The Stirrup Theory is the kind of nonsense I'd buy when I was 11 and believed in Civilization 2's technology tree. There's a thousand years of highly effective

The Stirrup Theory is the kind of nonsense I'd buy when I was 11 and believed in Civilization 2's technology tree. There's a thousand years of highly effective heavy cavalry predating the purported introduction of stirrups to Europe, for one thing. For another, the supposed military revolution around mounted knights is far messier than the just-so story that is packaged. The chronological correlation between archeological finds of metal stirrups and the development of the feudal knight isn't even very strong.