>>64181635
>https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Flodden
>James IV was killed in the fighting and became the last monarch from Great Britain to die in battle. That and the loss of a large proportion of the nobility led to a political crisis in Scotland.
>It is unclear whether James had seen the difficulty encountered by the battle of the three earls, but he followed them down the slope regardless, making for Surrey's formation. James has been criticised for placing himself in the front line, thereby putting himself in personal danger and losing his overview of the field. He was, however, well-known for taking risks in battle and it would have been out of character for him to stay back. Encountering the same difficulties as the previous attack, James's men nevertheless fought their way to Surrey's bodyguard but no further.
>As the nineteenth-century antiquarian John Riddell supposed, nearly every noble family in Scotland would have lost a member at Flodden.
This is just from a couple of battles off the top of my head, exclusively drawing from English history; I guarantee there is far, far more.
Even in leadership roles (commanding an army, down to coordinating a specific group of soldiers), without radios their orders and sitreps would only be able to travel as fast as a messenger (unless their name was Van Ripper I guess) and even then with no guarantee of actually reaching the intended destination, which required them to be be much closer to the front to effectively manage their dudes, putting them at far greater likelihood of getting caught up in fighting anyway.
