of course. 1 The evidence goes to show that wages were regularly paid, and were regarded as a first charge upon the revenue.?

These lists of wages prove the well-known fact that the armies of this period comprised hundreds rather than thousands; and I think they also point to a distinction between the permanent nucleus of knights and men-atarms, and a changing kaleidoscopic force by which they were accompanied. The former, drawn from England, Flanders and other lands as well as from Normandy, probably never numbered more than a few hundred. They were stationed in the castles and were moved about incessantly, or formed part of the royal retinue. The latter would be local and temporary, already armed in accordance with Henry II's assize, gathered together for a few weeks by the attraction of pay or possibly, as have seen, in accordance with a definite local organisation. 3

Some such levy would perhaps explain the appearance of 890 foot soldiers at Andeli in 1197 or 1198, an unusually large body which received wages for eight days. 4. It should be remembered that wages were high and that a permanent force even of this size would have cost more than £12,000 a year. In this year nearly £2,000 were raised by a tallage in the Côtentin to maintain men-at-arms in the March-a sum of £2,000, where a quarter of wheat only cost 4s. and where one could buy a

we

1. “de prestito super liberationes suas,” ibid., 502; “de prestitis factis a Rege ultra mare,” Rotulus Cancellarii 3 Joh., 302. The Rotulus de Prestito of 1210 gives a complete list of loans made during the expedition in Ireland (Rot. de Liberate ac de misis et prestitis, 172 seq9).

2. See, for example, the accounts of Geoffrey the Money-changer in 1195 (Rot. Scacc., i, 136-138) and of Guérin of Glapion in 1200–1201 (ibid., ii, 501-2). 3.

e.g., Rot. Scacc., ii, 327 : “in liberationibus de cxl servientibus missis apud Vernolium de xx diebus."

4. Rot. Scacc., ii, 310.

2

cock for ld. or a ram for 1s 1—and yet a sum less than one-sixth of that required for the wages of 890 men during a twelvemonth. Such a study of prices precludes the conclusion that armies of any size could be permanently retained at such wages. The interests of the agricultural classes from which many of the knights and the majority of the men-at-arms were drawn, were also opposed to service far away from home or for a long period. The claims of the annual harvest were too pressing.

The foregoing analysis of the military strength of Normandy and of the operation of its feudal forces has necessarily been somewhat hypothetical. When we turn to the professional soldiers of the twelfth century we are on firmer ground, for, though the facts are few, they are not obscured by legal and economic issues.

In the first place must be distinguished the artificers, crossbowmen and archers in the royal service. These were the élite of the military profession. The artificers appear as a corps, the later Royal Engineers, in John's expedition to Ireland in 1210, and had probably been formed during the previous reign. The most conspicuous of these engine makers was Master Urric, who was endowed with lands by Richard and John, and was of sufficient social importance to hold lands by knight service. He accompanied John to Normandy in 1201 “ ad facienda ingenia.”+ The name usually given to these artificers was that of ingeniator or enginneor,5 but Master Urric is also styled balistarius,

1. Ibid., 471, 473, 478. Prices varied so much that it is only safe to compare those of the same district for the same year. Unless otherwise stated, references are to Angevin money, the chief currency of Normandy.

2. The men who returned from the army at Aumâle (Rot. Scacc., ii, 480) and neglected to serve at Gaillefontaine (ibid, 478), were from the Côtentin.

3. Round, The King's Serjeants, p. 16. 4. Rot. de Lib., 14; Round, op. cit., p. 15. 5. e.g., William the Enginneor in Rot. Scacc., ii, 480; and John's ingenitor (Rot. Norm., 107).

6, Bracton's Note Book, case 1275, quoted Round, l. c.

6

9

a word which generally means a crossbowman who used a balista. The confusion arose from the fact that as well as the crossbow, the various large siege engines and stone throwers were generically described as balistæ. Hence it is probable that some of the more important balistarii in the service of Richard and John, such as Master Ivo and Lupillin, were artillerymen who worked the great engines rather than crossbowmen.2 Lupillin was even trusted with a Poitevin castle by King John. However this may be, the balistariï played a large part in the military operations of the time. They were endowed with lands and pensions,“ ranked immediately after the knights, and received in Normandy the handsome wage of four shillings a day. The crossbow was peculiarly an eastern and southern weapon and came into use slowly in France and Normandy, hence we find that Richard and his brother retained foreign arbalisters in their service,

1. The distinction, however, is apparent in the list of the furniture in the Norman castles, of about 1210 (Cartulaire Normand, nos. 214, 215, pp. 33, 34).

