16
Introduction
In the thirteenth and early fourteenth century, a wide range of occupations in England were characterized by a high degree of professionalization.1 In the military sphere, this type of professionalization has received considerable attention with regard to engineers, and particularly those employed in the construction of siege engines of various types.2 Similarly, the men who constructed the king’s crossbows and fabricated his crossbow quarrels have garnered significant attention from scholars.3 With respect to military personnel, professional army chaplains have been identified as serving in considerable numbers in the armies of Edward I.4 Members of the military households of English kings also have been recognized by scholars to have developed noteworthy professional expertise in a wide array of military affairs, including logistics, recruitment, and commanding mounted forces in the field.5
1. Regarding the details of professionalization in the building trades, including wage rates, and ranks within the professions see L. F. Salzman, Building in England Down to 1540: A Documentary History revised edn (Oxford, 1967); D. Knoop and G. P. Jones, The Medieval Mason, 3rd edn (Manchester, 1967); Building Accounts of King Henry III, ed. Howard M. Colvin (Oxford, 1971); M. de Boüard, Manuel d’archéologie médiévale de la fouille à l’histoire (Paris, 1975); and Paul Latimer, “Wages in Late Twelfth-and Early Thirteenth-Century England”, Haskins Society Journal 9 (1997), 185–205.
2. See in this regard, A. Z. Freeman, “Wall-Breakers and River-Bridgers: Military Engineers in the Scottish Wars of Edward I”, Journal of British Studies 10 (1971), 1–16; A. J. Taylor, “Master Bertram, Ingeniator Regis”, Studies in Medieval History Presented to R. Allen Brown (Woodbridge,1989), 289–315; David S. Bachrach, “The Military Administration of England (1216–1272): The Royal Artillery”, Journal of Military History 68 (2004), 1083–1104; idem, “The Royal Arms Makers of England 1199–1216: A Prosopographical Survey”, Medieval Prosopography 25 (2004, appearing 2008), 49–75; and idem, “English Artillery 1189–1307: The Implications of Terminology”, English Historical Review 121 (2006), 1408–1430.
3. Concerning the professionals who built crossbows and made crossbow bolts, see Alf Webb, “John Malemort—King’s Quarreler: The King’s Great Arsenal, St. Briavels and the Royal Forest of Dean”, Society of Archer Antiquaries 31 (1988), 40–46; as well as David S. Bachrach, “The Crossbow Makers of England, 1204–1272”, Nottingham Medieval Studies 47 (2003), 168–197; idem, “The Origins of the English Crossbow Industry”, Journal of Medieval Military History 2 (2003), 73–87; idem, “Crossbows for the King: Some Observations on the Development of the Crossbow during the Reigns of King John and Henry III of England, 1204–1272”, Technology and Culture 45 (2004), 102–119; and idem, “Crossbows for the King Part Two: The Crossbow during the Reign of Edward I of England (1272–1307)”, Technology and Culture 47 (2006), 81–90, which also are included in this volume.
4. David S. Bachrach, “The Organisation of Military Religion in the Armies of Edward I of England (1272–1307)”, Journal of Medieval History 29 (2003), 265–286.
5. Regarding the military household, see Norman Lewis, ‘The English Forces in Flanders, August–November 1297’, Studies in Medieval History Presented to Frederick Maurice Powicke, ed. R. W. Hunt, W. A. Pantin and R. W. Southern (Oxford, 1948), 310–318; C. Warren Hollister, The Military Organization of Norman England (Oxford, 1965), 171–76; J. O. Prestwich, “The Military Household of the Norman Kings”, Anglo-Norman Warfare, ed. Matthew Strickland (Woodbridge, 1992), 93–128; and Michael Prestwich, War, Politics and Finance under Edward I (Totowa, NJ, 1972), 41–66
Absent from discussions of professionalization up this point, however, have been lower ranking officers, particularly those who commanded units of foot soldiers. The burden of this paper, therefore, is to shed light on the large number of men who commanded infantry forces in Edward I’s wars in Wales and in Scotland. In this context, I use the term professional to designate men whose primary occupation over a significant period of time was as soldiers.
In setting about to address this problem, the student of Edward I’s reign is blessed with a vast corpus of administrative records that shed light on foot soldiers who served in royal armies, and on the officers who led them. These records include memoranda detailing the transfer of supplies, garrison rolls, horse valuation lists, memoranda for the replacement of horses, and, most important of all, pay records. The clerks who drew up these records, whether serving in garrisons or in the field with the troops, or in the more leisurely setting of the Chancery, Exchequer, or Wardrobe, tended to use standardized terminology to describe military matters, including particular types of equipment as well as types of fighting men.6
6. Regarding this tendency toward standardization and precision in administrative vocabulary, see Bachrach, “English Artillery 1189–1307”, 1408–1430; and idem, “Crossbows for the King Part Two”, 81–90.
