What was the biggest medieval battle?
The Battle of Grunwald in 1410, also called Tannenberg, is the usual answer: it was among the largest battles of medieval Europe, with tens of thousands of soldiers on each side. Recent estimates put both armies at about 45,000 men in all, though medieval numbers are mostly historians' calculations and no one can prove which battle was the largest. The Teutonic Order's army was destroyed there in a single day.1
The Middle Ages were shaped by the mounted knight, the castle and the longbow. From the fields of Poland to the mud of northern France, these fifteen battles remade kingdoms and ended dynasties. They are ranked by a score, not by date, and how we chose and ranked them is explained right after the list.
1 Hastings, 1066
- Where
- On the ridge at Battle, East Sussex, about 7 miles from Hastings, England
- War
- Norman conquest of England
- Sides
- William, Duke of Normandy, vs King Harold II of England
- Strength
- About 4,000 to 7,000 Normans and about 7,000 English (modern estimates; no one counted)
- Result
- Norman victory; Harold killed, William crowned on Christmas Day 1066
Edward the Confessor died on 5 January 1066, Earl Harold of Wessex was crowned the next day, and two rivals came for the crown: Harald Hardrada of Norway, whom Harold destroyed at Stamford Bridge on 25 September, and William of Normandy, who landed at Pevensey a few days later. Harold rode south and on 14 October met the Normans on a ridge some seven or eight miles from Hastings. English Heritage cites modern estimates of 5,000 to 7,000 men on each side, and Britannica gives William 4,000 to 7,000 and Harold about 7,000: two forces of about the same size, though no chronicler counted them.2
The English fought on foot behind a shield wall; William had archers, crossbowmen and perhaps 2,000 to 3,000 mounted knights. The fighting lasted all day, unusually long for a medieval battle, until Harold and his brothers Gyrth and Leofwine fell and the English line broke. Myth vs fact: the arrow in Harold's eye is uncertain, because the arrow on the Bayeux Tapestry was added during 19th-century repairs, and the written accounts closest to the battle say Norman knights hacked him down. William was crowned in Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day, and over the next twenty years he took the land from the Saxons and shared it among his Norman followers, as the Domesday survey of 1086 records. The tapestry that tells the story, nearly 70 meters of embroidery, is on show at the British Museum until July 2027.3
Why it ranks here: It is the only battle here with full marks for recognition, decisiveness, consequence and memory: one afternoon killed a king, ended Anglo-Saxon England for good and still lives on in the Bayeux Tapestry. It drops a single point, for certainty, because the size of the armies is a guess, and that is why it is No. 1, three points clear.
2 Agincourt, 1415
- Where
- Near Azincourt, northern France
- War
- Hundred Years' War
- Sides
- Henry V of England vs the French army under the Constable, Charles d'Albret
- Strength
- About 6,000 to 8,500 English vs 12,000 to 30,000 French (disputed)
- Result
- English victory; about 6,000 French dead against about 400 English (estimates)
Henry V landed in Normandy in August 1415 with about 12,000 men to press his claim to the French crown. The siege of Harfleur lasted longer than he had expected, and casualties, desertion and disease, dysentery among them, cut his army to about 6,000; he was marching for English-held Calais when a French army blocked his way. On St Crispin's Day, 25 October 1415, the two armies met near the village of Azincourt in northern France.4
Rain had turned the freshly plowed field into mud. The French advanced into the arrows of the English longbowmen, and as the field narrowed toward the English line their ranks were packed so tightly that they could not use their weapons. Britannica estimates the French dead at about 6,000, many of them noblemen, against about 400 English. Myth vs fact: the French did not have the vast superiority of legend; Anne Curry of the University of Southampton, working from the muster rolls, puts the English at about 8,500 and the French at around 12,000. The victory opened the way to Henry's conquest of Normandy, and in 1420 the Treaty of Troyes named him heir to the French crown. Shakespeare's Henry V turned him into an English national hero.5
