who contemplated a great war should employ mercenaries. These were
usually foreigners, as practically all national forces served on feudal
terms. While the greater lords rode with him on all his expeditions, the
bulk of his army consisted of professional soldiers, paid by the levy of
_scutage_ imposed upon the feudal tenantry. There had always been
soldiers of fortune. William's host at Hastings contained many such men;
later, the Flemings who invaded England in the days of Henry I. sang to
each other--
"Hop, hop, Willeken, hop! England is mine and thine,"--
and from all the evidence it is clear that in earlier days the hired
soldiers were adventurers seeking lands and homes. But these men usually
proved to be most undesirable subjects, and sovereigns soon began to pay
a money wage for the services of mercenaries properly so called. Such
were the troops which figured in English history under Stephen. Such
troops, moreover, formed the main part of the armies of the early
Plantagenets. They were, as a matter of course, armed and armoured like
the knights, with whom they formed the men-at-arms (_gendarmes_) of the
army. Indeed, in the 11th and 12th centuries, the typical army of France
or the Empire contains a relatively small percentage of "knights,"
evidence of which fact may be found even in so fanciful a romance as
_Aucassin and Nicolete_. It must be noted, however, that not all the
mercenaries were heavy cavalry; the Brabancon pikeman and the Italian
crossbowman (the value of whose weapon was universally recognized) often
formed part of a feudal army.