Westerosi infantry-Far from badly trained peasants

[Lord Giggles]

So, over the time I’ve been lurking on here I’ve seen a lot of people, when discussing westerosi armies, treating the infantry as ill-disciplined, barely trained levies who were dragged off to war a few weeks before their first action. Upon re reading what little we see of westerosi infantry in battle and the equipment they use, I don’t believe this is the case and thought I’d write this to show why.

 

Equipment

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“lord Walder’s bastard son Ronald rivers, leading a long column of pike men, rank on rank of shuffling men in blue steel ring mail and silver grey cloaks”

So here we have a description of some Frey infantry. The first thing to note is that they’re using pikes. Even if that just means a long spear or a bill or something of that sort, they’re not weapons which are going to be used en masse by levies who are ill-equipped and are just using whatever weapon they have. If that were the case, you’d see a much larger number of things like axes which have a use in peace as well as war. Pikes have no use in peace as they’re too big to be used for hunting (IF small folk would be hunting, which is unlikely if Westeros’ is in any way similar to medieval Europe in the laws surrounding hunting) so these men must have owned these pikes in the expectation they would be called upon to go to war at some point. Now it’s not impossible that small folk could own one. The average unskilled labourer in 15^th century England at about the time of the Wars of the Roses earned 2 or 3 pence per day, most of which would have gone towards basic necessities but if he’d saved he could have gotten a bill/pike/spear (which cost around 11d.(pence)) and then passed it down to his son and his son would pass it on to his son etc. However, this doesn’t get rid of the fact that to use a pike with any degree of effectiveness you need to have trained and not just for a few weeks prior to your first engagement but for a reasonably long period of time (hence why pikes were used predominantly in areas where sufficient food was produced or imported to support a large, non-agricultural population).

 

The second part of their equipment which suggests to me that these aren’t just peasant levies who have been press ganged into service is their armour. They’re wearing chainmail, which was extremely expensive and out of the reach of all but the most well off peasantry. Now in addition to this they’ll almost certainly be wearing a padded jack underneath their chainmail (I’ve never come across an instance where soldiers chose to wear chainmail instead of a padded jack. They always got the jack first and then chainmail only if they could afford it) and if they’re wearing chainmail they’ll likely be wearing a helmet as well (again, soldiers almost always seem to have bought the helmet before chainmail and then the mail after only if they could afford it). Again taking 15^th century England as an analogue, all of this would be extremely costly. The mail alone would cost 5l.(5 pounds) the equivalent of 2 and a half years wages for an unskilled labourer. The whole lot (including a pike from the cheaper end of the market) would cost somewhere in the region of 7l. 7s. 6d.(7 pounds, 7 shillings and 6 pence. Or 3 and a half years pay for an unskilled labourer).

 

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“larger part of the northern host, pikes and archers and great masses of men at arms on foot, remained on the east bank under the command of Roose Bolton”

 

Here we have a description of the northern foot who go to fight at the Green Fork. There’s not much remarkable about the first part. Archers were a relatively cheap form of infantry and so were common across most of earth’s pre-gunpowder history (with the exception of crossbows and longbows, both of which were expensive weapons), except for the mention of pikes which, as I’ve explained above, is not impossible for a peasant levy to use but is unlikely. However, the important part here is the section where the words “men at arms” are spoken. Now in the 15^th century England, men-at-arms were heavy cavalry and infantry who fought in plate armour and armed with either swords or more likely a pole axe or warhammer.  Even the bottom end wore a lot of plate armour and definitely wore a padded jack and likely chain mail underneath. Now they wouldn’t need to be clad head to foot in plate armour (a full suit of plate was around 8l.) but they’d normally have at least a brigandine, helmet padded jack and then likely chain mail underneath. Put together, that’s even more expensive than what the Frey foot are wearing and so none of these men are going to be coming from peasant farming families that just barely scrape by on the food they produce and it’s also unlikely (although not impossible) that they are skilled workers such as masons or carpenters as even these relatively well-off people didn’t really make enough to buy all that equipment. They’re more likely to be minor landowners who are given land by their lords in exchange for military service so while they might potentially still be classified as farmers, they wouldn’t be the ones getting their hands dirty.

