New answers tagged europe
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Pieter Geerkens is making a good point in the comments: a knight was usually supposed to lead a small unit from his manor/castle/etc. Besides the knights or semi-professional soldiers there could be carriers, helpers, servants, etc. moving with the army. An inportant point about the answer: As the call to arms was often periodic or even annual, it would make ...
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Europe is a very large area.
In the early middle ages Europe contained many provinces ruled by the eastern section of the genuine original Roman Empire, what is usually called the "Byzantine" Empire.
So the "Byzantine" Empire certainly had units of totally professional soldiers.
But it may also have had semi professional soldiers in the theme system. I ...
1
Most nobles had some permanent staff. It wasn't just a baron keeping peace in his castle and the whole demesne all by himself.
Retinue
Permanent staff in a noble estate was called Retinue. They would include men at arms who's main job was to always be ready to fight for his master.
Town guard
Most medieval cities and bigger towns had their own militias ...
26
Note that a satirical sketch like this does not necessarily portray the actually participants at a conference. Often, they feature a personification of the nations involved. In this case, as Denis commented, green, blue, white and red are the colours for Russia, France, Austria and England, respectively, derived mainly from their military uniform colours. So:...
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As almost always: Large money transfers were done in medieval Europe just in the manner this was done since Sumerian times. By transferring debt. These obligations were not only transferrable but also transmutable. From the concrete "400 barrels of wine" to 2000 bushels of grain", or even weirder, "400 barrels of wine" to "some metal with primitive pictures ...
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The Medieval Europe section of the Wikipedia article "History of Banking" mentions a key point in the context of the Crusades.
In the 12th century, the need to transfer large sums of money to finance the Crusades stimulated the re-emergence of banking in western Europe. In 1162, Henry II of England levied a tax to support the crusades—the first of a ...
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