Paying for the Kings Army

For several centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire in the west, the region was rent by endless wars. Central governments were established by those who could most effectively put a lot of well trained and equipped troops in the field on short notice.

The Romans lasted so long because they developed a government structure that enabled them to levy taxes efficiently and spend the money on raising, equipping, training and supplying large numbers of soldiers. At it's peak, the Romans had over 500,000 troops in permanent service. The majority of these men were on 20-25 year contracts, with the rest being contingents of barbarians hired from year to year. The maintainance of so large a permanent standing army was a feat not duplicated anywhere until the 17th century. No Medieval European monarch was able to match the Romans in effective administration, and no Oriental Potentate came close either (Mongol, Chinese, and Ottoman armies always contained large contingents of feudal levies). There was no mechanism to raise a lot of taxes once the empire fell. Without that money, and the elaborate economy the Romans had (and the Germans trashed), there was no way to raise an army in the Roman style.

So the Germans came up with another way. The conquered Roman lands were given out (technically "loaned" ) to subordinates in return for the promise to have available a certain number of trained troops for a certain number of days a year. Naturally, the troops were also ready at all times to defend the area in which they lived.

Technology also played a role in this. When the Germans first came into Roman lands, most of their troops were infantry. The German tradition was for every adult male to train and equip himself as a warrior. This produced a lot of troops with minimal equipment, mediocre training and organization, but a lot of fighting spirit. For centuries, the more disciplined Roman armies were able to handle these German hordes. But one of the German tribes (the Goths) went east, onto the great plains of Russia. There they discovered the virtues of fighting on horseback. About the same time, the stirrup was introduced into Europe. This made troops on horseback more effective, and allowed them to wear more armor and use heavier weapons because, with the stirrup, they were less likely to fall off the horse in the thick of combat. In the century before Rome fell, the Germans were conquered by the Huns, Oriental nomads who really knew how to use the horse in combat. The Germans eventually threw off Hunnish rule, but not before perfecting their ability to fight on horseback.

Germans continued to fight on foot into the 8th century, but bit by bit the mounted warriors became more prominant. When kings like Charlemagne were looking for a way to get the most combat power out of the fewest number of troops, they discovered it was the heavily armed and armored warrior on horseback that could do the job.

But these mounted warriors were expensive. The horse, arms and armor cost a lot of money in the first place and a lot more over the lifetime of the warrior to maintain him. The answer was feudalism. Give each mounted warrior enough land and people to support him. The warrior would be the kings man, and would see to the kings interests in the warriors neighborhood, and would answer the kings call when there was fighting to be done.

Later on, these warriors became knights, and part of the lower ranking nobility. By the 15th century they were being replaced by professional soldiers. The feudal system for rasing armies was a temporary expedient to overcome the inability to raise taxes and spend the money efficiently to raise professional troops. While the knights eventually outlived their usefulness, they left a glamorous image in their wake.