Milites and Pedites at Milan

The patarene leader Erlembaldo, anticipating an action between two cittadine factions in June 1075, first prepared “cavalry, and infantry assigned to the transport of assault ladders, supplies and diverse kinds of war machines” and then prepared in secret “crossbowmen, slingers, and ladders 20 cubits high fitted with iron at their bases so that they could stand by themselves.” When the moment of battle arrived, the leader, “wearing splendid armor, mounted a bay horse, grasped the banner” and theatrically took out his beard from under the armor “in order to arouse greater fear,” then threw himself first upon the enemy. Too trusting in his recurring good luck, he fell almost immediately, pierced through.

Leaving aside the ideological reasons for which Erlembaldo fought, we can gather from the preparations he had made some of the essential elements that characterize the methods of warfare in the second half of the eleventh century. The mention of ladders “for taking houses” (ad capiendas domos) and of “various machines” (machinasque diversas) lets us guess at the existence of numerous fortified houses which had to be taken one by one. Siege warfare therefore found application even inside the city, and its importance is such that the infantry as well appear enslaved to it, having become mere auxiliaries assigned to the transport of the machines and supplies.

There are, however, combatants on foot whom Erlembaldo secretly holds in reserve, together with other, more sophisticated, siege equipment, expecting decisive results from their intervention: they are chosen marksmen (balistas ac fundibularios) among whom those armed with a crossbow stand out because of their rareness and importance. From the height of his destrier, however, the figure of Erlembaldo dominates all, imposing and terrible in his splendid armor (loricam admirabilem). Besides being the leader, he also looks like the personification of the elite warrior – the heavily armed horseman, a veritable icon of military power.

The intense internal military activity that convulsed pre-communal Milan is therefore marked by the same technical elements that predominated in the central regions of the West, i.e., the persistent supremacy of armored cavalry, the growing importance of portable projectile weapons and the multiplicity of fortifications which causes the parallel development of siege techniques.