This habit of standardization and, indeed, of terminological precision is important as it allows the modern scholar to identify when new military classifications appear in the records, as well as to differentiate among the various classifications used by royal clerks to describe fighting men in the king’s service. The current study relies on my investigation of a corpus of about 2,000 documents dealing with Edward’s campaigns, principally in Scotland during the last decade of his reign. Many times this number of documents remain to be read and analyzed, so that the conclusions reached here must be considered tentative, but likely to be borne out by further research, at least for the ten years that are the focus of this study.
Professional officers
Welsh troops in royal service, men of the shire levies, and men mobilized directly by their lords served, as is well known, in groups of twenty commanded by vintenarii. Generally, five such units were then organized in groups of 100 men commanded by centenarii, also denoted in royal administrative records by the synonym constabularii.7 English centenarii serving in Edward’s Scottish wars, who are the primary focus of this study, usually were equipped with an armored war horse, that is their mounts were cooperti. In a handful of cases, however, English centenarii can be identified as being equipped with non-armored horses, that is their mounts were discooperti.8 Those centenarii who possessed an armored horse received a pay rate of 1 s. per day. Officers who had an unarmored horse received just half this rate, that is 6 d. per day.
7. Prestwich, War, Politics, 106; and the earlier observation on this point J. E. Morris, The Welsh Wars of Edward I (Oxford, 1901), 95–96.
8. See, for example, National Archives E372/132 for Robert Dalton who is a centenarius discoopertus from Derbyshire.
Given the considerable expense involved in owning a warhorse, it is likely that the majority of the men who served as centenarii were of that economic stratum, below the knightly class, to whom King Edward appealed quite frequently to provide the bulk of his heavy cavalry, on the basis of long-established requirements for military service.9 Many of the 1,200 centenarii whom I have identified by name, appear only a single time in the pay records, which I have examined thus far, as leading infantry companies in a single campaign during Edward I’s reign. However, a considerable number of these centenarii can be identified leading infantry companies year after year, and in some cases for more than a decade.10 These men clearly chose a military career, and can be identified as professional soldiers. A few examples will serve to illustrate the careers of these officers.
9. See, for example National Archives E101/6/30 and E101/6/31 for the mobilization orders for 1,270 men with equi cooperti from York, Surrey, Norfolk, Suffolk, Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Essex, and Herefordshire in 1298. For a discussion of the mobilization of mounted forces in 1298, see Prestwich, War, Politics, 68–70. With my collaborator Oliver Stoutner, I subsequently tested this theory with respect to centenarii from Yorkshire and Northumberland, and found that many of these men do not appear in the tax rolls for these counties, and likely were below the economic level suggested in the text. See David S. Bachrach and Oliver Stoutner, “Military Entrepreneurs in the Armies of Edward I of England (1272–1307)”, Haskins Society Journal 27 (2015, published 2016), 179–193.
10. These men are listed in Appendix 1 at the end of the chapter.
Professional centenarii
It would appear that there were, in fact, several career paths open to men who wished to serve as professional infantry officers in Edward I’s armies. The first of these is illuminated by the service of a man named Nicholas de Preston, whom I have first identified on campaign in early March 1298. He was present at the relief of the fortress of Berwick on Tweed with his company of Lancashire foot archers, with along with more than 2,600 men from that shire.11 It is not clear whether Nicholas served in Scotland in 1299, but he was certainly back again through the summer and autumn of 1300 as a centenarius from Lancashire.12 For at least part of this period, the Lancashire men were in the garrison at Berwick, which remained a major English magazine and fortress throughout Edward’s Scottish wars.13
11. National Archives E101/7/2 9r.
12. National Archives E101/612/25.
13. On 3 August, Nicholas commanded some sixty-five foot archers in the garrison at Berwick. See National Archives E101/8/20.
