This volume is the most recent product of a school of research into the administrative documents of English government in the 13th and 14th centuries in search of an understanding of the composition of its armies, their recruitment, organisation leadership and activities on campaign. This is no little undertaking and might have seemed unrealisable were it not for the work of Dr Andrew Ayton of the University of Hull, who is in a way the mentor for this book, and in a more general sense the initiatives of Professor Michael Prestwich (Durham) and Professor Anne Curry (formerly Reading, now Southampton). David Simpkin is one of a generation of talented young scholars who have turned their attention the theme as a result. He is also a member of the AHRC project ‘The Soldier in Late Medieval England’, directed by Professor Curry.

Dr Simpkin's research has produced fascinating information on almost fifteen hundred men of knightly rank and above and some five thousand warriors of sub-knightly rank (sergeants and valletti) who made up the military community of Edwardian England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries. What is remarkable is that contrary to earlier views about the unwillingness of knights and others to serve in war, about eight out of ten of them and some three-quarters of the sergeants liable for service did indeed do so. This despite the evidence that the Welsh and Scottish campaigns of Edward I, and his less successful son, were far from profitable and that many soldiers of all ranks ended up seriously out of pocket as a result.