2. The reader will remember that another Ivo Balistarius, who was an engineer, founded the great house of Bellême (Stapleton, I, lxxi). He was master of the engines of Hugh the Great.

3. See John's letter of February 18th, 1203, to Lupillin the balistarius ; ‘Mandamus vobis quod liberetis castrum nostrum de Vouent cui dilectus et fidelis noster Robertus de Tornham senescallus Pictavie illud liberare preceperit” (Rot. Pat., 25b). 4. e.g., Rot. Norm., 62; Rot. Scacc., ii, 311, 481. 5. Rot. Pat., 12b :

omnibus militibus, balistariis, servientibus existentibus in Marchiis Normannie."

rex

and especially Genoese. They were moved about, sometime separately, but more often in companies, and were used for the most part in garrison duty. They were of varying rank or social status; for example, in a band of eighty-four which is mentioned in the Liberate Roll of 1200, twenty-six travelled with three horses apiece, fiftyone with two, and seven with one horse. The king was apparently responsible for the weapons: they are occasionally referred to as his, and he refunded money which was expended upon them ;4 moreover, the various kinds of crossbow were, if we may argue from French practice a few years later, kept in the armouries of the royal castles,5

A well-known passage in the Philippid describes the part played by the arbalisters in the operations of a siege, and emphasises the value which Philip Augustus placed upon their services. Some of those in Philip's service, and in that of his rivals, are known by name, and we possess a few details about the lands with which they were endowed, but that is all. The only man who stands out with any prominence from the shadowy background is Richard's follower, Master Ivo, who was probably an engineer. Ivo was evidently very skilful and much trusted. He had apparently been on terms of sufficient intimacy with his great master to feel the change from Richard to John as a personal loss; and his interest in and

1. Rot. Norm., 47, 59; Round, op. cit., 16. 2. Rot. Norm , 77.

3. Rot. de Lib., 6; cf. Rot. Norm., 47; Rot. Scacc., ii, 314, gifts to balistarii for the purchase of horses.

4. Rot. Scacc., ii, 314. “Ricardo Walensi qui faciebat balistas Regis" --wages 28. 6d. a day. Rot. de Lib., 100, order for repayment of expenditure “in nervis et cordis et clavibus balistarum nostrarum."

5. Cart. Norm., nos. 214, 215.

6. Philipp, lib. vi, vv. 263 seqq., 661 seqq. (Delaborde, ii, 186, 202). The latter passage begins :

“ Hic Blondellus erat, Perigas, aliique viri quos

Regi reddiderat ars balistaria caros,
Ditatos ab eo villis, et rebus et ere."

fidelity to John were certainly weakened by the middle of 1203. His quarrel with the king was so violent that he fled for sanctuary to the cathedral at Rouen, and John seems to have had some difficulty in patching up an understanding. The archbishop restored Ivo to the royal service, and Ivo gave his sons as hostages in pledge of his fidelity; but on the other hand he was to remain under the protection of the Church and was free to go where he wished, with wife, sons and chattels, so soon as peace or a truce of two or three years was made between the king and Philip Augustus. John bound himself under ecclesiastical penalties to accept this arrangement, and only stipulated that Master Ivo should not take service with his enemies. 1

I have described the balistarii as the elect of the military profession. At the other extreme were the outcast Brabançons and Cottereaux. Midway stood the Welsh mercenaries. We have already seen a Welshman at work upon the royal crossbows, and it is possible that there were Welshmen among the crossbowmen, but, as is well known from the writings of Gerald of Wales, the favourite weapon of his fellow countrymen was the longLow. It is impossible to say whether the bands of Welsh mercenaries who enlisted under our Angevin kings were all archers, for the presence of archers in the Norman wars is but casually mentioned by the chroniclers, and the rolls only refer to a company of archers under William of Vernon. The history, however, of the Anglo-Norman conquest of Ireland would suggest that the Welsh would

1. This interesting charter, dated Rouen, July 29th, 1203, is enrolled in Rot. Pat., 31b. 2. Cf. Guill. le Maréchal, 1. 7416 (ed. Meyer, i, 267).

3. Rot. de Lib., 78, where the archer is distinguished from the arbalister. Some times, however, the archer is clearly a crossbowman, e.g., the Genoese in Rot. Norm., 47 : Rigord mentions "equites sagittarii” (i, 162).