Description
Book SynopsisEvidence for the identity and careers of soldiers (usually neglected by scholars in favour of tactics or hardware) in two campaigns of the Hundred Years War. Little is known about the soldiers who fought in the Hundred Years War, though much about tactics and weapons. Adrian Bell's book redresses the balance: he explores the 'military community' through focusing on the records of the two royal expeditions led by Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, in 1387 and 1388, where the extensive surviving evidence makes it possible to identify those who served on these expeditions, and to follow their careers. These campaigns are not only interesting for the wealth and concentration of materials surviving on military organisation, but also because of the political background against which the expeditions were undertaken, which included the attack upon the favourites of the King in Parliament by the Lords Appellant and the possible temporary deposition of Richard II. Advances made in historical computing techniques have made possible for the first time such detailed analysisof the personnel of a royal army. ADRIAN R. BELL lectures in history at the University of Reading.
Trade ReviewWe are reminded of an ongoing debt of gratitude to the Boydell Press for its continued willingness to make such rewarding but demanding scholarship available to the audience of specialists for whom this work is indispensable. * JOURNAL OF MILITARY HISTORY (US) *
One of the merits of this book is the considerable amount of data that has been supplied in the text, frequently in tabulated form. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *
