How To Win A Medieval Battle Before It Starts

Medieval battles weren't won by the bravest army. They were won the night before, with shovels. In the first minute you die in the mud at Agincourt. Then we go back through the nine "ground rules" commanders used to win before a single sword was drawn: a ridge at Hastings, a bridge two horses wide at Stirling, a trench at Dara, hidden pits at Bannockburn, the springs at Hattin, a snowstorm at Towton, a wall of logs in the pass at Pliska, a forest of stakes at Agincourt and a ditch full of guns at Castillon. Every quote, number and story comes from the chroniclers and historians below; legends are flagged as legends. YOU COMMAND: you're William Wallace at Stirling Bridge. Do you attack when the first men cross (A), when half are over (B), or when they're all across (C)? Answer in the comments, then check 5:30. CHAPTERS 0:00 You died in the mud (Agincourt, 1415) 1:31 Rule 1: Take the high ground (Hastings) 3:34 Rule 2: Make them cross something (Maldon, Stirling Bridge) 5:56 Rule 3: Dig (Dara) 7:49 Rule 4: Hide the traps (Bannockburn, caltrops, Aljubarrota) 10:32 Rule 5: Steal their water (Hattin) 12:24 Rule 6: Weather in their face (Towton) 13:55 Rule 7: Close the doors (Pliska) 15:25 Rule 8: Plant a forest of stakes (Nicopolis, Agincourt, Patay) 17:32 Rule 9: Build a fortress in a field (Castillon) 19:16 Won with shovels SOURCES • Vegetius, De re militari, book III (Clarke translation, 1767) • Procopius, History of the Wars, book I (Dewing translation): Herat 484, Dara 530 • William of Poitiers, Gesta Guillelmi; Orderic Vitalis (Hastings and the Malfosse) • The Battle of Maldon (Old English poem); Liber Eliensis • Walter of Guisborough; the Lanercost Chronicle (Stirling Bridge) • John Barbour, The Bruce, books XI-XII (Bannockburn) • Ibn al-Athir; Fordham Medieval Sourcebook (Hattin) • Edward Hall, Chronicle (Towton) • Theophanes the Confessor, Chronographia (Pliska) • Gesta Henrici Quinti; the Monk of Saint-Denis (Agincourt) • Modern accounts of each battle (Barker, Curry, Seward, Runciman and others) MUSIC "Five Armies", "Echoes of Time v2", "Gathering Darkness", "Hidden Agenda", "Virtutes Instrumenti", "Dark Times", "Ossuary 6 - Air", "The Descent", "Moonlight Hall", "Achilles", "Village Consort": Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... IMAGES & SOUNDS Public-domain and CC0 manuscripts, costume plates, paintings, prints and photos from Wikimedia Commons, the Internet Archive and museum open-access collections. Attribution-licensed works: CC BY-SA 4.0: Patrimoine7vallees (Azincourt battlefield); Lorisfrancey (meadow); Threeohsix (Aljubarrota excavation); Gunnar Creutz (caltrop); National Museums Scotland (Lewis chessman); Patrick Hendry (flames); Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin (skull); Vislupus (Pliska fortress); York Museums Trust (pennies of Æthelred II and William I); DeFacto (Stirling Castle); Amuzujoe (thunder). CC BY-SA 3.0: Karstenkascais (Aljubarrota azulejo); Erhan Alıcı (Dara); Zeromancer44 (Horns of Hattin); Nachosan (Lewis chessman); Kim Traynor (Stirling Bridge and Abbey Craig); BáthoryPéter (water); Fiver, der Hellseher (rain); LouiseBrown1981 (artillery). CC BY-SA 2.5: Ignat Ignev (Osogovo gorge); LouisAragon (coin of Peroz I). CC BY-SA 2.0: Colin Park (Battle Abbey battlefield); Hugh Venables (Northey Island causeway); York Museums Trust, Dot Boughton (medieval wooden spade); Neil Theasby and Dr Duncan Pepper (oak trees). CC BY 4.0: Gravity Sound (impacts, swords, grass, metal, water); Work With Sounds / La Fonderie (fire). CC BY 3.0: Otto Halmén (dead grass); Eusebius (Drummond arms); Granpar (wolf pit); Benboncan (heartbeat). CC BY 2.5: Oxyman (Byrhtnoth statue). CC BY 2.0: Moyan Brenn (fire); Caleb Kimbrough (parchment); Stefan Krasowski (wrestling mosaic). Narration: the creator's voice (AI-assisted). #history #medievalhistory #militaryhistory