Dr Ayton has transformed understanding of Edward III's armies -
compulsory reading for anyone interested in the Hundred Years War. WAR
IN HISTORY [Michael Prestwich]
The mounted, armoured knight is one of the most potent symbols of
medieval civilisation; indeed, for much of the middle ages the armoured
warhorse was what defined a man as a member of the military class.
However, despite the status of the knightly warrior in medieval society,
the military service of the later medieval English aristocracy remains
an unaccountably neglected subject, and the warhorse itself has never
attracted a major study based upon archival sources. This book seeks to
open up new fields of research: it focuses on the horse inventories,
documents which offer detailed lists of men-at-arms and their appraised
warhorses, the valuation of which is a measure of its owner's social and
military status. Dr Ayton is primarily concerned with the inventories
and related records for Edward III's reign, a period which witnessed
significant changes in the organisation of the English fighting machine.
Thedocuments produced during this period of `military revolution' cast
valuable light on the character and attitudes of the aristocratic
military community at a time when its traditional role was in the course
of re-evaluation.
Dr ANDREW AYTON is senior lecturer in history at the University of Hull.