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Richard II's Archers of the Crown*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2014

James L. Gillespie
James L. Gillespie*
Affiliation:
Catawba College
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Extract

The reign of Richard II has been one of the most popular subjects of attention for medievalists in recent years. As a result of this renewed interest, the ‘tyranny’ of Richard II's final years has been resurrected in the past decade in a new form by R. H. Jones as well as in its more traditional guise which can be found in the pages of T. F. Tout by Caroline Barron. This resurrection has not, however, gone unchallenged. Richard G. Davies has recently demonstrated the inadequacies of such a view in relation to Richard II's ecclesiastical policy, and research is now under way in regard to both Ireland and the Ricardian household which seems to limit still further the confines of the ‘tyranny.’ At the very heart of this concept is the condemnation of the King by both his contemporaries and modern historians for his development of a large military establishment which he employed to enforce his own will. This establishment has been pictured as a praetorian guard composed of the very dregs of society and eager to join Richard in a policy of absolutism. The archers of the crown deserve study in any attempt to examine the royal military establishment and to assess the tyrannical intentions of this ill-fated ruler.

Richard II, confronted with the recurrent efforts of a faction of magnates to control the governance of the realm, responded with an attempt to assert his personal will.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , Spring 1979 , pp. 14 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1979

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Footnotes

*

I wish to thank Professor J. R. Strayer, Dr. H. J. Hewitt, and Mrs. K. M. Shinn for their help in the preparation of this paper.

References

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21. C.P.R., 1391-1396, p. 96.

22. Ibid., p. 214; C.P.R., 1388-1392, p. 358.

23. PRO, E. 404/14/96, pt. 2, nos. 179-80; C.P.R., 1388-1392, p. 300.

24. Rymer, Thomas (ed.), Foedera, Conventtones, Litterae, etc. (Hague, 1737–1745), III, iv, 100Google Scholar; C.P.R., 1392-1396, pp. 301-02.

25. See above n. 22; C.P.R., 1391-1396, p. 133; see Gillespie, , “Cheshire Archers,” T.H.S.L.C., CXXV, 7Google Scholar.

26. C.P.R., 1396-1399, p. 184; C.P.R., 1385-1389, p. 66.

27. C.P.R., 1396-1399, pp. 204, 414.

28. Ibid., passim; see PRO, E. 101/42/10; Chest. 2/71.

29. PRO, E. 404/14/96.

30. PRO, E. 403/556-62.

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33. C.P.R., 1396-1399, p. 412.

34. C.P.R., 1383-1389, p. 19; “Cal. Ches. Recog. Ro.,” p. 28; PRO, S.C. 6/774/8-10; PRO, E. 101/42/10.

35. C.P.R., 1396-1399, pp. 194, 196, 197; “Cal. Ches. Recog. Ro.,” p. 254; PRO, E. 101/42/10; E. 403/560, 562.

36. “Cal. Ches. Rec. Ro.,” p. 148; C.P.R., 1396-1399, p. 350; PRO, E. 101/42/10.

37. Ibid.; C.P.R., 1396-1399, p. 412.

38. Ibid., p. 604; C.P.R., 1388-1392, p. 90.

39. C.P.R., 1381-1385, pp. 38, 534; C.P.R., 1388-1392, pp. 304, 402.

40. Ibid., p. 23; “Cal. Ches. Recog. Ro.,” p. 51.

41. Calendar of Inquisitions, Miscellaneous, 1392-1399 (hereafter, Cal. Inq. Misc.), p. 132. For individual examples of the other types of reward noted, see Gillespie, , “A Royal Experiment,” pp. 193–245Google Scholar. It was not thought advisable to specify numbers in this summary because of the difficulties presented by homonyms.

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44. C.P.R., 1385-1389, p. 38.

45. PRO, E. 404/14/96, pt. 2, no. 223.

46. C.P.R., 1381-1385, p. 32, 538; C.P.R., 1391-1396, p. 36; C.P.R., 1385-1389, p. 609; Calendar of Fine Rolls, 1391-1399, pp. 27, 237; C.P.R., 1399-1402, p. 458; Calendar of Fine Rolls, 1377-1383, pp. 217-220; Cal. Inq. Misc. 1377-1388, p. 81.

47. C.P.R., 1385-1389, p. 159.

48. C.P.R., 1381-1385, pp. 50, 93-94, 105, 446; C.P.R., 1388-1392, p. 254; C.P.R., 1381-1396, pp. 567, 707, 722; See Tout, , Chapters, IV, 342–43Google Scholar; see also my forthcoming paper, “Richard II's Yeomen of the Chamber,” XIIIth. Conf. on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University.

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50. Armitage-Smith, Sydney (ed.), John of Gaunt's Register: 1372-1376 [Camden Society, 3rd ser., XX-XXI] (Westminster, 1911)Google Scholar, nos. 502, 504, 595, 607, 1258, 1360; Lodge, E. C. & Somerville, R. (eds.), John of Gaunt's Register: 1370-1381 [Camden Society, 3rd ser., LVI-LVII] (Westminster, 1937)Google Scholar, nos. 530, 532. For Snow's role in the disturbances in Yorkshire in 1391, see Bellamy, J. G., “The Northern Rebellions in the Later Years of Richard II,” Bull. John Rylands Lib., XLVII (1964–1965), 257Google Scholar; C.P.R., 1391-1396, p. 219.

51. “Cal. Ches. Recog. Ro.,” p. 57; C.P.R., 1381-1385 pp. 60, 211; C.P.R., 1383-1389, p. 51; C.P.R., 1399-1401, p. 262; C.C.R., 1399-1402, p. 118.

52. C.P.R., 1396-1399, p. 43.

53. For example, Ralph Grendor, for whom see V.C.H., Glouc., VIII, 8Google Scholar; X, 89. For the status of archers, consult Prince (see above, n. 3), Gillespie, , “Cheshire Archers,” T.H.S.L.C.; CXXV, 23–31Google Scholar; Hudson, William, “Norwich Militia in the 14th Century,” Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society, XIV (1901), 263Google Scholar; J. C. Holt, contributions in Past and Present, Nos. 14, 18, 19, 20; Powicke, , Military Obligation, p. 193Google Scholar. For the status of French archers, see Contamine, P., Guerre, état et société à la fin du moyen âge, (Paris, 1972), pp. 460–70CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

54. C.P.R., 1381-1385, p. 60; C.P.R., 1391-1396, pp. 100, 104, 108, 219; V.C.H., Yorks., III, 122–23Google Scholar; C.P.R., 1388-1392, p. 117.

55. Ibid., p. 456.

56. C.P.R., 1399-1402, pp. 117, 118; C.P.R., 1399-1401, p. 262; Gillespie, , “A Royal Experiment,” p. 4Google Scholar.

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58. Both were still being paid in the latter years of Richard's reign. PRO, S.C. 6/774/8-10 m.4 in each case; PRO, E. 101/42/10; for Henry IV's reign, see PRO, S.C. 6/774/11 mm. 4.5.

59. C.P.R., 1385-1389, p. 19; “Cal. Ches. Recog. Ro.,” pp. 28, 424, see Cal. Fine Ro., 1391-1399, pp. 390-91 for the association of Hugh Smith with the Cheshire archers.

60. PRO, E. 101/42/10.

61. See Church, Maurice, “Yeomen of the Crown (1400-1600),” in Hennell, R., History of the King's Body Guard (Westminster, 1904), pp. 302–04Google Scholar.