How did soldiers in the Carolingian Empire prepare for the realities of war? From cavalry drills to infantry phalanx training, early medieval sources reveal the methods used to turn recruits into battle-ready fighters.
By David Bachrach
Narrative sources from the early medieval period provide very little direct commentary on the training of men for battle, although there are some exceptions. In one well-known case, Nithard (795–844), an illegitimate grandson of Charlemagne, described the cavalry exercises undertaken by the forces of Kings Louis the German (840–876) and Charles the Bald (840–877) as they prepared for a campaign in 842 against their elder brother Lothair I (840–854).
Nithard, who was present on this campaign with his cousin Charles, explained that equal numbers of Saxons, Gascons, East Franks, and Bretons were selected and assigned to opposite ends of a large practice field. At a pre-arranged signal, both sides charged at each other at speed. First one side and then the other wheeled about and pretended to flee. Nithard stressed that the men rode so that their backs were protected by their shields. Even in retreat, they were protected from the enemy. Training of this type provided men with the skills that they required both to engage in mounted combat and to carry out a “feigned retreat” and lure the enemy from a fixed position into a disorganized pursuit. William the Conqueror used this tactic with devastating effect against the Anglo-Saxons at Hastings two centuries later.
Evidence of Training Beyond Narrative Sources
The Golden Psalter (Psalterium aureum) of St. Gall, which dates to the late 9th century, offers several images of warriors that would have been based on the look of Carolingian soldiers – St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 22 p.141 – https://www.e-codices.ch/en/list/one/csg/0022
Much more common than explicit discussions of training in narrative accounts are references to the actions taken by fighting men in sieges or on the battlefield that are indicative of their having practiced military skills. These included advancing in formation, thrusting with sword or spear, holding their position in the face of an enemy attack, and climbing tall ladders to seize the parapet of a fortress. However, it is not necessary in every case to rely on deduction to develop an understanding of the types of training that were necessary to prepare soldiers in the Carolingian Empire for combat. There is a fortuitously surviving manual for training fighting men, that was put together in the mid-ninth century by the polymath teacher, theologian, and prelate Rabanus Maurus (780–856) titled On the Training of Roman Soldiers.
Far from a cloister-bound antiquarian, Rabanus served as abbot of the imperial monastery of Fulda (822–842) and as archbishop of Mainz (847–856). In both of these positions Rabanus commanded substantial numbers of professional soldiers, whom he was required to dispatch on campaign. He was thus intimately aware of the realities of contemporary warfare and also with the types of training that his men received.
St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 22 p.136
It is generally thought that Rabanus sent this little manual to King Lothair II (854–869) shortly after the latter’s accession as king of the northern third of the realm of his father Lothair I. In the introduction to the text, Rabanus states: “I have enclosed certain chapters that were excerpted from the little work of Flavius Vegetius Renatus regarding the training of Roman soldiers, and regarding those things which are done among our trainees, so that it will be clear that it is not by the multitude of many peoples but rather by the skill and training of brave and select men that victory will be achieved with the aid of God.”
It is no coincidence that Nithard, who almost certainly had read the work of Vegetius while growing up in Charlemagne’s court, included in his own Histories the observation that a smaller but better trained and led force could defeat a larger but poorly led one.
Rabanus’ Adaptation of Vegetius
St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. Sang. 22 p.132
Rabanus included 14 chapters from Vegetius in his little book, a selection that points to his understanding of the key skills that contemporary fighting men needed to develop. These included learning how to throw a spear (Chapter 8), to use a bow (Chapter 9), and how to use a sling (Chapter 10).
Notably, Rabanus includes chapters for the training of men on foot as well as those on horseback. Chapter 6, in particular, offers detailed instructions for the training of men to serve in an infantry phalanx—the dominant formation used by Carolingian forces on the battlefield.
This chapter begins with a description of how to train fighting men (milites) to use their swords effectively against an armored opponent. Wooden poles, each of which was the height of an average man, were to be fixed into the ground so that they did not wobble. The trainees were then to advance toward the poles, carrying a double-weight shield made of wicker and a wooden club that was twice the weight of a sword. The purpose here was to train the muscles of the soldiers so that fighting with much lighter actual weapons would be comparatively easy.