Why it ranks here: It takes full marks for recognition, memory and certainty: Shakespeare made it famous, and the English muster rolls survive, so historians know even the names of many of Henry's soldiers. It loses a point each for decisiveness and consequence, because Henry died in 1422 and by 1453 England had lost almost all its lands in France.6
3 Grunwald, 1410
- Where
- Near the village of Grunwald, in the Teutonic Order's Prussia, now northern Poland
- War
- Polish-Lithuanian-Teutonic War of 1409 to 1411 (the “Great War”)
- Sides
- Poland under Władysław II Jagiełło and Lithuania under Grand Duke Vytautas vs the Teutonic Order under Ulrich von Jungingen
- Strength
- About 30,000 Poles, Lithuanians and allies vs about 20,000 for the Order (estimates 16,000 to 39,000 vs 11,000 to 27,000)
- Result
- Polish-Lithuanian victory; the grand master killed
Grunwald is usually named the largest battle of medieval Europe: Sky History calls it “the biggest unknown medieval battle.” The estimates vary. Recent Polish research puts the Order's army at about 15,000 men-at-arms against 19,000 to 20,000 Poles and about 10,000 Lithuanians, some 45,000 men in all, while other figures run to 39,000 on the allied side and 27,000 for the Order. Myth vs fact: Professor Tadeusz Grabarczyk of the University of Łódź notes that medieval numbers are mostly historians' calculations, so no one can prove which battle was truly the largest.7
On 15 July 1410, after a long wait in the summer heat, the grand master Ulrich von Jungingen sent the allied leaders two swords as a taunt. The Lithuanians on the right gave way, then came back into the fight; the knights were surrounded, and Jungingen was killed by a lance thrust into his neck. The allies failed to take the Order's capital at Malbork, and the First Peace of Toruń in February 1411 returned only Samogitia and the Dobrzyń land, with a heavy ransom for the prisoners. The two swords still appear on the coat of arms of the Grunwald commune.8
Why it ranks here: It takes full marks for recognition and memory: it is the usual answer to “biggest medieval battle” and a Polish and Lithuanian national symbol. It loses a point each for decisiveness and consequence, because the Order survived the peace of 1411, and one for certainty, because the numbers are disputed, which leaves it a point behind Agincourt.
4 Hattin, 1187
- Where
- The Horns of Hattin, west of the Sea of Galilee, in present-day Israel
- War
- Saladin's war against the Crusader states
- Sides
- Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, vs King Guy of Lusignan of Jerusalem
- Strength
- About 30,000 Ayyubids vs about 20,000 Crusaders (Britannica estimates)
- Result
- Ayyubid victory; the Crusader field army destroyed, King Guy captured
In the summer of 1187 Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, invaded the Kingdom of Jerusalem and attacked Tiberias. King Guy of Lusignan had gathered the field army of the Crusader states at the springs of Saffuriya, and on 3 July it marched to relieve the town. Britannica puts the Crusaders who set out at about 20,000 and Saladin's army at 30,000; like all medieval figures, these are estimates.9
Once the Franks had left the water behind, Saladin's skirmishers harried them all day in the heat. That night his men lit fires so the smoke blew over the Christian camp, and the Frankish chronicler Ernoul says water pots were emptied in full view of the thirsty army. On 4 July the survivors were driven onto the twin hill called the Horns of Hattin. The Muslims captured the relic of the True Cross, King Guy was taken, and Reynald of Châtillon was killed, the first blow struck by Saladin himself. The historian Ibn al-Athir wrote that those who saw the dead could not believe anyone had been taken alive, and those who saw the prisoners could not believe anyone had been killed. With its army gone the kingdom collapsed: Acre fell, Jerusalem surrendered in October 1187, and the West answered with the Third Crusade.10
Why it ranks here: It takes full marks for decisiveness and consequence: one battle wiped out the kingdom's field army and cost it Jerusalem within three months. It loses a point each for recognition and memory, because it is better known to readers of crusade history than to the general public, and one for certainty, as the army sizes rest on estimates.
