Short answer: They didn't do that kind of shit. The charges that you see in Braveheart and other movies are fucking nonsense, for a number of reasons. Here's the long answer, and a (probably) more accurate description of what battle was like in those times: Primarily, no commander with any sense would order a charge across a long distance... *because they know their men would be winded when they make contact with the stationary enemy.* They're immediately at a disadvantage. Charging also leads to a breaking up of your formation- your unit is made up of individuals with different physical traits/ability. The slower guys would fall behind, the faster would sprint ahead. This would lead to a couple of your men meeting the entire enemy line at once *alone* as the slower guys caught up. The guys who sprinted out ahead would be surrounded and skewered in moments, *and most men aren't willing to put themselves in a position where survival is almost impossible.* Charges were typically a cavalry thing, for obvious reasons. Charging was also not how you begin a battle- it is how you *end* one. A typical battle, pre-gunpowder, would play out something like this: Both armies have been observing each other for days now. Both army's' commanders decide "I can defeat them here, we shall give them battle now". This moment usually happens after a lot of maneuvering and marching around until reaching a point where the commander thinks they can win. Camp is set, and the defender will begin preparing while the attacker catches up. On the morning of battle, the attackers will eat breakfast and then form up. Skirmishing units, often made up of young men lightly armed and armored (or unarmored) would then be sent to begin probing the enemy's positions. They serve several purposes, chiefly: scouting, screening, and harassing. They will literally block the enemy's view of your other, heavier infantry units as they move into position. The skirmishing units will be constantly sending messengers back to inform officers of enemy disposition. This information is used to form a tactic which hopefully fits in the overall strategy that was decided upon the previous days. So now you have units of infantry (vast majority are spearmen) marching towards the defending army's positions in areas where they believe they can win. They close, and there *might* be a short charge over a few meters, but think about the position that this puts the first 3-4 ranks of your own men in: they slam into the enemy's formation of spears and shields, *and their own friends slam into their backs, pinning them close to the enemy.* This gives the front few lines no room to move and fight. You'd get very pissed off at the guy behind you, who has your weapon arm pinned between himself and the guy next to you, as the enemy in front of you starts trying to fucking skewer you with a spear or bash your head/limbs with an axe. A melee begins, with somewhat clear "lines" drawn between the ranks of the opposing armies. This is the "grinding combat phase", where the men on the front lines of each army begin trying to actually bring down and kill the opposing men. Remarkably, this phase is quite light on casualties- it's really hard to kill a guy wearing even cloth gambeson! People also don't die the way they do in Braveheart- they don't get hit in the shoulder with a sword, go "AGGHhaguuh...." and drop dead. They get hit in the shoulder... and they swing back. Men could be mortally wounded, but continue fighting until they pass out or are wounded further. This grinding fight will go on, until one side's men begins to realize "We're losing". The men in the rear ranks start seeing the guys in the front few ranks going down, they hear the dying screams of their best fighters. They think "They just slew the Bloody Comet, he was our greatest axeman... I'm just a 15-year old who was conscripted into this unit 4 months ago, if the Comet couldn't beat them, I certainly can't... fuck this!" This is how a rout begins. A few men begin to panic. Discipline breaks down. Several turn and try to push their way through their own ranks in order to flee. This breaks up the formation even further, leading to the men in the front several ranks having exposed flanks. They will see this, realize the danger, and try to back up. The winning side may see that the enemy is beginning to break, and it's been reported in countless battles throughout history that there will be a sort of "surge" from the winning side in this moment. "They're beginning to break! PUSH FORWARD AND CUT THEM DOWN, BOYS!!" The winning side, literally high on adrenaline and the prospect of victory, surges into the busted up enemy formation. The enemy realizes that they cannot win from here, and now they all start trying to run. The men in the front few ranks will literally save the lives of the guys who are running, by slowing down the surging victors. They're probably not willingly doing this, they'd probably like to flee, but they're so busy and exhausted from trying to defend themselves, that they can't run. Imagine the betrayal you'd feel in that moment, realizing that your men have abandoned you, and you're about to be surrounded and killed. This is when most of the killing happens. This is often when cavalry would be deployed, to chase down the fleeing infantry. Using infantry to do this is a terrible move, usually- it means your men have to break formation, so if they chase the fleeing unit around a corner and oh shit- there's a fresh enemy unit waiting here in reserve! Men who are routing will often drop their weapon and shield, so they can run faster than the other army, who are presumably continuing to bear arms. You can probably outrun a guy carrying a shield and a spear if you're empty-handed... you're not escaping a lancer on horseback. Many will surrender. Very few will choose to fight to the death. If the enemy sees that their friends are surrendering, and not being butchered immediately, this might motivate them to surrender as well- this will also depend on the cultures who are fighting. Some cultures might have a mutual respect/agreement about prisoners, and they will follow them for each other... but they may not abide these rules for an enemy army of a different religion. The winning army will chase the loser off the field, and then try to secure as many prisoners as possible, while looting the enemy army's camp/sacking their city/castle/fort. Pretty interesting stuff, right? I learned a lot of this from the military historian who goes by Lindybeige on Youtube. He addresses a lot of these tropes, and goes over actual historical accounts by people who observed the various battles he speaks about. The battle I described to you is like one that would occur in the early middle ages between two Christian nations.