Jörg Rogge (ed.) Killing and Being Killed: Bodies in Battle Mainz Historical Cultural Sciences | Volume 38 Editorial The Mainzer Historische Kulturwissenschaften [Mainz Historical Cultural Sciences] series publishes the results of research that develops methods and theories of cultural sciences in connection with empirical research. The central approach is a historical perspective on cultural sciences, whereby both epochs and regions can differ widely and be treated in an all-embracing manner from time to time. Amongst other, the series brings together research approaches in archaeology, art history, visual studies, literary studies, philosophy, and history, and is open for contributions on the history of knowledge, political culture, the history of perceptions, experiences and life-worlds, as well as other fields of research with a historical cultural scientific orientation. The objective of the Mainzer Historische Kulturwissenschaften series is to be- come a platform for pioneering works and current discussions in the field of historical cultural sciences. The series is edited by the Co-ordinating Committee of the Research Unit His- torical Cultural Sciences (HKW) at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. Jörg Rogge (ed.) Killing and Being Killed: Bodies in Battle Perspectives on Fighters in the Middle Ages The print was sponsored by the Research Unit Historical Cultural Sciences (HKW). This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 (BY-NC-ND). Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 (BY-NC-ND). which means that the text may be used for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. For details go to http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Natio- nalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or uti- lized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any infor- mation storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. © 2017 transcript Verlag, Bielefeld Cover design: Kordula Röckenhaus, Bielefeld Proof-reading & typesetting: Judith Mengler Printed in Germany Print-ISBN 978-3-8376-3783-0 PDF-ISBN 978-3-8394-3783-4 C ONT E NT Preface ........................................................................ 7 Killed and Being Killed. Perspectives on Bodies in Battle in the Middle Ages ± an Introduction ......................... 9 J ÖRG R OGGE ³7KH*RWKV'UHZWKHLU6ZRUGV7RJHWKHU ́ Individual and Collective Acts of Violence by Gothic Warlords and their War Bands .................. 15 G UIDO M. B ERNDT The Torture of Bodies in Byzantium After the Riots (Sec. IV-VIII) ....................................... 43 B OGDAN -P ETRU M ALEON ³2QH m DQV lashes, one slays, one warns, one w RXQGV ́ . Injury and Death in Anglo-Scottish Combat, c. 1296- c. 1403 .................... 61 I AIN M AC I NNES Willing Body, Willing Mind: Non-Combatant Culpability According to English Combatant Writers 1327-77 .......................... 79 T REVOR R USSELL S MITH Body Techniques of Combat: The Depiction of a Personal Fighting System in the Fight Books of Hans Talhofer (1443-1467 CE) ............................... 109 E RIC B URKART Six Weeks to Prepare for Combat: Instruction and Practices from the Fight Books at the End of the Middle Ages, a Note on Ritualised Single Combats ......................................................... 131 D ANIEL J AQUET The Body of the Condottiero. A Link Between Physical Pain and Military Virtue as it was Interpreted in Renaissance Italy ................................ 165 G UILIA M OROSINI Two Kinds of War? Brutality and Atrocity in Later Medieval Scotland ............................................. 199 A LASTAIR J. M ACDONALD Logistics and Food Supply in the Crònica of Ramon Muntaner ........................................................ 231 J UDITH M ENGLER Summary and Conclusions: Silent Men and the Art of Fighting ............................. 251 D OMINIK S CHUH Contributors ............................................................... 