Historians often imagine early medieval warfare as chaotic and improvised. But surviving records reveal a world of careful planning, detailed reports, and royal officials who turned administration into an essential weapon of war.
By David Bachrach
There is a conceit among many contemporary military theorists that logistics, that is the art and science of supplying an army with equipment and supplies in a timely fashion, was invented in modern times, and that pre-modern armies simply “lived off the land”. This view of the primitive nature of military supply also has been accepted by many specialists in medieval European history, particularly with regard to the period before the First Crusade (1095-1099), who continue to propagate the “dark age” model of a society in decline following the supposed collapse of the later Roman Empire. This model of decline has a corollary in the view that early medieval armies necessarily were small and focused on raiding and collecting booty.
However, it is now understood by most specialists in medieval military history that warfare in the millennium following the dissolution of the Roman Empire in the west was dominated by efforts to defend and capture fortifications. Armies engaged in this type of warfare necessarily were large and had to be kept in the field for lengthy periods. Moreover, the troops generally were deployed near the fortresses that were under siege and thus supplies located in the area were consumed quite rapidly. Under these circumstances, the planning of campaigns focused on the capture of fortifications also required extensive logistical preparations to ensure the steady provision of supplies to besieging forces. These efforts to locate and transport food and other supplies required, in turn, a vast amount of accurate and up-to-date information that had to be collected, analyzed, and acted upon months before the beginning of a campaign.
One of the main sources of supply for armies on campaign in the Carolingian Empire as well as in its eastern successor in Germany under the Ottonian dynasty consisted of the assets of the royal fisc. The fisc, in turn, was comprised of a vast network of estates that produced an enormous range of foodstuffs as well as equipment required by soldiers on campaign. To manage this enormous congeries of assets, Charlemagne’s government issued detailed instructions for estate stewards about the management of the lands under their supervision, and also required detailed reports from them, which had to be provided in writing to the royal court. The Ottonian rulers of early medieval Germany (919-1024) inherited this management system from their Carolingian predecessors.
The images in this article are from the Utrecht Psalter, created in the early 9th century – Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht HSS: Hs 32 dl 1-2
The most detailed and systematic treatment of the duties of estate managers in the Carolingian Empire is to be found in the capitulary de villis (on estates), which was issued by Charlemagne before 800 and perhaps as early as 771. Although this text survives in only a single manuscript, the requirements that it enunciates and the organization of royal estates that it adumbrates are reflected in scores of other documents, produced from the early ninth to the eleventh century throughout the Carolingian Empire and its various successor states.
From the perspective of military planning, and particularly for the organization of logistics for the army on campaign, the capitulary de villis has two main elements that are of particular importance. The first of these was that estate stewards were to produce and store military equipment. These supplies included a range of iron tools such as shovels, hammers, and cutting implements that were essential for digging defensive ditches around marching camps and entrenchments around besieged fortifications, as well as for the construction of wooden breastworks. Estate managers also were required to keep on staff shield makers, and to store shields, spears, arrows, and bows.
Each estate also was required to maintain wagons, called basternae, that were specifically constructed for campaign service. The government required that these wagons be watertight so that they could be floated across rivers without leakage. The wagons also were to be a standard size so that each could be loaded with twelve standard-sized barrels of flour or wine. Naturally, the stewards were required to keep on hand a large supply of wooden barrels, bound in iron, which could be used to carry supplies to the army that was going on campaign.
The images in this article are from the Utrecht Psalter, created in the early 9th century – Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht HSS: Hs 32 dl 1-2
To ensure that the stewards were following their orders and maintaining royal estates appropriately, they were subject to periodic audits by royal officials sent out from court, who were called missi, as well as by counts in whose areas of jurisdiction the fiscal estates were located. Numerous capitularies issued by Charlemagne and his successors make clear that anyone in charge of royal lands, and also of church lands, whether as a steward or as the holder of a benefice, was to maintain these estates. Failure to do so would lead to the confiscation of the assets.
Of course, having substantial quantities of supplies was only the first step in preparing for a campaign. It was also necessary for the king’s military planners to know what supplies were on hand and where they were located. This meant that estate stewards had to produce and submit updated reports on a regular basis in which they provided detailed and accurate accounts of the supplies that were available for use by the army.
Capitulary de villis provides an overview of these reports, and the information that estate stewards were required to provide. The first of these was to be submitted to the royal court at Christmas time, that is after the year’s agricultural cycle had come to an end in late autumn and all the details about that year’s crops, revenues, and expenses had been tabulated. These Christmas reports were to include a list of the income earned by each estate in both cash and in kind. Stewards were required to subdivide this report into sections, so that each element of the estate’s production was treated independently, e.g., cattle, grain, wine, honey.
