The research on the prosopography of English armies during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries is easily one of the most fascinating and rewarding bodies of historical research of the last twenty years. Pioneered by scholars like Andrew Ayton, Adrian Bell, and Anne Curry, this work has now been taken up by many more researchers and expanded beyond what the three of them could have managed on their own. Michael P. Warner’s book examines the Agincourt campaign through the lens of the retinues of King Henry V’s younger brothers. This is very much a work of academic scholarship that is in conversation with a wider pool of research, not an introductory book. That said, it is also remarkably approachable for a book of this kind and while an awareness of the work of Ayton, Bell, and Curry will assist anyone who wishes to read it, having actually read everything that came before is not a requirement.
For those unfamiliar with the concept, prosopography is the collective study of the lives of a group of people whose individual biographies are insufficiently attested in surviving evidence to be able to study them on their own. In the specific case of these projects, it is taking the available evidence about who participated in English wars during the Hundred Years War and trying to generate an overall picture of what it meant to be a semi-professional soldier during that time. Arguably the most impressive project to come out of this work, and the foundation of much of what has come after, is the Medieval Soldier Database (https://www.medievalsoldier.org/) which compiles vast lists of names of individuals known to have served in English armies from 1369 until 1453. It’s a hugely impressive piece of work, and freely available for anyone with an interest in doing some digging.
Two major threads have emerged as a result of these prosopographical studies. The first is a greater insight into the lives of individuals who served in the Hundred Years War – linking their wartime lives to when they may have appeared in court cases or other documents of medieval English bureaucracy. The other fruitful area of study has been in gaining a greater understanding of how English armies were recruited during this time. By tracking which names appear in the retinues of captains and sub-captains it is possible to see patterns on how often soldiers served together, how stable retinues were during different periods, and generally to gain greater insight into how medieval armies were assembled. These studies bring us much closer to answering the question of how someone like King Henry V would actually find people to bring with him on his invasion of France – convincing his nobles is one thing but getting the archers to show up is another!
Michael P. Warner’s books is a great addition to this field of study, taking full advantage of the Medieval Soldier Database and the research that has come before to create a much more in-depth picture of two of the largest English retinues sent to France in 1415 than anything that has come before. The Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester are a well-chosen pair for this study. Both were younger brothers of Henry V, and thus the premier retinues to serve in after the king’s own, but they had very different levels of military experience. Clarence was a hardened veteran of several campaigns – arguably more experienced even than his elder brother – and Warner shows how he already had a well-established network of associated he could recruit his retinue from. In contrast, Gloucester was untested in war and had to assemble his retinue from scratch – relying more on retainers who had long established links with the House of Lancaster generally rather than with Gloucester as a whole. Gloucester’s retinue also included many individuals who had no previous military experience while Clarence was better able to recruit hardened veterans, once again reflecting their own previous experience.
The book is not solely concerned with the 1415 campaign. Clarence’s pre-1415 military experience is explored in detail as well as his campaigns after 1415 up until his early death at the Battle of Baugé in 1421. The surviving muster evidence is thin in places due to a low survival rate for Clarence’s non-1415 documents, but Warner does an admirable job of piecing together what evidence he does have. Gloucester lived a much longer, and at time more controversial, life that included some more military service but also a prominent role in English governance. This allows Warner to trace members of Glouceser’s retinue not just into his later campaigns, but also through his role in administering his estates back in England and to his time in royal government during the minority of his nephew, King Henry VI. Warner even manages to link Gloucester’s likely assassination in 1447 to having at least involved, if not been directly caused by, someone who had served in his retinue all the way back in 1415.
This is a dense academic work, there’s no getting past that, so I probably wouldn’t recommend it for general readers. For a general history of the Battle of Agincourt, then either Great Battles: Agincourt or Agincourt: A New History, both by Anne Curry, would be better places to start. If this is your first dive into late medieval military prosopography, then The Soldier Experience in the Fourteenth Century edited by Adrian Bell and Anne Curry is probably the better starting point. However, if you have already dipped a toe into this area then Michael P. Warner’s book has a lot to offer, and you will not be disappointed by it!