The trainee was then to attack the pole as if it were an enemy, striking towards its “face,” then the belly, then the side, then the groin or the legs. As he struck, the trainee was to move forward, side to side, and then backward. He was to take care never to open himself up to an attack by the enemy. The key verb in this entire passage is pungere, which means to puncture, indicating that the trainee was always to engage in a thrusting motion rather than a slashing motion.
Rabanus emphasized this point even further in the next chapter (7), stating that the trainees should always be taught to thrust rather than to slash. He states that a slashing motion will not break bones or penetrate armor, but that a thrusting motion can inflict a mortal wound even if it penetrates only two inches. He concluded by pointing out that a stabbing motion takes advantage of the full strength of the body, while a slash draws power only from the arm and shoulder and, moreover, exposes the side of the attacker to a counter-thrust by the enemy.
Rabanus turned, in chapter 12, to the training of men to serve on horseback. He said that men should be trained in both summer and winter, out on the field in the former and under covered sheds in the latter. The initial training consisted of having the beginners attempt to mount wooden facsimiles of horses, first with no equipment, and then when wearing helmets and bearing shields. When they had mastered these exercises, they were to attempt to mount the horses holding long wooden poles. The next step was to teach the trainees to mount and dismount the horses from the right and from the left, and finally from the rear. Rabanus added the comment that this type of practice in mounting and dismounting horses was very popular among the Franks.
Through his process of selection and commentary, Rabanus’ epitome of Vegetius’ Epitoma rei militaris, which was a very popular text in the courts of the Carolingian kings and emperors, provides important insights about how leading figures of his day conceptualized military training. Given the clear overlap between the actions of fighting men described by the authors of narrative sources and the types of training included by Rabanus in his libellum, it is also likely that we can see here the actual training of men on the practice fields of the Carolingian Empire.
David Bachrach is a Professor at the University of New Hampshire, where he researches medieval military history, particularly in England and Germany.
How did soldiers in the Carolingian Empire prepare for the realities of war? From cavalry drills to infantry phalanx training, early medieval sources reveal the methods used to turn recruits into battle-ready fighters.
By David Bachrach
Narrative sources from the early medieval period provide very little direct commentary on the training of men for battle, although there are some exceptions. In one well-known case, Nithard (795–844), an illegitimate grandson of Charlemagne, described the cavalry exercises undertaken by the forces of Kings Louis the German (840–876) and Charles the Bald (840–877) as they prepared for a campaign in 842 against their elder brother Lothair I (840–854).
Nithard, who was present on this campaign with his cousin Charles, explained that equal numbers of Saxons, Gascons, East Franks, and Bretons were selected and assigned to opposite ends of a large practice field. At a pre-arranged signal, both sides charged at each other at speed. First one side and then the other wheeled about and pretended to flee. Nithard stressed that the men rode so that their backs were protected by their shields. Even in retreat, they were protected from the enemy. Training of this type provided men with the skills that they required both to engage in mounted combat and to carry out a “feigned retreat” and lure the enemy from a fixed position into a disorganized pursuit. William the Conqueror used this tactic with devastating effect against the Anglo-Saxons at Hastings two centuries later.
Evidence of Training Beyond Narrative Sources
Much more common than explicit discussions of training in narrative accounts are references to the actions taken by fighting men in sieges or on the battlefield that are indicative of their having practiced military skills. These included advancing in formation, thrusting with sword or spear, holding their position in the face of an enemy attack, and climbing tall ladders to seize the parapet of a fortress. However, it is not necessary in every case to rely on deduction to develop an understanding of the types of training that were necessary to prepare soldiers in the Carolingian Empire for combat. There is a fortuitously surviving manual for training fighting men, that was put together in the mid-ninth century by the polymath teacher, theologian, and prelate Rabanus Maurus (780–856) titled On the Training of Roman Soldiers.
Far from a cloister-bound antiquarian, Rabanus served as abbot of the imperial monastery of Fulda (822–842) and as archbishop of Mainz (847–856). In both of these positions Rabanus commanded substantial numbers of professional soldiers, whom he was required to dispatch on campaign. He was thus intimately aware of the realities of contemporary warfare and also with the types of training that his men received.
