King needs to travel: How fast and how far could he go on horseback? (we test it out)
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- Опубліковано 8 лис 2018
- How fast could a Medieval King travel when he really needed to? We look at the evidence and try it out to see if the old documents are correct. #medieval #travel #king
Credits:
Warlord
Directing, Camera, Sound, Editing Kasumi
Presenting Jason Kingsley OBE
Music licensed from PremiumBeat - Розваги
I was under the impression that Kings could only move one square at a time, but in any direction.
😂😂😂😂
Chess represents the social dynamics in court. The king is fat and can't move and the queens nagging can reach him anywhere.
I love the fact Warlord is in the credits.
As a nerd who runs a Dungeons and Dragons campaign in a low magic medieval setting, your videos are a constant boon and answer so many questions I have. Will my players ever question how long it takes them to reach a village or city, or how fast they're travelling? No. But I factor all of that in for my own satisfaction. Thank you for all your research and work, and for your great presentation of the information.
Our pleasure. I've not played for many years but have fond memories of doing so.
@@ModernKnight Beware of the Upside Down!!!😁🤣🥰
That sounds like a fun game
@@ModernKnight That makes me feel better, considering my mind automatically changed the thumbnail title to *How Fast Can A Mediaeval King LEVEL?*
As a player, I have had exactly that conversation. At the time we based our info on the film 'Hidalgo', but I like this source better.
I just love how Warlord almost constantly refuse to just walk. He's so beautiful and he knows it, just look at his action and energy. What a lovely horse!
Warlord is really a magnificent boy.
Ha ha War Lord never wants to walk! But I like him.
I had to watch this twice.
*Warlord is one of the most beautiful horses I've ever seen.*
I was so distracted that I didn't hear what was being said lol.
Then you should see Ghost, one of his other horses
He just wanted to gallop! Especially when the wind was in his hair...🥰
@@LadyMcBite Ghost is a handsome strong horse! But my favorite is good old sturdy Bramble!🥰🥰🥰
Also, I have read that by commenting on a video, you push that video much more in the youtube algorithm than by just liking or viewing it. so here is another comment. This channel is great.
Thanks again! much appreciated.
That engagement.
Yes!!!
For the algorithm!
This is a fantastic channel. All your videos are very informative, they are professionaly shot and you are a great presenter. What makes your channel so different is that you are not another armchair general speculating. You are fortunate enough to have the means to SHOW to us, many aspects of the knightly life. Please do continue you are doing a fine work.
We may not forget, that horses in the Middle Ages were much better trained as they are today..like you said most of them were pacing or ambling, which is a very comfortable way for rider and! horse not to be so tired quickly and recover very easy...you can compare the physical condition of the middle age horses a bit with the horses which are used today for endurance riding..these horses are able to cover a distance of 160 km within 8 to 10 hours..recover over night and go on the next morning..so..no problem for 380 miles within a few days..🤷♀️😊👍
You should ask an endurance rider a few questions. They do 50 and 100 mile rides regularly - often over brutal terrain - mind you the horses and riders are in good training for the events, but 100 milers are @ 10-15 hours, 50s run 4-6
Some just swapped horses at set points...
Thank you.
Endurance riding event is a bit different situation than a medieval person wanting to get from location A to location B to do thing X. I mean you can cover a lot of ground pretty fast if you're running a marathon, but what about wanting to be ready for work in your destination - not to mention safe and not in need of a specialist doctor, sports trainer & whole team to look after your bodily condition? Both people and animals are considerable less adventurous when they don't have access to 21st century medical care, nutrition and comforts at the end of the day.
@@AnnaMarianne you also need to consider modern people are no where near in daily conditions of back then much tougher than people now.
@@elizabethjansen2684 Yes especially someone with experience on campaign and a lot of physical training from teenage years. Might have used multiple horses as well since even Knights would have more than one horse with them.
Warlord is a bundle of energy! You can tell that fellow wants to run....
I would imagine if the king were traveling long distances at this rate, he might stop at his vasels' stables and trade off horses to keep fresh mounts under the men. One the way back, swap them out again as they would be rested and well fed.
I must comment to say the music is just perfectly chosen. Not only in this video, but the entire series. It has a certain medieval atmosphere and epicness when needed.
