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Heey all,

I have a question but cannot find the answer.
Around keeps etc, they put large spears in the ground to stop horses and stuff,
Whats the name of this defense.

I can't find it anyware I hope you guys know it.

- Nick

As far as I know it's simply called a spear wall.

It depends what you are talking about. I am not sure I am on the saem page.

Large wooden walls surrounding castles or keeps are palisades.

A large number of large wooden piles driven into the ground where it is not a solid wall is called a stake. Do you have a picture you are going off of?

R

I know what your talking about. I can't seem to find the name either.

It's an anti-cavalry fortification. Large stakes/pikes driven into the ground facing outward from your defensive position to prevent the use of heavy cavalry from breaching your lines.

A spear wall is an infantry fortification if I'm not mistaken and doesn't consist of driven stakes.

All the references that I can find call them stakes. There were used by the English at the Battle of Agincourt. I found the most references to stakes in descriptions of that battle.

Josh

Thank you for reply's

I found a pic that looks like it:

http://i71.photobucket.com/albums/i126/ ... low20r.jpg

This is what I meant.

Is there an official name for it?

Well i would call it a Sprear wall or stakes hope it helps.

CastleLord

They simply are called stakes or stake emplacements. I am fairly sure in the medieval period they use set stakes for the term. It’s a type of temp field fortification, though you do see them at times to reinforce permanent defences as bulwarks do.

In the 15th century the English begin to use more stakes as the ratio of men at arms (armoured melee soldier) to archer goes from 1 to 1 to 1 to 3/1 to 20 or more. With less men at arms to protect archers they needed a suitable means of keeping cavalry from simply riding them off the field and the stake became common. You do see some evidence of stakes before the 15th. The battle of Najera in Castile used them as well as pits about a foot in diameter and twice that deep to stop cavalry.... but the 15th century you see them all the time while in the 14th less so.

R

Heir of Black Falcon wrote:They simply are called stakes or stake emplacements. I am fairly sure in the medieval period they use set stakes for the term. It’s a type of temp field fortification, though you do see them at times to reinforce permanent defences as bulwarks do.

In the 15th century the English begin to use more stakes as the ratio of men at arms (armoured melee soldier) to archer goes from 1 to 1 to 1 to 3/1 to 20 or more. With less men at arms to protect archers they needed a suitable means of keeping cavalry from simply riding them off the field and the stake became common. You do see some evidence of stakes before the 15th. The battle of Najera in Castile used them as well as pits about a foot in diameter and twice that deep to stop cavalry.... but the 15th century you see them all the time while in the 14th less so.

R

Thank you for your reply, I finally have my answer

In military texts they are listed as spear wall, stakes, stake walls or palisaded glacis (though most think palisades means vertical logs it also meant the spikes). These give way to cheveaux des frise and eventual tank entrapments.

palisade or wall of impalment