267 7 Preface J ÖRG R OGGE The collection of articles based on papers provided and discussed at a conference with a focus on the experiences fighters make through their lifetime and especially in violent conflicts. Central questions have been how they have communicated their fighting experience and what they regarded as necessary to prepare their bodies for fighting. The conference took place at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, April 16 th ± 18 th 2015, and was founded by the research unit Historical Cultural Sciences. I like to thank the contributors for their articles, Christine Reinle (Gießen), Martin Kaufhold (Augsburg) and Thomas Scharf (Braunschweig) for their input during the conference, and especially Judith Mengler for her excellent support during the publication process. Mainz, July 2016 Jörg Rogge 9 J ÖRG R OGGE Research on medieval bodies prospers. We have learned a lot about body concepts in medicine, theology and philosophy. A lot of work has been done to help us understand how body has been used as a metaphor in prose, poetry, etc. 1 The medieval religious concept of the body was not in favour of the physical body. It was regarded as a tool or means to carry the immortal soul. The faithful believers had to worry about their soul, not about their body. Physical discomfort was regarded a consequence of the fall of mankind. The body could be neglected and famous preachers and ascetics, such as Franz von Assisi, have claimed that the body has been their greatest enemy. 2 However, this was only one body concept in the middle ages. There was also a more optimistic view on the bodies to find; a view that regarded the human body in G RG¶VRZQOLNHQHVV7KHUHIRUH , one should maintain the body or even exercise to keep the body in good shape. This was very important for the epic heroes in court literature for example. They had been very important for the development of chivalric culture in late medieval Europe for they could be used as some kind of role model for the real fighters. Such a warrior had to exercise his bodily abilities and fighting skills as well. To be in good shape was, together with boldness and skill, a requirement to become a good and 1 See for example K ALOF , 2010; K ALOF /B YNUM , 2010. 2 F RANZISKUS -Q UELLEN , 2009, p. 86. Introduction Jörg Rogge 10 successful fighter. To be a fighter implies to take good care of your body because it was your most important tool. 3 To be a fighter implies also that you are prepared to expose yourself to the dangers of battles and other forms of military activities. In all cases, the men had to deal with two very important aspects ± two sides of one coin. On one side, the fighters had to anticipate in killing other men, in most cases fellow Christians. On the other side, there was the possibility that their body was injured by swords, arrows, pikes etc. or even by horses. In the context of the famous and fierce battles in France, England, Scotland and Spain a fighter was lucky if he was not slain on the spot but able to survive ± sometimes without bodily wounds, sometimes injured. In case where a fighter survived his injuries, he may have had the chance to show the scars as a sign or signature of his boldness. However, if he had lost a leg or an arm, it was likely that he had to live as a beggar the rest of his life ± given that he was not a member of a noble family. The conference was an attempt to obtain an impression of the way in which the fighters handled the experience of the clash on the battlefields, of killing other men or being wounded by other men. We want to know more about the practices they have used to communicate their bodily experiences to others. Therefore, the focus of the articles in this volume is on shaping bodies for battle, using bodies in battle, bodily injuries by means of battle and on dead bodies of fighters. As far as I can discern, we cannot find the immediate experiences of the fighters in our sources. They have always undergone a process of reflexion and they are imbedded in the practice of narrating such experiences in a social group or society. I believe we can distinguish between two principle forms of that type of narratives. There are the stories of famous battles told by the well-known chroniclers such as Jean Froissart and Jean Le Bel for the Hundred Years War, or Walter Bower, writing about war and fighting