Just an aside to Stefan's post....
Not all mediaeval engagements lasted minutes, most raged for hours or were spread over days, like Bannockburn for instance.
Also, if you were an ordinary peasant conscripted to fight in his lord's armed band, chances are you would be neither trained nor equipped. There are cases of men answering the compulsory role call for military service, then deserting. Or guys turning up on the battlefield, firing two arrows and then going home, happy in the knowledge that they had fulfilled their feudal obligation to render military service!
These guys also had the least chance of survival in combat, because being dirt poor, their lives weren't worth sparing. Knights and aristos, on the other hand, could surrender to another knight and live like kings in captivity until their ransom was paid. No other option available for the footsoldiers but fight or die. At least modern troops are (theoretically) covered by the Geneva Convention.
In these days of state armies, men can expect to be paid, fed and receive medical treatment. In the Hundred Years War, both sides hired mercenaries who were paid off at the end of the campaigning season. These men then spent the winter stealing crops and burning villages, exacerbating supply problems the following summer again.
Most mediaeval armies lost more men to disease than they ever lost in battle, and suffered even greater stupidity from their "leaders"; look at the Crusade that started at the end of the Holy Land with no water supply
Regards,
Gordon
[ 12. April 2004, 10:33 AM: Message edited by: The_Historian ]