David S. Bachrach - Administration and Organization of War in Thirteenth-Century England

Administration and
Organization of War in
Thirteenth-Century England

The essays brought together in this volume examine the conduct of war by the Angevin kings of England during the long thirteenth century (11891307). Drawing upon a wide range of unpublished administrative records that have been largely ignored by previous scholarship, David S. Bachrach offers new insights into the military technology of the period, including the types of artillery and missile weapons produced by the royal government. The studies in this volume also highlight the administrative sophistication of the Angevin kings in military affairs, showing how they produced and maintained huge arsenals, mobilized vast quantities of supplies for their armies in the field, and provided for the pastoral care of their men. Bachrach also challenges the knight-centric focus of much of the scholarship on this period, demonstrating that the militarization of the English population penetrated to men in the lower social and economic strata, who volunteered in large numbers for military service, and even made careers as professional soldiers.

David S. Bachrach , Professor of Medieval History at the University of New Hampshire, USA, is a specialist in the military, administrative, and governmental history of the English and German kingdoms during the Middle Ages. He has published numerous articles and books, including Warfare in Medieval Europe c. 400c. 1453 (2016), Warfare in Tenth-Century Germany (2012), and Religion and the Conduct of War c. 3001215 (2003).

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https://www.routledge.com/Variorum-Collected-Studies/book-series/VARIORUM

Administration and
Organization of
War in Thirteenth
Century England

David S. Bachrach
VARIORUM COLLECTED STUDIES

First published 2020

by Routledge

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This edition 2020 David S. Bachrach

The right of David S. Bachrach to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

[CIP data]

ISBN: 978-0-367-40761-2 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-367-80893-8 (ebk)

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VARIORUM COLLECTED STUDIES SERIES CS1088

This book is dedicated to Michael Prestwich with gratitude

Contents

PART 1
Military technology and engineering

Nottingham Medieval Studies 47 (2003), 168197, republished here with permission by Nottingham Medieval Studies and Brepols Press.

Copyright 2004 The Society for the History of Technology. This article was first published in Technology and Culture , 45.1 (2004), 102119. Reprinted with permission by Johns Hopkins University Press.

Medieval Prosopography 25 (2004, appeared 2008), 4874, republished here with permission by Medieval Prosopography and Medieval Institute Publications.

Copyright 2006 The Society for the History of Technology. This article was first published in Technology and Culture , 47.1 (2006), 8190. Reprinted with permission by Johns Hopkins University Press.

The English Historical Review 121.494 (2006), 14081430, republished here with permission by The English Historical Review and Oxford University Press.

PART 2
Military logistics

Journal of Military History 26 (2004), 10831104, republished here with permission by Journal of Military History and Society for Military History.

Nottingham Medieval Studies 49 (2005), 4263, republished here with permission by Nottingham Medieval Studies and Brepols Press.

War in History 13.4 (2006), 423440, republished here with permission by War in History and Sage Publications.

Haskins Society Journal 20 (2009), 204220, republished here with permission by Haskins Society Journal and Boydell and Brewer Press.

Comparative Perspectives on History and Historians: Essays in Memory of Bryce Lyon (12202007) , ed. David Nicholas, Bernard S. Bachrach, and James M. Murray (Kalamazoo, MI, 2012), 243256, republished here with permission by Medieval Institute Publications.

Cithara 52.1 (2012), 321, republished here with permission by Cithara and EBSCO Publishing.

The Medieval Way of War: Studies in Military History in Honor of Bernard S. Bachrach , ed. Gregory Halfond (Aldershot, 2015), 273281, republished here with permission by Routledge Press.

PART 3
Military organization

Journal of Medieval History 29 (2003), 265286, republished here with permission by Routledge Press.

Albion 36.3 (2004), 393406. Copyright Cambridge University Press. Reprinted with permission.

Mercenaries and Paid Men: The Mercenary Identity in the Middle Ages , ed. John France (Leiden, 2008), 231242, republished here with permission by Brill Press.

The Soldier Experience , ed. Anne Curry (Woodbridge, 2011), 109128, republished here with permission by Boydell and Brewer Press.

Pig prices in Southampton in 1301

Price per quarter of oats in central, eastern, and southern England in 1306

Priests serving as field chaplains during Edward Is invasion of Wales, 12821284

This volume brings together sixteen essays published in the period 20032015 that are focused collectively on the conduct of war by the kings of England from the reign of Richard I (11891199) through that of his great-nephew Edward I (12721307). The studies are divided into three parts: (1) Military technology and engineering, (2) Military logistics, and (3) Military organization.

Three of the articles in the first part seek to resolve long-standing historiographical debates regarding the types of artillery and crossbows that were available in the thirteenth and early fourteenth century. These essays draw upon large numbers of administrative documents, including many unpublished texts, in contrast to the work of earlier scholars that depended almost exclusively on historical narratives and images drawn from manuscripts and stone reliefs. Whereas the authors and artists who produced these latter sources had little, if any, direct knowledge or understanding of military technology, the royal clerks and administrators who produced administrative documents were intimately involved in all aspects of weapons production. As a consequence, these administrative texts provide crucial insights regarding the nature of the military technologies that previously escaped the notice of scholars. The other two essays in Part 1, which similarly draw upon administrative documents, illuminate the careers of the men, who were employed by the royal government to produce artillery and crossbows. Both of these studies are prosopographical in nature, meaning that these provide a collective biography of the individual engineers and craftsmen. This collective approach makes it possible to extrapolate information about the members of the group as a whole that cannot be learned from the examination of just one individual.