Editing Chariot (section)

=== Western Europe ===

The [[Celts]] were famous for their chariots and modern English words like ''car'', ''carriage'' and ''carry'' are ultimately derived from the native [[Common Brittonic|Brythonic language]] ([[Welsh language|Modern Welsh]]: ''Cerbyd''). The word ''chariot'' itself is derived from the [[French language|Norman French]] ''charriote'' and shares a Celtic root ([[Gaulish]]: ''karros''). Some 20 [[Iron Age|iron-aged]] [[chariot burial]]s have been excavated in Britain, roughly dating from between 500 BC and 100 BC. Virtually all of them were found in [[East Yorkshire]] – the exception was a find in 2001 in [[Newbridge, Edinburgh|Newbridge]], 10&nbsp;km west of [[Edinburgh]].

[[File:Tombe à char Châlons 1901.jpg|thumb|[[Celts|Celtic]] chariot burial, France, [[La Tène culture]], c. 450 BC]]

The Celtic chariot, which may have been called [[wikt:Appendix:Proto-Celtic/karbantos|''karbantos'']] in [[Gaulish language|Gaulish]] (compare Latin ''carpentum''),<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Karl|first=Raimund|editor-first=John T|editor-last=Koch|editor-link=John T. Koch|encyclopedia=Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia|title=Chariot and wagon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f899xH_quaMC&q=celtic+chariot+koch&pg=PA401|access-date=29 August 2014|year=2006|publisher=ABC-CLIO|volume=2|location=Santa Barbara, California|isbn=1-85109-440-7|pages=401}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Delamarre|first1=Xavier|title=Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise|date=2003|publisher=Éditions Errance|location=Paris|isbn=2-87772-369-0|language=fr}}</ref> was a ''[[biga (chariot)|biga]]'' that measured approximately {{convert|2|m|ftin|frac=8|abbr=on}} in width and {{convert|4|m|ftin|frac=8|abbr=on}} in length.

British chariots were open in front. [[Julius Caesar]] provides the only significant eyewitness report of British chariot warfare:
{{Blockquote|
Their mode of fighting with their chariots is this: firstly, they drive about in all directions and throw their weapons and generally break the ranks of the enemy with the very dread of their horses and the noise of their wheels; and when they have worked themselves in between the troops of horse, leap from their chariots and engage on foot. The charioteers in the meantime withdraw some little distance from the battle, and so place themselves with the chariots that, if their masters are overpowered by the number of the enemy, they may have a ready retreat to their own troops. Thus they display in battle the speed of horse, [together with] the firmness of infantry; and by daily practice and exercise attain to such expertness that they are accustomed, even on a declining and steep place, to check their horses at full speed, and manage and turn them in an instant and run along the pole, and stand on the yoke, and thence betake themselves with the greatest celerity to their chariots again.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.gutenberg.org/files/10657/10657.txt| title = The Project Gutenberg EBook of "De Bello Gallico" and Other Commentaries by Caius Julius Caesar, translated by W. A. MacDevitt (1915).}}</ref>}}

Chariots play an important role in [[Irish mythology]] surrounding the hero [[Cú Chulainn]].

[[File:Cratère de Vix 0010.jpg|thumb|Procession of chariots and warriors on the [[Vix krater|Vix ''krater'']] ({{circa|510 BC}}), a vessel of [[Archaic Greece|Archaic Greek]] workmanship found in a [[Gaul|Gallic]] burial.]]

Chariots could also be used for ceremonial purposes. According to [[Tacitus]] (''[[Annals (Tacitus)|Annals]]'' 14.35), [[Boudica]], queen of the [[Iceni]] and a number of other tribes in a formidable uprising against the occupying Roman forces, addressed her troops from a chariot in 61:

: "Boudicca curru filias prae se vehens, ut quamque nationem accesserat, solitum quidem Britannis feminarum ductu bellare testabatur"

: ''Boudicca, with her daughters before her in a chariot, went up to tribe after tribe, protesting that it was indeed usual for Britons to fight under the leadership of women.''

The last mention of chariot use in battle seems to be at the [[Battle of Mons Graupius]], somewhere in modern Scotland, in 84 CE. From [[Tacitus]] (''[[Agricola (Tacitus)|Agricola]]'' 1.35–36) "The plain between resounded with the noise and with the rapid movements of chariots and cavalry." The chariots did not win even their initial engagement with the Roman auxiliaries: "Meantime the enemy's cavalry had fled, and the charioteers had mingled in the engagement of the infantry."

Later through the centuries, the chariot was replaced by the "[[war wagon]]". The "war wagon" was a [[Middle Ages|medieval]] development used to attack rebel or enemy forces on battle fields. The wagon was given slits for archers to shoot enemy targets, supported by infantry using pikes and flails and later for the invention of gunfire by hand-gunners; side walls were used for protection against archers, crossbowmen, the early use of gunpowder and cannon fire.

It was especially useful during the [[Hussite Wars]], c. 1420, by [[Hussite]] forces rebelling in [[Bohemia]]. Groups of them could form defensive works, but they also were used as hardpoints for Hussite formations or as firepower in pincer movements. This early use of gunpowder and innovative tactics helped a largely peasant infantry stave off attacks by the [[Holy Roman Empire]]'s larger forces of mounted [[knight]]s.