 

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“Quivers hanging from their belts, the foot archers arrayed themselves into three long lines to east and west of the road, and stood calmly stringing their bows. Between them pike men formed squares, behind were rank on rank of men at arms with spear and sword and axe. Three hundred heavy horse surrounded ser Kevan and the lords bannermen Lefford, Lydden and Serrett with all their sworn retainers. The right wing was all cavalry, some four thousand men, heavy with the weight of their armor. More than three quarters of the knights were there massed together like a great steel fist. Ser Adam Marbrand had the command. Tyrion saw his banner unfurl as his standard bearer shook it out, a burning tree, arange and smoke.”

Here we see a section describing the Lannister army as it prepares for battle. First of all, their behaviour is not that of conscripted levies but more on that later. Once again, met-at-arms are mentioned and here they seem to be being employed to combat those enemies who get past the pikes, meaning they’re likely heavily armoured and seeing as this is westermen we’re dealing with it’s probable that more of them are dressed in full plate than men-at-arms from the North or the Riverlands and if they’re being entrusted with melee fighting then most of them have probably trained for that for a long time, meaning they are unlikely to have another job which prevents them from training.

 

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“not only knights now but freeriders and mounted bowmen and men at arms in jacks and kettle helms, dozens, hundreds of men”

 

Here we have mentioned the men who Stannis takes with him to the wall. These are the ones who’ve stuck with him through Blackwater so they’re likely to be a mixed bag, with some at the very bottom end of westerosi armies and a few at the top (although these are likely few and far between). The fact that even these men have jacks and kettle helms indicates that they are most definitely not just peasant levies and are in fact men further up the social scale, with the land, money and means to buy for themselves decent equipment and to devote a reasonable amount of time training.

 

That’s the first section. In the next section I’ll be covering what we’ve seen of their performance in combat and how that adds credence to the idea that they’re retainers with a fair bit of land and money and time to train.

[Bright Blue Eyes]

I've got to ask the same .

It's pretty much the first post of Come into my Castle again. Ok, that one can't be repeated too often.

 

PS: Please stick to the standard font sizes, your post was very difficult to read.

[Lord Giggles]

 

@Bright Blue Eyes: Oh…I didn’t realise someone had covered this already

 

In this second part I will be covering the motivation and discipline displayed by the infantry of Westeros' armies and how that relates to the idea that they aren't just peasant levies.

 

The first thing concerning this topic doesn't involve their performance in battle at all and that's how many of them actually show up. When Robb Stark is marching south, he manages to get together an army that's 18,000 strong before he leaves the North. While there's a not insignificant force of cavalry in this army, most of it is infantry (anywhere between 14,000 and 16,000 of its men). In medieval times when lords relied on levies for their infantry, they weren't normally able to pull together large forces of infantry at short notice as bullying, bribing and otherwise persuading hundreds of peasant farmers to leave their homes and come fight in a war they don't really see the point of was a time consuming business. Even later on during the reigns of Kings like Edward I when the infantry were paid for their services, commanders needed time to get a significant force together (and in some ways this system was worse as the infantry numbers varied wildly given that there was no guaranteed way of knowing even an estimate of how many would show up). Commanders only really start to be able to pull together large forces of infantry reliably and at short notice later on in the 15th century when you got people like retainers who didn't need persuasion of one form or another and could be called up comparatively quickly.

 

In addition to how quickly these men get called up to service, they don't seem to desert in large numbers. Historically, levies who weren't defending their homeland tended to desert in large numbers very quickly (a notable instance of this is one of Edward I's campaigns in Scotland, where he had to call it off due to the number of foot who deserted). If these men were levies, then I would expect for the large armies fielded by the Lannisters and Starks (without even getting me started on the Tyrells mass of foot) to start losing men almost as soon as the opening engagements of the WoFK were fought and it dawned on them that they'd actually have to fight. Instead, the armies seem to retain most of their strength except for men killed by battle (or disease) indicating that desertion isn't a major problem for them. Now this could be explained by how far away from home they are but the same could be said for Edward I's army in Scotland and the infantry of that army still deserted in enormous numbers. However, once you start to get the paid and contracted "professionals" of the 15th century, desertion becomes far less of a problem (although it was still a concern). The infantry in Westeros stay in the field for near two years without deserting which seems more like the retainers of the late middle ages than the peasant levies who have been dragged away from their farms to fight a war they don't understand and have little personal stake in.

 

Third point which doesn't concern their performance in battle is that there seems to be remarkably little looting going on in the WoFK. If the hordes of infantry used by the great houses of Westeros were levies who were used to subsisting on what they can farm and (if they're lucky) make from selling their surplus, then you'd expect them to carry off whatever wealth they can find from the countryside they move through with a bit of rape thrown in with little notice paid to whether they're in "friendly" territory or not.

