5
David S. Bachrach
Following the pathbreaking work of Andrew Ayton, scholars have developed sophisticated methods for analyzing the relationships among members of the knightly class and gentry to demonstrate the existence of “military communities” that joined together to form the English armies of the Hundred Years’ War. More recently, scholars have used these same techniques to identify similar military communities among the knights and gentry during the reigns of Edward I and Edward II. The main sources for establishing these ties of family, tenancy, friendship, and previous military service have been the so-called “horse lists”, which were essentially insurance records for the mounts of men in the army, and letters of protection, guaranteeing freedom from prosecution and debt collection while the combatant was in royal service. Knights and members of the gentry appear quite frequently in these types of documents. However, 90% or more of the men in the English armies during the reign of Edward I, belonging to the economic and social strata below the gentry, rarely appear in either letters of protection or horse lists. As a result, these men have not received any attention from the perspective of analyzing English military communities in the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Through a systematic analysis of broad classes of largely unpublished documents from Edward I’s military campaigns in Scotland between 1296–1307, particularly payroll and victualling documents as well as garrison rolls, this essay begins to address the scholarly lacunae with respect to sub-gentry soldiers and finds that they also formed military communities in the same ways as their social and economic superiors.
Prosopographical studies of the fighting men serving in the English armies during the Hundred Years’ War, largely drawing on the models developed by Andrew Ayton, have focused extensively on the question of recruitment networks among the knightly class and gentry.1 More recently, this social-prosopographical approach has been adopted with respect to the reign of Edward I (1272–1307) in the later thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, most notably by David Simpkin and Andrew Spencer.2 As has been true of the treatment of military recruitment from the reign of Edward III (1327–77) to that of Henry V (1413–22), the prosopographical examination of the armies of Edward I tends to draw extensively on horse inventories and to a more limited extent, royal letters of protection. These sources provide important information about the military service of men from the knightly class and of the gentry, and particularly those who served as members of the military households of the greater magnates.
This research, based largely on unpublished administrative documents, has vastly expanded our knowledge of the participation of the land-owning strata of English society in warfare and, indeed, the militarization of these elements of English society. Of great interest from a prosopographical and social perspective is the clear development of recruitment networks among the gentry and knights, whereby veritable military communities can be discerned based on ties of kinship, friendship, tenancy, neighborhood, and previously shared military service.3 One important consequence of this research has been the development of a far broader understanding of the impact of war on society as a whole, which challenges an older historiography that had presented warfare as dominated by a noble elite on the basis of information drawn almost exclusively from narrative sources.
However, the heavy reliance on horse inventories, which functioned largely as insurance records for the replacement of warhorses lost on campaign, and letters of protection, which protected landowners from legal prosecution while absent on the king’s business, has led scholars to focus on wealthier men who could benefit from these types of protections. This approach has had the unintended consequence of replicating some of the lacunae of the older historiographical tradition. In particular, men from the knightly class and gentry, although socially and economically important, comprised a comparatively small percentage of the men serving on campaign, particularly during the reign of Edward I.4 Knights and members of the gentry serving in mounted contingents, whether as part of the king’s household or in the companies (comitiva) of various magnates, numbered no more than 3,000 men as compared with the 15,000–25,000 foot soldiers whom Edward I mobilized for campaigns in Wales, and particularly in Scotland in the period 1296–1307.5
Unfortunately, with some limited exceptions, even the names of the foot archers and spearmen mobilized for Edward’s armies are now lost to us.6 However, there is a substantial group of fighting men, numbering in the thousands, whose military service during the last decade of Edward I’s reign can be traced in some detail, despite the fact that they were recruited from among the social and economic strata below the gentry. These men served, on the one hand, as commanders of companies of foot archers and spearmen conscripted from the shires, and were denoted in the royal administrative records as either constabularii or centenarii. A second, overlapping group of men served as soldarii. These soldarii were essentially military contractors, whose lack of property meant that they were not liable for service on horseback in the king’s army, but who, nevertheless, volunteered for such service for pay.7
Unlike the knights and gentry, who were summoned by the king to serve in campaign with appropriately outfitted warhorses, the men who served as centenarii generally were not offered the opportunity to have their horses appraised by royal officials with the concomitant claim to receive compensation if these mounts died in the king’s service. By contrast, when these same centenarii and other enterprising individuals volunteered to serve on campaign as soldarii they were given the privilege of having their horses enrolled once they joined the army. In a similar vein, men who volunteered to serve as soldarii in Edward I’s garrisons in Scotland also routinely obtained the privilege of having their horses enrolled, and the concomitant expectation of receiving compensation if these animals died while in the king’s service.