It enhances the whole viewing experience from simply a man riding to a medieval traveller crossing the countryside. Whether it's action scenes, under commentary or atmospheric, it just fits. Compliments to whomever chose and applies it.
He built his fortune as co-founder and CEO of the video game developer Rebellion. So that would be why he has access to epic music.
So accurate about horse behavior! Warlord is so cool.
Damn! This is quality you tube content right here! You guys just got one more subscriber! Keep up the amazing work, I'm already telling my friends about this great channel!
I'm surprised this has such a low subscribers. The editing and production is top notch.
My thoughts too, even 600,000 is low, normally I'd expect to find content like this above a number with at least a decimal point.
This channel has became my happy place on youtube, keep the good work sir and Warlord is a fantastic horse! Really worth of his namesake :)
Thanks, glad we can make you feel happy!
I've recently stumbled across your channel and before the first video ended, I subscribed. And then I binge-watched, off and on, the rest of the day. Your videos are wonderful! They're educational as well as entertaining. Your horses are so beautiful! I love watching you interact with them; how comfortable they are around you. And Jason, you're a marvelous teacher!
I have studied dressage under an instructor from the British Horse Society she was very good . She held 3 day events at her farm. I was invited to enter a dressage schooling show. I understand what your doing.
He looks so proud when he is under saddle❤❤❤❤❤
@@susanbishop5349 you should watch other videos. The ones where he interacts with his horses, are magnificent to watch. His horses have a true affection for him. You can see it in the way they follow him, keep their eyes on him, and just the simple interactions they have, it really is heartwarming to watch.
when you take on the day to day realities of this history i can smell the sweat and hear perfectly the crash of battle...i can begin to imagine the day to day struggles of my ancestors...your channel is a gift! thankyou and thankyou
I do SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) for a hobby. This has been by far one of the most enjoyable things to watch.
Also in Oklahoma they teach about the Middle Ages and I would love to see the teachers use your series because it is fun and instructional, keep up the great work. And give Warlord a few extra scratches for me he is gorgeous
#MorganDonner
Thank you Jason and all for the fabulous and supremely entertaining and educational content. As a history lover I can't get enough. I've been down on my back after an accident and since I don't watch TV you all have kept me so much happier after discovering your fantastic channel! Love from the USA
glad we've educated and entertained you a little. Hope you get better soon.
I love the way that you find answers to your own questions, ones which other people may probably have never thought of themselves. Thank you.
thanks, and yes, it's always fun to see what I can discover by doing.
Thanks mate for your whole channel. I’m learning so much from your videos
I love everything about this channel. Couldn't be more perfect.
I love these videos. These videos have made me reflect on other aspects of our lives that we still use but our perspective on the subject has significantly changed (horses, food, etc.). I would love to see a video about how people of the Medieval age perceived their relationships with dogs.
In days of old when knights were bold and railways weren't invented,
to travel far and go to war, they must have been demented!
Any idea if they had extra horses with them? If it was a small retinue, there is a good chance they were leading a train of horses, and swapping between them on the journey. This could allow them to keep of a faster pace, which could allow the riders some time to stop and rest. Your main limitation might be the riders, rather than the horses.
not sure that necessarily speeds things up though. Having had to lead horses myself, what it allows is longer time in the saddle, as you can swap mounts. we know roughly how far they rode in a day and I wondered how fast that was.
@@ModernKnight Longer time in the saddle is definitely appreciable, though the best thing is a chain of fresh horses Pony Express style (though they were far from unique in history). In the 1893 Ride to Chicago, the contestants brought multiple horses, as just the matter of reducing their fatigue by spreading the workload will improve your time over several days. It's also handy if one of your horses is injured and has to be left behind, of course.
@@ModernKnight Is it possible that they could have run the horses fast and when they reached a specific town or way point location, had either prearranged, would buy (its the king) or commandeer (its the king) new steeds for the next leg/day?
Swapping horses out is doable in THEORY, but if I remember right, it was historically used more for couriers delivering letters or package delivery. A formal relay road with stagecoaches or post-riders requires a LOT of infrastructure and logistics in place, and there are practical limits to King X's ability to gallop up to Lord Y's castle and demand however many fresh horses he needs.
I'll just focus on three of the most obvious "sounds cool, but how are we ACTUALLY going to pull this off?" issues:
1) You need the whole party to be mounted, which is pretty hard in practice. A lot of accounts for noble retinues tend to focus on the nobles, their children/relatives (who, by the way, may be too young or infirm to ride LONG distances), and their high-status retainers. However, their civilian servants (who most likely don't have ANY horses, let alone well-trained ones that can cover 55 miles a day), supply wagons and pack animals (who have the bulk of the party's food and cargo, and I'm pretty sure you need food when you're under high exertion), and foot guards (again, they obviously don't have horses) may have usually been "implied" if not completely left out of records.
Most armies actually traveled SLOWER than civilians because they had to make sure they didn't leave their many supply wagons and camp-followers behind, or the BACK HALF of their divisions (so a given army division would spend a nice few hours of the day just waiting for people to leave or catch up). This means a given army normally covered 8 or 12 miles a day, and 20-30 miles for a Roman legionnaire's hard infantry march was usually only done in an emergency.
2) Who's going to pay for all these horses? And who's going to pay for the people to TAKE CARE of all these horses? If you have five stops from Point A to Point B, one person needs five mounts, so just twenty people need a hundred horses, and that's EXPENSIVE for preindustrial societies. What do these horses do when they're not being ridden between stops? And what happens if you LOSE them? Standing armies were nonexistent in a lot of preindustrial warfare because a full-time fighting man usually couldn't have another job in peacetime, since he needed to keep in fighting shape... but if the army is more of a "reserve militia" and the men DO have jobs in peacetime, THEN you risk your economy sinking like a rock if you lose them. As what happened with World War 1, if you lose too many men in battle and a lot of the survivors are traumatized or disabled, this can easily affect the country/region for YEARS if not generations. The same balancing act would be needed for the relay system of horses.
3) Once you have all your infrastructure and supplies in place, everyone needs to trust each other with the welfare of a LOT of horses. All that time spent training horses, and all the supplies and buildings and support-staff you need for this system? Nobody wants these horses to be injured or killed, and they definitely don't want them STOLEN.
This kind of information is so useful for writers of historical fiction and medieval fantasy. Your channel is on my top 5 when I need to research realistic details. Thank you for the great content!
Just binged this series in it's entirety today and I gotta' say, the 10 year old in me is thoroughly satisfied. Well done Jason and team! Looking forward to the next edition to this series.
Thanks for watching.
Walking is hard on a windy day…
I have watched many of your posts, all high quality. Always informative. But I'd like you to know that above all you have made me better understand and love horses.
Love these videos, and love your horses.
I use your fantastic videos on a regular basis to teach my Medieval History course students. They absolutely love them and do lots of great discussions and creative work as a response. Thanks so much!
Our pleasure. Please send my greetings to your students.
Warlord is so well trained, on a windy day he still listens (mostly)
This is a thoroughly professional channel...congratulations and thank you
The fact that his horse is named Warlord and he calls him Lad (i don't know how to spell that) is the best thing about this show
You spelt it right hen
This channel is a real gem. Keep it up.
Warlord is such a beautiful horse. I have just watched many of your videos over the last week, and the content is so interesting and informative. Great reasoning! All of your horses are just divine, they are truly majestic and magical creatures, and they are so loved. It is a credit to you that you look after them so well, and you possess that special quality of a spiritual horse whisperer. Take care. Many blessings from Australia.
Thanks for watching us, and I'm glad you like our work.
Really enjoy watching & listening to Jason present the historic facts in such a fascinating way.
I rode 325 miles in 6 days back several years. We trained 5or6 days per week for 6 months. My horse was high energy. We rode walk ,trot,canter just to mix the gaits up and prevent any soreness. My horse ,a Morgan, was always fresh at the end of the day. A friend rode with me on her Standardbred ex race horse. Great memories. Thank you for the video and prompting my memories.A friend drove along in a van for sleeping ,eating etc and hauled a horse trailer in case of emergency. Lots of prep work went into that ride which included places to overnight the horses. Great fun
It is such a treat to watch Warlord in action from a distance trotting. One doesn't always get a sense for how gracefull your horses are, until viewers can see then from a distance.
