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Issue 39 February 2020 Charity No. 1171392 King’s, Lords, Soldiers and Horses: The reality of medieval warfare Ready for a fight? Our first event for 2020 takes you to the medieval battlefield. ow does a medieval commander decide answered at the first Mortimer History Society whether and when to commit to pitched meeting of 2020 on Saturday 15 February in H battle? How were soldiers recruited? What Ludlow. were their motives to fight? And how was the The day begins with a morning of presentations medieval super weapon – the warhorse – bred and ends with a display of medieval arms and and prepared for battle? armour as well as an opportunity to try your arm These are just some of the questions to be at archery. Cont/d… In This Issue Features Reviews Society News Medieval Marcher Lordships 3 Lost Heirs of the Medieval Crown 7 2020 events 1&2 Chaucer at the wedding 5 Simon de Montfort 8 Essay Prize results 6 Edward II 9 Mortimers in Ireland 10 Medieval diets 9 Medieval Fayre 10 New members 11 Your editor 11 Let’s take this outside… Keep the date! In the afternoon you get to play soldier with demonstrations of archery and the crossbow with Mortimer Society members and weapons experts, Jason O’Keefe, Mark North and Mike Beazley. 2020 is set to be a busy year. Make sure If you’ve ever wondered if you’ve got the strength to pull a longbow, this is your chance to find out, you’ve got these dates in your diary and with a have-a-go-archery session overseen by the Archers of Teme, one of the oldest archery look out on Twitter, Facebook and clubs in Shropshire. And, if you’re not actually spoiling for a fight yourself, there’ll be displays of Mortimerhistorysociety.co.uk for more medieval arms and armour to spike your interest. information. Saturday 15 February: Our speakers King’s Lords, Soldiers and Horses: Mathew Strickland, Professor of History at Glasgow University The reality of medieval warfare is currently engaged in a study of aristocratic rebellions in England and Normandy from the Half-day conference with full day option. Norman Conquest to the 13th century. His presentation, The Place of Battle in the Context of Saturday 28 March: Civil War under the Anglo-Norman and Angevin Kings, will consider how the decision to fight Mortimer History Society was made – and the consequences of success or failure that would have weighed heavily on commanders’ minds. AGM and Lecture 10am, Weobley Village Hall. Dr Andy King, Lecturer in History at the University of Southampton, Saturday 16 May: will look at The Soldier’s Experience from 1295 to 1453. Tracking real military careers from Mayhem, Murder and Marriage: surviving records, he’ll help us understand exactly who ended up on the medieval battlefield and why. He’ll consider changing patterns of recruitment, different solider-types and the The Mortimers and the Welsh extent to which individuals were motivated by pay, principles or ideas of chivalry. Andy has Princes published extensively on England’s wars with Scotland and France and worked as a research This full day conference will be held in fellow on the Soldier in Late Medieval project. Knighton in partnership – for the first time – with the Radnorshire Society. Rob Liddiard, Professor of History at the University of East Anglia, will look at the Landscape of Horse Studs in Medieval England. A landscape historian with an Wednesday 17 June: interest in the castles and high-status locations of medieval England, Rob is currently engaged Mortimer History Society in a three-year study at the University of Exeter that’s using archaeology to understand where Annual Summer Lecture warhorses were born, reared, trained and provisioned. To date our understanding of the horse’s This year’s lecture will be given by Dan role in war has come from documentary evidence. Rob will take us to the bones of the matter, Power, Professor of Medieval History at with an investigation of both their physical remains and the stud farms that bred them. Swansea University. Join us at Grange Court, Leominster from 7pm. Sunday 19 July: Where and when? Study Visit to Hellens, Much Saturday 15 February 2020 at Moor Park School, Ludlow. In the morning we’ll be in Henderson Marcle and Kempley Hall, then retire to the Sports Hall for optional afternoon activities. Bring a packed lunch if you’re staying for the full day. Registration and refreshments from 9:15 for a 10am start. Saturday 3 October: 'The King's Writ does not run If you want to join for the morning only it’s £11 for members and £15 for non-members. The here': The Medieval Welsh optional afternoon session is an additional £5 for members and £7 for non-members. Marcher Lordships For a full itinerary and to reserve your place click here or, if you don’t have online access or prefer This full day conference in Ludlow will not