It is generally thought that Rabanus sent this little manual to King Lothair II (854–869) shortly after the latter’s accession as king of the northern third of the realm of his father Lothair I. In the introduction to the text, Rabanus states: “I have enclosed certain chapters that were excerpted from the little work of Flavius Vegetius Renatus regarding the training of Roman soldiers, and regarding those things which are done among our trainees, so that it will be clear that it is not by the multitude of many peoples but rather by the skill and training of brave and select men that victory will be achieved with the aid of God.”
It is no coincidence that Nithard, who almost certainly had read the work of Vegetius while growing up in Charlemagne’s court, included in his own Histories the observation that a smaller but better trained and led force could defeat a larger but poorly led one.
Rabanus’ Adaptation of Vegetius
Rabanus included 14 chapters from Vegetius in his little book, a selection that points to his understanding of the key skills that contemporary fighting men needed to develop. These included learning how to throw a spear (Chapter 8), to use a bow (Chapter 9), and how to use a sling (Chapter 10).
Notably, Rabanus includes chapters for the training of men on foot as well as those on horseback. Chapter 6, in particular, offers detailed instructions for the training of men to serve in an infantry phalanx—the dominant formation used by Carolingian forces on the battlefield.
This chapter begins with a description of how to train fighting men (milites) to use their swords effectively against an armored opponent. Wooden poles, each of which was the height of an average man, were to be fixed into the ground so that they did not wobble. The trainees were then to advance toward the poles, carrying a double-weight shield made of wicker and a wooden club that was twice the weight of a sword. The purpose here was to train the muscles of the soldiers so that fighting with much lighter actual weapons would be comparatively easy.
The trainee was then to attack the pole as if it were an enemy, striking towards its “face,” then the belly, then the side, then the groin or the legs. As he struck, the trainee was to move forward, side to side, and then backward. He was to take care never to open himself up to an attack by the enemy. The key verb in this entire passage is pungere, which means to puncture, indicating that the trainee was always to engage in a thrusting motion rather than a slashing motion.
Rabanus emphasized this point even further in the next chapter (7), stating that the trainees should always be taught to thrust rather than to slash. He states that a slashing motion will not break bones or penetrate armor, but that a thrusting motion can inflict a mortal wound even if it penetrates only two inches. He concluded by pointing out that a stabbing motion takes advantage of the full strength of the body, while a slash draws power only from the arm and shoulder and, moreover, exposes the side of the attacker to a counter-thrust by the enemy.
Rabanus turned, in chapter 12, to the training of men to serve on horseback. He said that men should be trained in both summer and winter, out on the field in the former and under covered sheds in the latter. The initial training consisted of having the beginners attempt to mount wooden facsimiles of horses, first with no equipment, and then when wearing helmets and bearing shields. When they had mastered these exercises, they were to attempt to mount the horses holding long wooden poles. The next step was to teach the trainees to mount and dismount the horses from the right and from the left, and finally from the rear. Rabanus added the comment that this type of practice in mounting and dismounting horses was very popular among the Franks.
Through his process of selection and commentary, Rabanus’ epitome of Vegetius’ Epitoma rei militaris, which was a very popular text in the courts of the Carolingian kings and emperors, provides important insights about how leading figures of his day conceptualized military training. Given the clear overlap between the actions of fighting men described by the authors of narrative sources and the types of training included by Rabanus in his libellum, it is also likely that we can see here the actual training of men on the practice fields of the Carolingian Empire.
David Bachrach is a Professor at the University of New Hampshire, where he researches medieval military history, particularly in England and Germany.
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Further Readings:
The original Latin text is available in Ernst Dümmler, “De procinctu romanae miliciae,” Zeitschrift für deutsches Alterthum 15 (1872), 443–451. For a translation of the text by Professor Charles West: https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/cwest3/2024/12/06/hraban-maurus-on-the-training-of-the-roman-army/
Bernard S. Bachrach, Early Carolingian Warfare: Prelude to Empire (Philadelphia, 2002).
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