Nicholas was certainly back in royal service no later than 1303, once more in command of foot soldiers as a centenarius. However, rather than commanding men from Lancashire, he was listed by Richard de Bremesgrave, the royal receiver at Berwick, among sixteen centenarii, who collectively commanded 1,210 foot soldiers de diversibus comitibus.14 As will be discussed in more detail later in this chapter, the designation of foot soldiers as coming de diversibus comitibus, rather than from a specific county, was the way in which royal clerks designated men, who had volunteered for service over the winter months or for extended garrison duty, and served together in mixed units of men from all over England. Nicholas was still at Berwick in 1304, again leading a centena of foot archers de diversis comitibus.15 However, by June of this year, Nicholas, who was still at Berwick, was now again in command of a centena of foot archers from Lancashire. He had assumed command of 101 Lancashire men who had been detached from the centenae commanded by two other Lancashire centenarii named Walter de Hoton and Adam Chernoke.16 It is possible, and perhaps even likely, that the men in charge of the Lancashire forces at Berwick turned to Nicholas because of his previous role as a centenarius from this county when Walter and Adam departed the army. It appears that Nicholas departed from Berwick later in the summer of 1304, as the garrison roll for August notes that seventy-seven men from his centena were seconded for service with another centenarius named Thomas de Berwick.17 There is no record of Nicholas in either 1305 or 1306, but he again went on campaign in 1307. He commanded one of seven centenae of foot archers from Lancashire mustered by John de Segrave, one of Edward’s chief lieutenants in Scotland.18 At the beginning of the campaign Nicholas led 100 foot archers but this number was reduced substantially to just sixty men after the troops arrived in Scotland.19
14. National Archives E101/10/28.
15. National Archives E101/12/17.
16. National Archives E101/11/15.
17. National Archives E101/11/15.
18. National Archives E39/4/3.
19. National Archives E101/612/2.
In sum, Nicholas de Preston led troops from Lancashire in at least four campaigns in Scotland over a period of nine years, and also led a group of men from several counties in the permanent garrison at Berwick for at least a year as well. The number of years in which Nicholas served may well be higher, as there are still many thousands of documents pertaining to these campaigns that I have not yet read. Nicholas’ lengthy tours of duty over many years clearly indicate that he had taken on a career as a military officer who specialized in the command of foot soldiers.
A second career path that can be identified among Edward’s professional infantry officers saw these men pass back and forth between leading infantry companies and serving as soldarii. The term soldarius, which had been used since at least the mid-twelfth century by the authors of narrative sources to designate paid fighting men, appears to have been introduced into official use in England by royal clerks in the context of Edward’s campaign to Flanders in 1297.20 This term was used to designate men who volunteered to serve as heavy cavalry in Edward’s army, but who were not obligated to do so either because their income level was too low, or because the gentry from their shire had not been mobilized for service in a particular campaign.21
20. The first use of this term that I have identified in English government records is in BL MS 7965, which was edited by Bryce and Mary Lyon, The Wardrobe Book of 1296–1297: A Financial and Logistical Record of Edward I’s 1297 Autumn Campaign in Flanders Against Philip IV of France (Brussels, 2004), 97. It should be noted that some of the centenarii who remained in service in Scotland after the departure of their troops for home were denoted as valletti rather than as soldarii. On this point, see Liber quotidianus contrarotulatoris garderobae, ed. John Topham (London, 1799), 256.
21. I plan a focused study on the soldarii in the near future. Now see Bachrach and Stoutner, “Military Entrepreneurs”, passim.
A useful example of this type of transition between centenarius and soldarius is provided by one of the most splendidly named of all of Edward’s centenarii, John Bagepus. He first appears in royal pay records on 22 May 1295 leading a contingent of ninety-six Cheshire foot archers in Wales, as part of a force of eighteen infantry centenae from that shire.22 The next piece of information that I have identified, thus far, regarding John’s service comes from the administrative accounts produced in the course of the large-scale mobilization of English troops in late 1297 to put down a major Scottish rebellion, led by, among others, William Wallace.23 It was in the context of this campaign that Nicholas de Preston, discussed earlier, also first appears in the royal pay records.
22. National Archives E101/5/18 17r.
23. Regarding the campaign of 1297–1298 in Scotland, see the discussion by Prestwich, Edward I (Yale, CT, 1997), 476–483.
John Bagepus commanded a centena of foot archers from Cheshire at Newcastle on Tyne in mid-December 1297 as part of a force of 1,800 men led by the earl of Surrey.24 John’s company took part in the relief of the fortress at Roxburgh in February 1298, and then briefly remained in the garrison there.25 Sometime before the earl of Surrey’s troops arrived at Roxburgh, however, John received promotion to the rank of millenarius, perhaps as a result of earlier campaign experience in Wales.26 The rank of millenarius, that is the commander of 1,000 men, appears to have been a brevet rather than a permanent rank.
