Title Military society and the court of chivalry in the age of the Hundred Years War / Philip J. Caudrey

Published Woodbridge : Boydell & Brewer Ltd., 2019

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Description 1 online resource Series Warfare in history Warfare in history. Contents Acknowledgements -- Abbreviations -- Introduction -- 1. Military service -- 2. Lordship -- 3. Region, locality and community -- 4. Soldiers, civilians and chivalric memory -- Conclusion -- Appendix 1. Deponents' collective military records according to their own testimony -- Appendix 2. Lancastrian retainers: Scrope & Hastings defendants -- Appendix 3. Plaintiffs' and defendants' biographies -- Bibliography -- Index Summary The highest and most sovereign things a knight ought to guard in defence of his estate are his troth and his arms." So declared Richard, Lord Scrope of Bolton, before the Court of Chivalry, eloquently encapsulating the fundamental role heraldic identity played in the lives of the late medieval English gentry. The Court of Chivalry was England's senior military court during the age of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453), but unfortunately its medieval registers are now lost and only a bare few cases survive. This book explores three of the best preserved of those cases: Scrope v. Grosvenor (1385-91), Lovel v. Morley (1386-7) and Grey v. Hastings (1407-10), disputes in which competing knightly families claimed rightful possession of the same coat-of-arms. Hundreds of witnesses gave evidence in each of these cases, in the process providing vivid insights into the military, social, and cultural history of late medieval England. This study asks a number of important questions. How did the plaintiffs and defendants choose their witnesses? What motives and constraints shaped their choices? How did they gain access to the various gentry networks that spoke in their defence? To what extent did lordly influence impact upon the composition of each witness list? How well did the witnesses themselves know each other? What role did bonds of regional solidarity play before the Court? Perhaps most significantly, what does the testimony itself reveal about the chivalric culture of the age? These questions enable the historian to probe in considerable depth the character of gentry military society, and its chivalric ethos, at a time when the victories of Edward III (1327-1377) were receding ever deeper into popular memory and the triumphs of Henry V (1413-1422) still lay in the future Analysis Chivalric culture Court of Chivalry Cultural context Gentry networks Heraldic identity Historical cases Hundred Years War Knightly families Late medieval England Military history Military society Social history chivalric culture coat-of-arms disputes gentry military heraldic identity knightly families late medieval England witness list Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index Notes Print version record Subject Military courts -- Great Britain -- History -- To 1500 Sociology, Military -- History -- To 1500 Hundred Years' War, 1339-1453. HISTORY -- Europe -- Great Britain. HISTORY -- Medieval. Military courts Sociology, Military SUBJECT Great Britain -- History, Military -- 1066-1485. http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056836 Subject Great Britain Genre/Form History Military history Form Electronic book ISBN 9781787444683 1787444686

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