A simple guide to the feudal system & rank structure in the medieval times 

The important thing about the English army in the Hundred Years War was that it was not a feudal army. Feudal obligation only applied to service in England. If the King wanted troops to serve overseas he had to pay them, thus making them professional soldiers. This meant that a peasant bowman could return to England with pay and plunder and enter the money economy, rather than live as a subsistence farmer working his Lords land.

I'm sure you already know this. But I think it's cool that Sargeant, much like Knight, originally meant servant, and both became terms used to describe professional soldiers. The use of Sargeants to drill, oversee, and discipline leavied men and conscripts, is what lead to the modern practice of having non-commisioned officers.

These videos are so great for anyone curious as to how medieval warfare was organized, supplied and fought. Love this channel Kevin!

I get up in the morning, just before I go to the office, grab a cup of coffee and watching these videos. There's always something new and interesting. Thanks Kevin

Kevin, you're the best history professor that I ever had, thanks.

There’s another excellent example of discipline in medieval warfare: The Battle of Cocherel. 1.5K to 3K French Knights faced off an English army of 5K-6K. After launching their signature ‘Chivalric Charge’, their leader, Bertrand du Guesclin, ordered a retreat, however it was a trap. The English left their strong positions and the Knights turned back around, encircled the English and destroyed them. Great video as always, and can’t wait for the Vernuilles episode!

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿Really have a calmness that comes over me here on this channel...An authentic Englishman dressed to the period, in his great hall telling tales from the old days...

As an American, I have always studied American history. It is a joy to learn your English history. Thank you for these videos!

Thank you Kevin,...... I love these obscure subjects you dig up from the shadows of the past.

Great explanation on a topic that surprisingly little is readily available i orit. Interesting to see the importation of French into the medieval rank system - vingt = 20, cent = 100, and mille = 1000.

In all my life I have never heard this explained so well. Well done, as you say in the UK!

An army without officers but complete with NCO’s can survive temporarily but an army without NCO’s and full compliment of officers will crumble immediately.

Thanks for another history lesson, Kevin. The command structure breakdown is still similar to todays, just with the brigade or division commander instead of the king. As a veteran of the US Army, and yourself of the British Army, we can appreciate discipline. Cheers from Texas.

Hello from central Indiana USA! Love this channel. I first watched Kevin giving a tour of a castle. I've been keen ever since. These videos are so well done and the passion is obvious. Keep doing your thing, History Squad!

This guy is hands down the most entertaining medievalist channel on RU-vid.

It won't be long, before I got a doctor's degree in medieval times ...thanks to the best teacher in the world 👌 Many many thanks for showing and please keep up the good work 👍

A great explanation much clearer than my Professor back in the 1970s

Well done Kevin! As always excellent job!

The way you convey this information is awesome. I have learned so much from your channel and I always look forward to your videos!

This was extremely interesting to me. I always had thought that a bunch of somewhat autonomous groups of people just kind of milled about the battlefield after having a brief planning session before the battle. Cool

Very good video, Kevin. Always learn something new. Apologies to your ancestors, as my mothers family came over with William the Bastard in 1066. My fathers family was in Wales at the time. Take care.

Great video, Kevin. Really interesting to see the rank structure of the units. Thanks for the shout out also 🤘🏻

Gotta say kev Ur min painting skills are coming along nicely.

Kevin, yourself (and the 'stache) are treasured. Thanks for another great video!

Always informative and never boring! Keep up the great work!

It’s so cool how you know all of this! I’ve seen multiple history videos and more than one of them have said that I quote “ we do not . Know how they controlled the English Army any longer.” I knew that had to be bullshit this sounds quite accurate. It reminds me a lot of how the Romans did it with the centurions. Awesome video Kevin keep it up! ❤️🤟

This is a fantastic explanation. Clear and simple.

These videos are so interesting Kevin, keep up the good work 🤘🏹

Very good information. Thanks.

Great job as always, Kevin - especially when the miniatures take the field! Thank you for your videos and stay well....

I've been wondering this for a while now, awesome video!