These horse rolls provide a useful “snapshot” of the soldarii at a point in time, but do not provide much information about how long they served. In order, therefore, to develop an understanding of the patterns of military service and recruitment networks of the sub-gentry, who served as centenarii and soldarii, it is necessary to draw upon a much wider and disparate group of source materials than the horse rolls, alone. Of particular importance are the records that list the individual members of garrisons serving in the numerous English strongholds in Scotland. These records survive in considerable numbers from 1298–1306. Also important are the records kept by English supply officials, which include both pay accounts and receipts for individuals and garrisons, as well as the delivery of food supplies both to individual fighting men, and to those serving as de facto or de iure commanders of groups of men.
Unlike members of the gentry and the knightly class, who can be traced through property records, and who appear in a variety of royal documents produced in the context of legal cases, gaol delivery, or elections to parliament, the sub-gentry soldiers under discussion here largely are absent from the surviving documentary record other than in those produced in the context of military campaigns.8 Consequently, identifying patterns of relationship among these fighting men and concomitantly networks of recruitment depends on the close analysis of the military records, discussed above, for references to shared places of origin, familial ties, and professional service together.
As indicated by the title of this essay, one of the key terms used by royal clerks to describe relationships among men in royal service, whether formal or informal, is socius eiusdem, that is “his fellow” or “the associate of this same man,” when describing the pay, supply, or service of several men. The royal clerks also occasionally provided information about familial ties among the soldiers serving in Edward I’s armies, remarking that a soldier was the son (filius) or brother (frater) of another. Royal clerks also frequently used a geographic designation as the byname for soldiers, e.g. de London. When contextual information makes clear that this geographical byname indicates the soldier’s actual home rather than a fossilized onomastic element, it is possible to trace the deployment of several men from the same village.9 One final technique for identifying relationships among soldiers is to find two or more men serving together over time, particularly when they can be seen to move together from one posting to another. By combing through this vast corpus of largely unpublished administrative documents from Edward I’s reign, it is possible to show that men of the sub-gentry demonstrated patterns of recruitment and relationships developed through shared service that mirrored those among the gentry and knights, who served alongside them in the king’s armies.
Family Ties
A first example of the role played by family ties in military recruitment among the sub-gentry in Edward I’s army can be seen in the career of William Biset of Lancashire, not to be confused with the knight of the same name, who also served in the royal army in Scotland in 1301.10 William Biset first appears in the royal pay records as a centenarius commanding a company of foot archers at Berwick castle in early 1298. William and his men had been mobilized as part of the build-up of forces for Edward I’s campaign that would culminate in the king’s victory over William Wallace at the battle of Falkirk on 22 July of that year.11
As was a common pattern among the men who served as centenarii in Edward I’s Scottish campaigns, William Biset gave up command of his foot archers and took on service as a soldarius at some point in the early summer of 1298.12 It is in this context that William Biset first appears on a horse evaluation roll for members of the vastly expanded royal household. According to a marginal notation in the text, William’s horse was valued at eight marks on 27 June 1298.13 It is also in this context that we first see William’s brother John Biset serving in Edward’s army. According to the notes made by the royal clerk, John Biset had his horse evaluated on 6 July 1298.14 Important for understanding the relationships among the men in Edward’s army is the fact that the royal clerk, who drew up this horse roll, bracketed William and John Biset with three other men, named Richard Biset, William Champaneys, and William Bartholomew, from the groups above and below them on the list. Moreover, the clerk specifically identifies the five men as socii, with William Biset at the top of the list, and each of the four other men listed as socius eiusdem, that is associates of this same man, referring to William Biset.15
After his victory at Falkirk, Edward I moved to consolidate his control in Scotland and substantially reinforced his garrisons there. William Biset was among the many hundreds of men deployed to the English fortifications in Scotland. However, he had once again changed roles, and no longer was serving as a soldarius. Instead, he was once more in command of a company of foot archers from Lancashire and appears in the garrison roll for Berwick-on-Tweed in February 1299 alongside seven other centenarii from Lancashire commanding 829 foot archers.16 The military records from most of 1299 are very incomplete, and so it is not clear how long William Biset remained in the garrison at Berwick.