Off-Topic / Similar Content Suggestion: Can you do a video on the (Medieval Crusades). Especially am intrigued by (supposed) little known fact that the Crusaders, started out on a somewhat hapless journey with no planning, no maps, no provisions, no water; that went terribly wrong ending with the death of, Crusader Elder, Jacques de Molay / Molai.
Ive been binge watching all of your video because I LOVE IT SOOOOO MUCH I love how you put all of your passion in each of your work it makes everything better please keep up the good work 💕💕💕💕
I love watching your videos, Sir Jason. You live the life that I wish I could.
Thanks for your support!
I watched all 61 videos of The Knight! Wow Such a great series! Thank you, Mr. Kingsley, camera, and production. Well done!! And thank you to the beautiful horses!!
Glad you like them!
Im proud of you and this beautiful series you have created. And I don't even know you mate. Great stuff Keep it up you bloody legend.
thanks!
If you round the time off to say 10 minutes (being more relaxed) you'd need to travel for around 9 1/2 hours each day to make 55 miles. This seems like it would be quite practical as well as reasonable for a traveling pace.
Here in Oregon we go trail riding out in the nation parks and Horse camps in the mountains, with winding trails and obstacles (at times) which gives a sense of cross country travel in a dense wood. The horses travel in single fine up any terrain the horse Infront will cross. At times in these woods it takes upwards of 3 hours to cross even 10 miles.
I wonder, if in medieval times they trained any lead horses to carry the escort through otherwise undesirable travel terrain.
Also I love all of your videos. I too wish more people knew about your channel.
Extremely underrated channel! The music is truly the cherry on the cake!
4:04 when you mention "The King" the horse raises his head at attention, it's like he knows what that word means. :)
I might have discovered this channel only recently but I am thoroughly loving it - it brings history and stories to life (and it has horses :) and your passion and warmth towards them is exquisite - as are they themselves ) . Please do keep it up. Being more on topic of this video, one wonders if the king had access to teams of horses across the country to consistently travel at those speeds.
Thanks for watching.
Absolutely loving these videos... just don't want them to come to an end!... (Certainly hope you have something else lined up.... )
Okay wow it is today that I have discovered this amazing channel and I hope I won't watch all the content before the weekend is over. Keep it up!
Thanks for watching, and I hope you enjoy it all!
Finally watched every video of this wonderful, wonderful series! It was magical, educational, wildy interesting and with such a good... I don't know what to call it... spirit?
It's been wonderful to journey into "simpler" (but not at all easier) times like that.
I'll miss you Jason! You are such a nice voice and person to "hang out" with
Glad you enjoyed them.
@@ModernKnight OMG the heroes themselves! Such a quick response
Great stuff. I'm hooked!
I absolutely love that Warlord is in the credits as well!
he deserves to be.
High quality sir! Love this page
This has been a terrific series, and very educational.
Recently discovered this channel, fascinating stuff because it deals with the nitty-gritty you just don't find in books
thanks for finding us!
This channel is skyrocketing now, last week it only had like 8k subs, now its at 28k. I say it is well deserved for the great work, actually the quality of these videos is 250k-ish, and I hope that is where this channel soon will be.
yes it's gone a bit crazy recently.
At 125k now so :) Jason and the team have brought something very nice to the table indeed!
288k right now
Beautiful videos, love it, going to watch next one 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
thanks!
I hope he keep producing more content. I got started on this about 1-2 weeks ago. I think the UA-cam algorithm wants creators to keep producing content more frequently (which causes their content to be meh), so I’m happy with his great stuff, hopefully the algorithm will launch him, cause he deserves at least a mil worth of subscribers.
Thanks for your support. I only have a little time at the weekend to make videos, so we can only manage 1 every two weeks roughly. It’s my hobby.
Would love to see this experiment with an ambler! I own a gaited horse and her gait is significantly speedier than a lot of trotting horses and uses a lot less energy.
Wiccad Witch I’d love to do that too, but don’t have access to a gaited horse sadly. Not many about in England as far as I know. You should do the experiment,
Wiccad Witch I was hoping to see a comment like this. I’ve seen some video of the smaller, gaited horses used for travel in Middle Age Europe. It was remarkable how much ground they could cover & how smoothly they rode.
