It is assumed that during the early Middle Ages (the 5th century) in Latin Europe, the cavalry dominated the battlefields, and their charges often decided the fate of the battle. At that time, the infantry, although numerically significant, was treated as secondary. However, already in the full Middle Ages (11th-13th centuries) this picture began to change very slowly, to change significantly in the 14th-15th centuries. In the late Middle Ages, infantry was able to deal with chivalry, above all, cavalry quite successfully. Two significant examples are provided by the Hundred Years' War (1337-1453), when at Crecy (1346) and Agincourt (1415), English archers stopped the charge of the French cavalry and decided the results of these battles almost on their own. At the same time, however, the way of fighting infantry was changed by the Swiss, who used the most offensive tactics, and the strength of their highly disciplined infantry was based primarily on handguns - primarily pice. An example is the battle of Sempach in 1386. It is also worth remembering the battles fought by the Hussites, who, thanks to the use of e.g. rolling stock or still primitive firearms, were able to inflict significant defeats on the cavalry on the battlefields. These changes, taking place in the tactics and armament of infantry in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, meant that in Western Europe at the beginning of the modern era, the infantry will be the "queen of battlefields".
The crossbow, as a battle weapon, is not certified in sources in Latin Europe from the 5th to the end of the 10th century. The first mentions of it appear in French sources at the end of this century. It is also assumed that the crossbow was almost certainly used at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It can also be assumed that it spread in Europe during the 11th and 12th centuries. The crossbow was a very dangerous weapon in efficient hands, because it had great - for those times - penetrating power, high accuracy and was able to kill a man from a distance of up to 350 meters! Its main disadvantage was the relatively low rate of fire and the rather complicated process of loading the weapon. Despite this, it was used not only in sieges, but also in the open field, and Genoese crossbowmen were seen as highly valued mercenary soldiers skilled in the use of this weapon. It is worth adding that in the late Middle Ages (14th-15th centuries), crossbowmen often collaborated with transoms, that is, soldiers wearing shields to protect crossbowmen. On the battlefields, the crossbow gave way to arquebuses, and later to muskets, at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries.