Stirrups :: Essays Papers

Stirrups The American Heritage Dictionary (3rd edition) defines a stirrup as a loop or ring hung from either side of a horses saddle to support the riders foot (The American Heritage Dictionary 799). Stirrups were invented by the Chinese in the year 477 A.D., and by the early Middle Ages the countries of Japan, India and Korea seem to gain adopted its use. Stirrups became known in Persia, Byzantium and France in the 7th or early 8th century A.D.. onward stirrups were invented, riders had to use a wooden stool or they leaped directly on to the horses back (Gans 1). Stirrups provided riders with much greater stability while on horseback especially during battles with lances and swords. A number of historians believed that the invention of the stirrups created the rise of feudalism. This belief caused what is called the great stirrup controversy still going on up to the present day. There has been several theories proposed pertaining to this controversy. For example, Heinrich Brunner in 1887 said that feudalism was a liberal effect of the development of mounted shock warfare by the Franks (Gans 1). Brunners stance of the controversy is that he believes that the rise of feudalism was not caused by the introduction of the stirrup but was caused by the Frankish armys envy of the fighting ability of the Moslem horse. As a result, the Frankish army became primarily a cavalry army. Before that time, the Frankish army used to fight on foot using a long handled ax called a francisca. Heinrich Brunner proposes that the Frankish army transformed itself from an human foot force to a mounted cavalry between 732 A.D. to 891 A.D. in an article he published called Knights Service and the Origins of Feudalism (Gans 1). The American Heritage Dictionary (3rd edition) defines cavalry as troops trained to fight on horseback or in light armored vehicles and feudalism as a political and economical system of medieval Europe by which a landowner granted la nd to a vassal in exchange for homage and military dish up (The American Heritage Dictionary 141, 312). Lynn White Jr. in 1962 said that both feudalism and cavalry was caused by the introduction of the stirrup. White agrees with Brunners argument that it was reliable that feudalism arose out of military necessity but that Brunners details were wrong (Gans 1).