However, no later than December 1300, William was again serving as a soldarius at Berwick, where he remained until at least June 1301.17 In this context, both Richard Biset and William Champeneys, who had appeared as the socii of William in the 1298 horse roll, also appear in a garrison roll at the English fortress at Berwick in the summer of 1301. Notably, Richard Biset and William Champeneys appear immediately next to each other in the list of soldarii in the garrison there, indicating that they were seen by the royal clerk as companions.18
It is not clear whether William or any of the other Bisets were in the king’s service during the latter half of 1301 or early 1302, but William and his brother John Biset can be seen once more in the royal administrative records in the summer of 1302, when they were serving as soldarii, this time in the garrison at Roxburgh castle. 19 However, they did not remain at Roxburgh for long. A pay receipt issued to William Biset in the late spring of 1303 indicates that he had been serving as a soldarius at Linlithgow castle alongside four other men from at least 30 November 1302 to 6 June 1303.20
Although the pay receipt from June 1303 does not list the names of William Biset’s four socii, a horse roll that was compiled in 1303 almost certainly does provide this information.21 William Biset is listed on this roll as having a horse that was valued at 100 shillings, which was just slightly less than the evaluation of eight marks, given to William’s horse five years earlier. Immediately following William on the list are John Biset, Elias Stel, Richard Biset, and Robert Biset. Each of these four men is listed as the socius eiusdem, referring back to William, with the exception of John, who is denoted as frater et socius eiusdem.22 William Biset was still serving in the garrison at Linlithgow at the end of 1303, where he is listed as receiving a barrel of wine, a quarter of grain, and four quarters of malted grain (for brewing beer), again on behalf of himself and four socii.23 These are almost certainly the same John, Elias, Richard, and Robert seen above. At the end of 1303, John, Richard, and Robert Biset disappear from the surviving administrative accounts. However, pay records from the summer of 1304 indicate that William Biset was in command of a company of foot archers from Blackburn, Lancashire, that had been mobilized to serve in the royal army.24
In considering the role of family ties in recruiting men to serve in Edward I’s Scottish campaigns, it seems clear that William Biset played an important part in encouraging his brother John, as well as Richard and Robert Biset to serve in the royal army. William is the first of these men to appear in the royal record. He is also the first to appear as a member of the expanded royal household in the summer of 1298. Royal clerks also listed William first among his socii in both horse rolls and in provisioning documents. This consistent pattern suggests that the royal clerks understood William Biset to be the leader of a group of men, who varied over time, but who invariably included other men with the byname Biset. John clearly was William’s relative, and it seems likely that Robert and Richard, based upon their bynames, were as well. Without additional information, it cannot be known what relationship William Champeneys, William Bartholomew, and Elias Stel had to the Bisets before joining the royal army. However, their inclusion in the various records as the socii of William Biset does indicate that he was their leader, and probably played a role, therefore, in recruiting them to serve in the army.
Another pair of brothers who can be identified in the royal administrative records as serving in Edward’s Scottish campaigns are William and John de Cotes. As had been true of William Biset, John de Cotes first appears in the army as a centenarius serving at Berwick castle in the early part of 1298.25 I have not been able to identify either John or William de Cotes serving in either 1299 or 1300. However, both brothers appear as soldarii in the garrison records for Roxburgh castle under the command of Sir Robert Hastings in 1301 receiving back pay from July to November of this year.26 In addition, a memorandum issued to John de Cotes in 1302 records that his horse, which was evaluated and enrolled at Roxburgh in 1301, died in 1302, and that he was paid ten marks in compensation, five in cash, and five in various types of supplies.27 Both brothers subsequently appear together in the Roxburgh garrison lists throughout the remainder of 1302 and 1303.28 During this period, both men also had their horses evaluated at Berwick by the royal official John de Segrave in 1303. Neither brother appears in the royal record after 1303. The ties of kinship in the case of William and John de Cotes are obvious, but it is less clear whether one brother recruited the other to serve. The fact that John can be seen to have served as early as 1298 as a centenarius may permit the inference that he recruited his brother John to join him as a soldarius at Roxburg in 1301.
Another pair of relatives, and likely brothers, are Hugh and Galfrid de la Mare. Hugh first appears in early February 1298 as a centenarius, leading a company of foot archers from Yorkshire to join the royal army.29 However, within a few months, he had left his post as a centenarius and became a soldarius at Berwick.30 In this new role, Hugh had his horse evaluated by royal clerks in early July 1298 so that he could receive compensation if it were lost.31 According to marginal notations in this horse roll, five weeks later, in mid-August, Galfrid de la Mare joined Hugh in the army and also had his horse evaluated.32
Galfrid joined the army after the battle of Falkirk during the period when Edward I was drawing down his field forces in Scotland. It is likely, therefore, that Galfrid’s intention was to serve in one of the English garrisons in Scotland. It is certainly the case that Hugh remained in the king’s service in Scotland as a soldarius and appears in the garrison roll for Berwick throughout 1298 and up through July of 1299.33 Hugh may have left the king’s service for a period after July 1299. However, he was back in the garrison at Berwick as a soldarius no later than May 1301 and remained through the end of the year.34 Galfrid rejoined Hugh at Berwick no later than August 1301, where they served together through November.35
At the end of 1301, both Hugh and Galfrid changed garrisons together and moved to Edinburgh, where they remained in service for most of the next two years.36 As far as can be determined from the surviving records, both Galfrid and Hugh left the garrison at Edinburgh at some point in early 1304. Both, however, appear again in the late spring and early summer 1304 leading companies of foot archers from Yorkshire to Scotland. Based on the notes made by the royal clerks in the pay records for the Yorkshire companies, Hugh was the first to take up command of a centena, but then was replaced in June by Galfrid at the fortress of Perth. By July 1304, Galfrid also had departed the royal army, and his forty-six men had been transferred to another centenarius named Robert de Wendesle.37
Based on the surviving pattern of service, it appears that Hugh de la Mare likely recruited Galfrid to serve as a soldier. It was Hugh who first served as a centenarius in 1298, and then became a soldarius before Galfrid joined the army. Again it was Hugh who joined the garrison at Berwick in 1301 before Galfrid joined him there. The two men moved together to Edinburgh, but again it was Hugh who decided first to become a centenarius again in 1304, only to be replaced by Galfrid who took over command of his troops.
In addition to the recruitment of a brother to serve in the king’s army, we can also catch glimpses of fathers recruiting their sons to undertake military service. For example, a man named Galfrid of Ampleford appears as a soldarius in the garrison records for Berwick, Roxburgh, Carstairs, and Edinburgh repeatedly between 1298 and 1303.38 In June 1304, Galfrid was back in the garrison at Berwick once again serving as a soldarius. The clerk who drew up the garrison roll for Berwick recorded at this time that Galfrid of Ampleford was accompanied by his like-named son Galfrid, who also was serving as a soldarius.39 A similar example of a father recruiting his son to serve in Edward’s forces comes from the garrison roll of Roxburgh castle in 1303, which records that William Punche, an archer, was serving alongside his son John.40 That same year a soldarius named Peter de Montibus and his son Henry also were listed in the garrison roll for Roxburgh, receiving back pay of one hundred shillings, which amounted to fifty days of service by the two men.41
Community Ties
The importance of the local community in providing a nexus for military recruitment can be seen quite clearly in the careers of two groups of men who hailed from a pair of villages in Northumberland. The first of these, called Bilton, is located approximately 50km south along the coast from Berwick-on-Tweed. A total of seven men from Bilton can be identified in the royal administrative records serving in Edward I’s armies between 1298 and 1304: Hugh, William, Roger, Richard, John, Marmeduke, and Robert, all of whom were denoted as coming “de Bilton.” Of these men, the final four appear repeatedly serving together.
Both Richard de Bilton and Marmeduke de Bilton appear in the Wardrobe account for the twenty-eighth year of Edward I’s reign as valleti, meaning men-at-arms, in the summer and fall of 1300.42 That same year Richard de Bilton appears on a list of pay receipts cum suis tribus soldariis, meaning Richard along with his three fellow soldarii.43 The identity of these three other soldarii becomes clear from a garrison roll for Carstairs castle for 1301, which includes Richard de Bilton, John de Bilton, Robert de Bilton, and Marmeduke de Bilton on the list of soldarii serving there.44 All four of these men were still at Carstairs castle in 1302 as made clear by two garrison rolls from this year.45 Richard, John, and Marmeduke were still serving together at Carstairs castle through at least mid-May 1303.46 Although Robert de Bilton may have left royal service for a while in 1303, he was back with Richard and John in 1304, when all three are listed on the garrison roll at Berwick as soldarii.47 It should be noted that in addition to serving as a soldarius at Carstairs and Berwick, Richard de Bilton also spent some time as a centenarius commanding units of foot archers from Northumberland in 1301.48
The second of the two Northumbrian villages is Harle, located 70km due north of Berwick, which in the early fourteenth century was known as Herle. A total of five men from Harle can be identified serving in Edward’s armies in Scotland between 1297–1306. These were Robert, John, William, Hugh, and Ralph, the first four of whom repeatedly serve alongside each other.
The first of the men from Harle to appear in the surviving records is John, who is listed on a horse roll that was compiled in early 1298 for soldiers who had been serving in Scotland since 1297.49 No later than February 1298, John was joined in Scotland by Robert de Herle and Ralph de Herle.50 None of the men from Harle appear in the limited royal records from 1299, but John, Robert, and William all began the campaigning season of 1300 as centenarii leading companies of foot archers from Northumberland to Scotland.51 William and John, in a pattern discussed above, left these commands later in the summer, and took on service as soldarii.52 It is not clear whether this change in duty status was the result of the demobilization of the foot soldiers whom they commanded, or whether these men were transferred to another centena.