Another interesting and entertaining video on medieval history Kevin. Thanks for sharing!

Very good as always Kevin! :)

Fascinating. Thank you 🫡

Thanks, you are top notch Kevin

This is something I've always wondered. Great video.

Great video as allways

Thank you and have a great week.

These videos are priceless. Thank you so much for all the hard work.

Brilliant as always Kevin 👍🏻

You continue to expand my education! My deepest thanks! You are a natural educator.

Great video. Short, to the point, informative. Thanks a bunch!

Very interesting keep getting better and better thanks Kevin 👍🏻

always something interesting, great research. I find the commentary about the battles fastenating.

This is wonderful! Thank you!

Excellent , learned something !

That was fascinating. Thank you very much.

The best explanation I’ve ever heard. Thank you. A big G’day from Australia mate

Great stuff. Other video makers could learn a lot by watching you

Very interesting. They did things in 20's.

Thank you very much for a great history lesson in rank structure in medieval times. Love it! This is just what I have been looking for, now that Im building my HYW-miniature army. Hope you do some videos in the future with same beautiful detail about the English Civil War. 👍

Very interesting Kevin thank you 👌

This was very very interesting. Thanks for sharing this.

Enjoyed your video and I gave it a Thumbs Up

FINALLY I HAVE WAITED SO LONG

Love the models man!

God bless you, sir. We need history taught this way and you provide it to us. Thank you.

That was awesome 👏 👏 👏

Thank you sir very informative

Very interesting I always wondered about this structure

Fascinating video, Sir. I served in my old country's army as an infantryman. I learned somewhere that the word infantry came from the word infant. The peasants who made up the body of the army were considered the children of their lords, hence, infantry.

Oh I’m waiting for that next video very eagerly.

Fantastic, and incredibly informative 👏 thank you

This is VERY INTERESTING!! Thanks for sharing!! XXXX 👍💖

Sounds like the battle organisation was based on that if the roman legions. 20 men led by an Optio, 5 groups of 20 led by a Centurion and so on...

The fact that there's not more subs on this channel is a crime...

Very good description of a complex structure. It’s surprising to see the similarities between this and the classical Ottoman army of the 1500’s; they too were very bureaucratic and rank oriented but maybe more centralised than this example

Greetings once again from nova Scotia, thank you Kevin, I very much enjoyed that. I liked how the Roman legions organizing, influenced the command structure of mideval armies, influenced modern armed forces. The line goes on......Thank you once again, I loved the video, cheers Arthur

I've been wondering this exact question. Except I'm specifically wondering about 1066 and the command structure at Stamford Bridge and Hastings. Thumbs up as usual Kevin! Rock on!

It’s actually very similar to how the British battalions of the black powder era are formed. You’d have 10 companies in a battalion. Each company to be split down into two platoons. A company would be commanded by a captain and his aide a lieutenant and two sergeants with corporals spread through the ranks - I think 1 for every 8-10 men. As such in a platoon your have 1 Officer, 1 senior NCO and 5-6 junior NCOs who helped keep the ranks dressed during battle. When as a company you’d have 2 officers (1 senior, and 1 junior with maybe a junior ensign attached usually to learn and gain experience from those reliable officers), 2 sergeants and 10-12 corporals. Formed into full battalion strength you’d have 1 lieutenant colonel, 10 captains, 12 lieutenants (2 usually as assistants to the battalion commander), usually 4-6 ensigns (you’ll always have a pair to carry the colours and a secondary pair to assist the battalion commander and maybe a secondary couple to assist also depending on the needs of the battalion), down from there your looking at 26ish sergeants (your standard 20x plus a battalion sergeant major, plus a pair to guard the colours and a colour-sergeant to command the colour party, and a band-sergeant major to command keep tally over the drummers and musicians that help direct the battalion), your 100+ corporals who’s keep the discipline amongst the ranks during battle and also known as “file fillers/pushers” as they were expected to be the ones to drag/push rankers back into file to close up gaps, and all this would be in a battalion expected to be around 1000+ strong - tho never usually that much on actual campaign due to casualties.

