CTW Development: Knightly Armies VS Other Armies, a battle list 950-1500

[Destraex]

Hi guys this is a spin off thread from the "Were European Knights any good? How to simulate in this mod?" thread.
The aim is to provide enlightened research for the mod and any other passers by who are interested in the historical development of this mod.

The below is a quick summary of the major battles of the Medieval Period from around 950 that were between European "Knight" armies and other armies with a couple of comments about the knights role where I thought needed. Some battles between countries where I was not sure the armies were BOTH Knightly or both Other have been left out. Usually these countries were between the east and west.
Obviously battles between similarly armed armies have not been included. For example Tannenberg where both armies included a contingent of knights armed in the western style.
I also have very little information on the Spanish medieval battles and armies, so if somebody could help here I will amend the post.
Another niggling omission is how I should consider the north western most cultures such as Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Norway, Sweden. For a large part of the era these countries did not really have well what we consider "knights", thus these battles have also not been included but may have merit enough.

Medieval European armies that included knights victories against non-Europeans armies:
Purpose, to compare or give a description of how European armies that included Knights faired against the rest of the world that they encountered in battle with particular interest in the role of the knight and its effect on the battle.
I went up to around 1500 hundred as I think this is when Handguns really started to take a commanding role on the battlefield (correct me if I am wrong .

1 955 Battle of Lechfeld - August 10 - Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor defeats Magyars, ends invasion of West.
Knights Involvement:- Mounted Knights repulse Magyar Horse Archers who are silly enough to make a frontal assault on them.
It is interesting to note that their was enough discipline in Otto's army that he was able to order the rearguard to about face and destroy some Magyars
attacking the baggage train in good order and without any panic from the rest of the army seeing their whole rear formations leave

21041 Monte Maggiore - Norman mercenaries rebel against the byzantines, their charge destroys the much larger Byzantine army. It is interesting to note that
spearhead formation was used by the Norman Knights.

31063 Battle of Graus Castile and Aragon defeat Zaragoza

41071 Byzantines lose Bari, their last possession in Italy, to the Norman Robert Guiscard.

51081 Battle of Dyrrhachium - Robert Guiscard defeats the Byzantines.

61097 Battle of Dorylaeum - July 1 - First Christian victory of the First Crusade.

71097 Battle of Nicea - The Crusaders defeat Kilij Arslan in a long pitched battle as he tries to break the siege of Nicea.

81097 Battle of Antioch - The Crusaders sally out of Antioch and defeat Kerbogha, breaking the Turkish siege of the city. Interesting that the Crusader horses
stamped out flaming branches as they ran over them lit to hamper their pursuit of the enemy.

91099 Battle of Ascalon - August 12 - Crusaders defeat the Egyptians at Ascalon. A surprise attack by chance, Crusader cavalry charged in so Fast the enemy
horse archers only got off one volley before contact.

101101 Battle of Ramla - Crusaders defeat the Egyptians

111102 - Ramla & Jaffa - After defeat at Ramla re-enforcements were joined with survivors at Jaffa. Knights repeated charges and the fact that their infantry
held together even though surrounded the whole time so that they could regroup after each charge meant that eventually the Muslims were defeated. Interesting
to note that the crusaders were too few in number to pursue the enemy.

121105 Battle of Artah - Crusaders defeat Aleppo.

131115 - Sarmin (Tel Danith) - Frankish army surprises Seljuks from ambush. THe Seljuks were encamped and scattered while the Crusaders emerged from ambush and
attacked in echelon.

141115 Battle of Sarmin - Crusaders defeat Turks.

151119 Hab - This was a draw but I will call it a victory for the knights because of their many successfull controlled charges during this marching battle.