There is another gap in the service of men from Harle in 1301. However, Robert and John again appear as centenarii from Northumberland in 1302 receiving supplies of food for their companies of foot archers. Notably, these two men are listed together as receiving supplies on behalf of their troops.53 Both of these men then again became soldarii later in 1302 and joined the garrison at Bothwell castle.54 While at Bothwell, or perhaps even before they arrived, both John and Robert appear to have been recruited directly into the military household of Sir William de Felton, who was the commander of the garrison there. In this context, both Robert and John are listed as Sir William’s valleti, rather than as soldarii of the garrison, in the horse roll compiled in 1302 for the men serving at Bothwell.55
Robert appears to have returned home to Northumberland sometime in late 1302 or 1303 because he is listed in a pay receipt once more as a centenarius in April 1303, leading a company of foot soldiers from his county to Scotland.56 William de Herle also served as a centenarius in 1303, and appears in a pay record leading a unit of forty men from Redesdale, Northumberland to the English fortress at Berwick.57 By June of that year, however, Robert had again given up command of his foot archers and was once more a soldarius, this time serving in the English garrison at Linlithgow castle. He was joined there by John de Herle and, for the first time, Hugh de Herle. All three men were at Linlithgow from at least June 1303 through August 1304.58
William de Herle, who does not appear to have joined the garrison at Linlithgow, instead is listed in 1304 as a centenarius, on this occasion leading a company of foot archers in the garrison at Berwick.59 At some point after August of this year, Robert and John de Herle also again appear as centenarii leading companies of foot archers from Northumberland to Scotland, likely to reinforce the garrisons that Edward had left there after defeating the Scottish rebellion.60 The last appearance in the royal records of a man from Harle is a pay receipt for Robert, who served in the garrison at Dumfries in 1306, and finally received his back pay in the first year of the reign of Edward II, which began 8 July 1307.61
As the careers of the men from Bilton and Harle make clear, one of the factors that drew men into the king’s military service was the presence of other men from their local area in the army. In the case of several of these soldarii and centenarii, moreover, the attraction of serving in the king’s army appears to have been strengthened even further by the opportunity to perform their duties alongside men whom they knew and presumably trusted. This is the clear implication of the frequent appearance of men from Bilton and Harle serving together in soldarii garrisons, in some cases for years at a time. In the case of the men from Harle, we can also see them serving together as centenarii, leading companies of foot soldiers from Northumberland to join the royal army on campaign.
Ties of Shared Military Service
As the examples in the previous section indicate, men from the same villages chose to serve year after year with each other, particularly in the context of the English garrisons in Scotland, where all of the soldiers were volunteers rather than conscripts from the shire levies. Similar patterns of men choosing to serve with each other over time can be seen even in cases where there is no obvious tie of family or neighborhood to connect them. Rather, it appears that many men, who joined Edward I’s armies for disparate reasons, met in the course of a campaign or in a garrison, and then chose to continue to serve together for reasons of friendship or affinity.
We can see this pattern quite clearly, for example, in the careers of three men named Edward of Kincardine (County Fife Scotland), Gilbert of Meinteith (County Perth, Scotland), and Sevanus de Mare. The horse inventory of the expanded royal military household of 1301, discussed above, lists these three men together, with Sevanus de Mare first, followed by Edward and Gilbert, each of whom is denoted as the socius eiusdem, referring to Sevanus.62 It appears that Edward and Sevanus met at Berwick castle the previous year. Edward appears on a list of soldarii who received pay from royal clerks as they traveled from Knaresborough castle in northern Yorkshire to join the royal army at Berwick in 1300.63 Sevanus de Mare was already at Berwick at this time, and appears on a list of sixty-two soldarii who were in the garrison there.64 It is not clear from the surviving records whether Gilbert was also already at Berwick at this point, but the horse roll does indicate that he had joined the two other men before the summer of 1301.
