A licence to conquest: the indenture of war between Sir Robert Knolles and Edward III, 1370

Ambuhl, Remy (2024) A licence to conquest: the indenture of war between Sir Robert Knolles and Edward III, 1370. In, Ambühl, Rémy and King, Andy (eds.) Documenting Warfare: Records of the Hundred Years War, Edited and Translated in Honour of Anne Curry. Woodbridge. Boydell Press, pp. 81-101.

Record type: Book Section

Abstract

The terms of Knolles’s indenture for the expedition to France in the autumn of 1370 are unusual. The document is well-known to historians and the organisation of this campaign has recently received detailed scholarly attention. It is therefore all the more surprising that Knowles’s indenture of war, a sizeable document, in good condition, including some 2,300 words, written with care, and preserved in The National Archives (TNA, E 101/68/4/90), has never been the object of an in-depth scrutiny. The balance between the private interests of the soldiers and the sovereign ambition of the crown that are reflected in this document will be discussed in the broader framework of the concept of private conquest and warlordism.

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