in his Scotichronicon . These men were not fighters themselves, and have written their accounts based on second hand knowledge, which they collected from fighters through interviews or other means. These texts are of great value, of 3 This point has been stressed by the authors of mirrors of chivalry like Geoffrey de Charny or Ramon Llull. See C HARNY , 1996; L LULL , 2013. Introduction 11 course, because they deliver important information about the practice of ³WDONLQJ ́DERXWZDUZLWKVSHFLILFWH[WSDWWHUQV 4 Then we have the so-called self-assessments of fighters who wrote down or dictated their experiences on the battlefields at some point in their lives. Like Thomas Gray did in his Scalacronica or several German and Swiss fighters such as Georg von Ehingen or Ludwig von Diesbach. Even when we read their accounts, we must bear in mind that the writer is not identical with the protagonist in the narrated past. However, the bodies in these texts can function as a link because they are object and symbol at the same time. We can assume that the writer had used the bodies in the texts to communicate his experiences. 5 Thomas Gray, for example, constitutes the bodies of fighters by using specific narrative patterns, which are the performance of Deeds of Arms, physical toughness or resilience, the ability to recuperate after injuries and the description of horse and fighter as a common fighting body. 6 These stylistic devices are also SUHVHQWLQ)URLVVDUW¶V&KURQLFDO When he describes the heroic death of James Douglas on the battlefield by Otterburn in August 1388, he uses comparisons with ancient heroes: Douglas was fighting like a hardy Hector. It takes three spears to stop this human fighting machine ± one struck him in the belly, the second LQWKHVKRXOGHUWKHWKLUGLQWKHWKLJK³6RUHKXUW ́LQWKDWZD\'RXJODV died on the battlefield. 7 Ralph Percy was another fighter who was sore hurt during the battle of Otterburn. When he was taken prisoner by a Scottish knight because he was too exhausted to fight any longer, he said, ³0\ FKDXVVHV DQG P\ JUHDYH DUH IXOO RI EORRG DOUHDG\ ́ 8 These examples show that the real valiant fighters had been those who fought until exhortation ± ignoring the injuries they received in the press. It is likely that the contemporary readers or listeners to such narrative understood the argument well. One focus of the articles is on the preparation of bodies for fighting; 9 another on the description or narration of physical pain caused by weapons, and how it felt to give and receive blows or even 4 C LAUSS , 2016. 5 See R OGGE , 2016. 6 G RAY , 2005; R OGGE , 2011, p. 270. 7 F ROISSART , 1978, pp. 342f. 8 I BID ., p. 343. 9 See the contributions by M ENGLER ; B URKHART ; J AQUET in this volume. Jörg Rogge 12 being killed on the battlefield. 10 They contribute to the ongoing debate on the practice of writing or telling pain and other emotions in the Middle Ages. 11 This, for example, concerns the problem that physical pain is felt by all humanity, but could not be shared directly. This is why the writers have used similes, metaphors or specific narrative patterns to describe or convey their experiences. 12 By asking how pain is denoted in our sources, we can obtain further information about the practice that has been used to express pain in different historical contexts. Furthermore, we can learn how the written expression of physical pain was culturally conditioned ± in our cases the culture of war and fighters of course. 13 Bib liograph y Sources C HARNY , G EOFFRY DE , The Book of Chivalry, Text, Context and Translation, ed. by R ICHARD K AEUPER /E LSBETH K ENNEDY , Philadelphia 1996. F RANZISKUS -Q UELLEN . Die Schriften des heiligen Franziskus, Lebens- beschreibungen, Chroniken und Zeugnisse über ihn und seinen Or- den, ed. by D IETER B ERG /L EONHARD L EHMANN , Kevelaer 2009. F ROISSART , J EAN , Chronicles, selected, translated and edited by G EOFFREY B RERETON , London 1978. G RAY , T HOMAS , Scalacronica, 1272-1363 (Surtees Society 209), ed. by A NDY K ING , Woodbridge 2005. L LULL , R AMON , The Book of the Order of Chivalry, trans. by N OEL F ALLOWS , Woodbridge 2013. 