 

However, the looting committed by the Lannister and Stark forces in the Riverlands takes on three distinct forms. The first is what the Mountain and his riders do, which is raise whatever they find to the ground and sow as much terror and chaos in their wake as they can. This is a military strategy called a chevauchée and is specifically designed to destroy your enemy's ability to fight back and is a military strategy ordered and sanctioned by Tywin to wreck the Riverlands' economy, not the random pillaging of loot hungry levies. The second is taking equipment from dead bodies after a battle (don't remember if it's mentioned in the books but it's shown in the show after the battle of Oxcross and it would make sense for it to happen). This happened on every battlefield right up until the late 19th century. After all, why not take the dead men's equipment? It might be better than yours and they're not going to be needing it anymore. The third is looting for food which, again, happened right up until the mid to late 19th century. The reason for this is that pre canned food it's near impossible to supply an army of 20,000 men from their home region while they're off fighting in another kingdom, meaning there's little option but to scavenge or pillage whatever food you need from the surrounding countryside. None of these forms of looting indicate ill-discipline, they are all either part of an overall strategy or they are inevitability of pre modern warfare. The fact that the rape and pillage doesn't happen that often (or at least we don't see much evidence for it happening let alone frequently) indicates that these men aren't poor and so don't need to loot particularly in order to supplement their basic income, meaning they'll hold off on looting unless it's for basic survival or it's under circumstances where they won't be offending their allies or potential allies(as the northmen seem to receive the carte blanche to loot from castles in the Westerlands during Robb’s campaign there).

 

Now onto their performance just before battle.

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“Quivers hanging from their belts, the foot archers arrayed themselves into three long lines to east and west of the road, and stood calmly stringing their bows. Between them pike men formed squares, behind were rank on rank of men at arms with spear and sword and axe. Three hundred heavy horse surrounded ser Kevan and the lords bannermen Lefford, Lydden and Serrett with all their sworn retainers. The right wing was all cavalry, some four thousand men, heavy with the weight of their armour. More than three quarters of the knights were there massed together like a great steel fist. Ser Adam Marbrand had the command. Tyrion saw his banner unfurl as his standard bearer shook it out, a burning tree, arange and smoke.”

In this quote, we see the Westermen preparing for battle. Now if this were an army of peasant levies, you’d expect there to be far more confusion as to who was going where. However, we are led to believe from this section that the Westermen aren’t rushing about trying to find where they’re supposed to go. Instead, each unit of men seems to know where they are supposed to be and roughly what their role will be, as evidenced by the archers forming up in lines and the pikemen taking up position in between the two formations of archers indicating that these men aren’t strangers to forming up in battle formation. In fact, due to how little confusion there seems to be, it’s likely that these aren’t troopers who just met each other at the beginning of the campaign season meaning they have likely got experience of serving together. Given that they’d only need to be in their early 30s to have served in Robert’s Rebellion, so if these men are retainers it’s likely that plenty of them saw service in that war and the oldest of them probably served in the War of Ninepenny Kings which would help explain how used to this whole routine they seem to be, as the less experienced retainers are told and shown what they are supposed to be doing with those who have prior experience.

[norwaywolf123]

1 hour ago, Lord Giggles said:

However, the looting committed by the Lannister and Stark forces in the Riverlands takes on three distinct forms. The first is what the Mountain and his riders do, which is raise whatever they find to the ground and sow as much terror and chaos in their wake as they can. This is a military strategy called a chevauchée and is specifically designed to destroy your enemy's ability to fight back and is a military strategy ordered and sanctioned by Tywin to wreck the Riverlands' economy, not the random pillaging of loot hungry levies. The second is taking equipment from dead bodies after a battle (don't remember if it's mentioned in the books but it's shown in the show after the battle of Oxcross and it would make sense for it to happen). This happened on every battlefield right up until the late 19th century. After all, why not take the dead men's equipment? It might be better than yours and they're not going to be needing it anymore. The third is looting for food which, again, happened right up until the mid to late 19th century. The reason for this is that pre canned food it's near impossible to supply an army of 20,000 men from their home region while they're off fighting in another kingdom, meaning there's little option but to scavenge or pillage whatever food you need from the surrounding countryside. None of these forms of looting indicate ill-discipline, they are all either part of an overall strategy or they are inevitability of pre modern warfare. The fact that the rape and pillage doesn't happen that often (or at least we don't see much evidence for it happening let alone frequently) indicates that these men aren't poor and so don't need to loot particularly in order to supplement their basic income, meaning they'll hold off on looting unless it's for basic survival or it's under circumstances where they won't be offending their allies or potential allies(as the northmen seem to receive the carte blanche to loot from castles in the Westerlands during Robb’s campaign there).

