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John France, ed. Mercenaries and Paid Men: The Mercenary Identity in the Middle Ages.. Leiden: Brill, 2008. 415 pp. $145.00, cloth, ISBN 978-90-04-16447-5.

Reviewed by William Urban

Published on H-HRE (May, 2009)

Commissioned by Amy R. Caldwell (CSU Channel Islands)

This stimulating collection of conference pa‐ pers that then modify this classic defnition in pers illustrates the changing nature of many ways. history today. The combination of Whig and Puri‐ David Crouch, "William Marshal and the Mer‐ tan history that made mercenaries into represen‐ cenariat," opens the collection with a short sum‐ tatives of the bad old days is disappearing. Histo‐ mary of the career of a nobleman often described rians are looking at them again, some wanting to as a mercenary made good, William Marshal. understand how the process of recruiting foreign Crouch then demonstrates how Marshal’s willing‐ (or more local) worked in social, eco‐ ness to distribute largesse, protect the weak and nomic, and political terms; some recognizing that helpless, and remain loyal to his lord separated Machiavelli's contemporaries had good reasons him from mercenaries who did not exhibit such for ignoring his ideas; and some even seeing mer‐ "noble behavior" (p. 27). This restatement of the cenaries as a step toward national . traditional formula suggests that nobility meant In his introduction to this volume, the editor more than knowing which fork to use (a concept of these papers, John France, notes that "merce‐ that few would have understood, of course), but naries have never had a good press," and then ex‐ was instead based on aristocratic attitudes that plains that this is to be expected of the most bru‐ the lower classes and competing orders did not tal and degraded of soldiers, known for their cru‐ share. A noble might have married the rich elty, their destructiveness, and their propensity to daughter of a merchant, but would have held his change employers easily (p. 1). After having thus nose while doing so and none of his friends would established the popular (and often the scholarly) have mentioned it later. This is an important stereotype, France uses the rest of his introduc‐ point, because newly rich mercenaries were chal‐ tion to summarize the numerous high quality pa‐ lenging the social status of the nobility, and defn‐ ing behavior was among the ways in which the H-Net Reviews nobility attempted to rebuf social upstarts. "The unimportant, he argues, all that mattered was generation of William Marshal," Crouch argues, competence. John H. Pryor, "Soldiers of Fortune in "was the one in which [his] social class took a step the Fleets of Charles I of Anjou, King of Sicily, ca. towards becoming self-consciously hierarchical" 1265-85," investigates naval mercenaries (who (p. 30). were sometimes pirates). The records were de‐ In "Revisiting Mercenaries under Henry Fitz stroyed in World II, but he argues that the Empress," John D. Hosler then looks at the succes‐ need to pay the wages of these large bodies of sion conficts of the twelfth century in England, men was clearly a great strain on the kingdom's and concludes that the widespread employment taxpayers. Richard Abels discounts most individu‐ of mercenaries (especially Welsh) began at that als usually identifed as mercenaries in "House‐ time, not in the thirteenth century, as some have hold Men, Mercenaries and Vikings in Anglo-Sax‐ argued. Kelly DeVries, "Medieval Mercenaries: on England." There was simply too little money in Metholodogy, Defnitions, and Problems," investi‐ the economy of that era to support true mercenar‐ gates the "foreign" aspect of the stereotypical mer‐ ies (the Frisians in the feet being a likely excep‐ cenary, stepping back in time to the late Roman tion); the best the kings could do against the Empire and the before revisiting Vikings, he argues, was to pay one group to pro‐ the Hundred Years' War. In all cases, it is impossi‐ tect them against the rest. There were indeed paid ble to establish pure ethnicity--all armies were of retainers by 1066, but the relationship of employ‐ mixed origins. He asks in conclusion (after saying er and retainers was still based on lordship, love, that soldiers were always paid), if they could earn and loyalty. more, why should they not take the money, no Bernard S. Bachrach, "Merovingian Merce‐ matter what they served in? naries and Paid Soldiers in Imperial Perspective," Guido Guerri dall'Oro, "Les Mercenaires dans takes on the complicated problem of nomencla‐ les Campagnes Napolitaines de Louis de Grande, ture. What was a stipendarius, an amicus, and an Roi de Hongrie, 1347-1350," provides a detailed armiger? What was the diference between war‐ study of the mercenaries (mostly Italians, but riors in foederati and those in an obsequium? Be‐ some Germans) hired by Louis the Great for his cause we do not understand well the technical innovative campaign to Naples. Louis went home, terms and their changing meanings, we must be but the mercenaries remained to terrorize the cautious, Bachrach argues. The obsequia, he peninsula for decades. John E. Law investigates a writes, were probably mercenaries, while paid minor, but important, mercenary family in the Pa‐ militiamen were not. In his essay "The Early Hun‐ pal States in his contribution, "The Da Varno garians as Mercenaries 860-955," Charles R. Lords of Camerino as Condottiere Princes." He ar‐ Bowlus presents a revisionist version of the Hun‐ gues that ultimately, every mercenary's career garian of the Carolingian Empire. That was intertwined with that of his employer, and is, he argues that historians who continue to teach when the employer went down, so did the merce‐ that the development of the knightly was nary. a response to Hungarian invasions have simply failed to read the available literature--there were In "'Beneath the '? Miners and Engi‐ too few Magyars to have caused the damage at‐ neers as 'Mercenaries' in the Holy Land (XII-XIII tributed to them. Until 955 feuding German lords siècles)," Nicholas Prouteau describes the wide‐ had hired them as archers; the massive raid of spread use of foreign experts (many Armenians, that year by unemployed warriors ended in disas‐ some Muslims) employed by both Christians and ter when a food on the Lech River prevented Muslims. Their origins and religious beliefs were them from escaping their pursuers. The surviving

