The military campaigns of Edward I, King of England between 1272 and 1307, were a turning-point in the history of warfare within northwestern Europe during the Middle Ages. Edward's reign did not witness any radical departures in the way that warfare was conducted and battles fought, nor were there major changes (though there were some significant innovations) in the methods employed to recruit mounted and foot soldiers. The era of major reform, perhaps even revolution, in the recruitment, structure and composition of English medieval armies came later, during the 1330s and 1340s, at the beginning of Edward III's French war. Rather, it was the scale of Edward I's expeditions – the number of soldiers involved, the vast sums of money spent and the geographical areas affected – that contrasted sharply with the military efforts of previous reigns. The heavy fighting of these decades, particularly between the outbreak of war with France in 1294 and the defeat of the army led by Edward I's son, Edward II, at the battle of Bannockburn in 1314, has left behind an extensive trail of documents recording the names of mounted armoured warriors drawn from the ranks of the English gentry and nobility. These sources far surpass, in number and detail, extant records from previous reigns relating to the performance of military service; and they enable the historian to reconstruct, if not completely than to a far greater extent than for any preceding age, the careers in arms of a large proportion of the aristocratic soldiery.