How would you compare the Lannister(westermen/crownlander) chauvechh of the riverlands and the stark (rivermen/northmen) of the wessterlands?

Did the Northmen and Riverlanders treat each other as equals?

 

[Lord Giggles]

The main difference is that the Lannisters and Northernors are using the raids for different purposes. The Lannister raids are very specifically aimed at destroying the Riverlands’ ability to continue the war by terrorising their farmers and burning their crops. The very destruction the raids cause is the aim in and of itself. By contrast, when Robb attacks the Westerlands he’s not aiming to destroy the region’s economy and agriculture, otherwise we’d see a lot more of small bands of mounted troops going out to rape, pillage, burn and destroy anything they can get their hands on like the Mountain and his men do. However, they don’t which means that the goal is not to destroy the Westerlands ability to wage war but instead to either destroy Tywin’s support amongst his bannermen(after all, would you follow a man who can’t even protect his own lands) or to draw Tywin into engaging Robb in a pitched battle(in order to avoid the former).

 

The Northmen and the Riverlanders certainly seem to have treated each other equally and we don’t have any evidence of a particular segregation between the two except for that, reasonably enough, Robb Stark’s army is primarily composed of northernors.

[Nittanian]

If it helps, Cat thinks of the origin of Robb's foot in AGOT Catelyn VIII. Their equipment and behavior in the War of the Five Kings indeed seems to be different from Septon Meribald's experience in the War of the Ninepenny Kings.

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This host her son had assembled was not a standing army such as the Free Cities were accustomed to maintain, nor a force of guardsmen paid in coin. Most of them were smallfolk: crofters, fieldhands, fishermen, sheepherders, the sons of innkeeps and traders and tanners, leavened with a smattering of sellswords and freeriders hungry for plunder. When their lords called, they came … but not forever.

 

[Bright Blue Eyes]

Septon Meribald was a camp follower. A stupid young guy renting his ass to everybody with coin. Of course he wants to spin that into a more positive direction.

[Tarellen]

Please let this be the thread that kills the notion that westerosi infantry is a bunch of random dudes with pitch forks.

[Lord Giggles]

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The Lannister trumpets answered, brazen and defiant yet it seemed to Tyrion they sounded smaller. As the horns died away, a hissing filled the air, a vast flight of arrows arched up from his right, where the archers stood flanking the road. The northerners broke into a run, shouting as they came, but the Lannister arrows fell on them like a hail, hundreds of arrows, thousands, and shouts turned to screams as men stumbled and went down. By then a second flight was in the air, and the archers were fitting a third arrow to their bowstrings. Ser Gregor waved his huge sword and bellowed a command, and a thousand other voices screamed back at him. Tyrion put his spurs to his horse and added one more voice to the cacophony, and the van surged forward. “The river!" he shouted at his clansmen as they rode. "remember, hew to the river." He was still leading when they broke a canter, until Chella gave a bloodcurdling shriek and galloped past him, Shagga howled and followed. The clansmen charged after them, leaving Tyrion in their dust. A crescent of enemy spearmen had formed ahead, a double hedgehog bristling with steel, waiting behind tall oaken shields marked with the sunburst of Karstark. Gregor Clegane was the first to reach them, leading a wedge of armoured veterans. Half the horses shied at the last second, breaking their charge before the row of spears. The others died, sharp steel points ripping through their chests. Tyrion saw a dozen men go down. The mountains stallion reared, lashing out with iron shod hooves as a barbed spearhead raked across his neck. Maddened, the beast lunged into the ranks. Spears thrust at him from every side, but the shield wall broke beneath his weight. The northerners stumbled away from the animal’s death throes. As his horse fell, snorting blood and biting with his last red breath, the mountain rose untouched lying about him with his two handed greatsword. Shagga went bursting through the gap before the shields could close, other stone crows hard behind him. Tyrion shouted, "burned men! moon brothers! After me" but most of them were ahead of him. He glimpsed Timmett son of Timmet vault free as his mount died under him in full stride, saw a moon brother impaled on a Karstark spear, watched Connns horse shatter a man’s ribs with a kick. A flight of arrows descended on them, were they came from he could not say, but they fell on stark and lannister alike, rattling off armour or finding flesh. Tyrion lifted his shield and hid beneath it. The hedgehog was crumbling, the northernors reeling back under the impact of the mounted assault. Tyrion saw shagga catch a spearman full in the chest as the fool came on at a run, saw his axe shear through mail and leather and muscle and lungs. The man was dead on his feet, the axehead lodged in his chest, yet Shagga rode on, cleaving a shield in two with his left hand battle axe while the corpse was bonellesly along on his right. By then the enemy was on him, and Tyrions battle shrunk to the few feet of ground around his horse. A man at arms thrust at his chest and his axe lashed out knocking the spear aside. The man danced back for another try, but Tyrion spurred his horse and rode right over him...

