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Position:Home>History> Medievil Battles, did people play dead?Question: Medievil Battles, did people play dead!? Lol, Ive always wondered, did people play dead in Medieval times when people had to hack away at the enemies to kill them!?
Or would they get blind drunk and just pass out!? How did they get people to go on the front line too!? Wouldn't you run a little less faster towards the enemy and let your fellow troops run past you so they are in the front line attack (so you got less chance of being hacked to death with a axe or sword) How much did these guys have to drink!?Www@QuestionHome@Com Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: 1!. Playing dead was, well, a good strategy to get yourself killed!. Looters would visit the battlefield shortly afterwards, killing the wounded and making off with anything of value!. Even soldiers or fighters would often stop to loot!. How do you think you'd react if you were starting to pull a ring off a finger and the body attached to it flinched!? 2!. Run less fast or "half-step"!? Depends upon the force, depends upon the specific war!. In some of the hoplite/heavy infantry battles involving the greeks, rows of infantry would run several numbers deep!. You couldn't hang back--there was someone's shield in your back pushing you forward!. At the same time, less trained and motivated forces have always tended to "break!." Many castles were seized very simply--the guards were often poorly trained and unmotivated villagers who had no desire to die for one lord over another so most keeps fell without a fight!. Most assaults started out with a loud cheer or yell of some sort--a poorly trained and motivated opponent would often break and run before the attackers ever made contact with them!. 3!. Get drunk!? Often!. First, water quality being what it was, the healthier option was to drink wine!. Navies or ground forces would often issue rations of rum or grog to troops (both for morale and sanitary reasons)!. I doubt most troops ever went into battle blind drunk (they'd be easily killed) but no doubt many went into the fight with a dose of "liquid courage!." 4!. You forget, many early formations consisted of your family, friends, school-mates and best buddies!. Until WW-2, most folks were born, raised, lived and died within 20 miles of the same location!. Most regiments in the US Civil War (comparably modern to the Medival times) all hailed from the same town!. Companies often came from the same school!. That meant that next to you might be your brother, an uncle, your brother-in-law, even your father or son!. To run or shirk while they went forward was to mean you could never show your face at home ever again!.Www@QuestionHome@Com An addition to excellent answer of Agility man: medieval soldiers didn't get paid!. They fought for the right to loot!. After battle all corpses were stripped bare and then some more!. After the soldiers had looted to their heart's content, the nearby villagers and camp followers took was was left over!. Pillaging included anything that was worthwhile!. Including teeth!. (No good artificial teeth existed until very recently!. Real teeth were used instead!. Guess where a lot came from!.!.!.) Usually the severely wounded were simply dispatched off by the looters, or after extraction of the above left to die!. It did happen, of course!. Not not a lot, and certainly not as a clever tactic used by many!. The battlefields of Borodino, Waterloo, the Crimea and Solferino weren't pretty sights!.Www@QuestionHome@Com In some instances, guys were drugged up and went into a frenzy before battle!. The reality of it is that most people wouldn't charge into battle without a good reason - in the middle ages you had your God and your king!. I have been to war, and would never let my Soldiers charge ahead of me in hopes that they would die!. Sure, I went as a leader but they were all friends nonetheless - not corporate coworkers!. And as far as playing dead!.!.!. many leaders sent troops out to collect appendages to use as trophies/count the dead!.!.!. So if they are bring back an ear or a right hand, they are going to find out pretty quickly who is faking it - and when you try to go home they aren't going to forget either!.!.!.Www@QuestionHome@Com Dude, best questions ever! Haha, I've always wondered that playing dead one!. I sure as hell would!. Though I think that's what we assume you and I would do---when you look at the guys in Braveheart or something, it looks like they got pretty into it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com they played dead to save themselvesWww@QuestionHome@Com |