The 1457 Bridport muster roll is a rare surviving source in England as it comes from a period just two years after the 'official' start of the Wars of the Roses. The historical background is, however, more the French coastal raid, the same year, on Sandwich in Kent where the French had devastated the port town and killed the mayor John Drury. To this day (2020) the Sandwich mayor is still the only English mayor to wear black robes (instead of the traditional red) as he is in perpetual mourning for Drury, who was killed leading the resistance.
So the Bridport muster role – as a snapshot of English Commission of Array or levy troops – must be treated with some caution if applied to the WOTR. You also have to remember that Bridport is a Dorset port and its men were liable to do service to the king as seamen as well as soldiers. They may be 'marines'.
Simon Chick of the Lance and Longbow Society extracted the Bridport roll for the society journal, Hobilar, and I am leaning heavily on his work here.
The muster roll named 211 men as liable to muster – probably all those aged between 18 and 60 living in Bridport. Of these 211, 94 are recorded as having no equipment which strongly suggests that they failed to turn up to the muster and therefore their equipment could not be noted. They might have been out at sea when the muster took place. Lack of attendance cannot be interpreted as lack of interest.
Of the 117 who did turn up, 86 longbows were recorded which is about 73% of those attending. Of these 86, more than three-quarters possessed at least one sheaf of arrows (that's about 24 arrows) while 11 men had from 3 to 15 arrows. A couple had no arrows at all. Almost a third of the archers carried a buckler ('bokelar') which suggests they were also quite capable of fighting.
In Bridport only 8 men had a true bill but other pole weapons occur instead. 10 have glaives (also popular in South Wales) which resembles a large single-edged knife blade on a pole. You can stab or slash with it. A further 10 men are noted with pole axes. Now… pole axes are normally considered a gentleman's weapon so it is a little surprising to see 10 of these in the hands of levy troops. However the weapons may have been crude local copies or captured examples from the 100 Years War.
Just under half of the Bridport men had a sword, just under half of them had a dagger. The foreign-sounding Johannes Sterre had a 'halergyn' which may be an attempt to spell 'hand gun'. Remember that firearms were not unknown in England – with castles being designed for the weapon since the 1380s while the city of Norwich built the Cow Tower solely to mount guns in the late 1390s. The Pastons had complained that Lord Moleyns used unspecified guns against the family in Norfolk in 1449.
There were also 5 hangers (short swords) and 4 men with axes. Unusually three men turned up with pavises, large portable shields normally associated with European crossbows and handguns. This is, as far as I know, the only record of pavises in England apart from the Second Battle of St Albans where the Earl of Warwick had used field defences which included spiked nets and spiked pavises.
For armour, just over half of the men wore a jack, a padded garment popular among English troops at this time. Quite thick and made of folded layers of fustian and linen, jacks may also have reinforcement stitched in such as bits of old mail or bits of horn. Some examples even had lengths of chain stitched to the outside of the sleeves to prevent arms being hacked off. Two men possessed brigandines, a reinforced flexible armour similar to a modern flak jacket.
More than half the Bridport men wore a sallet helmet but one still wore a old kettle hat, a style which had been fashionable 50 years before. Perhaps it was dad's or granddad's armour or perhaps another 100 Years War capture.
One man had chain harnys (chain mail) while another had leg harnys. A third had a cuirass or breastplate. Four men had pairs of gauntlets to cover their hands. Robert Byrche had a full suit described as 'white harneys with a sallet helmet'. Lucky him!
[White harness means silver armour – white was associated with silver and yellow with gold due to the total lack of metallic paint in those days]
Shortfalls were noted and the people conducting the muster made the following recommendations:
27 men were told to obtain more arrows, 20 men were told to get themselves sallet helmets and 13 were told to obtain jacks.
Surprisingly… 19 men were told to get pavises which seems to suggest that the commissioners conducting the muster were quite taken with pavises. However… remember that we may be dealing with possible armed sailors/marines and pavises or mantlets were commonly seen along the bulwarks of ships – just look at the Mary Rose. So the pavises may have been intended to be quickly taken on board a ship if fitting out for war.
All the above creates ONE picture of levy troops in England. It was typical for Bridport, it cannot be regarded as typical for England.
Compare Bridport with this:
The 1450 Ewelme (Oxfordshire) muster roll for Commissions of Array (levy troops)
Among the 17 villages surveyed, Ewelme itself could produce only six men:
Richard Slythurst – harness (armour) and able to do service with a bow
Thomas Staunton (the Constable) and John Holme – whole harness and both able to do service with a bill
John Tanner – harness and able to do service with a bill
John Pallying – a harness and not able to wear it (either it was broken or he was)
Roger Smith – no harness, an able man and good archer
So that is two longbow and four billmen.
Andrew Boardman notes that for the 17 villages noted, 85 soldiers were available of whom only 17 were archers. While Ewelme in sleepy Oxfordshire (far from French coastal raids or the Scottish border) may have been deficient in arms this… "undermines the popular perception of a nation of archers…" says Boardman.
Boardman also notes that the 1457 Bridport muster roll of a coastal town, in Dorset, produced 73% longbowmen but only half the expected muster actually turned up.
Source: The Medieval Soldier in the Wars of the Roses by Andrew Boardman.
Barry