5 Manzikert, 1071
- Where
- Near the fortress of Manzikert in Byzantine Armenia, now eastern Turkey
- War
- Byzantine-Seljuk wars
- Sides
- Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes vs Sultan Alp Arslan of the Seljuk Turks
- Strength
- No reliable figures survive for either side (Britannica); part of the Byzantine army withdrew before the battle and never fought
- Result
- Seljuk victory; the emperor captured
In 1071 the emperor Romanos IV Diogenes marched east with a large army, much of it mercenaries, to restore the security of the eastern frontier against Turkish raids. Medieval writers inflated its size absurdly: Matthew of Edessa claimed more than a million men. No reliable figures survive, Britannica notes; Paul Markham, writing for De Re Militari, reckons about 40,000 effective fighting men and notes that Tarchaneiotes' army of about 20,000 withdrew before the battle and never fought.11
On 26 August the horse archers of the sultan Alp Arslan, drawn up in a broad crescent, fell back as the Byzantines advanced, shooting as they went. At the crisis of the battle the reserve under Romanos's rival Andronikos Doukas withdrew from the field instead of coming to his aid, and the army broke in a general rout. Romanos, wounded, was taken prisoner. Myth vs fact: the army was not wiped out; Markham puts Byzantine losses at no more than about 8,000. The damage came after: Romanos was released, then deposed and blinded, and in the civil wars that followed the Turks overran most of Anatolia; by 1081 Suleyman held Nicaea as his capital. Byzantium's appeal to the Christians of the West for help against the Turks led in the end to the First Crusade, preached by Pope Urban II at Clermont in 1095.12
Why it ranks here: It takes full marks for consequence, since it opened Anatolia to the Turks and led to the call that became the First Crusade. Most of the army escaped, so decisiveness is 4, and recognition and memory are 4 as well; it shares its total with Bannockburn and, with recognition equal, goes ahead on its greater consequence.
6 Bannockburn, 1314
- Where
- By the Bannock Burn, just south of Stirling, Scotland
- War
- First War of Scottish Independence
- Sides
- Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, vs Edward II of England
- Strength
- 6,000 to 7,000 Scottish spearmen and 500 horse vs about 20,000 English
- Result
- Scottish victory; Edward II fled the field
By 1314 Robert the Bruce controlled much of Scotland, and his brother Edward was besieging Stirling Castle, whose governor agreed to surrender if he was not relieved by 24 June. Edward II came north to save it with 2,000 to 3,000 heavy cavalry and some 16,000 foot soldiers. Bruce waited with 6,000 to 7,000 spearmen and 500 horse in a naturally strong position, improved with pits full of sharpened stakes.13
On 23 June, as the English vanguard came in sight, Sir Henry de Bohun saw the king alone in front of his lines and charged. Bruce dodged the lance and killed him with an axe blow that broke the haft. On the second day the Scottish schiltrons drove deep into an English army hemmed in on ground where it could not maneuver, its infantry unable to get past its own cavalry. The army broke, Stirling Castle refused to open its gates to the king, and Edward II escaped by sea from Dunbar. Myth vs fact: John Barbour's poem The Brus gave the English 100,000 men and 30,000 dead, but the army was no more than about 20,000 strong. England still refused to recognize Scottish independence, even after the Declaration of Arbroath of 1320, until 1328. Scots Wha Hae, Flower of Scotland and the 1964 statue of Bruce on the field keep the day alive.14
Why it ranks here: It takes full marks for memory, because few medieval battles live as fully in a nation's songs and symbols. It loses a point each for recognition, consequence, decisiveness and certainty, since England recognized Scotland only in 1328; it ties with Manzikert, and with recognition equal, Manzikert's wider consequence puts it ahead.
7 Crécy, 1346
- Where
- Near Crécy-en-Ponthieu, northern France, south of Calais
- War
- Hundred Years' War
- Sides
- Edward III of England and the Black Prince vs Philip VI of France
- Strength
- About 14,000 English vs about 35,000 French (Britannica; disputed)
- Result
- English victory; about 14,000 French dead against about 200 English
Edward III landed in Normandy in mid-July 1346 and marched across northern France with the army of Philip VI on his heels. The numbers are disputed, but the English were far fewer: Britannica puts them at some 4,000 men-at-arms and 10,000 archers, about 14,000 in all, against some 35,000 French. On 26 August Edward took up a defensive position near Crécy-en-Ponthieu, with dismounted men-at-arms in the center and English and Welsh archers on both wings, and waited for the French to attack.15
The Genoese crossbowmen went first, but a longbow could be shot about three times faster than a crossbow, and they broke and fell back into the path of the French cavalry. Charge after charge of French knights was cut down by arrows, and Britannica counts 15 or 16 further attacks that went on into the night. The Black Prince commanded the English right. Britannica puts the French dead at about 14,000 against some 200 English; among them were King John of Bohemia and 1,500 knights and esquires. The real prize came next: Edward besieged Calais, which held out until August 1347.16
Why it ranks here: It takes full marks for recognition as the longbow's great day, one of the best-known battles of the age. It won Edward Calais but did not decide the Hundred Years' War, so decisiveness is only 3; it shares its total with Bosworth and Las Navas de Tolosa and goes ahead of both because it is better known.
