Coutilier

The coutilier (also coutillier, coustillier) was a title of a low-ranking professional soldier in Medieval French armies. A coutilier was a member of the immediate entourage of a French knight or a squire called lances fournies.[1] The presence of the coutilier is first recorded in a French Ordinance of 1445.[2] The coutilier also had a place in the Burgundian army of Charles the Bold, being described in detail the military regulations of 1473.[3] Coutiliers are also mentioned in the Breton military regulations of March 1450.[4]

Equipment

The name coutilier seems to derive from their being equipped with a long knife or short sword called a coustille.[2] According to Ewart Oakeshott, the term originally meant a type of infantryman or brigand.[5] However, by the time detailed descriptions appear in the mid-15th century, the coutilier is clearly a lightly armoured horseman. A French coutilier of 1446 was equipped with a helmet, leg armour, a haubergeon, jack or brigandine, a dagger, sword and either a demilance or a voulge.[6] The equipment of a Burgundian coutilier in 1473 is almost identical, with the substitution of a javelin for the demi-lance or voulge (javelin here meaning a light spear, not a throwing weapon). His horse should be worth at least 30 écus.[3]

References
  1. Goubert, Pierre; Maarten Ultee (1991). The Course of French History. Routledge. p. 44.
  2. Fowler, Kenneth (1980). The Age of Plantagenet and Valois. London: Ferndale. p. 137. ISBN 0-905746-09-0.
  3. Contamine, Philippe (1984). War in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 128. ISBN 0-631-13142-6.
  4. Ordonnance du Duc Pierre pour faire armer la Noblesse & les Archers des Paroisses : "Preuves" de Dom Morice, Tome II, colonnes 1555-1557. Publié ez plaids generaux de Rennes le 29. jour de Mars 1450. Tiré des Archives du Présidial de Rennes.
  5. Ewart, Oakeshott (1960). The Archeology of Weapons. London: Lutterworth. p. 253.
  6. Nicolle, David (2000). French Armies of the Hundred years War. Oxford: Osprey. p. 21. ISBN 1-85532-710-4.
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