East meets West: Mounted Encounters in Early and High Mediaeval Europe

[Erpingham]

East meets West: Mounted Encounters in
Early and High Mediaeval Europe
Jürg Gassmann

Abstract  –  By  the  Late  Middle  Ages,  mounted  troops  –  cavalry  in  the  form  of 
knights  –  are  established  as  the  domina
nt  battlefield  arm  in  North-Western 
Europe.  This  paper  considers  the  development  of  cavalry  after  the  Germanic 
Barbarian Successor Kingdoms such as the Visigoths in Spain or the Carolingian
Franks emerged from Roman Late Antiquity and their encounters with Islam, as
with the Moors in Iberia or the Saracens (Arabs and Turks) during the Crusades,
since an important part of literature ascribes advances in European horse breeding
and  horsemanship  to  Arab  influence.  Speci
al  attention  is  paid  to  information 
about horse types or breeds, conformation, tactics – fighting with lance and bow
– and training. Genetic studies and the archaeological record are incorporated to
test the literary tradition.

Bit disappointing (I found the arguments very difficult to follow - I think a Scottish jury would have declared a verdict of "Not Proven") but some of the evidence is interesting. 

[Duncan Head]

This  paper  considers  the  development  of  cavalry  after  the  Germanic  Barbarian Successor Kingdoms...

I hate this confusing recent usage of "Successor Kingdoms" for the Germans, when we have a perfectly good set of Successor Kingdoms already.

Unusually for Germanic horsemen, horse-archers were an integral part of the (Visigothic) force make-up.

Really?

[aligern]

Interesting article. There is no evidence that I know of for Visigoth horse archers. There have, I think ,  been finds of Hun/Avar type arrowheads in a Spanish context , but if I am recalling these correctly they are innthe area of Spain garrisoned by Rome after 553 and thus most likely represent a group of Bulgars or Avars transferred to Spain as part of the garrison.
There is a possibility that the Visigoths could deploy Basque javelin cavalry, though there are no descriptions of Visigoth armies that go dow to that level of detail. It looks like the Aquitainian kingdom hired large numbers of Basques and it is not too great a leap to see the Basques who were traditional providers of javelin armed foot depliying cavalry , similarly armed on the wide Gascon plains.
But heavy horse archers ; really?