8 Bosworth, 1485
- Where
- Fenn Lanes, north of Dadlington and Stoke Golding, Leicestershire, England
- War
- Wars of the Roses
- Sides
- King Richard III vs Henry Tudor
- Strength
- Royal army of 10,000 to 15,000 vs about 5,000 rebels, with several thousand Stanley men standing aside
- Result
- Tudor victory; Richard III killed
In August 1485 Henry Tudor, claiming the throne Richard III had taken in 1483, landed at Milford Haven in Wales with French support and marched on Leicester, gathering men until, according to the Battlefields Trust, he had about 5,000. On 22 August Richard met him with a royal army of 10,000 to 15,000, more than twice that size, while 5,000 to 8,000 more men, among them those of Lord Stanley and the Earl of Northumberland, waited nearby, uncommitted.17
Richard staked everything on an attack on Henry himself, but Sir William Stanley, Lord Stanley's brother, then threw his men against Richard's flank. The royal army melted away, and Richard was unhorsed and killed, the last English king to die in battle. Henry married Elizabeth of York in January 1486, uniting the rival houses in the Tudor dynasty, and a Yorkist rising was crushed at Stoke in 1487. Myth vs fact: the battle was long placed on Ambion Hill, but until 2009 its site was disputed; the archaeological survey then put it about two miles to the southwest near Stoke Golding and turned up 34 lead shot. Richard's battle-scarred skeleton was found in 2012 on the site of the lost Grey Friars church in Leicester.18
Why it ranks here: It takes full marks for decisiveness: in one morning it killed the last Plantagenet king and put the Tudors on the throne. Certainty is only 3, because the battlefield was securely located only in 2009 and the army sizes are uncertain; on a tied total it ranks behind the better-known Crécy and ahead of the less-known Las Navas de Tolosa.
10 Tours, 732
- Where
- Between Tours and Poitiers, west-central France
- War
- Umayyad raids into Gaul
- Sides
- Franks under Charles Martel against the army of al-Andalus under Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi
- Strength
- Unknown; the sources give no reliable figures
- Result
- Frankish victory; Abd al-Rahman killed
By 712 Umayyad armies had overrun most of Visigothic Spain, and from 719 they raided north of the Pyrenees. In 732 Abd al-Rahman al-Ghafiqi, the Muslim governor of Córdoba, invaded Aquitaine, beat Duke Eudes and sacked Bordeaux. Eudes escaped north to beg help from Charles, mayor of the palace of the Frankish kingdom of Austrasia, who had invaded his duchy only the year before.22
In October 732, somewhere between Tours and Poitiers, the two armies watched each other for almost seven days. Then the Franks, standing in a solid mass that the Chronicle of 754 compared to a wall of ice, threw back the Umayyad attack; Abd al-Rahman was killed and his army slipped away in the night. Myth vs fact: the Chronicle of Saint-Denis claims Charles killed 300,000 men for the loss of only 1,500 of his own, but Britannica stresses that reliable details of the battle are scarce.23
Charles, later called Martel, the Hammer, came out of the battle with glory and with his authority in Aquitaine restored. Yet many historians now see Tours as the defeat of a large raid rather than an invasion that would have conquered Europe. Muslim armies invaded again in 734 or 735 and in 739, and what really halted them was the Berber revolt of 739 and strife inside the Muslim world. William Watson argues that the expedition was neither a mere raid nor a plan to conquer Christendom, and that Muslim forces held Narbonne until Pepin the Short took it in 759.24
Why it ranks here: Recognition 5 and the "saved Europe" legend keep it high, but because it probably stopped a large raid rather than a conquest it gets only decisiveness 3, and late, inflated chronicles give it certainty 2; its 39 points still put it one point clear of Yarmouk, Bouvines and Ain Jalut.
