Classic campaigns:
The battles of Lewes and Bannockburn
Two campaigns demonstrate, respectively, the devastating effect of lances in action and their later ineffectiveness: the battle of Lewes and the battle of Bannockburn.
Unhappy barons
In 1264, Henry III faced unrest and civil war as he feuded with his barons. They were increasingly unhappy with his control over the country and wanted a say in how it was run. Henry's main opponent was Simon de Montfort, the earl of Leicester. Determined to wrest power from the king, de Montfort went to war with his disciplined army of knights and infantry, who were loyal to him as long as he gave them land and status.
Henry was safe on the south coast of England at Lewes castle in Sussex, which sits within a natural bowl of the South Downs in a well-protected position. To draw Henry into battle, de Montfort moved his forces south by night, taking up a position overlooking the town. As Henry moved out of the town to meet the challenge, Britain was about to witness the first full-scale battle fought with lances.
In the maelstrom
In a daring first move, knights led by Henry's son, Prince Edward, charged up the hill and, with their lances, smashed through de Montfort's maille-clad infantry to devastating effect. Caught up in the maelstrom, Edward gave chase to the retreating remnants of the enemy's infantry and pursued them for miles away from Lewes.
This arrogant move left Henry poorly supported, and de Montfort saw his chance. In the second mass charge of the day, de Montfort's knights, lances couched, raced downhill at a thundering pace from the high ground. Henry's infantry were wrecked. The lance had been the decisive weapon for each side in the battle.
Surrender
Retreating to the town, Henry surrendered the next day. A year later, as head of government, de Montfort summoned the first parliament to represent the towns of England. Prince Edward later returned and killed de Montfort at the battle of Evesham (1265), restoring his father to the throne.
On Henry's death in 1272, the prince ascended the throne as Edward I, and waged war in Wales and Scotland. However, it was his son, Edward II, who witnessed the demise of the lance as a battlefield weapon.
The shiltron
In 1314, Edward sent an army north to relieve Stirling castle, which was under siege from a small Scottish army of independence, led by the legendary Robert Bruce.
Edward fronted a huge army that included 2,500 knights with lances, and expected to defeat the uprising easily. Meanwhile Robert Bruce trained his infantry in a new tactic to defeat the English with their cavalry-charging lancers: the shiltron.
Using enormous spears 5-7 metres (16-23 feet) long, the shiltron is effectively a huge porcupine of iron-tipped poles that easily outreach the opposing knights' lances to defeat a cavalry charge.
Overconfidence
On the Bannockburn ground, south of Stirling, Robert Bruce and his infantry formed themselves into four colossal shiltrons of 1,000 men each. The English lancers charged with gusto, only to pull up and falter at the line of spears. After retiring from the field, they found themselves penned in the next day as the Scottish force moved in on the English camp.
Confusion reigned as the English were restricted and pressured. Even Edward's archers were of limited use in this stranglehold. Edward escaped, but his army was routed from the battlefield and ruthlessly punished for its earlier overconfidence.
At Bannockburn, the simple spear, albeit an over-large one, had made one of medieval warfare's most lethal tactics – the cavalry charge – lose its potent edge.