24. National Archives E101/7/2 2v.
25. Ibid.
26. National Archives E101/7/2 7v.
John Bagepus was one of thirteen millenarii present at Roxburgh from 2–14 February, who led 146 centenae comprising 14,845 foot archers.27 By no later than 3 March 1298, John, still holding the rank of millenarius, and his centena of foot archers had arrived at Berwick.28 John remained there with his men throughout March and the remainder of the spring, as is indicated by a list of payments issued on 10 June to officers of foot, including Bagepus, by Richard de Bremesgrave, the chief logistics officer at Berwick.29
27. Ibid.
28. Ibid., 10r.
29. Ibid., 12 v and C47/2/17 nr 4
John Bagepus also likely continued to serve in the garrison at Berwick throughout the remainder of 1298 and the first half of 1299.30 At some point, however, his unit was demobilized and sent back to Cheshire. From late July 1299, at the latest, John Bagepus served at Berwick as a soldarius rather than as an infantry officer. Among the other forty-eight soldarii in the garrison at Berwick in the summer of 1299 was a man named John le Balancer, who had also held the rank of millenarius alongside John Bagepus in March 1298.31 John Bagepus continued to serve for the next five years, apparently continuously, as a soldarius up through the spring of 1304, in the garrisons at both Berwick and Edinburgh.32 However, at some point in 1304, John again assumed command of a centena of infantry, and is identified as a centenarius in a 1304 pay roll for troops in Scotland.33
30. National Archives E1101/7/8 1v.
31. National Archives E101/7/2 10r.
32. National Archives E101/13/34, E101/9/16, E101/10/5, and E101/11/1.
33. National Archives E101/11/29 2r.
In considering John Bagepus’ career, we see a man commanding infantry units in at least three separate campaigns over a period of nine years. He was sufficiently respected by his superiors that he was elevated to the brevet rank of millenarius during the 1298 campaign in Scotland. Whether John’s service as soldarius in the period 1299–1304 also included periods in command of infantry centenae must await further research. Other officers, however, certainly did pass back and forth between service as soldarii and centenarii.
One man who followed this path was John de Herle, who first appears serving in Scotland in 1300 as a centenarius leading a unit of foot archers from Northumberland.34 In that same year, John appears in the garrison roll at the fort of Dumfries as a soldarius, alongside two other men who also had served as Northumberland centenarii named John de Luken and Robert de Herle. The latter was perhaps the brother of John de Herle.35 In 1301, John de Herle was again serving as an infantry officer leading 130 foot archers from Northumberland.36 Once more he appears alongside Robert de Herle who also was in command of a centena of Northumberland foot archers.37 John was still serving in Scotland as a centenarius in February 1302, although his command had now been reduced to just thirty-three men.38 But in September 1302, John appeared in the garrison roll for Bothwell as a soldarius.39 He continued as a soldarius in 1303, serving at Linlithgow, and in April 1304, he received just under £10, that is approximately 200 days of wages in arrears, for his service as a soldarius at this same fort.40 John de Herle was back in command of a centena of foot archers from Northumberland when he received pay in August 1304.41 In 1305, John de Herle was back in the garrison at Linlithgow, again serving as a soldarius.42
34. National Archives E101/13/34.
35. Ibid.
36. MS ADD 7966A 108v.
37. Ibid.
38. National Archives E101/7/13.
39. National Archives E101/10/5.
40. National Archives E101/11/1 and E101/11/16.
41. National Archives E101/12/16.
42. National Archives E101/12/38.
This regular back and forth between service as a soldarius in various Scottish garrisons and as commander of infantry centenae from Northumberland gave John de Herle considerable experience leading shire troops. However, just as importantly, by staying in Scotland on an almost permanent basis, John was able to keep well informed, through personal experience, about the state of political and military affairs in the regions in which he led his men. Obviously, both of these types of experience were valuable to John’s commanders in the field, and may well have given them confidence that officers such as John could effectively lead even semi-trained levies from the shires. Just as importantly, John de Herle’s career is clearly indicative of his status as a professional officer.