11 Yarmouk, 636
- Where
- Yarmouk River valley, on today's border of Syria and Jordan
- War
- Arab conquest of Byzantine Syria
- Sides
- Rashidun Caliphate (Khalid ibn al-Walid, Abu Ubayda) against the Byzantine Empire (Vahan)
- Strength
- Arab numbers unknown vs 15,000 to 100,000 Byzantines by modern estimates (disputed)
- Result
- Byzantine field army destroyed; Syria lost for good
Muhammad died in 632, and within a few years his followers were attacking the Byzantine Empire in Syria. Emperor Heraclius gathered a large army of Byzantines, Slavs, Franks and Christian Arabs at Antioch to drive them out, and Khalid ibn al-Walid persuaded the Muslim commanders, whose forces were split into at least four groups, to unite the whole army against it.25
The battle began on 20 August 636 and went on for six days. The Byzantines first pushed the Arabs back to their camp; then the Arabs broke part of the Byzantine line and drove it into a ravine, and when the trapped army tried to break out it was massacred.26
How big the armies were nobody knows: Fred Donner put the Byzantines at about 100,000 and Walter Kaegi at 15,000 to 20,000, while Britannica gives the Byzantine losses alone as 40,000 against 5,000 Arabs. The Arab sources were written down from the late eighth century, and their two main traditions give different chronologies. What is certain is the result: the loss of Syria, soon followed by Jerusalem and Egypt.27
Why it ranks here: Decisiveness and consequence are 5, because it ended Byzantine rule in Syria and opened the Levant to the Arab conquests; recognition 3, memory 3 and certainty 3 (late sources that disagree) hold it down, and it leads Bouvines and Ain Jalut on equal points only because it is the oldest of the three.
12 Bouvines, 1214
- Where
- Bouvines, between Lille and Tournai, Flanders (now northern France)
- War
- Anglo-French war over the lost Angevin lands
- Sides
- Philip II Augustus of France against Emperor Otto IV, the counts of Flanders and Boulogne and an English contingent
- Strength
- Perhaps 16,000 men in all, some 4,000 of them knights; the coalition was larger (estimates vary)
- Result
- French victory; both rebel counts captured, Otto IV fled
King John of England had lost Normandy and Anjou to Philip II Augustus ten years earlier, and in 1214 he set out to win them back. He built a coalition instead: the German emperor Otto IV and the counts of Flanders and Boulogne would strike from the north, with English troops under his half-brother William of Salisbury, while John himself landed at La Rochelle in the southwest.28
On Sunday 27 July 1214 the coalition caught Philip's army as it was crossing the bridge at Bouvines. The fighting lasted some hours and was close: Philip was dragged from his horse by foot soldiers with hooked pikes and saved only by his bodyguard. Then the French broke the allies, captured the counts of Flanders and Boulogne, and put 700 captured Brabançon mercenaries to the sword, while Otto fled. The armies were small: one estimate gives about 4,000 knights and 12,000 foot in all.29
John had not even been there, but his war was lost. He came home humiliated and broke, and less than a year later his barons forced Magna Carta on him. In France the Capetian monarchy came out greatly strengthened. "Bouvines is the most important battle in English history that no-one has ever heard of," says the Swansea historian John France.30
Why it ranks here: Decisiveness and consequence are both 5, since it settled the war, made Philip master of France and led to Magna Carta; but recognition 3, memory 3, the very obscurity John France describes, and certainty 3, since army sizes and even its length vary between accounts, hold it at No. 12, between Yarmouk and Ain Jalut on equal points because ties go to the older battle.
