WAR and SOCIETY in MEDIEVAL NORFOLK: the Warrior Gentry, C
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
WAR AND SOCIETY IN MEDIEVAL NORFOLK: The Warrior Gentry, c. 1350-c. 1430 by Philip Jonathan Caudrey B.A. (Hons) This thesis is submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA JUNE 2010 DECLARATION OF ORIGINALITY This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for a degree or diploma by any institution. To the best of my knowledge the thesis does not contain any material written or published by another person, except where due reference is made. Signed .f.kii,....C.air/s, Date .10.4.2.0.1 ig. 1 1 DECLARATION OF AUTHORITY TO ACCESS This thesis is not to be made available for loan or copying for two years following the date this statement was signed. Following that time the thesis may be made available for loan and limited copying in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968. Signed .? Date ... Q. • ABSTRACT This thesis seeks to investigate - through a regional case study of Norfolk county society between 1350 and 1430 - the dual role played by the warrior gentry as soldiers fighting regularly in the king's wars and as shire landowners and office holders, who stood at the forefront of their county community. Chapter One describes the methodology employed in this thesis and places this study in its historiographical context, highlighting the ways in which the majority of county histories have adopted a predominantly political approach to their subject matter, which rarely seeks to reconcile the military and civilian duties of the warrior gentry within and beyond shire borders. Chapter Two outlines the character of Norfolk society between 1350 and 1430, revealing it to be a comparatively wealthy and cohesive county community. Chapter Three homes in directly upon the warrior gentry of the shire, demonstrating the dual role played by the military elite firstly as landlords, politicians and local office holders, and secondly as soldiers with chivalric reputations to maintain. Chapter Four reveals the influence of lordship over Norfolk gentry society - not in a political sense - but chiefly in terms of the widespread contacts, offices, patronage and rewards accrued by the knightly elite in the service of the numerous magnates who held estates in the county. Chapter Four ends by showing the nobility's important role as the major military recruiters in the region. Chapter Five focuses specifically upon the military records of the region's gentry, demonstrating that war was a gamble, but that most of Norfolk's knightly elite, as well as considerable numbers of sub-knightly men-at-arms, were prepared to participate at least occasionally. Chapter Six pulls together the strands from each of the preceding chapters to argue that the cultural values of chivalry - stressing personal and family honour - engendered amongst Norfolk's warrior elite a sense of cultural community and accounts for their desire to serve their sovereign in his overseas military enterprises. It suggests that it was the common ideology of chivalry that cut across the social and economic boundaries of the county community and allowed the East Anglian warrior gentry to form a vibrant, though ill-defined, regional military community, in which social rank played second fiddle to military prowess. Finally, Chapter Seven rounds off this study by demonstrating the ways in which the above solidarities were undermined after c. 1430, in an era when the tide of the Hundred Years War turned against the English, when the military participation of Norfolk's gentry declined, and when, simultaneously, the county became wracked by political instability in what has popularly become known as the `Paston Age'. This thesis has found that Norfolk's warrior gentry were highly active participants in the wars of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. They served extensively on royal and ducal campaigns in France, Scotland, Ireland and Spain, and some even fought in the German states and the Holy Land on their own account. Several of the shire's most militarily-active soldiers were full-time professionals, seeking to live from the wages and profits of warfare. The majority of the knightly elite, however, were regular, though intermittent, participants in these conflicts. Such men possessed significant personal wealth and interspersed their bouts of military service abroad with their daily duties as landlords and shire officials back at home. For men of this ilk, their military service was less a matter of financial gain and more a necessary fillip to their personal and family honour. Although some of these experienced warriors served under numerous commanders over the course of their long careers in arms, many others saw much of their military service under the banner of one or two magnates. These magnates looked to Norfolk's populous gentry warrior class as a source of military support, and a number of the county's knights and esquires carved out long and profitable careers for themselves serving a particular