Following the demobilization of most of the troops attached to the royal household, Sevanus and Gilbert went together to join the garrison at Kirkintilloch as soldarii. Both men remained in service there throughout the remainder of 1301, the entirety of 1302 and 1303, and up through April 1304.65 During this lengthy period Sevanus and Gilbert consistently were listed right next to each other in the garrison rolls, suggesting that they presented themselves together to the royal clerks, who were responsible for recording the names of the men in the garrison at Kirkintilloch. For at least part of this period, in either late 1303 or early 1304, Sevanus and Gilbert were joined again at Kirkintilloch by Edward of Kincardine, who served there as a soldarius.66
We can see a similar pattern of soldiers choosing to serve together in the careers of two men named Gilbert Modi and Maddoc Wallensi, that is Maddoc the Welshman. Both Gilbert and Maddoc commanded units of foot archers in 1301, which they led to Berwick. Gilbert’s command consisted of men from Northumberland, while Maddoc is described as leading men from “diversis comitibus.”67 This latter term was devised by royal clerks in the context of Edward I’s conquest of Scotland to denote men who had been recruited from numerous counties in England to serve as garrison troops in Scotland.68 Gilbert and Maddoc remained in the king’s service as soldarii at Berwick after the foot soldiers whom they commanded had either been sent home or transferred to the unit of another centenarius.69 By September 1301 both men had left Berwick and joined the garrison at Kirkintilloch as soldarii.70 In early 1302, Gilbert left Kirkintilloch and was again in command of a unit of twenty foot archers, for whom he received supplies amounting to one quarter of wheat flour.71 However, at some point in 1302 Gilbert again became a soldarius and rejoined Maddoc in the garrison at Kirkintilloch, where they both remained until the end of 1303.72 In 1304, both Gilbert and Maddoc departed Kirkintilloch and again commanded units of foot archers and were listed together as centenarii, notably in the same pay records, which suggests that their units were deployed together as well.73
Another man who can be seen to have served alongside Gilbert Modi in several different contexts is Henry of Bentley. Despite his byname of Bentley, located in Hampshire, Henry like Gilbert hailed from Northumberland. He led troops from this county in the summer of 1301 and was still serving as a centenarius in command of Northumbrian troops in the early part of 1302.74 However, by the summer of 1302, Henry, like Gilbert, joined the garrison at Kirkintilloch as a soldarius and remained there alongside both Gilbert and Maddoc through the end of 1303.75 Then, again like both Gilbert and Maddoc, Henry once more took command of a unit of foot archers as a centenarius in 1304, leading his men from Northumberland into Scotland.76 Yet another centenarius from Northumberland, named Richard Galoun, can be seen serving alongside Gilbert Modi and Henry of Bentley in the summer of 1301, and then joining both men in the garrison at Kirkintilloch as a soldarius.77 The common background of Gilbert, Henry, and Richard as centenarii from Northumberland may well have played an important role in encouraging them to stay together as soldarii in the king’s service in the garrison at Kirkintilloch.
Many dozens more cases of men serving together over multiple campaigns, and in multiple garrisons, can be identified in the surviving records. However, I will finish here with one final example that takes as its starting point the career of a man named Roger from the village of Ravensdale in Derbyshire.78 Roger’s first appearance in Edward I’s army is in a pay record as a centenarius in command of a unit of foot archers at Berwick in 1299.79 Roger remained at Berwick as a centenarius and then as a soldarius up through May 1301.80 In June 1301, however, Roger transferred to the castle at Roxburgh, and from there moved to the garrison at Edinburgh, where he remained as a soldarius through at least May 1303.81 In January 1304, Roger was back in command of a unit of foot archers and served in this capacity throughout the year.82 It is not clear whether Roger continued in royal service in the first part of 1305, but by the end of this year he was again in command of a unit of foot soldiers and received back pay for 107 days on 27 March 1306.83
Because of the length of Roger’s career in the king’s service and the number of documents in which he appears, it is possible to identify patterns among the men with whom he served that highlight the development of professional ties based on previous service. In this context, when Roger transferred from Berwick to Roxburgh in June 1301, he went with seven men, named Alan of Wallingford (Oxfordshire), Walter of Aynho (Northamptonshire), Stephen of Walton (Lancashire), Philip of Northbridge (Yorkshire), Walter of Chilton (Oxfordshire), Roger de Sutton (London), and John Bagepus (Cheshire).84 All of these men had previously served at Berwick alongside Roger, but had come there originally at different times and in different contexts, i.e. as centenarii or as soldarii.85 In short, these men, who came from all over England, met at Berwick and established a sufficiently strong relationship to want to form a small company and go to Roxburgh together in the king’s service. Subsequently, this group of eight men, including Roger, departed from Roxburgh and joined the garrison at Edinburgh in 1302, where they remained until the end of 1303.86 After this point, as noted above, Roger became a centenarius as did John Bagepus, who had served alongside him at both Roxburgh and Berwick. These two men were listed together among the centenarii receiving supplies for their troops from royal commissary officials in 1304.87
Conclusion
It was Andrew Ayton’s great insight that administrative records, and particularly unpublished and largely unexploited administrative records, can be used to gain considerable information regarding the prosopography and social history of the knights and gentry who served in the English armies of the Hundred Years’ War. The goal of this essay has been to apply this insight to the great mass of fighting men from the social and economic strata below the gentry, who volunteered or were recruited to serve in the armies of Edward I, particularly in the context of his lengthy wars of conquest in Scotland. When analyzed closely, and with due attention to the clues left by royal clerks, it is possible to trace out very similar ties among the men who served as centenarii and soldarii, as Ayton and others have found among the gentry and knights. In particular, ties of kinship, geography, and previously shared military service clearly played an important part in recruiting the thousands of men who led the companies of foot soldiers from the shires and served as mounted troops in the English garrisons in Scotland. As a consequence, it can be concluded that the social ties that bound together military communities of landowners in England had the same effect in creating military communities among those men who either possessed no land or had so little property as to make them exempt from either royal taxation or obligatory service on horseback in the king’s army.
