Could a Peasant Army REALLY Beat Trained Knights?

Could a peasant army really beat trained knights? On 11 July 1302 the finest heavy cavalry in Europe rode into a field outside Courtrai and was beaten by weavers and butchers, who hung hundreds of pairs of golden spurs in a church as trophies. Today we put seven cases on trial, from Flanders, Scotland, Switzerland, Bohemia and England to two revolts that ended badly, and look for the pattern behind every win: the ground, the weapon, discipline, a leader and training. Chapters: 0:00 Cold open: Courtrai, 1302 0:46 The trial: seven cases 1:21 What the knights were: training, cost, armour 2:16 The charge 2:53 A knight's weaknesses 3:28 Who really fought the knights 3:59 Case one: Courtrai, 1302 8:23 The French revenge: Mons-en-Pevele and Roosebeke 9:06 Case two: Stirling Bridge, Falkirk and Bannockburn 11:37 Bruce and de Bohun 12:48 Bannockburn, 24 June 1314 14:53 Case three: the Swiss (William Tell, Morgarten) 16:45 Laupen and Sempach 18:23 The Swiss pike squares, Burgundy and the guns of Marignano 20:02 Case four: the Hussites and Jan Zizka 21:24 The war wagon 23:01 Vitkov, Domazlice and Lipany 25:22 Case five: the English longbow 26:37 Crecy, 1346 27:54 Agincourt, 1415 30:06 Case six: the Jacquerie, 1358 32:20 Case seven: the Peasants' Revolt, 1381 35:55 The verdict: ground, weapon, discipline, leader, training 37:43 The sixth thing: the knights helped 38:41 So, could a peasant army beat trained knights? Sources and further reading: J.F. Verbruggen, The Battle of the Golden Spurs (Courtrai, 11 July 1302) J.F. Verbruggen, The Art of Warfare in Western Europe during the Middle Ages G.W.S. Barrow, Robert Bruce and the Community of the Realm of Scotland Alan Young / Evan Barron, The Scottish War of Independence John Barbour, The Brus (c. 1375) Thomas A. Fudge, The Crusade against Heretics in Bohemia, 1418-1437 Anne Curry, Agincourt: A New History Jonathan Sumption, The Hundred Years War (vol. 1-4) Jean Froissart, Chronicles R.B. Dobson, The Peasants' Revolt of 1381 Mary Rose Trust: archer skeletons and longbows from the Mary Rose (1545) Stories that survive only as tradition are flagged in the video: William Tell, Winkelried, the Grandson diamonds, Barbour's pits, the Bannockburn camp followers, the wet Genoese bowstrings, the two-finger salute and the spurs taken back at Roosebeke. #MiddleAges #Knights #History #Bannockburn #Agincourt #Hussites #MedievalHistory