He saw ser Kevan had bought up his centre in support of the van, his huge mass of pikemen had pushed the northerners back against the hills. They were struggling on the slopes, pikes thrusting against another wall of shields, these oval and reinforced with iron studs. As he watched the air filled with arrows again, and the men behind the oak wall crumbled beneath the fire....

Tyrion watched his father fly past, the crimson and gold banner of Lannister rippling over his head as he thundered across the field. Five hundred knights surrounded him, sunlight flashing off the points off their lances. The remnants of the stark lines shattered like glass beneath the hammer of their charge.

 

 

In this quote we see the northern foot in action at the battle of Green fork. There are several notable things here which indicate that they aren't levies and are in fact trained semi-professional retainers of some kind.

 

The first is that they withstand a cavalry charge. Part of the reason heavy cavalry charges were so widely used in Europe during the Middle Ages was that they were generally sufficient to break undisciplined levy foot. While this is partly because of the impact of their charge, it's mostly psychological as a fully armoured man on a proper war horse (which have been rather aptly described as organic tanks. Think shire horses) is incredibly frightening. Most times, foot took one look at a heavy cavalry charge coming towards them and ran, likely saying to their braver comrades "Do you want to be around when that lot crash into our line?" and a rout was quickly caused. While there were exceptions to this (Courtrai, Poitiers, Creçy and the Bannockburn to name the three most famous) part of the reason these battles are so exceptional is that they are unusual because the infantry won. By and large, until later on in the 15th century, the cavalry charge was extremely effective due to psychological impact several hundred or even thousand mounted and armoured men charging towards you has.

 

However, you lose that psychological advantage once armies become discipline enough to stand their ground against you and if this opening charge doesn't succeed, then heavy cavalry is actually pretty useless precisely because of what a marvellous target their horses present to the infantry they're now fighting. In the quoted section, the northern foot hold their ground against a cavalry charge which contains the Mountain (who's scary enough on his own) indicating a fairly large degree of basic discipline on the battlefield. What's more, once that cavalry charge has hit them they don't immediately drop their weapons and run but they keep fighting showing that these aren't peasants who've never faced a cavalry charge in their life and indicating that not all of them are novices but that there could well be a backbone of veterans who fought in Robert's Rebellion in there.

 

The second thing to note is how long it takes them to break. They're hemmed in and backed up against the hills and it still takes a heavy cavalry charge by Tywin Lannister's reserve to break them and if the casualties they inflict upon the vanguard are anything to go by they manage to inflict quite heavy casualties on the Lannister army despite their predicament. Even when they break, they don’t seem to rout but rather fight a fighting withdrawal. This is not the behaviour of peasant levies nor is it the behaviour of green troops. The logical conclusion? They're semi-professional troops with a core of veterans amongst them.

 

There are another couple of indicators of this in the Green Fork. The first is that the Lannister archers maintain shooting volleys of arrows even in face of the northern charge instead of each man firing off as many arrows as he’s able. While it’s possible that levies would do this, it’s unlikely as I’d warrant most levy archers would drop volley shooting and just switch to killing off as many northern infantry as possible when he saw them charging towards him. In addition to this, Tywin seems to have faith that his centre will obey orders and wheel left whilst staying in fighting formation, not a manoeuvre that untested levies would be able to perform. Once again, the logical conclusion is that these are semi-professional troops.

[Nittanian]

GRRM also has some information about his military in this SSM.

