war, the Anglo-Saxon militia was virtually marshalled by the hertochs or dukes of counties. Stated times were appointed for the training of this domestic force, and once a year the entire contingent of a county was mustered for military exercise. The greater proportion of it was composed of infantry, who again were divided into heavy and light; the former carried large shields armed with spikes, long broad swords and spears, and helmets made of the skin of beasts with the hair outwards; the latter bore spears or darts, clubs, bills or javelins, and were so clad as to be enabled to move with the utmost celerity. The cavalry included the thegns or great nobles, who rode on horseback, armed with an iron headpiece and brandishing a heavy battle axe or ponderous spear. The line of battle of our Saxon forefathers was simple in the extreme; the royal standard stood in the centre, around it gathered the mounted thegns, while the infantry assembled in the foremost ranks. * With the conquest of England by the Normans came the introduction of the feudal system into the conquered country, and the almost total disruption of the Saxon military establishment. The latter had recognised the patriarchal or domestic principle; the former was designed to elevate the power of the knight upon the bondage of the serf. All the lands of the realm were divided into knights' fees, granted in larger or smaller portions to tenants in capite, tenants holding directly of the king-who were bound by their tenure to serve him at home or abroad, with horses and arms maintained at their own expense, for a period of forty days in each year. This obligation of course fell most heavily upon the largest landholder; the baron of fifty knights' fees was bound to enter the field with fifty men-at-arms, and follow the royal banner for the full period of service; the holder of half a fee would be compelled to serve only in person, and that for but twenty days. The lands of the church were not exempt from this military tenure, but the priest was allowed to commute it for money when unable to furnish his proportion of men-at-arms. In this peculiar military system there was an obvious defect, and it rendered military expeditions of any importance almost im * Erissimæ secures, as the Norman chronicler, William of Poitou, calls them, one blow of which cut through a coat of mail.-Chron. de Nor mandie. THE MILITARY SYSTEM OF NORMAN ENGLAND. 15 possible. In forty days you might attempt some dashing enterprise, but not a regular campaign; might burn a defenceless town, but not subdue a fortress. 'Hence,' says Hallam, 'when the kings of France and England were engaged in wars which, on our side at least, might be termed national, the inefficiency of the feudal militia became evident. It was not easy to employ the military tenants of England upon the frontiers of Normandy and the Isle of France within the limits of their term of service. When under Henry II. and Richard I. the scene of war was frequently transferred to the Garonne or the Charente, this was still more impracticable. The first remedy to which sovereigns had recourse was to keep their vassals in service after the expiration of their forty days at a stipulated rate of pay. But this was frequently neither convenient to the tenant, anxious to return back to his household, nor to the king, who could not readily defray the charges of an army. Something was to be devised more adequate to the exigency, though less suitable to the feudal spirit. By the feudal law the fief was in strictness forfeited by neglect of attendance upon the lords' expedition. A milder usage introduced a fine, which, however, was generally rather heavy, and assessed at discretion. The first Norman kings of England made these amercements very oppressive. But when a pecuniary payment became the regular course of redeeming personal service, which under the name of escuage may be referred to the reign of Henry II., it was essential to liberty that the military tenant should not be at the mercy of the crown. Accordingly, one of the most important provisions contained in the Magna Charta of John secures the assessment of escuage in parliament. This is not renewed in the charter of Henry III., but the practice during his reign was conformable to its spirit.* An army thus got together was composed of CAVALRY and INFANTRY. The CAVALRY were divided into knights or men-atarms, and hobilers. The former went into battle clothed in hauberks or habergeons of plate mail, with hoods, breeches, and hose of the same material. The hands were protected by gauntlets; the thighs by cuisses, the head by a helmet, which varied greatly in form and construction. Suspended from the neck hung a triangular shield of wood covered with leather, and strengthened by ribs of brass or iron. Under or above the • Hallam's Middle Ages, vol. i. ch. ii. pt. 2. hauberk was worn the gambeson-a loose garment of quilted stuff, descending to the knees-and between gambeson and hauberk was interposed a breastplate of forged iron, the plastron. Over all, nobles and wealthy knights donned surcoats of satin velvet, or cloth of gold or silver, richly blazoned with devices and armorial bearings. Thus attired in and encumbered with his heavy armour, the knight rode forth upon a charger also armed cap-a-piè, and balanced in his hand a ponderous spear; a mace or battle-axe hung from his saddle bow; a sword was girded to his side, and in his belt