The images in this article are from the Utrecht Psalter, created in the early 9th century – Universiteitsbibliotheek Utrecht HSS: Hs 32 dl 1-2
In addition to the main Christmas report dealing with the overall production of the estate and the listing of supplies on hand, each estate steward had to provide two supplementary documents. The first of these was divided into two parts. In the first half, the steward was to list all of the items and supplies that he had used to fulfill his obligations to the government, such as supplies sent to the court and to the army, and also provided to royal officials in the context of the tractoria, namely food and fodder provided to personnel traveling on the king’s business. In the second half of this document, the steward had to provide a list of all the goods and services that he had provided to anyone not connected with the royal court.
The other supplementary document was focused on cash revenues and expenditures. The steward had to provide a list of all the money payments that he had made, and all of the receipts in money that he had obtained for the sale of surplus goods. Finally, the steward had to record how much coin he had on hand.
Charlemagne’s cousin Adalhard of Corbie recorded in his manual On the Organization of the Palace that a planning staff, which he denoted as the magistratus, gathered early every winter to develop plans for the next campaign season. These estate reports, which must have numbered in the hundreds every year, certainly played a crucial role in these plans. The types of information required in the capitulary de villis allowed the planning staff to issue orders about the prepositioning of supplies along the marching routes of the contingents joining the royal army, and also at the jumping off locations along the frontier.
One of the notable aspects of military campaigning by both the Carolingians and the Ottonians was that contemporary writers very rarely mentioned that armies in the field and those engaged in sieges encountered logistical problems. The long-term success of the rulers of both dynasties, including in the time-consuming and arduous business of siege warfare, necessarily entailed that their armies were well-supplied and equipped. A major reason for this success is the administrative system, based on the large-scale use of “paperwork” that was perfected by Charlemagne and maintained by his successors, including those ruling lands east of the Rhine River.
David Bachrach is a Professor at the University of New Hampshire, where he researches medieval military history, particularly in England and Germany.
David S. Bachrach, “Feeding the Host: The Ottonian Royal Fisc in Military Perspective,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 3rd series 9 (2012), 1-43.
Historians often imagine early medieval warfare as chaotic and improvised. But surviving records reveal a world of careful planning, detailed reports, and royal officials who turned administration into an essential weapon of war.
By David Bachrach
There is a conceit among many contemporary military theorists that logistics, that is the art and science of supplying an army with equipment and supplies in a timely fashion, was invented in modern times, and that pre-modern armies simply “lived off the land”. This view of the primitive nature of military supply also has been accepted by many specialists in medieval European history, particularly with regard to the period before the First Crusade (1095-1099), who continue to propagate the “dark age” model of a society in decline following the supposed collapse of the later Roman Empire. This model of decline has a corollary in the view that early medieval armies necessarily were small and focused on raiding and collecting booty.
However, it is now understood by most specialists in medieval military history that warfare in the millennium following the dissolution of the Roman Empire in the west was dominated by efforts to defend and capture fortifications. Armies engaged in this type of warfare necessarily were large and had to be kept in the field for lengthy periods. Moreover, the troops generally were deployed near the fortresses that were under siege and thus supplies located in the area were consumed quite rapidly. Under these circumstances, the planning of campaigns focused on the capture of fortifications also required extensive logistical preparations to ensure the steady provision of supplies to besieging forces. These efforts to locate and transport food and other supplies required, in turn, a vast amount of accurate and up-to-date information that had to be collected, analyzed, and acted upon months before the beginning of a campaign.
One of the main sources of supply for armies on campaign in the Carolingian Empire as well as in its eastern successor in Germany under the Ottonian dynasty consisted of the assets of the royal fisc. The fisc, in turn, was comprised of a vast network of estates that produced an enormous range of foodstuffs as well as equipment required by soldiers on campaign. To manage this enormous congeries of assets, Charlemagne’s government issued detailed instructions for estate stewards about the management of the lands under their supervision, and also required detailed reports from them, which had to be provided in writing to the royal court. The Ottonian rulers of early medieval Germany (919-1024) inherited this management system from their Carolingian predecessors.
The most detailed and systematic treatment of the duties of estate managers in the Carolingian Empire is to be found in the capitulary de villis (on estates), which was issued by Charlemagne before 800 and perhaps as early as 771. Although this text survives in only a single manuscript, the requirements that it enunciates and the organization of royal estates that it adumbrates are reflected in scores of other documents, produced from the early ninth to the eleventh century throughout the Carolingian Empire and its various successor states.