Officers following a third career path, like Nicholas de Preston discussed earlier, also began by leading troops from the shire levies, but then took command of units of what appear to have been contract companies of professional foot archers, recruited de diversis comitibus.43 One officer with a similar command experience as Nicholas de Preston, named Richard le Ronet, is described in a royal pay account from 1307 as commanding “foot soldiers from various parts of England, who have been retained for wages at the order of the king”.44 These contract companies of foot archers can be seen to parallel the contract companies of mounted troops raised by numerous magnates at the direction and pay of the royal government during Edward I’s reign.45
43. Prestwich, War, Politics, 106.
44. National Archives E101/373/15 13v, “pedites diversarum partium Anglie retentum ad vadi iuxta ordinacionem Regis”.
45. A considerable number of military contracts survive from the Scottish campaigns. See, for example, National Archives E101/9/15 for a contract with William of Durham for ten heavy cavalry. Also see E101/681/1 for a list of military retainer agreements with Aymer de Valence, earl of Pembroke; Thomas de Berkeley; and Robert Hastang. On the practice of writing up military contracts with magnates for the purpose of obtaining units of mounted forces, see Prestwich, War, Politics, 61–64.
Another officer of this type named Gilbert Modi led a company of Northumberland foot archers in Scotland from December 1297 until March 1298, and took part in the relief of Roxburgh.46 Gilbert was back in Scotland in command of Northumberland troops in 1300, remaining there for at least four months.47 The next year, however, Gilbert took on command of a centena de diversis comitibus, which served at Berwick from July through October 1301.48 By the end of the year, Gilbert had given up command of this centena and joined the garrison at Kirkintilloch as a soldarius, mirroring the transition between service as a centenarius and soldarius seen in the case of John Bagepus and John de Herle, mentioned earlier.49
46. National Archives C47/2/20.
47. For the command of Northumberland troops see National Archives E101/13/34. For his receipt of just over £6.5 for his service to date, see E101/684/46. At a shilling per day, this amounts to 130 days of service.
48. MS ADD 7966A 109r, 110 v, 111v, 113v, and 114r; and National Archives E101/8/28.
49. National Archives E101/9/16.
By February 1302, Gilbert was back in command of a unit of foot archers when he received supplies of grain for his seventy-five men from Peter de Chichester, one of the Edward I’s household clerks, who was given responsibility for delivering provisions to troops stationed in Scotland.50 No later than August, Gilbert had again given up command of his centena and reentered the garrison at Kirkintilloch, where he served as a soldarius until December 1302.51 In June 1303, Gilbert was at the fortress of Linlithgow. He was still at Linlithgow in July, but by August 1303, he was at Edinburgh, where he is recorded receiving one half-ton of grain on behalf of three other men named Maurice the Welshman, William Spucky, and William the Hobelar.52 He received approximately three-eighths of a ton of grain that had been distributed from the stores at Berwick, suggesting that he was again in command of a unit of foot soldiers. We again see Gilbert in May 1304, when he was in command of a contract centena de diversis comitibus numbering ninety-three men.53 In August of that year, Gilbert’s company had grown to 156 foot archers.54 Whether Gilbert served in Scotland in 1305 remains unclear, but he was back for at least five months in 1306, from May to September, again in command of a centena of foot archers numbering ninety-five men.55
50. National Archives E101/7/13. Regarding Peter de Chichester’s service under King Edward, see Prestwich, Edward I, 158.
51. National Archives E101/10/5, E101/10/14 and E101/11/1.
52. National Archives E101/10/28, nr 28, 30, 31.
53. National Archives E101/12/17.
54. National Archives E101/12/16.
55. National Archives E101/13/16.
As was true of the other officers noted earlier, Gilbert Modi gained enormous experience leading troops in Scotland, serving there during at least six years between 1298 and 1306. Whether in garrison or in the field, this type of experience was invaluable for maintaining discipline and tactical control over troops, including both men of the shire levies, and those soldiers who volunteered to serve in one of the contract companies. Moreover, as is true of the other officers discussed thus far, Gilbert Modi’s career is clearly that of a professional officer.
The three career paths considered, thus far, concern the command of companies of foot archers. The final group of professional officers, by contrast, commanded crossbowmen (balistarii). For the most part, crossbowmen served in units of just twenty soldiers, and their officers, correspondingly, were vintenarii rather than centenarii. Moreover, the officers of crossbow units tended not be mounted and earned only half as much as their mounted contemporaries, that is 6 d. a day rather than 1 s. Another important difference is that virtually all of the crossbowmen whom they commanded, particularly in Edward’s Scottish wars, were professionals rather than men of the shire levies.56
56. I have found no information regarding the mobilization of crossbowmen from the shire levies for the wars in Scotland. By contrast, at least one summons of troops from Hampshire, Dorsetshire, and Wiltshire in 1295, called for both foot archers and crossbowmen to serve in Gascony. See Calendar of Patent Rolls Edward I AD 1292–1301 (London, 1895, repr. 1971), 151.
