THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL THE WARHORSE AND MILITARY SERVICE UNDER EDWARD III being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Hull by Andrew Charles Ayton, B.A. September 1990 CONTENTS List of tables iii Abbreviations iv Introduction 1 I. The Military Revolution in Edwardian England 9 II. The Warhorse and Chivalrous Society i. The image of the chivalric warrior in 23 fourteenth-century England ii. The English warhorse in the fourteenth-century: 41 the sources III. The Horse Inventories: Documents and Administrative Processes i. Inventories and restauro equorum accounts 53 ii. The appraisal of warhorses 56 iii. Compensation for losses 86 IV. Restauro Equorum, Vadia Guerre and the Profits of War i. Pay and the appraisal of warhorses: the reigns 102 of Edward I and Edward II ii. A period of experiment: the reign of Edward III 120 iii. The end of restauro equorum 151 V. The Personnel of Edwardian armies: an Assessment of the Sources i. The vadia guerre accounts 177 ii. Letters of protection, charters of pardon and 195 muster rolls iii. The horse inventories 213 VI. The Warhorses of the Edwardian Military Community i. Chronological overview 250 ii. The reliability of the evidence 256 iii. The warhorse in fourteenth-century England: 274 rise and decline iv. Knights and esquires 295 v. Captains and retinues 302 vi. Conclusion 332 Appendices: 1. The Scottish Campaign, 1336 339 2. The Breton Campaign, 1342-43 340 3. The Rheims Campaign, 1359-60 347 Bibliography 355 TABLES 4.1 Retinue of Sir John de Bermingham, earl of Louth: 113 Scottish campaign, 1322 6.1 Mean warhorse values, 1282-1364 251 6.2 Spread of warhorse values, 1282-1364 253 6.3 Mean warhorse values for retinues serving in 263 Ireland, 1361-64 6.4 Mean warhorse values and military rank 296 6.5 The warhorses of Sir John de Molyns' retinue, 1338-39 312 6.6 The warhorses of Sir Walter de Mauny's retinue, 1342-43 315 6.7 Mean warhorse values: a selection of captains, 1336-60 318 6.8 Scottish expeditions, 1336-38 - mean warhorse 323 values for selected captains iv Abbreviations Anonimalle The Anonimalle chronicle, 1333-81, ed. V.H. Galbraith (Manchester, 1927). Avesbury Robert de Avesbury, De gestis mirabilibus regis Edwardi Tertii, ed. E.M. Thompson (Rolls Ser., London, 1889). Bain Calendar of documents relating to Scotland, ed. J. Bain (4 vols., London, 1881-88). B.L. British Library B.P. Reg. Register of Edward the Black Prince, ed. M. Dawes (4 vols., London, 1930-33). B.I.H.R. Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research C.C.R. Calendar of Close Rolls C.E.M.R.A. Catalogue of English medieval rolls of arms, ed. A.R. Wagner. Aspilogia, i (London, 1950) C.P.R. Calendar of Patent Rolls C.F.R. Calendar of Fine Rolls Calendar of Inquisitions Post hbrtem C.L.R. Calendar of Liberate Rolls Canterbury Tales 'The Canterbury Tales', in The complete works of Geoffrey Chaucer, ed. F.N. Robinson (2nd. edition, London, 1957). Crecy and Calais Crecy and Calais. ed. G. Wrottesley (London, 1898). Ec.H.R. Economic History Review E.H.D. English Historical Documents E.H.R. English Historical Review Froissart, ed. Johnes Chronicles of England, France and Spain ... by Sir John Ftoissart, ed. & trans. T. Johnes (2 vols., London, 1848) Froissart, ed. Lettenhove Oeuvres de Froissart, ed. K. de Lettenhove (25 vols., Brussells, 1867-77). G.E.C. The complete peerage, ed. G.E. Cokayne, revised ed. (12 vols. in 13, London, 1910-57) Gough Scotland in 1298: documents relating to the campaign of Edward I in that year. ed. H. Gough (London, 1888) Jean le Bel Chronique de Jean le Bel, ed. J. Viard and E. Ddprez (2 vols., Paris, 1904-5). J.G. Reg. John of Gaunt's Register, 1371-75; 1379-83. Knighton Chroni con Banrici Knighton, ed. J.R. Lumby (2 vols., Rolls Ser., London, 1889-95). Le Baker Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke (1303-56) ed. E.M. Thompson (Oxford, 1889). J.G. Ind. of retinue 'Indentures of retinue with John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster ...', ed. N.B. Lewis. Camden Miscellany, vol. xxii (1964). hrelsa Chroni con monasterii de hrelsa, ed. E.A. Bond (3 vols., Rolls Ser., London, 1866-68). hbrimuth Adae Murimuth, Continuatio chronicarum, ed. E.M. Thompson (Rolls Ser., London, 1889). Norwell The Wardrobe Book of William de Norwell, 1338 -1340, ed. B. Lyon et al. (Brussells, 1983). Pan. Writs Parliamentary writs and writs of military summons, ed. F. Palgrave (2 vols. in 4; London, 1827-34). Rot. Pan. Rotuli parliamentorum, ed. J. Strachey et al. (6 vols., London, 1767-83). Rot. Scot. Rotuli Scotiae, ed. D. Macpherson et al. (2 vols., 1814). Rymer Foedera, ed. T. Rymer; revised edition (4 vols., in 7 parts, 1816-69). Scalacronica Scalacronica, ed. and trans. H. Maxwell (Glasgow, 1907). Scrope-Grosvenor The Scrope and Grosvenor controversy, ed. N.H. Nicolas (2 vols., London, 1832). Topham Liber Quotidianus Contrarotulatoris Garderobiae, 1299-1300, ed. J. Topham et al. (London, 1787). Tout, Chapters T.F. Tout, Chapters in the administrative history of medieval England (6 vols., Manchester, 1920-33). T.R.H.S. Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. V.C.H. Victoria history of the counties of England. Westminster The Westminster chronicle, 1381-1394. ed. and trans. L.C. Hector and B.F. Harvey (Oxford, 1982). Unless otherwise stated, all unpublished documents mentioned in the footnotes are to be found in the Public Record Office, Chancery Lane. 1 INTRODUCTION There are few aspects of medieval English history as important, yet as neglected, as military service. This is not to suggest that the study of war has been eschewed by scholars of the Middle Ages, for this is very far from being the case. A great deal of attention has been devoted to the vexed questions of military obligation and the mentalite of the chivalric class; to the size, structure and financing of armies and the mechanisms of their recruitment; and to the martial aspects of knightly culture, such as the tournament and crusading. On a more general level, there has been much discussion of the impact of war on society and the economy, and on the influence of wartime conditions on the development of parliament. It is not so much war that has been neglected, as the 'military community': the many thousands of men who served in English royal armies and garrisons during the Middle Ages. These men - their careers in arms, their backgrounds, their peacetime lives - remain, if not wholly in shadow, then very much in the penumbra of history. So far, indeed, are we from a comprehensive study of those who engaged in military activity in later medieval England that we lack a full prosopographical study for even a single major royal army. 1 The contrast with, for example, the history of parliamentary representation is indeed striking, yet we surely need to understand the social composition of the king's armies quite as much as the origins and affiliations of the membership of the king's parliaments. At the moment a good deal is known about the men who 'were prepared to be at the pains of repeatedly riding across 1. H.J. Hewitt, The Black Prince's expedition of 1355-1357 (Manchester, 1958), discusses the composition of the Prince of Wales' army (Chapter II), but provides the materials for a much fuller treatment (Appendix C: 'A nominal roll of men who served in the expedition'). Much the same applies to G. Wrottesley, Crecy and Calais (London, 1898) and N.H. Nicolas, History of the battle of Agincourt (3rd. edition, London, 1833). For serious attempts at the prosopographical approach to medieval armies, see J.M. Powell, The anatomy of a crusade, 1213-1221 (Philadelphia, 1986) and S. Lloyd, English society and the crusade, 1216-1307 (Oxford, 1988), Chapter 4 ('The crusade of 1270-72: a case study') and Appendix 4. 2 England to serve as representatives in parliament' 2 and comparatively little about those who took up arms to ride across France and Scotland. The neglect of the men who engaged in military service, and in particular the ordinary men-at-arms and archers who formed the backbone of Edwardian armies, has significantly impaired our understanding of the workings of the English war machine; but the implications of this neglect extend far beyond the province of military history, into the study of many aspects of late medieval English society. How, for example, are we to assess the likely extent and distribution of campaigning profits (and, indeed, costs) in society - or the impact of military service on the workings of shire administration, or the influence of war on the retaining practices of the nobility and gentry - without first establishing the identities of those who served in the king's armies during this period? There can be few major research undertakings in the field of late medieval English history that would offer such wide-ranging benefits as a full- 'scale reconstruction of the military community. The main impediment to systematic study of the military community is the immensity of the research task. Reconstructing the careers of those who are known to have served in the king's armies in the later Middle Ages represents a most daunting undertaking, for the numbers of individuals involved are very great and the source materials are voluminous and, in the main, not available in printed form. A major assault on the records has yet to be made, 3 but there have been a number of small-scale attacks, with varying degrees of success.