13 Ain Jalut, 1260
- Where
- Jezreel Valley, near Nazareth (today northern Israel)
- War
- Mongol invasion of Syria and Palestine
- Sides
- Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt (Sultan Qutuz, emir Baybars) against the Mongols under Kitbuqa
- Strength
- 10,000 to 20,000 Mongols and allies vs about 20,000 or more Mamluks (estimates)
- Result
- Mamluk victory; Kitbuqa captured and beheaded
In 1258 Hülegü's Mongols sacked Baghdad and ended the Abbasid caliphate; in 1260 his armies took Aleppo and Damascus and reached Gaza, within striking distance of Egypt. Then news came that the Great Khan Möngke had died, and Hülegü withdrew east with most of his army, leaving his general Kitbuqa in Syria with perhaps 10,000 to 20,000 men. In Cairo the Mamluk sultan Qutuz had the Mongol envoys killed and marched north.31
On 3 September 1260 the armies met at Ain Jalut, "Goliath's Spring." The Mongol charge nearly broke the Mamluk left, and Qutuz is said to have thrown off his helmet and rallied his men with the cry "O Islam!" The Mamluks held, counterattacked and surrounded the Mongols; Kitbuqa refused to flee and was captured and beheaded. The numbers are uncertain: one account makes the Mamluks stronger, another makes the two sides almost even at about 20,000 each.32
It was one of the first defeats of a Mongol army in open battle, and the Mongols never conquered Syria and Palestine. Within weeks Baybars stabbed Qutuz to death and made himself sultan, and over the next thirty years the Mamluks took the last crusader cities, ending with Acre in 1291.33
Why it ranks here: Decisiveness and consequence are 5, because it saved Egypt and stopped the Mongols in the Middle East; recognition 3, memory 3 and certainty 3 (it beat a detachment left behind, and the numbers are estimates) hold it down, and it trails Yarmouk and Bouvines on equal points because ties go to the older battle.
14 Stamford Bridge, 1066
- Where
- Stamford Bridge on the River Derwent, east of York, England
- War
- Norwegian invasion of England, 1066
- Sides
- English under Harold II against the Norwegians of Harald Hardrada, with Tostig Godwinson
- Strength
- Unknown; the Norwegians came in some 300 ships
- Result
- English victory; Hardrada and Tostig killed, survivors sailed home in 24 ships
In September 1066 Harald Hardrada, king of Norway, sailed up the Humber with a fleet of some 300 ships, joined by Tostig, the exiled brother of King Harold II. On 20 September they beat the northern earls at Fulford, outside York.34
Harold, who had been watching the south coast for William of Normandy, left London on 16 September, reached the north in only nine days and on 25 September caught the Norwegians by surprise at Stamford Bridge, where they were waiting for hostages from the shire. Many had left their mail coats with the ships. The fighting lasted much of the day; Hardrada and Tostig were killed, and so few men were left that, says the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Harold let them go home in 24 ships. The same Chronicle tells the most famous scene: a single Norwegian held the bridge against the whole English army until an Englishman got under the bridge and stabbed him from below.35
Three days later William landed at Pevensey, and on 14 October Harold fell at Hastings with an army worn out by two forced marches. Stamford Bridge ended the last great Norse invasion of England and is often seen as the end of the Viking Age in England.36
Why it ranks here: Recognition 4 and solid marks for decisiveness and consequence carry it into the list, but Hastings, 19 days later, overshadows it in memory, and the details rest largely on sagas written much later (certainty 3); it edges the Golden Spurs on equal points because ties go to the better-known battle.
15 Golden Spurs (Courtrai), 1302
- Where
- Groeninge field outside Kortrijk (Courtrai), Flanders, Belgium
- War
- Franco-Flemish War
- Sides
- Flemish town militias against the army of Philip IV of France under Robert of Artois
- Strength
- About 9,000 Flemish foot vs about 6,500 French, 2,500 of them mounted nobles (estimates)
- Result
- Flemish victory; Robert of Artois killed, some 500 pairs of spurs taken
By 1300 Philip IV the Fair had occupied Flanders and imprisoned its count, Guy of Dampierre. The rich merchants of Bruges and Ghent backed the king, the weavers and other craft guilds backed the count. On 18 May 1302 rebels slipped into Bruges and murdered the French garrison, and Philip sent an army of knights to punish them.37
On 11 July 1302 the French under Robert of Artois attacked the Flemish militias, led by Guy of Namur and William of Jülich, drawn up on foot in one long, deep line on marshy ground outside Kortrijk. The fighting was fierce but short, about three hours, and the Flemish had been ordered to take no noble prisoners: Robert of Artois died with many of the French nobility, and next day about 500 pairs of golden spurs were collected from the field. The Ghent chronicler's 10,000 French horsemen and 60,000 Flemings are far above modern estimates.38
Infantry had beaten an army of knights in open battle. Yet France struck back: Mons-en-Pévèle in 1304 had no clear winner, but the peace of 1305 was harsh on Flanders. Myth vs fact: the tale of a Flemish war of national liberation comes from 19th-century writers such as Hendrik Conscience; historians see a feudal and social struggle. Flanders still keeps 11 July as its official holiday.39
Why it ranks here: Memory 5, for the Flemish holiday, and consequence 4, as the first great infantry victory over knights, lift it into the list, but France recovered within three years, so decisiveness 3, and recognition 3 keeps it behind Stamford Bridge on the same total.