161123 Ibelin (Yibneh) - A much larger Fatamid army (16000 compared to Franks 8000) broke and fled almost before the Frankish charge had hit

171125 Azaz - Frankish Armour and Physique we are told tell in destroying this Syrian confederation of amirs who voluntarily closed for close combat being
confident their superior numbers would win the day

181126 - Marj Es-Safar - Damascene\Turcoman largely infantry army defeated by Franks after horse archers almost destroy Franks. Franks Rally and Franks archers
kill a lot of the Damascene cavalry horses disorganising them. THe Frankish knights then charged destroying the damascene cavalry and breaking the rest of
the army. A phyriic victory however as Baldwin lost do many men that he did not have enough men to continue the campaign to Damascus and instead retired to
Jerusalim with much booty.

191153 Battle of Ascalon - Kingdom of Jerusalem captures Ascalon from Egypt.

201164 Battle of Harim Antioch defeats Nur ad-Din.

211177 Battle of Montgisard - November 25 - Saladin is defeated by the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Knights charge beats half formed enemy army who even attempt to change formationas the franks charge. Knights slaughter Saladins army, complete victory however the knights also lost many according to the Master of the Hospital.

221081 Durazzo - Byzantine Defeated by Normans - Italian cavalry charge defeated by the Varingians(some English). Crossbowmen and knights destroy varingians
when they venture too far to their front in their enthusiasm. Italian and Norman cavalry then charge the main Byzantine army and break it defeating it.
Interesting to note that a 3 day street fight ensued after Dyrrachium gate were opened to the Normans by Venetian trator

231191 Battle of Arsuf - September 7 - Richard Lionheart's forces repel Saladin's attack.
This is where a marching shield wall formation would be good for RTW, Richards infantry were purposely packed tightly together to protect the rest of the army.
The military orders\rearguard here are twice refused a request to Richard to allow them to counterattack, eventually they do so just before Richard orders his planned charge, this unfortuneatley allowed the enemy army to get distance diluting the planned countercharge. All muslim counterattacks were replulsed
The crusaders reformed and continued to march being attacked later in the day as they pitched camp, but this was also repulsed.
An indecisive battle really. Certainly not a crowning victory.

241192 Battle of Jaffa - August 5 - Richard I defeats Saladin.
Hardly any knights in this battle mainly Geonese sailors. Only 20 or so mounted knights. Certainly an infantry win. Saladins Mamuluk and other cavalry charged the formation in 7 scuccessive waves, their attacks lasting until mid-afternoon. But all were defeated by spearmen protecting crossbowmen, Richard on foot led a counter charge of spearmen with a couple of other dismounted knights.
Geonese Sailors will certainly be in my army

251212 Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa - July 16 - Moors expelled from most of Iberia by a joint army of the Christian kingdoms of Castile, León, Portugal,
Navarre and Aragon. Very large mix of european knights in this battle ioncluding many Western Europeans. Knights charges initially repulsed with heavy losses
Interesting to note that Negro infantry fought on after the battle was lost as they could not run away due to being chained together!! The battle lasted for
three days!!!

261231 Battle of Jerez - Castile defeats Moorish forces of Abu Jafar Ibn Hud

271305 – Apros – A Byzantine Army is defeated by the remnants of the Catalan company.

281340 Battle of Rio Salado -October 30 -Alfonso XI of Castile and Alfonso IV of Portugal defeat the Marinid under Sultan Abul-Hassan and the Granadine under
King Yusuf I.

291348 Strawe – A Lithuanian army is defeated by the A Teutonic army which included English and French crusaders. Would you believe that the enemy were prevented from escaping because of a thawing ice river LOL the irony is not lost.


301356 Battle of Wolmar - The Teutonic Knights, supported by several thousand allied Prussian infantry, crush a confederation of Prussian tribes.

311370 Rudau – Teutonic Knights defeat Lithuanian army, this was apparently a very bloody battle, the Tuetonic knights losing their grand master before dispersing the Lithuanians.

321378 Battle of Sallinwerder - The Teutonic Knights and assorted infantry repel a siege force of Prussians three times their size.

