In early Merovingian times, all soldiers were more or less the same. Many were farmers who had simply left their fields to fight, and most were infantrymen, or foot soldiers. This was a pattern that went back to the ancient Greeks. Then in the late 500s, one of the most important inventions in human history made its appearance: the stirrup.
Actually, a form of stirrup had been used in India since before the time of Jesus Christ, and perhaps the Huns picked up the idea as they moved across Asia toward Rome. Whatever the case, the power of Atti-la's armies can be attributed in part to the fact that riders were equipped with hanging rings to hold their feet. This may not sound terribly important, but it made all the difference in battle. A rider without stirrups could use only the strength of his arm to deliver a blow with a sword or lance; if he struck with his full weight, he would be thrown from his horse. A soldier firmly anchored in stirrups, by contrast, could strike with his whole weight and that of his horse as well.
More than a century after Atti-la, stirrups—and the types of tactics they permitted—took hold among the Merovingians. Soldiers began protecting themselves with armor, typically chain mail, a lightweight, flexible covering made of interlocking metal rings. The first battle using armored cavalrymen was probably a fight between the Franks and Saxons in 626; but it was Charles Martel's victory at Tours in 732 over the Muslims (who had no stirrups) that firmly established the new technology.
World History
