"English retinues in the 15th century - some facts" Topic

@Rou etc

Please don't stress it.

My plan with your link was not to copy it wholesale, rather to lift the more interesting entries. The whole list has been analysed before and appears as raw numbers in many books but it is interesting to see the breakdown and the individual units. I would really like to find post-1450 retinues and units as that is the area where we lack most knowledge.

A large number of indentures exist for Lord Hastings but those appear to be individuals and lack any troop numbers.

B

Fascinating dataset – there was a clerk of poultry and they indentured to serve in France along with a lot other clerks of the royal household…. Clearly you're 15thC civil servant was somewhat different!

Barry,

Found the following references in the preamble of a journal article on Flodden I was reading this lunchtime dealing with changes to how armies were raised over the years preceding the battle. They look like they might possibly contain some info on retinues.
Anthony Goodman. The Wars of the Roses: The Soldiers Experience.
The Household Books of John Howard, Duke of Norfolk 1462-71 & 1481-83 2 vols. ed. Anne Crawford (1992)
Fonblanque, Annals of the House of Percy 2 vols (1867) – seems to available free on internet
Also a Hull PhD on the early career of Thomas Howard, which looks like it can be had here
link