Obligation and Opportunity: Urban Military Service in Medieval England
Lecture by Craig Nakashian
Given at Texas A&M University-Texarkana on September 18, 2024
Abstract: This talk examines the development and use of urban soldiers in warfare in medieval England with a focus on military efficacy and strategy value. Urban soldiers most often served as supplements to royal forces, but they also gave the king an option in raising troops that circumvented the normal reliance on either fickle noble retainers or expensive stipendiary soldiers, especially as towns more often than not supported the king during warfare.
What will be demonstrated is that while urban soldiers were used frequently during this period, the period after the Norman Conquest saw an atrophying of the mechanisms designed to harness the military power of towns. This does not truly begin to change on a practical level until the end of the twelfth century. By the end of the thirteenth century English kings were turning to urban soldiers more and more as part of a general move towards an increasingly professionalized army and by the dawn of the fourteenth century urban soldiers were playing larger and larger roles in battle. As will be demonstrated, by the end of the period under examination urban soldiers will increasingly play larger and larger roles in military forces until the distinction itself becomes somewhat anachronistic.
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Craig M. Nakashian is the Dean of the Honors College and a Professor of History at Texas A&M University-Texarkana. You can learn about Craig’s research on his Academia.edu page or follow him on X/Twitter @themedievalprof
Obligation and Opportunity: Urban Military Service in Medieval England
Lecture by Craig Nakashian
Given at Texas A&M University-Texarkana on September 18, 2024
Abstract: This talk examines the development and use of urban soldiers in warfare in medieval England with a focus on military efficacy and strategy value. Urban soldiers most often served as supplements to royal forces, but they also gave the king an option in raising troops that circumvented the normal reliance on either fickle noble retainers or expensive stipendiary soldiers, especially as towns more often than not supported the king during warfare.
What will be demonstrated is that while urban soldiers were used frequently during this period, the period after the Norman Conquest saw an atrophying of the mechanisms designed to harness the military power of towns. This does not truly begin to change on a practical level until the end of the twelfth century. By the end of the thirteenth century English kings were turning to urban soldiers more and more as part of a general move towards an increasingly professionalized army and by the dawn of the fourteenth century urban soldiers were playing larger and larger roles in battle. As will be demonstrated, by the end of the period under examination urban soldiers will increasingly play larger and larger roles in military forces until the distinction itself becomes somewhat anachronistic.
Craig M. Nakashian is the Dean of the Honors College and a Professor of History at Texas A&M University-Texarkana. You can learn about Craig’s research on his Academia.edu page or follow him on X/Twitter @themedievalprof
Top Image: Eadwine Psalter – Cambridge MS R.17.1
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