1 See, for example, Andrew Ayton, Knights and Warhorses: Military Service and the English Aristocracy under Edward III (Woodbridge, 1994); idem, “Armies and Military Communities in Fourteenth-Century England,” in Soldiers, Nobles and Gentlemen: Essays in Honour of Maurice Keen, eds. Peter R. Coss and Christopher Tyerman (Woodbridge, 2009), pp. 215–39; and idem, “The Carlisle Roll of Arms and the Political Fabric of Military Service under Edward III,” in Ruling Fourteenth-Century England: Essays in Honour of Christopher Given-Wilson, eds. Rémy Ambühl, James S. Bothwell, and Laura Tompkins (Woodbridge, 2019), pp. 133–162. Also see the collection of essays in Military Communities in Late Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Andrew Ayton, eds. Gary P. Baker, Craig L. Lambert and David Simpkin (Woodbridge, 2018). »
2 David Simpkin, The English Aristocracy at War: From the Welsh Wars of Edward I to the Battle of Bannockburn (Woodbridge, 2008); idem, “The Contribution of Essex Gentry to the Wars of Edward I and Edward II,” in The Fighting Essex Soldier: Recruitment, War and Society in the Fourteenth Century, eds. Christopher Thornton, Jennifer War, and Neil Wiffen (Hatfield, 2017), pp. 51–64; and Andrew Spencer, “The Comital Military Retinue in the Reign of Edward I,” Historical Research 83 (2010), 46–59. »
3 See, for example, the discussion by Ayton, “Armies and Military Communities,” pp. 224–25. »
4 However, see David Simpkin, “The King’s Sergeants-at-Arms and the War in Scotland 1296–1322,” in England and Scotland at War 1296–1513, eds. Andy King and David Simpkin (Leiden, 2012), pp. 77–117, who is able to trace the activities of this group of royal troops, some of whom came from humble backgrounds, through wardrobe books and correspondence with garrison commanders. »
5 Michael Prestwich, War, Politics and Finance under Edward I (Totowa, 1972) is still the key study with respect to the overall size and scale of the armies mobilized by Edward I. However, also see M. Haskell, “Breaking the Stalemate: The Scottish Campaign of Edward I, 1303–1304,” Thirteenth Century England VII, eds. Michael Prestwich, R. Britnell, and R. Frame (Woodbridge, 1999), pp. 223–41. »
6 For example, The National Archives (hereafter TNA) E39/4/3 provides the names of some 500 foot soldiers mobilized from Derbyshire and Lancashire for service in Scotland, organized according to their units of twenty men (vintena) and units of 100 men (centena). Similarly TNA E101/370/16 lists by name 500 Welsh troops from Glamorgan and Usk for service in Scotland in 1307. These two documents suggest that the tens of thousands of men mobilized to serve in Edward I’s Scottish wars between 1296–1306 may also have been listed by name in documents that are now lost. »
7 David S. Bachrach, “Edward I’s ‘Centurions’: Professional Soldiers in an Era of Militia Armies,” in The Soldier Experience in the Fourteenth Century, eds. Adrian R. Bell, Anne Curry et al. (Woodbridge, 2011), pp. 109–28; and 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), 179–93. »
8 With regard to the numerous ways in which members of the knightly class and gentry can be traced, see Simpkin, The English Aristocracy at War, particularly pp. 112–50. »
9 See the discussion of this issue by David S. Bachrach, “The Royal Arms Makers of England 1199–1216: A Prosopographical Survey,” Medieval Prosopography 25 (2004), 48–74, and the literature cited there. »
10 For William Biset, the knight, see TNA SC 13/A2 and E101/9/13. »
11 TNA E101/12/17. The National Archives has a date of 1304 for this record, but Michael Prestwich, Edward I, 2nd edition (New Haven, 1997), p. 479 n. 40 dates it to 1298, which makes much more sense in light of William Biset’s career. For the course of this campaign, and Edward I’s conquest of Scotland overall, see the valuable narrative by Fiona J. Watson, Under the Hammer: Edward I and Scotland, 1286–1306 (East Linton, 1998). »
12 See, in this context, Bachrach, “Edward I’s ‘Centurions,” 109–28. »
