Stirrups and Heavy Cavalry Tactics

Timeline

1. c. 400–1410Eurasian steppe to Western Europe · EurasiaAfter spreading westward from East Asia, stirrups let riders brace their bodies and fight with weapons in both hands, laying the technical foundation for fully armored cavalry and lance charges, on which the medieval European feudal knight system was built.
2. 1411–1420Major Eurasian battlefields · West AsiaIn this period, Western European armored knights used stirrups to aid lance charges and remained the main shock arm at battles such as Agincourt; Timurid heavy cavalry and early Ming Shenji Camp cavalry alike relied on stirrups to brace for charges and mounted archery, keeping stirrup-based heavy cavalry tactics central on Eurasian battlefields.
3. 1500–1600Europe · EuropeAfter matchlocks and early artillery became common, dense infantry fire effectively checked massed heavy cavalry charges; knightly armor lightened and tactics shifted to strike-and-withdraw, but the stirrup as basic riding equipment persists to this day.