Milites and Warfare in Pre-Crusade Germany

Abstract

Despite considerable scholarly attention to the issue, there remains considerable controversy regarding the meaning of the term miles in pre-Crusade Europe, with many historians asserting that milites were knights, who dominated warfare through the practice of equestrian combat. This study seeks to examine the ways in which the main narrative sources for the German kingdom in the second half of the eleventh century use the term miles (plural milites). The two goals of this study are to determine the meaning that authors assign to the term, and the role that these authors attribute to milites in the conduct of war during this half-century.