A battle or bataille was a division of a medieval army. The word may be rendered as "battalion", but Abels and Bachrach et al. state this is not accurate because the bataille was a completely ad hoc formation.[1]

In late medieval warfare, field armies were often drawn up into three main battles, also called guards or wards: the vanguard (avant-garde), the middle guard, and the rearguard (arrière-garde), often abbreviated to simply the van, middle, and rear. These terms imply, correctly, that the van preceded the middle, which in turn preceded the rear into battle, if the battles were arranged sequentially as a column. If arranged abreast, the van was on the right, the middle in the center, and the rear on the left.

References

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  1. ^ Richard Philip Abels and Bernard S Bachrach (eds). The Normans and Their Adversaries at War: Essays in Memory of C Warren Hollister. Boydell & Brewer. Revised edition. 2001. ISBN 9780851158471. (Warfare in History, ISSN 1358-779X, volume 12). Page 181

Further reading

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  • (1992) 122 The Army Quarterly and Defence Journal 324 at footnote 2 (West of England Press) Google Books