Page 149 - Conflitti Militari e Popolazioni Civili - Tomo I

149
aCta
as in the case of King John mentioned earlier. In addition, both military custom and Canon
Law required that vulnerable members of society should not be brutalised or exploited. Such
protections had grown out of the Peace and Truce of God movement (which prefigured the
th
th
Crusades) in the way that some bishops in the late 10 century and the popes during the 11
century ‘revolution’ in papal government attempted to control and redirect the violence of the
warrior classes. In the words of a recent article entitled ‘Collateral Damage?’:
‘In the late Middle Ages, Honoré Bonet, dispensed with Truce but upheld prohibitions
against imprisoning or ransoming a wide range of non-combatants, including old men, wom-
en, children, clergy, pilgrims and peasants. In this way the Peace of God helped to establish
some of the intellectual foundations for the concept of collateral damage: a distinction be-
tween soldier and civilian, and the corresponding idea of the natural immunity of non-com-
batants and their possessions.’ 7
Such regulation was understood at the time as the Laws of War. Operating outside them
could leave a transgressor subject to punishment, not just by the opinion of peers but under
the jurisdiction of the state through the royal law courts. Those convicted of such behaviour
could face a series of penalties ranging from compensation to victims, to sequestration of
landed estates and property, up to public execution. So, in theory at least, there were compel-
ling reasons for soldiers to behave well in respect of these regulations. As is clear from Jean
de Venette’s reports, though, they could hard to enforce.
The most characteristic form of warfare during the period in question was that of the
chevauchée, literally a ride through enemy territory with the intention of demonstrating to
the hapless population that their own lords could not protect them. although it might involve
or terminate in a battle, this was not the prime requisite for such a campaign. Rather the
intent was to inflict damage along the route of march involving not just the usual impact of
a hungry, marching army, but also the deliberate acquisition of cattle, destruction of fields,
orchards and vines, and of property and economic infrastructure. When Henry V, King of
England is reported to have said: ‘War without fire is like andouillettes (tripe sausages) with-
out mustard’, he was merely mouthing a commonplace. 8
Hewitt’s famous study of the Black Prince’s Expedition of 1355-1357 in Gascony and
Poitou, encapsulates this medieval military operation:
‘Armies fight and ‘live on the land’; armies may be allowed or encouraged to plunder;
they must also be used to destroy the means of living. Destruction, therefore, of habitations
and of the means by which life is maintained becomes an important part of a chevauchée.
While modern strategy consists in cutting off supplies at source, destroying them in bulk, or
disrupting their transport, medieval leaders were obliged to destroy them ‘on the spot’. Once
the work of destruction is started, it may go further than strict military needs require. If a
town has been besieged and resisted its attackers for some time, its ultimate capture may be
followed by a combination of butchery, plunder and destruction which is irrational but intelli-
gible. On occasion, undefended villages may suffer the same fate. And, at a time when timber
forms so large a part of almost all buildings, the most useful means of destruction is fire. It

7 Hay, p.12.
8 Quoted by Wright from the Chronicle of Juvenal d’Ursins. Henry was also renowned for his Ordinances,
which restricted the ravaging of his men.