331379 Siege of Kaunas - The duke of Prussia, and Teutonic allies, storm a Prussian castle recently captured from HRE troops.

341401 Battle of the Vilnius River - The Teutonic Knights repel an invasion force of confederated Prussian tribes.

351442 Hermanstadt – Hungarians(Transylvanian led) defeat ottomans

361442 Vasaq – Hungarians defeat ottomans again

37[b]1443 Nish (Morava) – Hungarians (inc poles, germans,) defeat ottomans, even though outnumbered once again

381444torviolli – Albanians defeat 25000 ottoman turks

391456 Belgrade – 75000 poorly armed German crusaders with 10000 well armed troops defeated a ottoman army of the same size. This was basically a siege defence though as their was a lot of street fighting.

401462 The night of Terror – Dracula’s Wallachian army night attacks an ottoman attack and then pulls out having killed many ottomans and having the ottomans so confused they were killing themselves apparently. Wallachians knights???

411467 Kroya – Albanians defeat Turkish army which offers to surrender but against commanders orders the Albanians attack.


421475 Vaslui (Racova) – ottomans defeated by maldovians

That's 42 European knightly victories. Alhough I did leave some where I was not sure whether that country used European knights in the regions between hungary and the ottoman empire. I am also not sure whether to include defeats on Prussians who may have been more knightly?

Now let's look at the defeats in the same period:

1982 Cotrone - Ottos army defeated by arabs. Ottos chargeing cavalry breaks the enemy while a hidden enemy force attacks ottos army in the flank and defeats
it

21102 Ramla & Jaffa - 20,000 arab cavalry and 10,000 sudanese infantry destroy King Baldwins force of 200 knights (no infantry) that pressed on to battle even
after they heard that they had misjudged the size of the enemy which they thought was only a 1000 men originally. Interesting to note that they originally
gathered only 200 knights to attack 1000 enemy.

31086 Battle of az-Zallaqah - October 23 - Almoravides victory over Castile.

41104 Battle of Harran - Baldwin II of Jerusalem is captured by the Seljuk Turks. Undisciplined charge into an Ambush causes defeat, interesting to note that
the crusaders had planned their own feigned retreat.

51105 - Third Battle of Ramla - Crusaders defeat Fatamid Army

61108 Battle of Ucles - Almoravides victory over Castilians.

71119 Battle of Ager Sanguinis (the Field of Blood) - June 27 - Ilghazi defeats Crusaders. Turks torture to death most of the prisoners while some richer
Knights were kept for ransom.

81148 Mount Cadmos – French army defeated by Seljuks - An unruly charge from the march by the Vanguard (Royal mercenaries and a contingent of Templars) who disregarded the order to stop separated them from the main body. Seljuks in ambush then proceeded to attack the middle body of infantry who had slowed in confusion when losing sight of the Van. The French King with 40 knights of the rearguard however charged in and checked the ambush. A messenger was sent to retrieve the vanguard but too many non-combatants fleeing the ambush were in the way. Night was falling as the rearguard got back and the Seljuks melted away. Interesting to note that the king had to fight his way back on foot after being unhorsed and losing most of his men. Something I wish Rome Total war could do – especially dismounting mounted men for siege assaults.

9[b]1149 Battle of Inab - June 29 - Raymond of Antioch killed in battle against Nur ad-Din. Surrounded by superior forces a knights charge up a hill with dusty wind in their faces was surrounded and wiped out.

101155 Andria - Small Norman army destroyed by Byzantine army. Knights charge breaks out of army encirclement only to be cuaght and destoyed by the pursuit
when they turned to fight rather than entering an city unprepared for a siege. Interesting command and control here in discipline to turn around so close to
safety.

111164 Harim (Harenc) – Nur Ed-Din raises siege when he hears of combined Byzantine\Crusader army approaching. Crusaders cavalry charge against advice at the retiring Nur Ed-Din army. Nur Ed-Din then destroys the infantry before attacking the cut off cavalry. Most were killed (all the military brethren) or captured

121167 Battle of al-Babein - Crusader invasion of Egypt is defeated.
Knights charged after a feigned flight under King Almaric while the main body was encircled and attacked, charged knights rallied and came back to help army retire in good order.

