Frankish Armies and Military Service

Frankish rulers assembled forces through relationships with aristocrats, local officials and religious institutions. Armies included followers attached to powerful leaders and men summoned for particular campaigns. Their composition changed between the Merovingian and Carolingian periods, and between one expedition and another. The ability to feed and move a force was as important as recruiting its fighters.

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Summons and command

Merovingian campaigns depended on royal followers and regional commanders whose loyalties could change during dynastic conflict. Gregory of Tours frequently describes competing kings mobilizing forces against towns held by rivals. His narratives show the political setting of warfare more clearly than they reveal standardized enlistment categories.

Carolingian orders provide more specific evidence for mobilization. A summons sent by Charlemagne to Abbot Fulrad, dated c.804–811, directed him to a gathering at Stassfurt on the Bode in eastern Saxony. He was to arrive with armed men ready to continue wherever the ruler ordered. An abbot’s involvement demonstrates the military obligations that could accompany ecclesiastical control of resources.

Equipment and provision

The letter specifies shields, lances, swords, daggers, bows and arrows for the horsemen concerned. It also requires carts carrying woodworking and digging tools. An army needed to repair vehicles, prepare camps and deal with obstacles as well as fight. The list describes the expected preparation of this contingent, rather than the actual possessions of every Frankish combatant.

Food was to last three months from the assembly, with arms and clothing prepared for six months. These requirements shifted much of the initial supply burden to those summoned. Estate managers and dependents could consequently contribute to a campaign through producing provisions and transport even when they did not fight.

Moving through inhabited country

Charlemagne instructed Fulrad’s men to take only fodder, wood and water while travelling through the realm. Leaders were to remain with their followers to prevent misconduct. The need for this command points to the burden that passing troops could place on local people. It expresses a rule for conduct, not proof that unauthorized requisition never occurred.

The royal ordinance, or capitulary, issued in 802 likewise condemns failures to answer military summons and warns counts against excusing relatives or accepting gifts for exemptions. Service depended on enforcement by intermediaries who might have reasons to favour particular men.

Campaigning and terrain

Einhard’s account of the 778 Pyrenean ambush emphasizes a long column, a vulnerable rear guard and attackers exploiting the terrain. The loss of baggage and officers illustrates the importance of route security. His account of the Avar wars, by contrast, describes campaigns conducted by the king, his son and provincial commanders over several years.

Horses supported mobility and prestigious fighting roles, but the evidence does not reduce all armies to a single class of mounted warriors. Campaigns required people managing carts, supplies, ships and works as well as those bearing weapons. Their size and balance cannot be reconstructed from one summons, and the stirrup alone cannot explain the political and material arrangements that made an army possible.

For the wider setting, see Frankish History and Society.