How we chose and ranked these medieval battles
We counted a battle as medieval when it was fought between armies in the field, roughly between 500 and 1500, and we ranked it above all on how famous it is and whether it decided a war or the fate of a state. Long sieges, such as Constantinople in 1453 or Orléans in 1429, are left to our guide to the greatest sieges in history; the battles before 500 are in the greatest ancient battles, and those after 1500 in the greatest early modern battles.40
We considered 25 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of which medieval battles are the most famous; decisiveness, consequence and memory count twice, and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if the name is known far beyond military history and appears on most published lists of its kind, 1 if only specialists know it.
- Decisiveness (×2). 5 if it decided a war or the fate of a state, 1 if the war went on as if it had not been fought.
- Consequence (×2). 5 if it changed the map or the course of history well beyond its own war, 1 if its effects stayed local.
- Memory (×2). 5 if it is still a living tradition (a national day, a monument, a famous play, film or tapestry), 1 if it is forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if the numbers and events are confirmed by independent sources, 1 if they rest on one source or are disputed.
The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better-known battle, then to the one with the greater consequence, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them. It explains, for example, why Tours, often called the battle that saved Europe, is only tenth: many historians now see it as the defeat of a large raid rather than of an invasion, Muslim forces held Narbonne for another 27 years, and the numbers rest on late chronicles.
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | Decisiveness ×2 | Consequence ×2 | Memory ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hastings | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 49 |
| 2 | Agincourt | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 46 |
| 3 | Grunwald | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 45 |
| 4 | Hattin | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 44 |
| 5 | Manzikert | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 42 |
| 6 | Bannockburn | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 42 |
| 7 | Crécy | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 41 |
| 8 | Bosworth | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 41 |
| 9 | Las Navas de Tolosa | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 41 |
| 10 | Tours | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 39 |
| 11 | Yarmouk | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 38 |
| 12 | Bouvines | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 38 |
| 13 | Ain Jalut | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 38 |
| 14 | Stamford Bridge | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 37 |
| 15 | Golden Spurs (Courtrai) | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 37 |
Close calls
Six battles came close and did not make the fifteen:
Kosovo, 1389. On 15 June 1389 Prince Lazar's Serbs and their allies met the Ottoman army of Sultan Murad I, and both rulers died on the field. It is the heart of Serbian memory on Vidovdan, but historians still argue whether it was a draw or a Serbian defeat, and the Ottomans annexed Serbia only some 70 years later: decisiveness 3, certainty 2.41
Lechfeld, 955. On 10 August 955 Otto I relieved Augsburg and destroyed a Magyar army by the River Lech. The Hungarian raids on the West stopped for good, and the Magyars settled in Hungary and accepted Christianity. Decisiveness and consequence are both 5, but outside specialist reading few people know the name, so recognition 2 keeps it out.42
Poitiers, 1356. The Black Prince's army captured King John II of France, and by the treaties of Brétigny and Calais of 1360 France ceded the whole of the old Aquitaine to Edward III. It was a great victory, but in English memory it stands behind Crécy and Agincourt, and the war went on, so it misses by a few points.43
Stirling Bridge, 1297. On 11 September 1297 William Wallace and Andrew Moray let part of an English army cross the narrow bridge and then destroyed it; the treasurer Hugh de Cressingham was among the dead. Braveheart made it famous, but Edward I's army came back the next year and beat Wallace at Falkirk, so decisiveness 2: it is a prelude to Bannockburn, not its equal.44
Lake Peipus, 1242. Eisenstein's film made Alexander Nevsky's win over the Livonian knights famous, yet the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle counts twenty brothers of the Order killed and six captured, and knights drowning under the ice entered the story only in the 15th century. A border fight with a legend on top: decisiveness 2, certainty 2.45
Castillon, 1453. On 17 July 1453 Jean Bureau's cannon, dug in around a fortified camp, shattered John Talbot's Anglo-Gascon army, and Talbot was killed. It ended the Hundred Years' War, so decisiveness 5, but even readers who know Agincourt rarely know its name: recognition 2 and memory 2.46
See these battles set beside every other era in Battles That Changed the World.