lord in war and peace over an extended time period. Pecuniary advantage aside, it was the influence of the chivalric ethos over the East Anglian gentry - especially marked between 1350 and 1430 in light of England's numerous battlefield triumphs - that provided Norfolk's warrior gentry with a common ideology that cut across social boundaries, heightened their martial inclinations, and connected them culturally with their fellow warriors across the eastern counties. The vibrant military community that evolved between the reigns of Edward III and Henry V, however, was rapidly undermined after 1430 as Norfolk county society increasingly became politically unstable, and as the English simultaneously lost almost all of their French territory. War had always been a gamble, but after 1430 it looked increasingly unlikely to pay off. Moreover, from 1453 there were no more opportunities for Norfolk's young warrior gentry to see military service, except in the civil conflicts of the Wars of the Roses, or by undertaking garrison duty at Calais, England's last remaining French outpost. As such, the knightly elite increasingly became detached from the harsh reality of chivalrous warfare and focused instead upon the spectacle and pageantry of iv chivalric culture, celebrated in literature, architecture, feasts, parades and tournaments. Military service was the raison d'être of the warrior gentry and without it East Anglia's military community could not maintain its former cohesion. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS There are several people whom I wish to thank, for without their help this thesis would not have been possible. First among them is my supervisor, Michael Bennett, who has been a continuous source of guidance and knowledgeable advice throughout the period of my candidature. Secondly, I would like to thank my associate supervisor, Elizabeth Freeman, who has offered consistent advice and whose careful proof-reading of both my thesis and my first publication has been greatly appreciated. At the University of Tasmania, I would additionally like to thank Jenna Mead for her advice regarding literary sources and Rod Thomson for his expert paleography classes early in my candidature. Bruce Rosen, my Fellow at Jane Franklin Hall, has provided me with regular encouragement and has advised me about research and proof-reading techniques. Others who have offered me advice and encouragement, principally in conversation at conferences, include Philippa Maddem and Christopher Allmand, and also Steven Gunn and Hannes Kleineke, who were especially kind to personally introduce me to several distinguished scholars in my field when I was in England undertaking my research trip. I also owe a significant debt of gratitude to Dr Karla Fenton, whose travelling scholarship helped to facilitate my overseas research trip. I would also particularly like to thank Anne Curry for providing me with a CD ROM of her voluminous database of Lancastrian military participants, which has been indispensable to my research. My thanks also to William Champness for giving up his time to sketch and scan the map of Norfolk contained in this study, and to the staff at the Morris Miller Library, especially in the Document Delivery Centre. Lastly, I would like to thank my parents whose love, support, encouragement, and sound advice have provided me with a base from which I have been able to pursue my studies. vi CONTENTS Declaration of Originality i Declaration of Authority to Access ii Abstract iii Acknowledgements vi Contents vii Abbreviations ix Map Between 58 and 59 Preface xi 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1). The Search For A Broad Synthesis 2). Definition and Description 3). Methodology: The Sources Materials and their Limitations 2. NORFOLK 1350-1430 30 1). Landscape, Economy and Society 2). Political Society, 1350-1399 3). Political Society, 1399-1430 4). The Norfolk Gentry 3. THE WARRIOR GENTRY AND THE COUNTY COMMUNITY 60 1). The County Elite 2). The Morley and Erpingham Circles: The Warrior Gentry In County Society 3). The Morley Circle 4). The Erpingham Circle 4. MAGNATE SERVICE 102 1). Magnate Influence 2). Patronage and Reward in Peace and War 3). Magnate Affinities and Regional Military Society vii 5. MILITARY SERVICE 139 1). War Service and the Norfolk Gentry 2). Military Careerism: The Profits and Losses of War 3). Returning Soldiers and Norfolk Society 6. THE MILITARY COMMUNITY 175 1). East Anglia's 'Military Community': The National Context 2). East Anglia's 'Military Community' in Popular Memory 3). East Anglia's Warrior Gentry: Martial Values and Military Solidarities 7. THE DECLINE OF THE MILITARY COMMUNITY 210 1). Norfolk After 1430: An Altered Political Landscape 2). Memorialising East Anglia's Military Community: Perceptions of the Recent Past 3). The Evolution of Armigerous Culture, c. 1430-c. 1500 CONCLUSION 245 APPENDICES I). Biographical Notes 253 Appendices IIa-IIIb Between 288 and 289 ha). The Morley Circle: Sample of Gentry Connections with the Lords Morley of Hingham IIb).