Profits of War
Earlier in this chapter the poem of Bertrand de Born was quoted. It gives a remarkable insight into the true motives which prompted participation in wars. Bertrand wished that rich lords would hate each other, because a rich man is nobler, more generous, and benevolent in time of war than in peace. As soon as hostilities were announced, he said cynically : 'We can laugh, because the barons will love us, … but if they want us to stick to them, they will have to pay us well.'
But it was not just high pay that made Bertrand anxious to fight. War offered other prospects as well that were far more alluring and entailed less danger. It was a good time for 'taking goods away from usurers', for robbing burghers and merchants on the highways. The riches were there for the taking.
The poet belonged to the class of humble vavassors, whose possessions and fiefs were very small. War, and the plundering raids it involved, helped these impoverished knights make ends meet.
When Bertrand offered his services to the count of Poitiers he was already wearing his helmet, and had his shield slung round his neck. But then the problem of equipping himself for a campaign, seeing that he had no money, arose. In another expedition, the campaign of Jean de Beaumont in Scotland in 1327 with the army of Edward III —for which more volunteers turned out than had been expected, since all of them were hoping for very high pay—Jean Le Bel, who was a member of the expedition, summed up what was necessary for a military campaign: 'Everybody started to buy according to his rank and status: tents, cars, little horses used in the country, and they found enough of them at reasonable price, pots, kettles, and so on, necessary in a campaign.'
It cost a great deal of money for a knight to be able to go out completely equipped, especially considering his expensive horses. The financial problems of petty vassals are understandable too, but of course this does not excuse their actions as robber-knights.
In the campaign against the Scots just referred to, there is another remarkable example of the knights' attitude to war, namely the case of Hector Vilain. In 1325 this Flemish nobleman fought under John of Namur on the side of the men of Ghent against the men of Bruges and the rebels from the coastal region and the Franc or Liberty of Bruges, and then crushed a rebel unit. In 1327 he went off against the Scots to gain money, and the following year he was in action against men of Bruges. While the king of France was advancing against Cassel, he threatened Bruges, and did his part in weakening the insurgents by compelling them to spread out their forces.
In the romance of Bauduin de Sebourc, Bauduin, a very strong but also very poor knight, observed from a hilltop the tents of a camp set up round a beleaguered castle in a plain: like Bertrand de Born he shouted: 'There is going to be fighting here, now I shall get rich!' He went straight off and joined the army. Clearly 'Ie nerf de la guerre' (the sinews of war) had a great attraction!
Poor knights also managed to carve out a career by taking parts as knights errant in the innumerable wars. William the Marshal is a splendid example: he was the fourth son of a minor baron, and possessed neither land nor fief. He was a knight errant for fifteen years. With a Flemish knight called Roger of Gaugi he managed to capture one hundred and three knights in tournaments in only ten months, not to mention horses and equipment, and the pair of them made huge sums.
After that he was put in charge of the military training of prince Henry, son of Henry II of England, Later, when he came into conflict with the king, he left his service, and Philip of Alsace and the duke of Burgundy each offered him an annual rent of £500. Through his physical strength and military qualities he rose to be earl of Pembroke and regent of England, and Roger of Gaugi held an important position under King John.
There were great material advantages to be gained both from booty collected on the battlefield and from captured enemy property. This was especially true of the First Crusade. Before men went into battle, they often thought of the riches that might be theirs as booty: in the battle of Dorylaeum in 1097 the knights encouraged each other in these words: 'Be of one mind in your belief in Christ and in the victory of the Holy Cross, because you will all become rich today, if God wills.'
In the Chanson d'Antioche we read: 'Out there on the grass, we shall either lose our heads or else become so rich in fine silver and gold, that we shall no longer have to beg from our comrades.' Soldiers of lower rank hoped to improve their social status:
See how the gold and silver glitter in the meadows!
The man who gets that will never be poor again.
So each one of you can improve his status.
They answered him: 'Lord, as you command!
He who flees on the battlefield shall be counted a heathen.'
Fulcher has described in a famous passage how rich the soldiers became who stayed in the new kingdom of Jerusalem: 'Anyone who was poor there (in Europe) became rich here through God's favour. Anyone who had only a few shillings there has countless bezants here. Anyone who had not even a village there, has a city here thanks to God. Why go back to the west, when we can find all this in the east?'
In the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries many princes recruited mercenaries from the Rhineland and Meuse district. In 1297, 1300, and 1302 hundreds appeared in the army of the counts of Flanders. These knights had a bad reputation among the chroniclers. They fought bravely in battle, but otherwise they made a very bad impression with their greed. Louis of Velthem says that they loved wine, good food, and money. Jean Le Bel criticized the Germans of his time in the same way: he cited the English nobles as examples and then went on: 'This has not been the custom of the Germans until today; I don't know how they will do from now on, for they show no pity nor mercy for Christian men of war, when they capture them, no more than for dogs.'
Self-interest is an important stimulus to brave conduct in battle. But the search for booty and plunder has more than once hindered the ruthless pursuit of a beaten enemy. Wise leaders therefore forbade the collection of booty, and took effective measures to see that the pursuit was properly carried out.
Once the enemy was driven from the battlefield without possibility of return, the booty naturally fell into the hands of the victor, but as long as soldiers were personally responsible for providing their own equipment and horses the inclination persisted to equip themselves as quickly as possible at the enemy's expense, even if this attitude did not coincide with the common interest. The transgressor judged that he was acting for the common good in providing for himself as well as possible with horses and arms.
