Radical study of medieval warhorses set to be unveiled in new book

The most comprehensive study of medieval warhorses ever undertaken will be released in the form of a radical new book this week.

Based upon extensive archaeological and historical research, including the study of bones and DNA, armour and art, Medieval Warhorse: Equestrian Landscapes, Material Culture and Zooarchaeology in Britain, AD800–1550 presents a complete picture of the development of the iconic animal through the Middle Ages.

From debunking assumptions that steeds were Shire horse-sized, to mapping the royal stud network of the Kings of England and how they traded warhorses like ‘supercar status symbols’, the book breaks new ground in placing archaeological evidence within historical, cultural and social contexts.

It has been written by a team of archaeologists at the University of Exeter, with colleagues at East Anglia (UEA), University College Dublin, and other leading institutions who were involved with the ground breaking Warhorse research project.

“The image of the armoured knight mounted on his charging warhorse is one of the most evocative of the Middle Ages,” says Professor Oliver Creighton, the project lead and one of the book’s editors, and an archaeologist at Exeter. “As distinctive symbols of social status, horses were central to the medieval aristocratic image and closely bound up with concepts of knighthood and chivalry, while as weapons of war bred for size, strength and stamina, they changed the face of battle.

“Drawing upon new interdisciplinary research, this volume presents a fresh perspective on warhorses, and medieval horses generally, in Britain, understood within its wider European context.”

Warhorse was a four-year Arts and Humanities Research Council project that brought together Exeter’s Department of Archaeology and History, with the Department of History at the University of East Anglia.

Together, they conducted research across different disciplines, including analysing bones and teeth from archaeological excavations; surveying surviving horse gear and armour; and studying documentary evidence relating to the training, development and appearance of the horses, along with their social and military roles.

For the book, the Royal Armouries, the Portable Antiquities Scheme, and the European Research Council-funded Pegasus Project also played key contributions.

“What we have attempted to do is take an integrated approach that covers the full array of evidence for medieval horses, from their physical remains – their bones, teeth and DNA – to their equipment and armour,” says Robert Liddiard, Professor of History at UEA. “We then weave in visual sources such as sculpture and wall paintings, and documentary and landscape evidence for the environments in which they were bred and trained.”

Among the key findings, say the authors, are that most medieval horses were the same size as modern-day polo ponies, prized for speed and agility, rather than hulking Shire horse-style mounts.

They find that the ‘watershed moment’ in the use of warhorses in battle did not occur with the Norman Conquest, as had been believed. Instead, they say, a profound shift took place during the reign of King Stephen in the 12th century, with a boom in horse tournaments driving developments in equine apparel.

And, by re-investigating bones from a medieval horse cemetery at Elverton Street in Westminster, London, the team was able to identify that it was a graveyard of high-status war and jousting horses. Furthermore, they found that these animals had been large and robust physical outliers for their time, with chemical analysis revealing some of the animals had been imported from abroad, possibly as far away as the Alps.

“Through a radical and complete integration of so many lines of evidence, ‘from fine art to isotope physics’, the book presents new understandings of the changing place of the horse in the medieval world” adds Alan Outram, Professor of Archaeological Science at Exeter. “We hope that it will find an audience not just with those interested in military history, but also medieval archaeology, landscape history, and equestrian studies as well.”

Medieval Warhorse: Equestrian Landscapes, Material Culture and Zooarchaeology in Britain, AD800–1550 is published by Liverpool University Press.