Turcopole

The turcopoles , or turcoples , were arc hers assembling horses Arab, equipped slightly and equipped with Turkish. In French, the word appears at the 12th century.

The etymology seems to indicate that at the beginning these auxiliary troops were made up combatants of Turkish origin ( sports shirts = foal, in the direction of child), of the Seldjoukides christianized. But this body accepted also combatants of mixed ascent, cross father and Christian mother of the East, Arménie, Greek or Syria, called “Poulain S”, or of Turkish father and Greek mother. One could find there, more generally still, of the combatants resulting from the local Christian population, manners and Eastern type thus, even of the christianized Moslems (Syrian, Bedouin S, etc, or of the soldiers Turkish captured on the battle fields preferring conversion with dead), this why the Mamelouks regarded them as traitors and renegades, not showing no pity towards those which they captured: after Hattin, in 1187, Saladin made carry out the captive turcopoles like apostates.

They were primarily with the service of the various established military orders with Cyprus, Jerusalem, Rhodos and other places, and were used to counter the Turkish tactics of harassing being based on forces more mobile than the heavy frank knights. They were ordered by a Sergent brother, called Turcopolier. Later, the teutonic Ordre called its own indigenous cavalry Turkopolen .

The turcopoles were mercenaries whom one could rent the time of a military campaign. More typified than the combatants coming from Occident, they could easily serve spies or scouts and infiltrate the enemy grounds. In addition to the services which they rendered to the religious orders, they were also with the pay of Byzance which, just like towards the Almogavre S, always did not show them a great recognition. This is why it arrived to them, at the beginning of the 14th century, to be combined with the latter when they had mortally scrambled with Andronic II Paleologist.

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