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Magyars found farming and herding more prof‐ cities in the Holy Land, the rest--which remained itable than using the land for horse pastures, as in Muslim hands--then had to pay the crusaders a would be necessary if they were to continue hir‐ handsome tribute for the right to import and ex‐ ing themselves out for war. port goods. This provided the conquerors the J. W. Rowlands, "Warriors Fit for a Prince: money needed to support their small armies and Welsh Troops in Angevin Service, 1154-1216," ar‐ to welcome newly arrived . Whether these gues that contemporaries saw most of these knights and other warriors were mercenaries is troops as the lord's men, not as mercenaries, so open to debate, but Murray argues that the ar‐ modern historians should do the same. In "Urban rangement provided a very practical resolution of Military Forces of England and Germany, c. 1240- several intertwined and difcult problems. c.1313, a Comparison," David S. Bacharach fnds "Mercenaries and Paid Men in Gilbert of that both city and city naval forces were Mons," by Laura Napran, demonstrates that Hain‐ important, especially in Germany. The king of aut was indeed as important as contemporaries England often paid his militias, he also points out, believed, largely because it, like Brabant, was a but the Holy Roman emperor rarely did. signifcant source of mercenaries. Napran also Stephen Morillo employs a sociological quad‐ points out that the chronicler, Gilbert of Mons, rant in his essay, "Mercenaries, and Mili‐ clearly indicated the diference between paid tia: Towards a Cross-cultural Typology of Military men, mercenaries, and auxiliaries. Andrian R. Service," with axes labeled "Political Determina‐ Bell, "The Fourteenth Century Soldier--More tion," "Economic Determination," "Socially Em‐ Chaucer's or Medieval Career?" studied bedded," and "Socially Unembedded." Using this muster lists of knights and soldiers to see how method, he argues that true mercenaries fell into many of them had military experiences similar to the quadrant marked by "Socially Unembedded" those of Chaucer's worthy man. He found that the and "Economic Determination," militias and feu‐ fctional career of Chaucer’s character might not dal warriors fell opposite them, and political have been so unusual, and that there was a wide armies and stipendiaries were in the quadrants in variety of military experiences. As others, espe‐ between. cially Terry Jones (in Chaucer's Knight: Portrait of a Medieval Mercenary [1980]), have noted, where Eljas Oksanen, "The Anglo-Flemish Treaties the knight fought may have been less important and Flemish Soldiers in England 1101-1163," takes than where he did not fght--he seems to have up the long feud between Stephen and Matilda skipped the Hundred Years' War, thus he did not earlier discussed by Hosler, looking at the money- fght for his king. Bell ends with a question: was fefs held by the counts of who made Chaucer intending to support a popular peace their subjects available for hire when needed. proposal of --to end in Christen‐ While one might think that the counts had made dom, to ensure peace by an English-French mar‐ themselves into mercenaries themselves, Oksanen riage--and urging listeners to join in a new cru‐ argues that the arrangement acquired a symbolic sade against the infdel? importance akin to an oath of fealty. It gave the counts an alternative to their obligations toward Spencer Gavin Smith, "What Does a Merce‐ France, and gave the royal English an nary Leave Behind? The Archeological Evidence alternative to relying on fckle vassals. for the Estates of Oswain Lawgoch," notes that not only did families lose their properties, but also In "The Origin of Money-Fiefs in the Latin that even their buildings were removed from the ," Alan V. Murray notes that land. Carlos Andrés Conzález Paz retells the story though the frst crusaders captured only a few