From the perspective of military planning, and particularly for the organization of logistics for the army on campaign, the capitulary de villis has two main elements that are of particular importance. The first of these was that estate stewards were to produce and store military equipment. These supplies included a range of iron tools such as shovels, hammers, and cutting implements that were essential for digging defensive ditches around marching camps and entrenchments around besieged fortifications, as well as for the construction of wooden breastworks. Estate managers also were required to keep on staff shield makers, and to store shields, spears, arrows, and bows.
Each estate also was required to maintain wagons, called basternae, that were specifically constructed for campaign service. The government required that these wagons be watertight so that they could be floated across rivers without leakage. The wagons also were to be a standard size so that each could be loaded with twelve standard-sized barrels of flour or wine. Naturally, the stewards were required to keep on hand a large supply of wooden barrels, bound in iron, which could be used to carry supplies to the army that was going on campaign.
To ensure that the stewards were following their orders and maintaining royal estates appropriately, they were subject to periodic audits by royal officials sent out from court, who were called missi, as well as by counts in whose areas of jurisdiction the fiscal estates were located. Numerous capitularies issued by Charlemagne and his successors make clear that anyone in charge of royal lands, and also of church lands, whether as a steward or as the holder of a benefice, was to maintain these estates. Failure to do so would lead to the confiscation of the assets.
Of course, having substantial quantities of supplies was only the first step in preparing for a campaign. It was also necessary for the king’s military planners to know what supplies were on hand and where they were located. This meant that estate stewards had to produce and submit updated reports on a regular basis in which they provided detailed and accurate accounts of the supplies that were available for use by the army.
Capitulary de villis provides an overview of these reports, and the information that estate stewards were required to provide. The first of these was to be submitted to the royal court at Christmas time, that is after the year’s agricultural cycle had come to an end in late autumn and all the details about that year’s crops, revenues, and expenses had been tabulated. These Christmas reports were to include a list of the income earned by each estate in both cash and in kind. Stewards were required to subdivide this report into sections, so that each element of the estate’s production was treated independently, e.g., cattle, grain, wine, honey.
In addition to the main Christmas report dealing with the overall production of the estate and the listing of supplies on hand, each estate steward had to provide two supplementary documents. The first of these was divided into two parts. In the first half, the steward was to list all of the items and supplies that he had used to fulfill his obligations to the government, such as supplies sent to the court and to the army, and also provided to royal officials in the context of the tractoria, namely food and fodder provided to personnel traveling on the king’s business. In the second half of this document, the steward had to provide a list of all the goods and services that he had provided to anyone not connected with the royal court.
The other supplementary document was focused on cash revenues and expenditures. The steward had to provide a list of all the money payments that he had made, and all of the receipts in money that he had obtained for the sale of surplus goods. Finally, the steward had to record how much coin he had on hand.
Charlemagne’s cousin Adalhard of Corbie recorded in his manual On the Organization of the Palace that a planning staff, which he denoted as the magistratus, gathered early every winter to develop plans for the next campaign season. These estate reports, which must have numbered in the hundreds every year, certainly played a crucial role in these plans. The types of information required in the capitulary de villis allowed the planning staff to issue orders about the prepositioning of supplies along the marching routes of the contingents joining the royal army, and also at the jumping off locations along the frontier.
One of the notable aspects of military campaigning by both the Carolingians and the Ottonians was that contemporary writers very rarely mentioned that armies in the field and those engaged in sieges encountered logistical problems. The long-term success of the rulers of both dynasties, including in the time-consuming and arduous business of siege warfare, necessarily entailed that their armies were well-supplied and equipped. A major reason for this success is the administrative system, based on the large-scale use of “paperwork” that was perfected by Charlemagne and maintained by his successors, including those ruling lands east of the Rhine River.
David Bachrach is a Professor at the University of New Hampshire, where he researches medieval military history, particularly in England and Germany.
Click here to read more from David Bachrach
Further Reading:
Eric J. Goldberg, “Tractariae and the Logistics of Carolingian Entourages,” Early Medieval Europe (2025), 1-25.
Bernard S. Bachrach, “Are They Not Like Us? Charlemagne’s Fisc in Military Perspective,” in Paradigms and Methods in Early Medieval Studies (The New Middle Ages), eds. Celia Chazelle and Felice Lifshitz (New York, 2007), 319-343.
David S. Bachrach, “Feeding the Host: The Ottonian Royal Fisc in Military Perspective,” Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History 3rd series 9 (2012), 1-43.
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