was sheathed the small keen dagger, or misericorde, which gave the death-blow to the vanquished enemy. The hobilers were the light horsemen of the feudal army, mounted upon fleet horses called hobbies, which, unencumbered with armour, were able to effect rapid marches and perform movements in which celerity was a desideratum. The hobilers were lightly armed with a haqueton of plate, a basinet or skull сар, iron gauntlet, a sword, knife and lance. They were drawn from the principal tenants or trusty domestics of the men-at arms. The INFANTRY was composed of the yeomanry, vassals and small tenants, and in the feudal days did better service, perhaps, than their heavily-armed but slow and awkward masters. They commonly wore an iron basinet to protect the head, and coarse leathern or quilted linen doublets. For weapons they carried the lance or pike, sword, dagger, pole-axe, brown bill or bow and arrow. The mallet a heavy leaden mall fixed to a handle five feet long-was also a favourite weapon with the English yeomen, and dealt tremendous blows. But the archers were the main strength of the English infantry, and the old chronicles contain abundant evidence of the renown which their feats of archery acquired, and the terror in which they were held by their foemen. The bow was the national weapon of England, which every boy at seven years of age began to handle. Up to the reign of Henry VIII. it continued in high repute, and legal enactments provided for its practice by every male inhabitant capable of bearing arms. 'In my time,' says Bishop Latimer, my poor father was as diligent to teach me to shoot as to learn me any other thing, and so I think other men did their children; he taught me how to draw, how to lay my body in my bow, and not to draw with strength of arms as divers other THE ENGLISH ARMY UNDER THE TUDORS. 17 nations do, but with strength of the body. I had my bows bought me according to my age and strength; as I increased in them, so my bows were made bigger and bigger, for men shall never shoot well except they be brought up in it; it is a worthy game, a wholesome kind of exercise, and much commended in physic.' # So Drayton sings of Robin Hood's famous bowmen: All made of Spanish yew, their bows were wond'rous strong; With broad-arrow, or bat, or prick, or roving shaft; At long-buts, shorts, and hoyles, each one could cleave the pin : And shot they with the round, the square or forked pile, The army thus collected and armed had next to be marshalled into some array. The cavalry was therefore distributed as follows:-Twenty-five or thirty horsemen constituted a constabulary and was ordered by a constable. Three or four constabularies made up a squadron, commanded by an officer called a banneret. One-third of these were men-at-arms; the remaining two-thirds hobilers, and the banneret was necessarily a knight, entitled by the extent of his possessions to bring so many men into the field. The infantry were divided into twenties, under a vintoner (or vingtener); and into hundreds under a centoner or centenary. The appellation of the officer of a thousand has not been preserved. These troops were mustered in divisions under serjeant-majors, i. e. officers of brigade, who were in their turn amenable to the orders of the lieutenant-generals, and these to the captain-general. He again was commanded by the master of the ordnance, above whom ranked the marshal; and supreme over all the highconstable, whose only head was the king. The two latter dignities were hereditary in England. The last high-constable was the Duke of Buckingham, executed by Henry VIII.; *Bishop Latimer's Sermons. Drayton's Poly-Olbion. B the office of earl marshal is still preserved in the family of the Duke of Norfolk.* It is uncertain at what time the feudal tenure was abolished, or suffered to fall into disuse, in the levying of the mediæval armies. The Crusades probably made this change universal, if they did not inaugurate it. Joinville, in his famous Chronicle, clearly shows that most of the knights who served in the Crusade of St. Louis were paid either by their superior lord or by him whom they served during the expedition.† Joinville himself set out with nine knights, having three banners, and he intimates that he found their support very burthensome. In the French wars of Edward III. the whole of his army drew regular pay and was raised by contract with men of rank and influence, who received wages for every soldier according to his station and the arms he bore. Mr. Grose has preserved a statement which throws much light upon these points, and sets forth the strength and pay of the English forces employed by the great Plantagenet in his siege of Calais. Per diem My lord the prince (Edward the Black Prince) 1 0 0 40000006 40664210 068 314 Masons, carpenters, smiths, and other artificers, 4474 at 12d., 10d., 6d., and 3d. Welsh foot, of whom 200 were vintoners, at 700 Masters, constables, marines, pages 900 Ships, barges, balengers, and victuallers 31,000 The total of the aforesaid men, besides lords 003 Total expense per diem £294 The introduction of fire-arms revolutionised the military system of every European country, though the pike and the halberd made a stout defence against the intrusive arquebus, and were not finally driven out of the field until late in the seventeenth century. Grose's Military Antiquities. † Joinville's Mem. of St. Louis, pt. ii. Grose's Military Antiquities. |