@@jasonkingsley2762 Are you familiar with the book The Medieval Warhorse: From Byzantium to the Crusades by Ann Hyland? I'm remembering her talking about Medieval gaited horses at some point, bred for their smooth rides. I just flipped through it again and can't find the reference, but what I did find were a lot of examples I'd underlined about how long it took various groups of riders to go from place to place, what impedimenta they were travelling with, etc. If you don't have the book -- although you may well, because it's so much on topic of a lot of your experiments with your horses -- I HIGHLY recommend it. (P.S., Thank you so much for your channel! I find it SO useful!)
19 miles/day may not be a particularly vigorous pace for a single rider, but it's significant logistical task to get a large group like a king's court all moving together at that pace.
Congratulations on 3k subs, been watching your videos since you only had a few hundred. I was literally going to suggest this topic for a future video and lo and behold its here lol, awesome job as always.
fantastic video yet so little viewed, how saddening.
1 I love the Knight series 2 I love experiments 3 your videos are so interesting. 👍👏👏👏👏👏
Thanks for your feedback. I do like actually trying things out.
Jason Kingsley I wish I had the opportunities you have 😁 Also I had to laugh when I saw a knight on a beautiful horse with... A phone 👏😂
Love your videos.
I love this channel. It got great content. Keep up the great work!
Thanks!
@@ModernKnight No, *I* have to thank *you* for creating this show. It' great.
Warlord seemed to like the blustery day....he wanted to canter!
When they show riders travelling in these period films they are always blasting at canter or full gallop which clearly wouldn’t be realistic at all slogging a horse at that pace for even a day. They must show it in films for the urgency drama effect only.
Amaizing video! I'm always happy to see something new from You, Sir. It really reminded me of quiet forgotten walk that was used mostly in XVI and XVII century in Poland. It was Kohorta - both special walk and figure in wchich cavalry was travelling. I have only once in my whole life ridden like that properly and its really fast. Its similar to trot in movement, to relaxed canter in speed and pretty uncomfortable in english saddles. Well trained horse can deal with several days for 8-10 hours of being ridden that way. Rider without preparation and proper saddle isn't capable of traveling like that for longer period of time. Its more comfortable to ride kohorta without any saddle than with english , but when you can ride it well you may get throught
Thanks, yes I'm trying to rediscover some of the ways medieval horses might have moved, but a lot of the skills havebeen lost.
@@ModernKnight That's true! Historical horsemanship has so many to offer. Its like closed book torn in pieces. Its really hard to get throught but rewarding. Thank You for your answear and hard work You do! Have amaizing time exploring medieval times!
@@ModernKnight I forgot to add yesterday. I have a theory that in medieval times there were several ways of collecting a horse. One of them may be the most "iconic" one and seen the most often in manuscripts - when horse has his hind legs close to each other and front in the air, riders legs then are enormously forward and horse's head position is specific , what's more propably the horse has "freedom in withers , shoulders and neck" especially that this idea of different contact was present in later periods
Oh man, I just realised how much time I've spent walking in Mount and Blade Warband haha.
Well, can't wait for Bannerlord.
Your channel is very good. Subscribed. 🔥👌
Just found your channel! Really informative and very interesting stuff :) I'm surprised that this channel doesn't have more subs given the quality of these vids. You should do an episode with shadiversity sometime if you haven't already :P
(can't tell who's hair is more majestic, yours or the horse's xD)
we're working on finding more viewers, but I do this for fun and education in my spare time, so if one person learns one thing then I'm happy.
Great stuff thank you. And love the idea of jig jogging
Beautiful, calm horse!
As kings rides go, Charles XII ride from Pitești (Romania) to Stralsund (Baltic) in 15 days is one of the more spectacular. But he did blow a lot of horses and he probably did have spies and agents preparing the ride beforehand.
This channel is damn awesome.
What beautiful reins and bridal pieces.
such an amazing channel
A nice future project will be doing it for real. I guess you could do some wild camping in dartmoor to see how it was really like? Traveling for that long would need some pack horses for supplies of food and shelter i guess. What would the king bring with him? Will he take his cook and servents i wonder? Beautiful as always and thank you for all the peoples hard work to make it possible.
one day it would be great to do that sort of thing.
