The Soldier in Later Medieval England - Hardcover

Bell, Adrian R.; Curry, Anne; King, Andy; Simpkin, David

9780199680825: The Soldier in Later Medieval England

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199680825 ISBN 13: 9780199680825

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2013

The Hundred Years War was a struggle for control over the French throne, fought as a series of conflicts between England, France, and their respective allies. The Soldier in Later Medieval England is the outcome of a project which collects the names of every soldier known to have served the English Crown from 1369 to the loss of Gascony in 1453, the event which is traditionally accepted as the end-date of the Hundred Years War. The data gathered throughout the project has allowed the authors of this volume to compare different forms of war, such as the chevauchees of the late fourteenth century and the occupation of French territories in the fifteenth century, and thus to identify longer-term trends. It also highlights the significance of the change of dynasty in England in the early 1400s.

The scope of the volume begins in 1369 because of the survival from that point of the "muster roll," a type of documentary record in which soldiers names are systematically recorded. The muster roll is a rich resource for the historian, as it allows closer study to be made of the peerage, the knights, the men-at-arms (the esquires), and especially the lower ranks of the army, such as the archers, who contributed the largest proportion of troops to English royal service. The Soldier in Later Medieval England seeks to investigate the different types of soldier, their regional and national origins, and movement between ranks. This is a wide-ranging volume, which offers invaluable insights into a much-neglected subject, and presents many opportunities for future research.

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About the Author:

Adrian R. Bell is Chair in the History of Finance at the ICMA Centre, University of Reading. He completed his PhD at the University of Reading (2002) and is the author of War and the Soldier in the Fourteenth Century (2004).

Anne Curry is Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Southampton. She was President of the Historical Association between 2008 and 2011, and has also been a Vice-president of the Royal Historical Society and editor of the Journal of Medieval History.

Andy King is a Research Fellow in History at the University of Southampton. He completed his PhD at the University of Durham (2001) and edited Sir Thomas Gray: Scalacronica (1272-1363), Surtees Society ccix (2005). He has also written articles on various aspects of late medieval warfare, the Anglo-Scottish Marches, chronicles and castles, and has co-edited two collections of essays on England and Scotland in the later Middle Ages.

David Simpkin is Honorary Visiting Fellow at the ICMA Centre, University of Reading. He completed his PhD at the University of Hull (2007) and is the author of The English Aristocracy at War, from the Welsh Wars of Edward I to the Battle of Bannockburn (2008). He has also written various articles and co-edited two collections of essays on themes relating to later medieval warfare and the English gentry. He was winner of the Verbruggen Prize in 2011.

Review:

"Bell and his co-authors have created a very impressive study of the men who served in English royal armies between 1369 and 1453. The key to this study is its foundation in massive numbers of primary documents--above all, a near complete set of muster rolls for English armies and garrisons in the period...[The Soldier in Later Medieval England is] a brilliant piece of social and miltary history. Essential."--CHOICE

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