10 See the contributions by B ERNDT ; R USSELL S MITH ; M OROSINI ; M AC I NNES in this volume. 11 See C OHEN , 2000. 12 See the contribution by S CHUH in this volume. 13 See the examples from the Byzantine Empire given by M ALEON in this volume. Introduction 13 Literature C LAUSS , M ARTIN , Krieg der Ritter. Erzählmuster des Heroischen in den Chroniken zum Hundertjährigen Krieg, in: Kriegserfahrungen erzählen (Mainzer Historische Kulturwissenschaften), ed. by J ÖRG R OGGE , Bielefeld 2016, pp. 31-45. C OHEN , E STHER , The animated Pain of the Body, in: American Historical Review 105 (2000), pp. 36-68. K ALOF , L INDA (ed.), Cultural History of the Human Body. In the Middle Ages, Oxford/New York 2010. K ALOF , L INDA /B YNUM , W ILLIAM (eds.), Cultural History of the Human Body. In the Renaissance, Oxford/New York 2010. R OGGE , J ÖRG , Kämpfer als Schreiber. Bemerkungen zur Erzählung von Kampferfahrung und Verwundung in deutschen Selbstzeugnissen des späten Mittelalters, in: Kriegserfahrungen erzählen (Mainzer Historische Kulturwissenschaften), ed. by I D ., Bielefeld 2016, pp. 73-106. R OGGE , J ÖRG , Tote Ritter ± tote Pferde. Bemerkungen zu Körpern im Kampf während des 14. Jahrhunderts, in: Körperbilder. Kulturalität und Wertetransfer, ed. by A NDREAS C ESANA et al., Frankfurt a. M. 2011, pp. 261-272. 7KH XVHG FRQWULEXWLRQV WR WKH YROXPH DWKDQGDUHQRW OLVWHG VHSDUDWHO\ KHUH 15 ³7KH*RWKV Drew their Swords T RJHWKHU ́ Individual and Collective Acts of Violence by Gothic Warlords and their War Bands* G UIDO M. B ERNDT Intr oduct ion In Germany and other German-speaking countries, there is a long tradition of dealing with the history of the Goths. Since the end of the 19 th century, there has been intense academic research, and some of these early scholarly publications are still worth reading. 1 One can find an * This article has been written in the course of a project on ³ Gothic Warriors LQ WKH /DWHU 5RPDQ (PSLUH ́ (Gotische Kriegergruppen im spätrömischen Reich), which has been conducted from 2009 to 2015 at the Friedrich- Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg. The project was funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) in the framework of research group 110 RQ ³ Communities RI 9LROHQFH ́ (Gewaltgemeinschaften). I would like to thank the organizers of the conference at Mainz for their kind invitation and all participants for the discussions and suggestions. My thanks also go to Sabine Held (Erlangen) and Ellora Bennett (Berlin) for help with the English. 1 In the first half of the 20th century, one of the most important works (in German) concerning Gothic history was Geschichte der deutschen Stämme bis zum Ausgange der Völkerwanderung by Ludwig Schmidt, that had been published between 1934 and 1941. The history of the Ostrogoths is Guido M. Berndt 16 unpretentious explanation for the admiration of the Goths: Up to the middle of the 20th century, they have been considered a ³ Germanic tribe ́ and have been declared ancestors of the Germanic people. 2 Gothic history was German history. The traditional Meistererzählung ( ³ master- narrative ́ ) told it roughly like this: Once upon a time, the Gothic people emerged somewhere in the far North (Scandza 3 /Scandinavia). From there, the Goths repeatedly launched vast migrations. After centuries of living on the frontiers and the hinterland of the Roman Empire, a powerful group of Gothic warriors reached Italy at the end of the fifth century. Here, a war-hero named Theoderic ± the famous Dietrich of Bern of legendary epics 4 ± founded a splendid kingdom on former Roman soil. In the 19th century, there was a common belief that each Volk (people) has its own characteristic Volksgeist (literally mean LQJ³VSLULWRI WKHSHRSOH ́ RU³ n DWLRQDOFKDUDFWHU ́ ), and there was a need for a unique identity based on national and cultural idiosyncrasies. The Goths were considered an especially unique, heroic and most noble nation. Many Germans were proud when considering the deeds of the Goths. 5 These notions finally led to an idea of an incessant continuation of history from the early Germans up to the German Reich. 6 Because the migrations of the Goths had once led them to the Crimean peninsula, 7 the Goths were used to legitimise the war of conquest ordered by Adolf Hitler during the Third Reich. 