Lucocisterna 1324 AD

[Erpingham]

Name of the Battle and Date : Lucocisterna, 29 February, 1324. Also known as Lutocisterna or Fangario.
Protagonists  Manfredi della Gherardesca(Pisa) v. Infante En Alfonso (Aragon)
Background: In 1323 Aragon invaded Sardinia in pursuit of its claims to sovereignty.  This led to conflict with Pisa, who had held Sardinia since the mid 13th century.  The Aragonese besieged the main town of Cagliari by land and sea.  A Pisan fleet landed a relief force under Manfredi della Gherardesca, son of Rainieri, Count of Donoratico, Giudice of Calgiari. He collected local forces and marched to raise the siege.  Leaving Admiral En Carros (En is the Catalan equivalent of the Castilian Don) to maintain the siege, Infante En Alfonso placed his forces to prevent the Pisans breaking through to the town.  The battle took place near the present-day Cagliari airport.
Numbers if known
Pisa : the count Ner{Muntaner has confused Manfredi with his father, Rainieri} came as captain and brought full twelve hundred horsemen, amongst whom were eight hundred German knights. who are considered the most accomplished knights of the world, and the others were Pisans; and he brought full six thousand men afoot with some wicked Sardinians who joined them and who were from the country towards Cabo Terra; and also of those retainers of Tuscany and Mantua with long lances, each one of whom is considered as good as a knight; ..... And they came to Cabo Terra and there set on shore the chivalry and all the foot-soldiers and three hundred cross-bowmen who were there.
Aragon : [The Lord Infante] decided who should go with him. He did not wish to have with him more than four hundred-armed horses and fifty men on light horses and about two thousand men afoot, what between almugavars and retainers.

Title of original source : Goodenough, Anna Kinsky, Lady, trans., The Chronicle of Muntaner (2 vols. London: Hakluyt Society, 1920-1921). Vol II, Chapter CCLXXV

Text :
And in the night he issued forth from the siege and placed himself where count Ner had to pass to go to the castle; and all night he stayed in battle array. And at dawn they saw count Ner coming, his men formed in line, marching as well as ever you saw men march in battle array. And the Lord Infante, who saw them likewise ordained his battle and gave the van to a nobleman of Catalonia, called. En G. de Anglesola, and he, with his banner, with all the chivalry, came in close formation with all the soldiery on foot in the van where he saw the others had theirs. What shall I tell you? The hosts approached each other and count Ner, by the advice of an expert German knight called Horigo, who had come out of Iglesias and knew the Lord Infante, ordained that twelve knights should be at the orders of the said German, Horigo, and should have no other object than the person of the Lord Infante. But likewise it was ordained that twelve men afoot should not leave the stirrup of the Lord Infante, and that well-known knights should guard his person and his banner, for the Lord Infante did not leave his banner.  What shall I tell you? When the hosts were near each other, each proceeded to attack most vigorously; no more cruel battle could ever be seen, nor one in which one came against the other so resolutely. The Germans and our chivalry became so mingled that the twelve knights with the German, Horigo, came to where the Lord Infante was. And the Lord Infante, who knew that they were coming specially for him, gave the first of them such a blow with his lance, that he thrust it right through him, so that he cast him dead to the ground. And then he seized his mace and rushed upon another and gave him such a blow on the helmet he was wearing that his brains issued out of his ears. What shall I tell you? With his mace he cast four men dead to the ground. And then the mace broke and he seized his sword, and cleared such a space for himself that nothing could resist him. And when seven knights of the twelve saw that the other five had been killed by the hand of the Lord Infante, and saw the marvels he was performing, they agreed that they would all attack his horse and bring him to the ground, And so they did; all seven together attacked his horse and killed it and the Lord Infante fell to the ground together with the horse; and, at this same juncture, they killed the horse of his standard bearer, and the standard fell to the ground. And when the Lord Infante fell to the ground, his sword fell out of his hand in the fall. He kept hold of only half; the other half was gone; it had broken in two pieces. But he did not lose his presence of mind, rather he freed himself from the horse which was lying upon him. He was very strong and the bravest knight in deeds of arms of any in the world. He drew the bordon he wore in a belt and, seeing his banner on the ground, bordon in hand he went to lift it up; he raised it and held it in his embrace. And upon this, one of his knights, called En Boxadors, dismounted from his horse and went and took the banner, and gave up his horse to the Lord Infante; and the Lord Infante mounted at once and made two knights take the banner. And when he had raised the banner and had mounted, he saw before him the seven knights and recognised the German, Horigo, and with the knob of the bordon fixed against his chest, he rushed towards him and gave him such a blow in the middle of the chest that he pierced him through and through, and he fell dead to the ground, so that he could never go back to Germany to tell news of this battle. What shall I tell you? When the said Horigo's companions saw him dead, they wanted to flee, but they fled towards the Lord Infante and those who were with him, in such wise that all twelve remained there, and of these twelve, seven died by the hand of the Lord Infante. And, when these had been killed, the Lord Infante rushed on with his banner and then might you see feats of arms, for never could so great a deed be seen performed by so few men. In this attack the Lord Infante met count Ner, and hit him so hard through the first quarter of his shield with a lance he had taken from a retainer of his, that he cast him to the ground. And this was a great feat of arms. By sheer force the Germans and Pisans mounted count Ner who had more than ten wounds. And, when he found himself on horseback, he left the battle with about ten horsemen, whilst the press was great, and fled to the castle of Cagliari. And he found the chivalry of the castle of Cagliari, full five hundred men, outside, awaiting what would happen they dared not go forth to the battle, because if they did, the admiral En Carros would immediately attack them in the rear. And the admiral could not leave the siege either, and so they had all plenty to do. When they of Cagliari saw count Ner they held their cause for lost. What shall I tell you? The battle was very hard; the Germans and the Pisans suddenly drew away to seize a hill, but the Lord Infante and his men did so also, so that it seemed like a tournament, and they watched each other.
Now I shall speak to you of the men afoot. When the almugavars and the retainers saw the battle of the knights begin, about two hundred proceeded to break their lances in half and went amongst the knights to hamstring horses; and others attacked the footsoldiers so vigorously that each one threw down one with his dart, and then they threw themselves upon them in such wise that, in a few hours, they had them discomfited or dead. Thus full two thousand men were drowned in the marsh and the others were all killed, and of those who fled or hid among the bushes when they entered the island, or wherever they were found, not one was taken alive, for they were all killed.
And when the Lord Infante and his men had rested a little, they rushed in close formation upon the enemy, and the enemy did the same, except about eighty horsemen of count Ner who, not finding him while the battle was hard and cruel, fled to Cagliari; but the others fought on, And if the first assault in the battle had been vigorous, more vigorous still was that of the second, with so few people. The Lord Infante was wounded in it, in the face, by a bordon. And when he saw the blood run down his face, I need not tell you he was provoked to an angry mood; no lion ever went for those who had wounded him as he did for these men. What shall I tell you? He made great thrusts with his bordon. Woe to him he reached, for one blow was enough. What shall I tell you? He went about the field, now here, now there, nothing could resist him; he and all his men fought vigorously, all did well, rich homens, knights and citizens. The others were all dead and vanquished; there did not escape, what with those who entered Cagliari and those who fled to their ships, more than two hundred. And these likewise would not have escaped, if it had not been the doubt the Lord Infante had of the siege. And so the Lord Infante and his men searched the field, and, with great joy and great gain, returned to the host.

