Adrian R. Bell & Anne Curry 
The Soldier Experience in the Fourteenth Century 

Essays throwing fresh light on what it was like to be a medieval soldier, drawing on archival research.


The ‘long’ fourteenth century saw England fighting wars on a number of diverse fronts – not just abroad, in the Hundred Years War, but closer to home. But while tactics, battles, and logistics have been frequently discussed, the actual
experience of being a soldier has been less often studied. Via a careful re-evaluation of original sources, and the use of innovative methodological techniques such as statistical analysis and the use of relational databases, the essays here bring new insights to bear on soldiers, both as individuals and as groups. Topics addressed include military service and the dynamics of recruitment; the social composition of the armies; the question of whether soldiers saw their role as a ‘profession’; and the experience of prisoners of war.


Contributors: Andrew Ayton, David Simpkin, Andrew Spencer, David Bachrach, Iain Mac Innes, Adam Chapman, Michael Jones, Guilhem Pepin, Remy Ambuhl, Adrian R. Bell

Table of Content

Introduction

Military Service and the Dynamics of Recruitment in Fourteenth-Century England – Dr Andrew Ayton

Total War in the Middle Ages?: The Contribution of English Landed Society to the Wars of Edward I and Edward II – David Simpkin

A Warlike People? Gentry Enthusiasm for Edward I’s Scottish Campaigns, 1296-1307 – Andrew Spencer

Edward I’s Centurions: Professional Soldiers in an Era of Militia Armies – David S. Bachrach

Who’s afraid of the Big Bad Bruce? Balliol Scots and ‘English Scots’ during the second Scottish War of Independence – Iain A. Mac Innes

Rebels,
Uchelwyr and Parvenus: Welsh Knights in the Fourteenth Century – Adam Chapman

Breton Soldiers from the Battle of the Thirty [26 March 1351] to Nicopolis [25 September 1396] – Michael Jones

Towards a Rehabilitation of Froissart’s Credibility: the non fictitious Bascot de Mauléon – Guilhem Pepin

The English Reversal of Fortunes in the 1370s and the Experience of Prisoners of War – Remy Ambuhl

The Soldier, ‘hadde he riden, no man ferre’ – Adrian R. Bell

About the author

RÉMY AMBÜHL is Associate Professor in Medieval History at the University of Southampton, UK.