Lances fournies The lances fournies ( French : " lances furnished " ) was a medieval equivalent to the modern army squad that would have accompanied and supported a man - at - arms ( a heavily - armoured horseman popularly known as the " knight " ) in battle . These units formed companies under a captain either as mercenary bands or in the retinue of wealthy nobles and royalty . Each lance was supposed to include a mixture of troop types ( the men - at - arms themselves , lighter cavalry , infantry , and even noncombatant pages ) that would have guaranteed a desirable balance between the various components of the company at large ; however , it is often difficult to determine the exact composition of the lance in any given company as the available sources are few and often centuries apart . A lance was usually led and raised by a knight in the service of his liege , yet it is not uncommon in certain periods to have a less privileged man , such as a serjeants - at - arms , lead a lance . More powerful knights , also known as a knight banneret s , could field multiple lances . Origins . The origins of the lance lie in the retinues of medieval knights ( Chaucer ' s Knight in the " Canterbury Tales " , with his son the Squire and his archer Yeoman has similarities to a lance ) . When called by the liege , the knight would command men from his fief and possibly those of his liege lord or in this later ' s stead . Out of the Frankish concept of knighthood , associated with horsemanship and its arms , a correlation slowly evolved between the signature weapon of this rank , the horseman ' s lance , and the military value of the rank . In other words , when a noble spoke of his ability to field forces , the terms knights and lances became interchangeable . The lance had no consistent strength of arms throughout its usage as a unit . Different centuries and different states gave it a fluctuating character . However , the basic lance of three men ; a knight , a squire who served as a fighting auxiliary and a non - combatant squire , primarily concerned on the battlefield with looking after the knight ' s spare horses or lances , seems to evolve in the 13th century An excellent description to convey its relevance is in Howard , " a team of half a dozen men , like the crew of some enormous battle tank " . The 13th century French rule of the Templars had specified that a brother knight should have one squire if he had one warhorse , two if he had an extra one . In addition , he had a riding horse and a packhorse . In battle the squires would follow the brothers with the spare warhorses . A similar arrangement was also seen in Spain in the 1270s , according to Ramon Llull : Neither horse , nor armor , nor even being chosen by others is sufficient to show forth the high honor that pertains to a Knight . Instead he must be given a squire and a servant to look after his horse Organisation . France . The term " lances fournies " itself appeared much the same way as the " compagnies d ' ordonnance " " " Les lances fournies pour les compagnies d ' ordenance du Roi . " " or The lances furnished for the companies ordered by the King . Upon the original establishment of the French " compagnies d ' ordonnance " , the " lances fournies " were formed around a man - at - arms ( a fully armored man on an armored horse ) with a retinue of a page or squire , two or three archers , and a ( slightly ) lighter horseman known as the serjeant - at - arms or coutilier ( literally " dagger man , " a contemporary term for mounted bandits and brigands ) . All members in a lance were mounted for travel but only the man - at - arms and the coutilier were regularly expected to fight on horseback , though of course both members were also trained and equipped for dismounted action . Lances would be further organized as companies , each company numbering about 100 " lances " , effectively 400 plus fighting men and servants . These companies were sustained even in peace , and became the first standing army in modern Europe . Burgundy . The last Duke of Burgundy , Charles the Bold , made a number of ordinances prescribing the organisation of his forces in the 1460s and 1470s . In the first ordinance of 1468 , the army is clearly organised in three man lances ; a man - at - arms , a " coustillier " and a " valet " . In the Abbeville Ordinance of 1471 , the army is re - organised into 1250 lances of 9 men each : a man - at - arms , a " coustillier " , a non - combatant page , three mounted archers and three footsoldiers ( a crossbowmen , handgunner , and pikeman ) . This organisation is repeated in the 1472 and 1473 ordinances . Brittany . The Duchy of Brittany also ordered the equivalent of the lance in an ordinance of 1450 . While the basic lance was the familiar three man structure of man - at - arms , coutilier and page , dependent on the wealth of the man - at - arms , additional archers or " juzarmiers " ( that is , men equipped with a guisarme ) were added . At the highest income band specified ( 600 - 700 livres ) , either four archers , or three archers and a juzarmier , were added to the basic unit . Italy . In Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries , mercenary soldiers were recruited in units known variously as " barbuta " , lance or " corazza " , consisting of two to six men . Although it is traditionally thought that the three man lance was introduced to Italy by the mercenaries of the White Company in the 1360s , in fact they had evolved somewhat earlier The three man lance consisted of two combatants , a men - at - arms and an armed squire , plus a page . Occasionally , a mounted archer could be substituted for the squire . In the mid 15th century , soldiers called " lanze spezzate " ( literally broken lances ) evolved . These were men who , for some reason , had become detached from their mercenary companies and their lances and were now hired as individuals . They were then placed in new companies and lances under a new commander . Germany . In Germany , an indigenous form of the lance known as a " gleve " ( pl . " gleven " ) developed . The three man gleve may have existed in the early 14th century , with a knight supported by two sergeants . Later the sergeants were replaced by mercenaries . The equivalent of the lance of two combatants with page is seen in Germany in the later 14th century , when the second combatant can be a spearman or an archer . However , in various regions , other sizes of gleven existed of up to ten men , including up to three mounted archers ( who would dismount to fight ) and armed servants who acted as infantry . Poland . " Kopia " ( Polish for lance ) was the basic military formation in medieval Poland , identical to the lance - unit employed elsewhere in Western Europe . A " Kopia " was composed of a knight and his retinue ( of 3 - 12 soldiers ) . On campaign , several kopias were combined to form a larger unit , the " chorągiew . " From the 15th century the term kopia was replaced by " Poczet " . See also . Re - enacting Charles the Bold ' s ordinances .