Love to see you do the different types of peasants.today we lump them all together, but at the time there were several levels and you would be warned not to see there's reeves son with the villiens daughter.

Thanks!

It's nice that you use models for visual aid

thank yew kevin from the rank and file. take care

Dude please please do a segment on the battle of Towton. I would love so much to hear you tell that story.

Fascinating stuff, Mr. Hicks. The leadership positions were named after the manpower strength of their command groups: "vint" from 20, "cent" from 100, and "mil" for 1,000.

Danke!

Excellent video, while an amateur historian and relatively knowledgeable about the hundred year war, I did not know how the rank structure worked thanks for enlightening me.

Man got the drip, got the minis, got the knowledge, Yeah this going to be a good video

Could you do a video on the Saxon society structure? similar to what you did here with the Normans.

I love these medieval battle breakdowns and I can't say how much it tickles me to hear "Cavalry" instead of "Calvary". I was armored cavalry and irks me to death to hear the wrong way.

I am so happy for this! It's information that needs to be disseminated and is poorly covered on RU-vid! When I was in university, an undergrad, I got to lecture on the topic of feudalism and manorialism... And the difference between them in economics and politics as different social structures. I do believe there's a university or three with papers of mine on the topic. Never got to be a professor, but I had good faculty support and was encouraged to lecture on topics I knew in detail. If I thought enough people were interested, I'd actually make a YT video on the different political and economic systems of England from the late Anglo-Saxon period through early Anglo-Norman. I don't believe I've got the right disposition for that anymore, I've become a surly old vet and construction worker despite the education. I believe some excitement and eloquence in my verbal delivery has been lost. Verbosity, I definitely still have.

Surely at the time of the Norman invasion, Normandy was a duchy that was in constant contention with France. They would not have considered themselves French, and in fact were of Norse heredity. They spoke French, but of a very different variety, in fact they still do to a lesser extent.

Wow, very interesting to see and hear how the army worked in those days, thank you 😊, very impressive

I love the video. Simple, straight, to the point. I do wonder what the differences in social structure were in Saxon England prior to the Norman conquest. I know the Anglos lived in what was once called the Danelaw and I heard that the peasants there paid rent in coin or grain instead of doing a set number of days working the lord's land. I read on wiki that back in Saxon times, the King would travel from village to village to collect food rent which would feed him and his massive entourage as well as do his duty of settling justice and hearing pleas.

Brilliant video. My ancestors put the feudal system in place and stealing the land from the Saxons and Danes living in England.

Brilliant. Thank you Sir.

While I've been loving your videos and remain grateful for all the facts and insights you relate I still feel obligated to point out that if the Normans hadn't invaded England you and I would never have been born to become fascinated by this period and what our ancestors were up to and where! Mine were on the west coast of Scotland and the Hebrides, before fleeing to the new world following the failed second Stewart restoration, so I might say the things about England you say about Normans.

Value of troops seems to matter much more than number of troops. The miniatures are fantastic for visualizing the battlefield.

Can you also do a more in depth video too? I like your longer videos alongside the shorter ones

Sir I served in the USMC learned discipline, We use to say to our drill instructors discipline is the instant will respect to authority self reliance and team work. I was in bootcamp back in 1986 sir I served 8 years.

Absolutely awesome video, mind telling me where you got this info on Vintaignes etc from, like I'm really curious to do some further digging myself

Oh, I'm really looking forward to the "how to raise a medieval army" episode...

Love to see the models being broken out

It's interesting how much it matches the roman structure of centurions and decani.

The Norman conquest is still there, the same nobles and landowners are very cheerful about 1066 and what their ancestors did to the Saxons.

On the one hand I understand and firmly believe in the ability of all races, genders, and nationalities to produce both qualified and unqualified speakers on a topic. On the other hand I immediately knew this was a reliable source because of the accent.

Hi Kevin Hicks, my Name is Christoph. Welcome to me watching your YT-Channel! Again. :)

I've always wondered! Thank you! What was the main difference or differences between a Marshall and Constable? Just the latter over the cavalry?

Overall, nice video