The Welsh wars of Edward I : a contribution to mediaeval military history, based on original documents by Morris John Edward 1859-1933

Author:Morris, John Edward, 1859-1933
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Edward I, King of England, 1239-1307, Military art and science
Publisher: Oxford : Clarendon Press
Published: 1901-08-11T05:00:00+00:00

^"^ I Welsh of marches 1,94°

/ English of South Shropshire, Derbyshire, and

Cornwall ] Herefordshire 2,010

' Welsh of Monmouth 360

( Welsh of North Pembroke and Cardigan . . 920

Tibotot j ^^ Carmarthenshire .... 1,000

Crossbowmen 105

10,635

Besides the crossbowmen and mechanics, 3,740 only were

^ Exck Ace. j^.

MORRIS P

English. One of the Shropshire centenars was Stephen de Frankton, commanding the men of Ellesmere under I'Estrange.

The numbers of the cavalry can only be guessed. From the patent roll we find that letters of protection were given to 150 barons and men-at-arms going to Wales. In the Welsh roll and one of the infantry pay-rolls are entries of various sums paid, e.g. ;£'aoo to the Earl of Warwick, £160 to Surrey, £60 to Norfolk, ^^'300 to Edmund de Mortimer, ;£'iao to Roger de Mortimer of Chirk, ;^ 150 to I'Estrange. Over ;£■ 1,400 were paid, in larger or smaller sums ^. The Earl of Cornwall's own following consisted, according to the patent roll, of eleven knights, among them Walter de Huntercumbe. The campaign therefore marks a stage in the history of feudalism as a system for raising cavalry. There is no attempt to exact the ser-vitium debitum of the feudal tenants, and instead of several lords bringing each a few lances according to their tenure, they group themselves under earls or other prominent commanders, to form fewer but larger units. The first two wars saw cavalry serving for pay before and after the legal forty days of unpaid service, and this war sees even powerful earls drawing large sums to maintain bodies of horse. However, there is no sign that the regent himself received pay for his immediate following, nor did Hereford or Gloucester. Of the prominent soldiers of lower rank, we find Ralph Basset of Drayton, Hugh de Turberville, Butler of Werington, Peter Corbet, Norman Darcy, John I'Estrange, Bogo de Knoville, William de Leyburn, all drawing sums from 10 marcs upwards. Most of the lords marchers were serving, and men such as Hugh de Courtenay and Hugh Pointz, who had letters of protection, were doubtless in the retinues of some greater barons. Allowing for a period of six weeks, and assuming that all the ^1,400 represent payments to cavalry, for the rolls dealing with the infantry are exhaustive, we may fairly estimate 500 paid horse; adding Cornwall's and other unpaid contingents, perhaps as many as 700. They were not necessarily all at the same time at Dryslwyn ; for instance, the men '^ All these sums are entered in Pife Roll, 15 Edw. I, m. i.

SERVICE DONE BY GREAT LORDS 211

for whom Edmund de Mortimer drew ;£^300 probably served in the march of Radnor. '

While the army was being massed, and while Tibotbt was guarding Cardiganshire and South Carmarthenshire, the task of confronting Rhys higher up the Towy obviously fell upon the Earl of Hereford, who had received a commission as far back as February. He did everything that he had to do at his own expense, and the silence of both history and documents as to his operations is more than ever annoying.

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