The lance fournie (French: "equipped lance") was a medieval equivalent to the modern army squad that would have accompanied and supported a man-at-arms (a heavily armoured horseman popularly known as a "knight") in battle.

As a small unit that surrounded a knight when he went into battle during the 14th and 15th centuries, a lance might have consisted of one or two squires, the knight himself, one to three men-at-arms, and possibly an archer.

A lighter weapon called a demi-lance evolved and this gave its name to a new class of a lighter-equipped man-at-arms, the demi-lancer, towards the end of the 15th century. When fighting on foot, men-at-arms initially modified their ordinary cavalry weapons.

This article offers a study of the lance and its evolution as a heavy cavalry weapon in the late medieval period. The development of the arrêt de cuirasse, a device upon which the heavy lance depended, dramatically increased the force of the strike, but considerably complicated the process of couching. The resultant loss of cohesion caused ...

2018年6月6日 · In the 15th century CE the lance was made thinner where the hand gripped it. A leather strap might be worn around the upper arm to prevent the lance sliding backwards when striking an opponent. By the end of the 14th century CE, knights were wearing a lance rest as part of the breast armour to give the weapon additional stability.

15th-century lance head – image courtesy the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Unsurprisingly few tournament lances have survived; the sound of shattering lances echoes through medieval literature: “a new day marched in …, announced not by the carolling of larks but something altogether more warlike – the clang of the jousters colliding!

Weapons like the lance, the sword, the mace, and towards the middle of the 12th Century, the axe, were part of the standard equipment of the Medieval Knights, while others, like the spear, were considered weapons of the inferior troops.

2019年5月17日 · The Lance in the Fifteenth Century: How French Cavalry Overcame the English Defensive System in the Latter Part of the Hundred Years War May 2019 DOI: 10.1017/9781787444775.006

2010年7月17日 · In the 14th century a typical length might be 9-9.5’, but this would lengthen to 10-11.5’ in the mid 15th century and later. Contemporary iconography often shows lances of this length used by formations of men-at-arms fighting on foot.

By the 1550s, the German heavy cavalrymen had virtually completely discarded the lance in favor of a pair or more of wheellock pistols. They were considered heavy cavalry, in full or three-quarter armour, but using their pistols as their primary offensive weapons.