[Tarellen]

On June 1, 2016 at 11:35 AM, Lord Giggles said:

 

In this quote we see the northern foot in action at the battle of Green fork. There are several notable things here which indicate that they aren't levies and are in fact trained semi-professional retainers of some kind.

 

The first is that they withstand a cavalry charge. Part of the reason heavy cavalry charges were so widely used in Europe during the Middle Ages was that they were generally sufficient to break undisciplined levy foot. While this is partly because of the impact of their charge, it's mostly psychological as a fully armoured man on a proper war horse (which have been rather aptly described as organic tanks. Think shire horses) is incredibly frightening. Most times, foot took one look at a heavy cavalry charge coming towards them and ran, likely saying to their braver comrades "Do you want to be around when that lot crash into our line?" and a rout was quickly caused. While there were exceptions to this (Courtrai, Poitiers, Creçy and the Bannockburn to name the three most famous) part of the reason these battles are so exceptional is that they are unusual because the infantry won. By and large, until later on in the 15th century, the cavalry charge was extremely effective due to psychological impact several hundred or even thousand mounted and armoured men charging towards you has.

 

However, you lose that psychological advantage once armies become discipline enough to stand their ground against you and if this opening charge doesn't succeed, then heavy cavalry is actually pretty useless precisely because of what a marvellous target their horses present to the infantry they're now fighting. In the quoted section, the northern foot hold their ground against a cavalry charge which contains the Mountain (who's scary enough on his own) indicating a fairly large degree of basic discipline on the battlefield. What's more, once that cavalry charge has hit them they don't immediately drop their weapons and run but they keep fighting showing that these aren't peasants who've never faced a cavalry charge in their life and indicating that not all of them are novices but that there could well be a backbone of veterans who fought in Robert's Rebellion in there.

 

The second thing to note is how long it takes them to break. They're hemmed in and backed up against the hills and it still takes a heavy cavalry charge by Tywin Lannister's reserve to break them and if the casualties they inflict upon the vanguard are anything to go by they manage to inflict quite heavy casualties on the Lannister army despite their predicament. Even when they break, they don’t seem to rout but rather fight a fighting withdrawal. This is not the behaviour of peasant levies nor is it the behaviour of green troops. The logical conclusion? They're semi-professional troops with a core of veterans amongst them.

 

There are another couple of indicators of this in the Green Fork. The first is that the Lannister archers maintain shooting volleys of arrows even in face of the northern charge instead of each man firing off as many arrows as he’s able. While it’s possible that levies would do this, it’s unlikely as I’d warrant most levy archers would drop volley shooting and just switch to killing off as many northern infantry as possible when he saw them charging towards him. In addition to this, Tywin seems to have faith that his centre will obey orders and wheel left whilst staying in fighting formation, not a manoeuvre that untested levies would be able to perform. Once again, the logical conclusion is that these are semi-professional troops.

Intresting. 

[Lord Giggles]

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Most of them were smallfolk: crofters, fieldhands, fishermen, sheperds, the sons of inkeepers and traders and tanners...when their lords called they came, but not forever. 

Here is a quote from Catelyn. In here she says most of the foot are smallfolk. Surely, going off this quote, they must be peasant levies? Well not really. It does mean that they aren't retainers who are given land in lieu of pay(or hunting rights, or legal protection, whatever the arrangement) but it doesn't necessarily mean they aren't semi professionals. During the Wars of the Roses, when soldiers were required, instead of each soldiers providing all of his own equipment, villages pooled their entire armoury in order to arm only a few men and then send them to fight. What this led to was that in many villages there were  men who functioned as semi professional soldiers, answering their lord's call to arms when they had to and being equipped by the entire community leading to them being far better equipped than their social status might suggest and seeing as they were called upon relatively frequently they had battle field experience and could be classed as semi professional. 

 

So, taking all the evidence into account, what can we conclude? Well the first thing is that Westerosi infantry are not the pitch fork wielding yokels that most seem to imagine them as. The second is that they aren't even the paid foot of later medieval years, who were required to bring a basic level of equipment(a skullcap, buckler and sword) and so could become semi professional in times of protracted conflict but were more likely to be a bunch of men of dubious level of training, equipment and motivation. However, at the same time they aren't a professional army. So this leaves them being something of a halfway house, well equipped troops who will reliably answer their lord's call to arms and stay in the field as well as accepting a basic level of military discipline, meaning they'll either be retainers or semi professional troops supplied by villages whenever needed, perhaps depending on the wealth of the region.