13 For the campaign, see Michael Prestwich, Edward I, 2nd edition (New Haven, 1997), pp. 479–83. For the evaluation of William Biset’s horse, see Scotland in 1298: Documents Relating to the Campaign of Edward I in that Year, ed. Henry Gough (London, 1888), p. 182. »
14 Ibid. »
15 Ibid. »
16 TNA E101/7/2. »
17 For William Biset’s status as a soldarius from 24 December 1300 until 10 July 1301, see Liber quotidianus contrarotulatoris garderobiae, ed. John Topham (London, 1787), p. 146. This text places William Biset alongside another soldarius named Sevanus de Mare. Sevanus was at Berwick in the first few months of 1301 (TNA E101/9/9). He then served continuously at Kirkintilloch until 1304. See TNA E101/9/13; E101/9/16; E101/8/30; E101/11/15; E101/12/18; E101/12/37. Note that the record E101/11/15 is improperly dated in the National Archives and should be understood as recording events in 1304 rather than 1300. »
18 TNA E101/9/9. »
19 TNA E101/10/14. »
20 TNA E101/11/1. »
21 TNA E101/10/12. »
22 Ibid. »
23 TNA E101/10/28 nr. 66. »
24 National Archives E101/13/34 and E101/8/20 provide the same information from slightly different points in time about the mobilization of forces for Edward I’s summer operations in 1304. »
25 TNA E101/7/2. »
26 TNA E101/9/9. »
27 TNA E101/10/14. »
28 TNA E101/11/1; E101/12/18. »
29 TNA E101/6/35; E101/7/2. »
30 Ibid. »
31 TNA E101/6/39. »
32 Ibid. »
33 TNA E101/6/35; E101/7/8. »
34 TNA E101/9/9; E101/9/13; E101/9/18. »
35 TNA E101/9/13. »
36 TNA E101/9/16; E101/9/30; E101/10/5; E101/10/6; E101/10/12; E101/101/14; E101/11/1. »
37 TNA E101/11/15 »
38 TNA E101/6/35; E101/7/2; Liber quotidianus contrarotularis garderobae, ed. John Topham (London, 1787), p. 220; E101/8/28; E101/9/13; E101/9/30; E101/10/28; E101/11/1; and E101/11/21. »
39 TNA E101/13/34. Note that this same information is provided in E101/11/15, which should be dated to 1304. »
40 TNA E101/10/28. »
41 TNA E101/8/28. »
42 Liber quotidianus, pp. 221, 223–24. »
43 TNA E101/684/52. »
44 TNA E101/9/16. »
45 TNA E101/9/30; E101/10/5. »
46 TNA E101/11/1. »
47 TNA E101/11/15. »
48 British Library MS ADD 7966A. »
49 TNA E101/6/29. »
50 TNA E101/6/29; E101/7/2. »
51 British Library MS ADD 7966A. »
52 Liber quotidianus, pp. 224, 232; TNA E101/8/26. »
53 TNA E101/7/13. »
54 TNA E101/9/28; E101/10/6. »
55 TNA E101/10/12. »
56 TNA E101/10/28. »
57 TNA E101/11/1. »
58 TNA E101/11/1; E101/11/16. »
59 TNA E101/11/15. »
60 TNA E101/13/34. »
61 TNA E101/373/15. »
62 TNA E101/9/24. »
63 TNA E101/684/52. »
64 Liber quotidianus, p. 146. »
65 TNA E101/9/13; E101/9/16; E101/10/12; E101/10/14; E101/10/16; E101/11/1; E101/11/15; E101/12/18. »
66 TNA E101/11/15. »
67 MS ADD 7966A. »
68 On this point, see Bachrach, “Edward I’s “Centurions,” pp. 109–28. »
69 TNA E101/8/28 for pay receipts for both men at Berwick. »
70 TNA E101/9/13. »
71 TNA E101/7/13. »
72 TNA E101/10/6; E101/10/14; E101/11/1. »
73 TNA E101/13/34. »
74 MS ADD 7966A; TNA E101/7/13. »
75 TNA E101/9/16; E101/10/6; E101/10/14; E101/11/1. »
76 TNA E101/13/34. »
77 TNA E101/9/16; E101/10/6; E101/10/14; E101/11/1. »
78 MS ADD 7966A. Another man from Ravensdale in Derbyshire named Ralph also can be seen commanding a company of foot archers from this county, in his case in 1304. See TNA E101/11/15. »
79 TNA E101/7/8. »
80 TNA E101/8/6; TNA E101/9/9. »
81 TNA E101/9/13; E101/9/16; E101/9/24; E101/9/30; E101/10/5; E101/10/13; E101/11/1. »
82 TNA E101/11/15; E101/11/29; E101/12/16; E101/12/17. »
83 TNA E101/13/16. »
84 TNA E101/9/13. »
85 For the careers of John Bagepus, Walter Aynho, Roger de Sutton, Stephen de Walton, Philip of Northbridge, and Walter of Chilton see Bachrach, “Edward I’s ‘Centurions,’” particularly the appendix, pp. 122–26. However, note that the information provided here is not complete, and that additional research has yielded considerable additional information, including the origins of all of these men. Alan of Wallingford first appears in TNA E101/7/7. »
86 TNA E101/E101/9/24; E101/9/30; E101/10/5; E101/10/13; E101/11/1. »
87 TNA E101/11/29. »