Comments by "" (@neutronalchemist3241) on "Cataphracts VS Medieval Knights" video.

At Legnano, the knights had been beaten by the comunal militia, not even professional soldiers, armed with shields and spears. At Courtrai the knights had been beaten by a militia armed with basically very short spear-clubs. Medieval knights usually had the upper hand on very undisciplined and untrained infantry formations (because there was no way to feed and pay large infantry formations for the long periods required to train them properly back then), but lost when the infantrymen got their acts togheter.
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@Kikinho19 They had been a decisive force many times, but they almost never encountered a properly trained (at "Roman level") infantry. Even at Legnano and Courtrai what they encountered were militia infantry, only more motivated that what was usual at the time (they were fighting for their rights, not for those of their feudal lord), and that had been enough. The Almogavars were light infantry armed with javelins and knives, but they did beat the heavy cavalry on a regular basis. It can be said that, being used to fight poorly assembled and armed militia formations, the knights begin to rely too much in the effectiveness of the frontal charge, that really was due not to a particular superiority of the heavy cavalry, but to the circumstances.
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The Swiss got a lot of recognition for their performances against Charles the Bold, but those three battles happened in a span of three years during a century when they had been at war VS the Duchy of Milan, and lost more battles than the ones they won.
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That's probably true, seeing the various array of weapons a medieval knight often carried, both secured to the saddle and to themself (to be able to fight dismounted if needed).
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@jenserikbech At Hastings the knights of William didn't break the shield-wall formation, but lured the men of Harold to attack, so losing their defensive strenght. At Legnano, the knights had been beaten by the comunal militia, not even professional soldiers, armed with shields and spears. At Courtrai the knights had been beaten by a militia armed with basically very short spear-clubs. A legion was a better defensive and offensive formation than any of those. The disappearing of the legion (and of other forms of organised infantry) and the rise of the knights have more economical than tactical reasons. Medieval knights usually had the upper hand on very undisciplined and untrained infantry formations (because there was no way to feed and pay large infantry formations for the long periods required to train them properly back then), but lost every time the infantrymen got their acts togheter.
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