What made the Middle Ages a distinct age of war
Medieval war was dominated by the mounted knight, the castle and the decisive clash of shield walls and cavalry charges. From Hastings to Grunwald, a single afternoon could make or unmake a kingdom, and new weapons like the longbow slowly began to tip the balance away from the armored horseman. Legend could outgrow the record: in April 1242 Alexander Nevsky beat the Livonian knights on and beside the frozen Lake Peipus, but the famous scene of knights crashing through the ice comes from later tradition, not from the earliest sources. In 1485 Richard III became the last king of England to die in battle, cut down at Bosworth Field.47
Which was the bloodiest battle of the Middle Ages?
No medieval battle has a reliable death toll, because chroniclers rarely counted the dead and often inflated what they reported. In England the usual answer is Towton, fought on Palm Sunday, 29 March 1461, where the heralds reckoned some 28,000 dead. Among the fifteen battles ranked here, Crécy has the highest toll our sources give, about 14,000 French dead.48
Britannica calls Towton the largest and bloodiest battle of the Wars of the Roses, a victory that secured the throne for Edward IV. The figure deserves caution. Historic England notes that the heralds' count may also include men killed at Ferrybridge and Dinting Dale, and the Battlefields Trust judges contemporary claims of some 30,000 casualties to be gross exaggerations, doubting that either side could raise more than 10,000 men.49
At Crécy in 1346 Britannica puts the French dead at about 14,000 of some 35,000, against about 200 English, and counts 1,500 knights and esquires among them. At Agincourt in 1415 Britannica estimates the French dead at about 6,000 and the English at about 400, though the exact toll is unknown. For the costliest battles of every era, see the deadliest battles in history.50
When did the Middle Ages end, and which battle ended them?
Historians usually place the Middle Ages between about 500 and 1500, and no single battle closed them. Britannica lists several end points, among them the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the European arrival in America in 1492 and the start of the Reformation in 1517. In military history, 1453 is a fitting marker: that year gunpowder artillery shaped two endings.51
On 29 May 1453 the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II took Constantinople after his cannon had battered its land walls, and the Byzantine Empire came to an end. In July the French won at Castillon, the last battle of the Hundred Years' War. According to the historian James Ramsay, Jean Bureau's field artillery inflicted heavy losses on the attacking English, their commander John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, was killed, and the surrender of Bordeaux that October ended the war.52
What weapons decided medieval battles?
For most of the Middle Ages the armored knight on horseback was the decisive arm, but from 1302 foot soldiers beat him again and again: Flemish town militias at Courtrai, Scottish spearmen at Bannockburn in 1314, and English longbowmen at Crécy in 1346 and Agincourt in 1415. In the 15th century gunpowder artillery began to shape sieges and battles.53
On 11 July 1302, near Kortrijk (Courtrai) in Flanders, the militias of the Flemish towns, fighting on foot, crushed a French army of mounted knights in what is remembered as the Battle of the Golden Spurs. Britannica treats it as the opening of the "infantry revolution" of the 14th century. Twelve years later, on 23 and 24 June 1314, Robert the Bruce's army, made up mainly of spearmen, held and drove back the English heavy cavalry at Bannockburn.54
The longbow carried the change furthest. Britannica reckons that it could be shot about three times faster than the crossbow and just as accurately, and that at Crécy the archers on both wings mowed down wave after wave of French horsemen. At Crécy and again at Agincourt, dismounted men-at-arms flanked by massed archers destroyed larger French armies, a contest traced in longbow vs crossbow. Only in the 15th century, at Constantinople and Castillon, did guns shape the outcome.55
Every battle above has its own full account. See where they sit in the longer story of war in the greatest battles of all time, then test yourself with the medieval battles quiz.