Robert Lankerdaunce, for example, appears to have begun his military career during Edward I’s campaign in Wales in 1295, leading a small unit of just nine balistarii in May and June of that year.57 The pay records indicate that at this early date, Robert’s men all came from Cheshire since they are listed alongside the centenae of foot archers from that shire rather than separately under the rubric of balistarii. During the Scottish wars, royal clerks separated out crossbowmen from other foot soldiers and listed them under the rubric of balistarii in both pay records and garrisons rolls.58
57. National Archives E101/5/16 and E101/5/18.
58. For administrative purposes, the separation of crossbowmen from foot archers was useful because the men were paid different wages, and required different types of supplies.
In 1298, Robert joined the garrison at Berwick as a vintenarius in command of nineteen balistarii.59 Robert remained in Scotland, more or less continuously, up through May 1301, commanding his unit of crossbowmen at both Berwick Castle and at the castrum of Lochmaben.60 I have not yet found information regarding Robert’s service in 1302, but in 1303 he was in command of a unit of crossbowmen at Lochmaben.61 By August 1304, Robert was back in the garrison at Berwick again commanding a unit of crossbowmen as their vintenarius.62
59. National Archives E101/7/8; and C47/2/17, which records Robert’s receipt of a barrel of wine for his men.
60. National Archives E101/7/20; E101/684/46; E101/13/34; and MS ADD 7966A 64v.
61. National Archives E101/11/19 4v.
62. National Archives E101/11/15.
William de Gascony, another vintenarius of crossbowman, had a similar career in Scotland. He first appears in 1300, receiving supplies of grain and wine for his nineteen men at Perth on the River Tay in central Scotland.63 It is not clear whether William served in Scotland in 1301, but in 1302 and 1303, he commanded his unit of crossbowmen in the garrison at Berwick before being transferred to Roxburgh.64 In 1304, William’s unit was back at Berwick.65 I have not found information regarding William’s service in 1305, but he was in command of a unit of crossbowmen at the fortress at Tibbers (Tokborhull?) no later than February 1306.66
63. National Archives E101/13/36 nr 219.
64. For Berwick see National Archives E101/9/14; E101/11/1; and 101/9/4. For Roxburgh see E101/10/26.
65. National Archives E101/11/15 and E101/11/16 nr 38, 43, 60, and 61.
66. National Archives E101/13/16 17v.
As is clear from this brief account, Robert and William gave their superiors the benefit of years of experience of service in Scotland, in much the same manner as the centenarii, discussed earlier, who commanded centenae of foot archers. It should be emphasized, however, that unlike the officers of foot archers, the vintenarii of the crossbow units appear to have served almost exclusively in garrisons rather than in the field.67
67. There are very good tactical reasons for deploying crossbowmen in fortifications. The most important of these is that crossbows could be aimed at individual targets while the crossbowman took cover in the defenses offered by the fortifications that Edward garrisoned throughout Scotland and Wales. In addition, a major liability of the crossbow is the considerable length of time required to load the weapon. Crossbowmen deployed in the field require more protection from the enemy while they are loading their weapons than is the case with archers equipped with self-bows.
Professional soldiers
The luxury of having large number of officers with years of command experience may well have been one of the reasons King Edward chose year after year to mobilize many thousands of men from the shire levies for military service, both in Wales and in Scotland. But he might also have been influenced in this decision by his knowledge that these shire levies would benefit from the presence of substantial numbers of professional soldiers both in garrison and in the field. The “stiffening” effect of a core of professional soldiers had long been recognized in the medieval West from Charlemagne onward. To cite but one example, Harold Godwinson’s housecarls appear to have done an admirable job of maintaining the resolve of the militia forces at Senlac until Harold’s unfortunate meeting with a Norman arrow. I alluded, earlier, to two categories of professional foot soldiers in Edward’s armies—the crossbowmen and the foot archers de diversis comitibus. I will now describe these in greater depth.
