A reviewer of my book 3 in the Archer of the Heathland series, Vengeance, recently criticized me for having my characters Brion and Finola lead armies at the young age of 19 or 20. The reviewer apparently believes that no adult would follow such a young leader into battle.
Unfortunately for this reviewer’s argument, the pages of history are littered with young men and women who demanded and received loyalty from much older men and women and successfully led them in combat. Below are a few examples.
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Though we don’t know her age, Fu Hao (d. 1200 BCE) of the Shang dynasty was a secondary wife to the emperor and one of the most powerful generals of her time.
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Artemisia I of Caria led a naval squadron of five ships for Xerxes, King of Persia, and had a reputation for being a crafty strategist.
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Alexander, posthumously named “the great,” led his 30,000 Greek hoplites from Macedonia to India starting at the age of twenty. He died at the age of thirty-two.
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Gaius Octavian, starting at the age of nineteen, became a military leader, eventually leading some 100,000 men into battle. He later named himself Caesar Augustus and ruled the Roman Empire.
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Khawla bint Al-Azwar led Muslim armies in the days of the prophet Mohammad as a young woman. She led other women in major campaigns and was renowned as one of the finest female warriors in history.
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William the Conqueror started his military career at the age of eighteen before his conquest of England at the age of 38, in 1066.
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Matilda of Tuscany, in the 11th century, defied the Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor while still a young woman, often leading men into battle. She became one of the most powerful rulers in Italy.
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Tomoe Gozen led hundreds of Samurai into battle in thirteenth-century Japan, favoring the sword over the naginata with which most samurai women trained.
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Joan of Arc was just seventeen when she donned armor and led the French armies successfully against the English for a year before she was captured and executed in 1431.
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The Polish king Wladyslaw III attacked the Ottomans in 1444 at the age of nineteen leading 30,000 troops. He died for his efforts.
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Charles III of Sweden led his armies successfully against a joint Russian, Polish, Prussian, Saxon, and Danish-Norwegian army at the age of eighteen.
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Gilbert du Motier, known as Marquis de Lafayette, served as a general in the Continental Army at the age of twenty.
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Galusha Pennypacker joined the American Civil War at the age of sixteen to fight for the Union. By age nineteen, he was a major and leading men into battle. At age twenty, he was raised to brigadier general and remains the youngest general in US history.
These are some examples of dozens that could be made. Young men and women did indeed lead armies, sometimes rising to leadership positions based solely on merit rather than birth. We should not project our own limited experiences onto the past. Things have always been more complex and more nuanced than we expect.
Here’s hoping you all have a happy holiday season with your families and friends.
Cheers,
James
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I’ve seen young leaders, lead, although in those cases the older men who didn’t necessarily agree but choose to do so, usually did under threat of court-martial or the the threat of dishonorable conduct. And of course, there are always those who know their way around a system to such a degree where following their own conscience or if only getting their job done in a manner which is conducive for them as well as their fellows is usually more than acceptable in most workforces. I haven’t read any of your books but I can see how things got a little screwy with your readers. My advice is to take it in stride, they’ve probably haven’t encountered anything like that before and are speaking from an ignorant point of view.
Thanks Omar. Your points are well taken. There are many reasons soldiers followed/follow younger folks into combat, including coercion, honor, loyatly, fanatacism, and even respect.
Best,
James