Medieval knights were professionals in the sense that they trained to fight from the age of seven, but they weren’t paid. They had to have their demesne or whatever to support them. They drafted men to go with them from their demesne when they got the call from the king, but those men weren’t paid. A peasant’s lease agreement with the landlord included owing a certain number of days of service a year. Mostly these were done by working the landlord’s farmland for him, but some years it was military service as well. Following the Black Death when there were less people available to work the land, peasants were able to negotiate better deals and go to where they got the best deals. This was made illegal, but continued to happen as the peasants had the power. No peasants, no income. Cash only (no service requirements) rents were introduced, peasants moved around etc.

Crusading armies weren’t paid. They’d been promised if they died they’d go straight to heaven, all sins forgiven, including those committed on the way. As they moved through Europe to the Holy Land they lived off the land and were a scourge. Wealthy crusaders paid, but the rest stole what they needed. Jewish communities in particular were frequently sacked and many of their inhabitants murdered in crusader zeal. They were God’s army, so it was all okay.

I can’t comment on most of what you say – as is obvious, the military is not an area I know a lot about.

Yes, it is an interesting subject.
Some very belligerent tribes had neither drafted nor mercenary soldiers, it was their whole being. Thinking of Mongols (or Arabs during/after Mohammed?), not to mention the Samurai. During the ’80 year war’ of ‘the Seven Provinces’ and the Spanish, the Spanish soldiers were fighting for a pay and the spoils, we would call them mercenaries nowadays, while the Dutch were a kind of civic militia. Those Medieval knights were professional soldiers too (but what about their infantry? were they paid? drafted? or what?). The ‘Battle of the Golden Spurs” was clearly a civic militia (on the Flemish side), where an all foot soldier militia defeated the mounted French knights. When William conquered Britain, his soldiers were professionals.
I cannot think the US Founding Fathers were not thinking of the Golden Spurs or the 80 year war, among other things, of course. The American Revolution was ‘civic militia driven’ itself.
I would love to hear some comments from a military historian.

@ Jennifer, nice article, but I have two remarks.
1- The idea that venomous snakes have elliptical pupils probably did not originate in the US, but more probably in Europe, since all venomous snakes there are vipers, with a vertical pupil. The other snakes in Europe are non-venomous colubridae, such as the Natrix natrix (grass snake) or the Natrix tessellata (dice snake), which all have round pupils. No coral snakes in Europe.
2- The vine snake aka twig snake Thelothornis , also a colubrid, but with that peculiar pupil, are considered extremely dangerous. I would not go on “bites do not typically produce serious medical symptoms in humans.”, that is simply wrong, they are highly venomous. Like the Boomslang venom it is haematotoxic and slow acting (days). Although the snake is not aggressive at all and bites are rare, there is no anti-venom, and fatalities have occurred.

I could resist the “rifle raffle’ though.

I liked that parallel too!

And cat-alepsy! Very good! 😀

Your assumptions were perfectly reasonable. iirc, because it’s not a period I know a lot about, the Roman legions were like national service, but it went on for a really long time – like 20 or 30 years or something. Then the former soldier was granted land in the conquered provinces to farm. It was how they spread themselves out and held onto what they got.

Mostly it was only when they got to be big empires that they began to get professional armies because they needed them to hold on. Europe reverted to being mostly citizen armies once the Roman Empire fell.

A lot of what everyone thinks they know about medieval wars etc is coloured by movies that get the details really wrong. I can’t watch most “historical” movies etc because of the inaccuracies. It’s too annoying, and probably I’m too pedantic as well!

I like the parallel between the rapture cartoon and the Portugese ‘hole waterfall’. Pure chance? Or is there a higher power overseeing it all after all? ????

That sleeping kitten is a clear case of cat-alepsy!

I kind of pity him, always so negative and callous. I often asked myself, why doesn’t he get a life? Did his wife leave him? Is he the proverbial basement-of-his-parents lurker? Maybe some other hardship? Maybe in real life he’s different and he’s just trolling, some people make trolling a kind of hobby.
Nevertheless a good riddance. Opposing opinions are to be encouraged, but should be argued, something he rarely, if ever, did.

And note, vipers -vertically pupilled- are very much ground dwelling ambush predators, they do not climb at all, while cobras and mambas often venture in the arboreal realm (not to mention the ‘boomslang’, litt. ‘tree snake’). Darelle is spot on.
Horizontal pupils are mostly found in animals heavily preyed upon, larger visual field, as is speculated.
I concur that the drinking snake probably is a cobra, possibly a king cobra indeed. Mark, what flowers do you want on your grave? ????????

Since talking Swiss I was reminded of the defeat (and death) of Charles the Bold by a Swiss mercenary army at the battle of Nancy in 1477. And I thought of Roman Soldiers, who also were professionals. I unduly hypothesized and generalised from there.