In both 1277 and 1287, King Edward deployed urban militia units equipped with crossbows for his invasions of Wales. In 1277, for example, ninety-eight London crossbowmen under two officers (constabularii) reported to Chester in July 1277 for service in Wales.68 Similarly, a unit of crossbowmen from the Oxford militia served in Chester in this year.69 Units of London crossbowmen and Bristol crossbowmen also were mobilized for service in Wales in 1287.70 The practice of deploying urban militiamen armed with crossbows continued in a limited way even during the latter part of Edward’s reign. In 1296, for example, a unit of London crossbowmen was dispatched to help guard the Isle of Wight.71 Edward II also made use of urban militia forces, deploying a unit of crossbowmen from York to serve at Berwick in 1315.72
68. National Archives E101/3/11 and C62/56 9r.
69. National Archives E372/121 11v.
70. National Archives E101/4/20; E372/132 22r; C62/64 4r; and E372/133 29r. For an examination of the deployment of urban militias by both Henry III and Edward I, see David S. Bachrach, “Urban Military Forces of England and Germany c. 1240–c. 1315, A Comparison”, in Mercenaries and Paid Fighting Men: The Mercenary Identity in the Middle Ages, ed. John France (Turnhout, 2008), 231–242 and in this volume.
71. National Archives E101/5/27.
72. National Archives E101/14/33.
Early in his reign, Edward supplemented these militia units of crossbowmen with large numbers of professional balistarii from Gascony, particularly during the Second Welsh War of 1282–1284.73 During the final third of his reign, however, Edward appears to have relied on domestic companies of professional crossbowmen. These domestic contract companies may have numbered, in aggregate, as many as 1,000 soldiers, particularly during periods of substantial mobilization. In this context, I have been able to identify by name more than seventy vintenarii of crossbowmen who served in Scotland between 1298 and 1307.74 Of these officers, at least twenty led companies in 1304. In July of this year more than 450 crossbowmen served together in the garrison at Berwick, alone.75
73. See National Archives E101/3/27 for a total of eighty-five mounted and 876 foot crossbowmen from Gascony serving in Wales. Also see the discussion by Prestwich War, Politics, 108, who identifies a total of 210 mounted crossbowmen and 1,313 Gascon crossbowmen serving on foot.
74. See Appendix 2 for the list of crossbow officers whom I have identified thus far.
75. National Archives E101/12/17 and E101/13/16.
The detailed pay records for the Scottish wars, and especially documents that recorded payments of wages in arrears, make clear that the individual crossbowmen in these contract companies also served for long periods of time, often stretching on for years. On 12 May 1304, for example, a balistarius named Roger de Sutton from the unit of Jordan of Oxford received his back pay at Berwick.76 The memorandum noted that Roger had spent the entire year in 1303 and the first four and half months of 1304 in service at Berwick under Jordan’s command. Other balistarii stationed in Scotland for long terms of service were seconded from unit to unit. A crossbowman named John le Archer, for example, served under the vintenarius John Dansard at Berwick for part of 1303.77 He then transferred to Jordan of Oxford later in the year and remained with his new commander well into 1304.78 It is not yet clear at whether the individual crossbowmen were free to join a new company when their contracted period of service ended, or if the decision about seconding men from unit to unit rested with the officers, themselves.
76. National Archives E101/11/16 nr 45.
77. National Archives E101/10/26.
78. National Archives E101/10/26 and E101/11/20.
The substantial numbers of crossbowmen on what appears to have been long-term service in Scotland led Edward’s government to station specialists in crossbow production and repair in many of the fortresses there, including Berwick, Jedburgh, Lochmaben, Dumfries, Edinburgh, Linlithgow, and Kirkintilloch.79 In addition, specially trained artisans employed by the royal government produced enormous quantities of crossbow quarrels for use in Scotland. Production and repair facilities for quarrels were organized at Newcastle on Tyne, Berwick, Roxburgh, and Dumfries.80 In addition, the government purchased considerable quantities of crossbow ammunition, including an order for 104,000 crossbow bolts in 1298.81 All in all, Edward’s government devoted considerable resources to ensure that a sizeable contingent of professional crossbowmen were deployed in Scotland on a regular basis. However, this effort was dwarfed by the costs associated with maintaining large numbers of professional foot archers there throughout the period 1298–1307. It is to this group that I now turn.
79. National Archives E101/7/10; C47/22/9 nr 71; E39/93/18; E101/9/9; E101/10/6; E101/11/1; E101/12/10; E101/68/1; E101/8/27; E101/12/18.