8 In the course of the planned re-Germanisation of Eastern described in the first part, second book. Still, in 1970 this work has been reprinted. 2 For the modern history of reception: H ELBLING , 1954, pp. 53-95; P IZZI , 1994/95. 3 The name appears in the Getica of Jordanes. 4 Z IMMERMANN , 1972. 5 The historical novel Ein Kampf um Rom ³$6WUXJJOHIRU5RPH ́ RI)HOL[ Dahn (1834-1912), first published in 1876, was very popular and surely contributed to the widespread veneration of the Goths as ancestors of the modern German people. There are a couple of modern studies on the LQIOXHQFHRI'DKQ¶VZRUNHJ F RECH 1996; K IPPER 2002. Besides his many historical novels Dahn has also written a comprehensive history of the early medieval kingdoms in 12 volumes ( Die Könige der Germanen , published 1861-1911). 6 B LECKMANN , 2009, pp. 38f.; VON S EE , 1972; VON S EE 1994. 7 V ASILIEV , 1936; for a modern view see W OLFRAM , 2009, pp. 52-62. 8 K LETZIN , 2002. Gothic Warlords and their War Bands 17 Europe, Gdynia (Germ. Gdingen) ± a seaport in Poland ± was given the name Gotenhafen in 1939. Following the conquest of the Crimea by the Wehrmacht, the city Simferopol was renamed Gotenburg and Sewastopol Theoderichshafen. 9 This blatant misuse 10 of history resulted in the decline of research on Germanic peoples in Germany and Austria after World War II. Consequently, Herwig Wolfram appropriately described Gothic history as a ³ topic [with a] burden ́ 11 Today, historians look at the history of the Goths from another perspective, in particular due to the internationalisation of scientific research. 12 Many older views and ideas that were based on exaggerated national or even nationalistic convictions have now been largely deconstructed: Germanic loyalty, Germanic sacral kingship and the Gefolgschaftswesen (the mode of organising the following). 13 Furthermore, the idea that the gentes of the migration period were homogeneous and cohesive groups, but rather heterogeneous with ephemeral characteristics, has generally gained acceptance. 14 These groups did not share a single biological origin. Rather, it is a belief in common history that gave these groups a collective identity. Such 9 G RUCHMANN , 1962. 10 For different forms of misuses of medieval history see B AK et al., 2009; G OFFART , 1995 focuses on Germanic history. 11 W OLFRAM , 1997, p. ³7KH WRSLF DQG LWV EXUGHQ ́ LV D VXEWLWOH RI WKH chapter concerning Theoderic the Amal. 12 E.g. W OLFRAM , 2009; H EATHER , 1996; G IESE , 2004. 13 W DOWHU6FKOHVLQJHURQFHGHILQHG³*HIROJVFKDIW ́ as follows (S CHLESINGER , 1953, S. ³8QWHU*HIROJ schaft wird [...] ein Verhältnis zwischen Herrn und Mann verstanden, das freiwillig eingegangen wird, auf Treue gegründet ist und den Mann zu Rat und (kriegerischer) Hilfe, den Herrn zu Schutz und μ0LOGH¶YHUSIOLFKWHW ́ For Schlesinger these forms of loyalty already existed very early in Germanic history making references to the Germania of Tacitus (cap. 14). This conception was criticised by G RAUS , 1959, especially the idea of a specific Germanic element in the oath of allegiance and its VDFUDOLPSOLFDWLRQV5HLQKDUG:HQVNXVKDVSRLQWHGRXWWKDW³*HIROJVFKDIW ́ is an overloaded term that does not occur in our sources and should only be used by historians when considering all the implications and traditions it transports. W ENSKUS , 1992; Stefanie Dick has thoroughly analysed the whole controversy and pointed out that there never has been something specific Germanic in the mentioned fields, D ICK , 2008, pp. 201-203. 14 E.g. P OHL , 1998. Guido M. Berndt 18 histories could be designed DFFRUGLQJWRWKHFXUUHQWOHDGHU¶V will. 15 From time to time, these leaders ordered the creation of genealogical traditions for their communities. 16 Overall, the specific ethnic identities of these groups have proved to be almost entirely social constructs. 17 In Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, ethnic identities often appear to be linked to warrior groups. So, if historians no longer consider Goths, Vandals or Lombards as Germanic tribes, what else may they have been? Late An t ique and Early Med ieva l War B ands as Commu nit ies o f Vio lence In Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, there were social groups that mainly consisted of men who lived their lives as warriors. Their specific Lebensform (way of life) was violent and warlike. 