131167 Semlin - Hungarian army with 15,000 knights defeated by Byzantine army

141179 Battle of Jacob's Ford - Saladin defeats the Kingdom of Jerusalem.
Saladins raids returning to the main army were intercepted and defeated by crusaders waiting for the main army to catch up. Encouraged by this the knights charged in pursuit under the master of the temple and came up against the main enemy army which hit them before they could reform. They held on for some time before numbers finally broke them.

151187 Battle of Cresson - May 1 - Saladin defeats Crusaders.
Templars and Hospitallers catch enemy watering horses and charge without waiting for infantry into enemy outnumbering them considerably (7000 of saladins men to 140 knights). Even if the infantry had caught up they would still have been outnumbered many times over.

161187 Battle of Hattin - July 4 - Saladin destroys Crusader army.
Knights repeated charges come within an ace of success, I do not know whether this means in battle or breaking out of the battle.

171189 The Great Battle Of Acre – Whilst acre was besieged by saladin, knights succeeded in breaking the entire army of Saladins, first the flanks broke (or feigned) and drew of a good deal of knights including the order knights and then the centre broke as saladin attempted to draw men from it to reinforce his flanks. However franks reached Saladins camp and dispersed to plunder, Saladins army regrouped and fell upon the plunderers who broke in panic.
It is interesting to note that the Christian commander anticipated an attack on his camp and had a substantial enough force guarding it and this prevented total disaster

181190 Acre – OK this Acre stuff is really sieges but where it includes field battles outside the defences I think this is ok.
A large number of Frankish infantry hearing that the ememy right was weakened decided to march out from their !!entrenchments!! and attack the muslim army against the will of their leaders. They smashed through the muslim right before the knights could even arm and mount and made it to the enemy encampment and proceeded to loot before the enemy rallied and counterattacked. The infantry held for a while before breaking.
An interesting study of the confidence of Frankish infantry!!!! Impetuous Frankish infantry!!!

191195 Battle of Alarcos - July 18 - Almohad victory over Castile. Takes knights three charges to finally break through the Almohad line, once they did the
Almohads surrounded them thus cutting them off from their infantry and destoyed the army Master of Santiago amongst the killed.

201219 – Daimetta – another siege as such but a sally field battle all the same. After infantry again forced their leaders to sally out the inexperienced infantry were defeated by the muslim army, only a rearguard action by the military orders and some French and English knights prevented total disaster

211221 Fifth Crusade is defeated at Al-Mansurah.
An interesting example of Flooding the area to bog down a crusader break out and retreat. Tuetonic knights are blamed for advertising the retreat by setting fire to their tents LOL

221236 Saule - Sword Knights Brotherhood defested by lithuanian tribesmen. Pressure from visiting crusaders to raid causes these knights to fight a battle in
marshland only 10% of the brotherhoods army survived.

231237 Darbsaq – A crusader force besieging a muslim fortress is surprised and defeated by a mulsim relieving force even though they had been warned of its approach and ignored the warning. It is alleged that the muslims lost far more men than the crusaders however??

241239 Gaza – Attacking what the crusaders thought was a smaller enemy force and turned out to be a large enemy force the crusaders in sand dunes initially looked like fending off horse archer attacks before running out of Crossbow bolts!!! It is remarkable at this stage that some native Syrians realising the mistake abandoned the infantry. However Count Henry the Christian commander refused to leave them and instead to escape the barrage charge into a protected valley and scattered enemy infantry who tried to hold them. However now the Egyptian cavalry arrives and feigns flight to draw the crusaders back into the open. A short slaughter ensues count henry among the slain .2000 crusaders were killed.