80. National Archives C62/74 5r; E101/8/24; E101/9/30 nr 25; and E101/14/1.
81. National Archives C62/74 6r.
As Michael Prestwich has noted, royal clerks generally grouped together all foot soldiers in the pay records and garrison rolls according to the shire from which they came.82 The two major exceptions to this practice, especially in the context of Edward’s Scottish wars, were the balistarii, noted earlier, and the centenae de diversis comitibus. Early in Edward’s reign, royal clerks used the phrase de diversis comitibus to denote that a particular paymaster was conducting units of infantry from several shires, e.g. ten centenae of foot soldiers from Cheshire and eight centenae of foot soldiers from Shropshire.83 By 1295, however, royal clerks had altered their practice so that the phrase de diversis comitibus now meant that the men in a particular centena were drawn from a several shires. A memorandum regarding soldiers’ wages in Wales in May 1295, for example, identifies infantry companies from Lancashire, Cheshire, Shropshire, and also de diversis comitibus.84 Royal clerks continued to draw this distinction between men of the shire levies and men serving in the companies de diversis comitibus through the entire period 1297–1307.85
82. Prestwich, War, Politics, 106.
83. National Archives E101/3/11 for the use of the phrase in this manner in 1277; and E101/3/30 for the use of the phrase in this manner in 1282.
84. National Archives E101/5/16.
85. See, for example, National Archives E101/7/8; E101/13/36; E101/13/34; MS ADD 7966A; E101/7/13; E101/11/1; E101/12/17; and E101/373/15.
It remains unclear precisely how these units were recruited. However, it seems likely that the men in these centenae were drawn from the pool of soldiers who had previous experience serving in the levies, particularly those from the northern shires. Many of the commanders of these companies originally hailed from the north, including men such as Henry Benteley of Northumberland, Henry de Manefeld of Cumberland, John Bristol of York, Philip de Montgomery from York, and Richard de Ludlowe from Northumberland.86 All of these officers had led units of foot archers from their home shires and thereby had a large number of contacts on which to draw when recruiting men to serve in their professional companies on a long-term basis. The centenae de diversis comitibus in aggregate numbered many thousands of men, and they played a substantial role in several campaigns. During the course of 1304, for example, no fewer than forty-nine centenae de diversis comitibus served in Scotland.87 In July of that year, forty-three centenarii commanding units de diversis comitibus, had a total of 3,923 foot archers under their command.88
86. For Henry Benteley see MS ADD 7966A; E101/8/20; E101/13/34; E101/9/16; E101/9/9; and E101/12/16. For Henry de Manefeld see E101/8/18; E101/3/9; E101/13/36; E101/13/34; E101/7/13; E101/11/1; E101/11/15; and E101/11/29. For John Bristol see E101/8/20; E101/13/34; MS ADD 7966A; E101/7/13; E101/12/16; and E101/12/17. For Philip de Montgomery see E101/11/15; E101/11/29; and E101/13/34. For Richard de Ludlowe see E101/13/34; MS ADD 7966A; E101/7/13; and E101/12/16.
87. National Archives E101/11/15; E101/11/29; E101/12/16; and E101/12/17.
88. National Archives E101/12/17.
In order to ensure that the men of the contract companies, and perhaps some of the shire units as well, were equipped for military operations, the royal government devoted considerable resources to stockpiling arrows in Scottish fortresses. The substantial efforts to supply the army at the siege of Stirling in 1304 with both arrows and bows are well known.89 However, it should also be noted that every garrison in Scotland had on staff both a smith and a carpenter, usually with an assistant.90 These craftsmen could turn out arrow shafts, and potentially, arrow heads if the smiths had received training in this skill. In addition, at least four garrisons at Newcastle on Tyne, Berwick, Roxburgh, and Dumfries had fletchers on staff.91 The royal government regularly obtained supplies of glue and feathers for the use of these fletchers to make arrows as well as for the fletchers who attached feathers to crossbow bolts.92
89. National Archives E101/12/12. Prestwich, War, Politics, discusses the supply of bows and arrows to the besiegers at Stirling, but does not identify the efforts of the royal government to supply these arms on other occasions.
90. See, for example, the list of garrisons in E101/13/34.
91. National Archives C62/74 5r; E101/8/24; E101/9/30 nr 25; and E101/14/1.
92. National Archives C47/22/4; E 372/139 6r; E372/145 19v; C62/74 5r; and C62/76 2r.
Conclusion
The bulk of Edward I’s troops in the period 1296–1307 were militiamen from the shire levies. It seems, in addition, that many and perhaps a majority of the officers who led them also should be classified as militia. Nevertheless, noteworthy numbers of centenarii who commanded units of foot archers, and virtually all of the vintenarii who commanded crossbowmen in Scotland were professionals. This cadre of officers provided the king with a wealth of leadership experience and tactical knowledge regarding the peculiar realities of warfare in Scotland. In addition, the thousands of soldiers serving in contract units of foot archers and crossbowmen had the potential to impart an important element of continuity and esprit de corps, as well as practical experience to their more numerous but less well-trained comrades in arms from the shire levies.