18 The Goths had to have exceptional skills in this regard; otherwise, it would be difficult to explain how they managed to compete against numerous opponents throughout their history and even got Roman emperors into trouble. A research group, founded in 2009 at the University of Gießen, coined the term Gewaltgemeinschaften (communities of violence) for such units. These communities of violence include groups that formed, developed and became stabilised due to the use of violence within their socio-political environment. For them, physical violence determined a major, even fundamental, factor of their existence. 19 Thus, violence 15 W ENSKUS , 1961. Wenskus ideas were accepted quite soon in German research and consequently built the starting point for the so-called Viennese School (lead by Herwig Wolfram and Walter Pohl), but it took a while since they were perceived in English speaking countries. Only in 2002 there has been published a volume that strongly criticised the book of Wenskus. G ILLETT , 2002. 16 T ÖNNIES , 1989; H EATHER , 1989; H EATHER , 1991, pp. 34-67; C HRISTENSEN , 2002, pp. 124-157. 17 G EARY , 1983. 18 There is an excellent study for Frankish warriors and warriorship: B ODMER , 1957. No comparable work has been published for Gothic warriors so far. 19 The current bibliography on violence is vast. Important studies aiming at understanding the significance of violence include: P OPITZ , 1986, pp. 43-66; VON T ROTHA , 1997; VON T ROTHA /R ÖSEL , 2011. There are some recent general studies worth mentioning that deal with the role of violence in Gothic Warlords and their War Bands 19 existed in individual and collective forms, aided the construction of identity and was even integral to the JURXS¶VVHOI -perception. Particularly, these war bands could find extraordinary success in regions where there were power-vacuums and therefore no longer a monopoly on violence ( Gewaltmonopol des Staates in the sense of Max Weber) E\WKHμ state ¶ 20 Currently, the term and its exact connotations have not been given precise definition in sociology, political science or historiography. In this regard, some remarks are necessary: Violence is a resource at the hand of every single person, because human beings are fundamentally capable of violence due to their physicality. Humans are able to cause other humans or living beings pain with their bare hands: They are capable of breaking bones, strangling, drowning or beating to death. If several people come together to commit violence, the potential for injury and death increases. The use of weapons, again, increases the potential of violence. Social groups such as those described in this chapter generally make use of weapons to threaten or actually commit violence. 21 The use of violence may form a sense of community, it may polarise and exclude, but it also determines their collective behaviour in all aspects of their lives. The success of a community of violence, as well as DQLQGLYLGXDO¶VFKDQFHV of survival, depends RQRQH¶VDELOLW\WRKDQGOH weapons. It is not the quality of the weapon itself, but rather the skill of the person who handles it that determines the efficacy of the weapon. For this chapter, violence may be defined as intentional action, which aims to violate the physical integrity of at least one person. This narrow definition does not take into consideration forms of structural or cultural violence. In Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, there were a great many groups that could be classified as ³FRPPXQLWLHVRIYLROHQFH ́ according to the given criteria. 22 However, few of these groups aside from the Goths different pre-modern epochs: D RAKE , 2006; H ALSALL , 1998; B ARAZ , 2003; B ROWN , 2011. 20 S PEITKAMP , 2013. For the case of the Ostrogoths: W IEMER , 2013. 21 For the role of weapons and weaponry for Gothic warrior groups: W IEMER /B ERNDT , 2016 (forthcoming). 22 W IEMER , 2013; B ERNDT , 2013.