251241 Battle of Liegnitz - Mongols of the Golden Horde defeat feudal nobility including Knights Templar in Silesia.
A charge drives off the mongols but it is a trap and the cavalry are killed piecemeal. Interesting to note that the knights did not in fact charge until
their entire vanguard was forced back and had to rally on the second line by the mongols.

261241 Mohi - Numerically inferior Mongol army beats the Hungarian army. A wagon larger was used by the hungarians chained together and the mongols used
catapults, naptha fire throwers and rumoured to have had gunpowder artillery.

271244 Battle of La Forbie - October 17 - Crusaders defeated by Khwarezmians.
Most of the crusaders allies (Syrians, homs contingent and Bedoiwins) fled shortly after battle was joined leaving the crusaders to experience their second HAttin like disasterous defeat.

281250 Battle of Fariskur - April 6 - Egyptians defeat Seventh Crusade forces of Louis IX of France.
Another Frankish charge where complete disobey of orders was the order of the day.
After crossing a ford the knights of the vanguard 1500 strong were told to wait (included 200 english and 290 templars) for the main body to cross. But instead charged straight for the enemy camp routing everything in sight until they reached the town of where they were routed themselves by two mamluk regiments and archers firing from the rooftops. Although the Christian army held the river crossing for a time after the decision to retreat was taken they were surrounded and destroyed in a running battle. Prisoners being massacred mostly but some ransomed.

291260 - Durben - Livonian Tuetonic Knights heavily defeated by Semgallians & Sarmagitians. All on the knights side fought mounted but their allied Prussian
auxillaries deserted them shortly after battle was joined and the army was defeated after three hours of put down the resulting Prussian revolts.

301261 Jaulan – A large Templar force consisting of most of the kingdoms Templar Brethren and some lay knights under Jean D’Iblin mounted an attack on a Turcoman camp but news got to the camp and the knights were ambushed along the way and defeated.

311266 Carboulier – Military Orders and Mercenary French are defeated by Mamluks, The Christian vanguard including Hospitallers got separated from the main army in search of loot and as a result the whole force was destroyed by local castle garrison. A night attack followed by local Bedoiins and destroyed the rest.

321365 Marica – A Hungarian led Christian army is surprise attacked while encamped after crossing the river marica by a smaller ottoman army and defeated after a night of feasting to celebrate the unopposed passage. The ottomans considered this a very decisive victory.

331396 Battle of Nicopolis - September 25 - French-Hungarian "crusade" defeated by Ottoman Empire.
An amazing charge by knights unsupported again against advice and orders that broke through the enemy infantry and a second line of cavalry before finally succoming to a counterattack in their flank by 40,000 turks. The second and third Christian battle lines also inflicted massive casualties on the turks until their Serbian allies emerged from ambush and struck down the commanders banner upon which the Christians retreated. The turks were apparently so enraged by casualties they took that they massacred the majority of the prisoners.

341426 Khirokitia – Cypriots defeated (including European crusaders) by Mamluks. Not sure if the Cypriots were European armed

1428 Golubac – Hungarian army surprised and defeated by ottomans. Geonese and Lombard Crossbowman cover withdrawal

351444 Varna – Crusader army of Hungarians and poles and some french defeated by ottomans. The turks losses are claimed to e substantially higher than the Christians

361448 Kossovo – Hungarians defeated by ottomans but German\bohemian handgunners hold a rearguard to cover retreat well. Turkish losses are again said to be higher than the Hungarians.

371455 Berat – Relieving Ottomans surprise a besieging Alabanian army and kill all but 200 arogonese.

381476 valea alba (Razboieni) – Moldavians heavily defeated by ottoman turks

So that's 42 non-European victories over knightly armies to 37 defeats at the hands of European knightly armies. Not that this proves anything but is interesting to see how they went. Something I would like to add is the numbers on both sides in each of these battles.
Somebody with more in depth knowledge may care to extrapolate this list.
I still have not found a good source for Spanish Medieval Warfare