3 H-Net Reviews of the and other mercenary units Huckleberry Finn put it, escaping from the "sivi‐ of the Hundred Years' War and the importance of lizing" eforts of womankind. some lesser-known commanders in "The Role of Mercenary Troops in Spain in the Fourteenth Cen‐ those tury: the ." Sven Ekdahl, "The 's Mercenaries during the 'Great War' with , Poland-Lithuania (1409-11)," uses surviving trea‐ "Revisiting Mercenaries under Henry Fitz Em‐ sury documents and chronicles to analyze the press," process by which grandmasters raised troops d once the had ended and the once plenti‐ , "The Da Varno Lords of Camerino as Condot‐ ful fow of volunteers had dried up. To those who tiere Princes," read German, Ekdahl is a well-known scholar of medieval . The notes give a good . overview of his many publications and the Nicholas Prouteau , breadth of his investigations, especially those in‐ , volving the 1410 battle of Tannenberg/Grunwald. "Household Men, Mercenaries and Vikings in "Scots Mercenary Forces in Sixteenth Century Anglo-Saxon England," Ireland," by Muriósa Prendergast, traces the com‐ . plicated family rivalries in the Emerald Isle that brought in the Scots, where they were paid in , "The Early Hungarians as Mercenaries land, thus inserting a new dynamic into a land al‐ 860-955," ready laid waste by long and blood feuds. In "The e Irish Mercenary Tradition in the 1600s,"Ciarán Óg David S. Bacharach, O'Reilly lists the many European wars in which , Irish troops distinguished themselves. Though somewhat evading the question of why these "Mercenaries, Mamluks and : Towards same Irish soldiers fought so poorly at home, he a Cross-cultural Typology of ," notes that their willingness to fght to the death d may have come from a simple love of war and a ; desire for glory. ; This fnal essay thus rounded of the confer‐ John ence nicely--what began as a discussion of values and proft ended with a suggestion that warriors Alan V. Murray , sometimes just loved to fght. Restoring peace, Laura Napran , O’Reilly seems to suggest, would have to involve She more than simply providing mercenaries with (p. 308) better-paying means of making a living. The rulers and clerics of the Middle Ages were not , Methuen, dealing solely with men seeking proft, but men d displaced by war and famine, men seeking to es‐ , cape a boring existence, men without an inheri‐ "The Role of Mercenary Troops in Spain in the tance, and men doing what men enjoy--engaging Fourteenth Century: the Civil War," in physical activity, competition, and perhaps, as

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. Muriósa Prendergast , Ciarán Óg O'Reilly,

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Citation: William Urban. Review of France, John, ed. Mercenaries and Paid Men: The Mercenary Identity in the Middle Ages.. H-HRE, H-Net Reviews. May, 2009.

URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=22832

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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