Disciplinary ordinances and military change, 1385-1585: a comparative analysis of English army ordinances

Abstract

The aim of this work is to further research into the English army through the comparison of the previously under-utilised English military ordinances. These official army documents were issued to govern the host from the fourteenth century through to the sixteenth, a period notable for the development of a royal army that was centrally controlled and well organised. The ordinances are a manifestation of these processes which have not yet received the attention they are deserving of. This thesis will focus on the ordinances of four monarchs issued between 1385-1585 – Richard II, Henry V, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I – with consideration given to the intervening sets.

This work will be based on a comparative analysis, examining each clause of the ordinances to consider its military repercussions and context to the campaign: asking why it exists and what role it performs. Crucially, this thesis will not consider the clauses in isolation, but will examine their chronological progression, fully considering what clauses have changed, been added or removed, and why. I find evidence for an ‘institutional memory’ of the clauses, showing how later sets were based on the experience of earlier ordinances. I discuss an overall trend towards increasing levels of centralising control and royal administration displayed throughout the sets. I argue that the ordinances reflect the patterns of service and aims of the soldiers and captains; a status quo that changes dramatically in the sixteenth century. This will fill a lacuna in the historiography of the English army, no work has yet compared the various ordinances across an extended timeframe, and furthermore, no-one has yet fully tried to understand the military consequences of the various clauses and their implications for how the English army functioned.

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ORCID for Anne Curry: orcid.org/0000-0002-7677-5561

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