Commentary
Ramon Muntaner was another soldier/chronicler and this is a good example of his descriptive style.  The battle has two phases; an initial move to contact, during which both sides make attacks and finishing with the Manfredi wounded and carried from the field and the Pisan infantry routed ,and, after a pause, a second cavalry action which leads to the reformed Pisan cavalry being defeated.  It has a number of points of interest.
•   The fluidity of the battle is evident.  The lines become intermingled.  Not only do the Germans get through to attack Alfonso, apparently behind the van, but Alfonso also breaks through the Pisan lines to attack Manfredi later.
•   The vivid description of the fight between Alfonso and the Germans. Muntaner is prone to inflate his heroes to supermen and this is no exception, with fine horsemanship and the mastery of numerous weapons.  The curiosity is the bordon. The main military meaning of bordon is a tournament lance but Alfonso couldn't keep one of those in his belt.  It also has the meaning pilgrim's staff or an ecclesiastical staff of office, so a staff of some sort is probably meant. 
•   A select group of men are detailed with killing Alfonso.  It is common in medieval battles for one commander to tackle another (indeed it happens later in this battle when Alfonso confronts Manfredi) but this is a rare example of a "hit squad".  One parallel would be Agincourt, where the Lord of Croy led 18 knights who had sworn an oath to kill Henry V, though that is depicted in a more chivalrous way than Muntaner uses of the Germans.
•   The aggressive tactics of the Almogavars are emphasised.  Muntaner had commanded Almogavars and never misses a chance to comment on their martial qualities.  The shortening of lances to disembowel horses isn't a one-off – Muntaner refers to it on several occasions in his chronicle.
•   One aspect of interest in morale is how the fate of the commanders impacts on the battle.  Alfonso is temporarily unhorsed, as is his standard bearer.  Alfonso heroically raises his standard and makes sure that his knights get it back up.  Note that the standard going down doesn't cause panic immediately but Alfonso is at pains to get it back up as soon as he can – presumably losing sight of a standard briefly wasn't too worrying but if it stayed down, rumours started to fly.  Also notable is that, although Manfredi is taken from the field mortally wounded, it doesn't have an immediate effect.  Some of his men leave the field when the lines reform between the two phases of the battle – presumably they have rallied back from elsewhere on the field and hadn't known before – but there is no rout.