"During life was reflected in its warfare's. Small, lightly equipped armies reflected how the society had to be cautious and capable of moving long distances in short times," said Peter, a knight. During the Reconquista, Spanish armies were mainly formed by two groups of soldiers. One was a cavalry, mainly nobles and commoner knights, and infantry, which were mainly peasants.
Cavalries fought in a normal Spanish way. Knights approached the enemy and then threw javelins. Then, they would turn around, run back, and start all over again.
There were three types of knights. There were the royal knights who were mainly nobles. They had a close relationship with the king, and a Goth inheritance. They were equipped with a brace plate, kite shield, long sword, javelins and spears, or a Visigoth double-axe. Their long swords were designed to fight from the horse. There were also the noble knights. The noble knights were known as the Caballeros hidalgos and Caballeros villanos.
English: Map of development of the Reconquista on ...
English: Map of development of the Reconquista on ...
Visigothic Hispania and the Byzantine province of ...There equipment was similar to the royal knights. Lastly, there were the commoner knights. They were not wealthy but they could afford a horse. They also had leather armour, javelins, spears, round shields, and a sword.
"As a peasant, I went to battle to serve my lord. I was poorly equipped.
Alls I had was bows and arrows, spears, and short swords. Us peasants contained the enemy until the cavalry came", says a peones.
The typical armours were the leather ones. They usually had iron skillets attached. For head protection, they had round helmets with a nose protector and a chain mail head piece. Shields were round and kidney shaped, except for the royal knights. They had kite shaped shields. All shields were made out of wood and had a leather cover.
Weapons were mostly steel swords. Long and...