Love your videos
Fantastic videos ;)
If you could at some point do a video on how much everything cost for a lord or night and the modern day equivalent. and also the hierarchy of society like what a knight and lord owned, how much they earned and i would love, videos on castles how the different between them based of what the current lord wanted and needed in his castle (e.g stables, guest houses and so on)
I have been looking for a video on this issue for quite some time. I was even going to ask for some data off the Quorn Hunt, but the Christmas before last was a notoriously rainy one & Zouch had flooded (as I don't drive, I would've had water up to my knees cycling) so I called it off. I walk extremely quickly & am probably the human equivalent of an ambler or a pacer so half a mile in ten minutes on foot looks like nothing to me. For comparison I rode a bicycle the 35 miles from London to Rochester in 6 hours to test how far I could ride in a day (for planning long trips by bicycle). It's about as similar experience I can get considering that I don't have a horse.
I am totally fascinated by this series! I love the horses and the history. I cant imagine my T.B. hurdler coping, he would be terrfied! So much information as I m a history lover. I cannot even imagine Towton.
As part of my packing job, I sometimes have to ride 25-30 miles in a day on supply trips. That takes me about 8 hours with a horse and 6 mules. About 25% of the ride is over very steep mountainous harsh terrain, going very slow to balance heavy packs and with frequent breather stops. The stock can do that 2 days in a row before a days rest is needed.
As I think about the King doing 380 miles I wonder if he sent scouts ahead and had fresh horses along the way. Over flat terrain, I'll bet a horse could do 50 miles for one and a half days (75 miles over two days) before rest is needed. But that's just speculation on my part. You might like to check out an event called the Tevis Cup that we have near here. It's a 50 mile race over the Sierra mountains. Your channel is fascinating!
It is so hard to sit that jiggity-jog that horses do when supposed to walk but are energized.
The sound recording on this is great, considering the wind!
The way Warlord looked back - it said to me - You got that gps location yet? lol
when you were getting the directions on your gps thingy that horse did really good staying put and just watching where the camera guy was even when he went around behind you to film a different angle of you and the horse you had at the time
As a digression- it was not medieval days but the last warrior king in Europe to lead his men from the front, Charles XII of Sweden, once did an amazing feat on horseback(and delayed by some travel time in wagon as well) In disguise with just 2 of his most loyal soldiers in 1714 he went from Pitesti in today’s Rumania to Stralsund along the coastline of the Baltic sea in just 14 days-by horse. In early winter and partly delayed by wagon travel this will still amount to ca 150km pr day for 14 days. Charles was said to destroy several of the horses that was used along the way. My point is- hard men did some extensive campaigning on horseback back in the day-just think of the mongols also that arguably lived from the horseback.
interesting information, thanks.
That horse is so gallant. Worthy of a being a King’s mount, he’s so beautiful.
I love that the very first one credited at the end, is the horse...Warlord👍🏻
You can see what a good rider Jason is here by how stable he is in the saddle at a quick trot.
The majesty of that horse
Endurance riding!
Emperor Henry VI and his entourage in 1193 (between January 28 and December 20) traversed more than 4,000 kilometres - crisscrossing the entire German area. (source: Wikipedia - Itinerant court article). They had their whole retinue as well, carts, etc.
Well, as a Welshman I'm no fan of Edward I, so hopefully he was utterly knackered at the end of a day's riding. But great, fascinating content again though. Love these videos.
He probably had a right royal sore undercarriage, which might amuse, given his history with your country.
When medieval people needed to go somewhere as fast as possible, they would use the inns and stables to swap out tired horses for fresh ones, as often as every couple of hours, if they could afford it!
There were also specific buildings for that purpose.
The stable where I work was a „Pferdewechselstation“ („Horse-changing-station“) because it was between larger towns.
To get past the issue of the horse knowing he is approaching home, you could circumequitate your landholding, that way you're always riding perpendicular to the direction of home (doesn't work if the homestead is located in a corner). Even better would be to plan an actual journey but then you'd have to plan a route off-tarmac as much as possible because tarmac can be quite tiring for a horse.
Warlord was like "actually we should run"
Modern horses need to eat 15 to 20 lbs of roughage each day. How did the King handle the food requirements? Grazing on good pasture needs 8 to 10 hours optimally. Winter pasture would be nutritionally less. Hauling grain would be helpful but heavy /slow and would be inefficient with a large retenue. Any ideas?
Really interesting point, who knows? Sadly we have so little information from the past. It’s why I do my experiments.