to pay online, email [email protected] or call him on 01584 831654. examine the operation and unique independence of the Marcher Lordships. Saturday 21 November: Decorated in glory: Churches, church building and people in Herefordshire in the 14th century. A half-day conference. Join us between 10am and 1pm in College Hall, Hereford Cathedral. Mortimer Matters February 2020 Page 2 An Introduction to Medieval Welsh Marcher Lordships The first in a series of articles investigating the history and significance of the Welsh Marches and their lords, by Society Secretary, Philip Hume. rom the outset, the purpose of the of Marcher lords in the independent Marcher lords were barons of England and Mortimer History Society has been to lordships that had developed as a territorial held their lordships from the king, yet they F study and disseminate information, zone that lay between England and Wales, were not subject to many of the institutional not only about the medieval Mortimer and administratively were not in either and legal structures of the English crown. family, but also about the wider cultural and country. The Marcher lord claimed and exercised political history of the Welsh Marches and within his lordship many of the powers the Marcher lords from 1066 to 1500. This Notwithstanding their close connection which the king exercised in his kingdom. purpose is embedded in the formal aims and with the Mortimers, the Marcher lordships The Marcher lords retained their powers objectives of the society, as set out in the are a fascinating subject in their own right until the reign of Henry VIII, when the Laws constitution. and, at the outset, it’s important to clarify in Wales Acts of 1536 and 1542 removed their their geographical area. Typically a March is independence, incorporated the lordships A shared interest in the Mortimers and the a border region or frontier area, thus into the governance and jurisdiction Welsh Marcher Lordships is natural, since ‘Marches’ existed in many places, including structures of the new counties of Wales or the two are inextricably linked. Once the north of England and Normandy. Today, the border counties of England, and for the established at Wigmore within ten years of when people envisage the Welsh Marches it first time defined a border between Wales the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Mortimers is often the picturesque area that straddles and England. survived and thrived as Marcher lords for the central part of the English/Welsh border generations longer than any of the other in Shropshire and Herefordshire that comes original Marcher families. Their initial to mind. It’s likely that, in the eleventh The principality of Wales and the Marcher lordships conquests to carve out more lands and century, this was also the perception. lordships in Wales became a bitter two- However, during the medieval period it hundred-year struggle. Once that was greatly expanded to encompass an achieved, though, the Mortimers rapidly area that ran from north Wales took ownership of more lordships through and the Dee estuary down to the strategic marriages or gained them in Severn estuary and across all reward for services to the crown, coming to south Wales to the coast of control over a third of the Marcher lordships Pembrokeshire in the west. during the fourteenth century. Although they also amassed a huge empire of lands Defined by the nearly fifty Marcher spread across England and Ireland as well lordships that were created, the as Wales, Wigmore remained their principal Welsh Marches became a seat for over 250 years, and the Marcher unique area as a border region lordships an important source of their power that lay between Wales and and wealth. England, with its own laws and with exceptional powers exercised by their lords. It was Presumption or reality? referred to as ‘Marchia Wallie’ to It is understandable, therefore, that when distinguish it from ‘Pura Wallia’, and Roger Mortimer (d.1330), at the height of his was politically separate from both powers as the effective ruler of the country Wales and England. Many of the in 1328 following the forced abdication of areas, having been conquered Edward II, was raised to the highest rank of from the Welsh were no the nobility he chose the title ‘Earl of March’. longer politically part of Contemporaries though were amazed and Wales; other lordships furious, since the adoption of this that initially sat in unprecedented title, encompassing as it did England were such a vast area, appeared to signal that effectively Mortimer was setting himself above other withdrawn earls. The title, however, reflected the reality by their lords that the Mortimers’ land, wealth and power from the were rooted in their growing domination of institutions the Welsh Marcher lordships.

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