Henry VIII's Military Revolution: The Armies of Sixteenth-Century Britain and Europe

332 Pages·2007·3.12 MB·English

by  James Raymond

HENRY VIII’S MILITARY REVOLUTION
Dedication

For John Joseph Hudson

1915-1988
HENRY VIII’S MILITARY
REVOLUTION
The Armies of Sixteenth- Century
Britain and Europe

JAMES RAYMOND

Tauris Academic Studies
LONDON • NEW YORK
Published in 2007 by Tauris Academic Studies, an imprint of I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
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Copyright © 2007 James Raymond

The right of James Raymond to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act
1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part
thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
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recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

International Library of Historical Studies 43

ISBN: 978 1 84511 260 8

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camera-ready copy edited and supplied by the author
Contents
Abbreviations vi
Conventions viii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Henrician Military Literature:
Theory and Reality 7
Chapter 2: Gunpowder Weapons 25
Chapter 3: Training and Discipline 55
Chapter 4: Infantry and Cavalry. A ‘British Art of War’? 80
Chapter 5: Levying the Army 113
Chapter 6: A Permanent Establishment? 136
Chapter 7: The Gunners 163
Conclusion The Military Revolution and Tudor England 180
Notes 197
Bibliography 287
Index 319
Abbreviations
Manuscript Sources
BL British Library, London
Bodleian Bodleian Library, Oxford University
CUL Cambridge University Library
PRO Public Record Office, Kew
TNA The National Archives
Printed Sources
APC Acts of the Privy Council of England, J. R. Dasent (ed.),
32 volumes (London, 1890-1907)
Chronicles Raphaell Holinshed, Chronicles of England,
Scotland and Ireland, vol. 5, Scotland, vol. 6 - Ireland
(London, 1808)
CPR Calendar of the Patent Rolls
CSP Span FS Calendar of State Papers, Spanish, Foreign Series, (1485-
1558) (London, 1862-1954)
CSP Ven Calendar of State Papers, Venice
English Military D. Eltis, English Military Theory and the Military
Theory Revolution of the Sixteenth Century (Oxford University
D.Phil.Thesis, 1991).
History Robert Lindesay of Pitscottie, The History and
Chronicles of Scotland: From the Slauchter of King
James the First to the Ane thounsande fyve
hundrieth thrie sair fyftein zeir.
(ed.) A. J. G. Mackay (Vol.1 Scottish Text Society,
1966)
ABBREVIATIONS VII
HMC Historical Manuscripts Commission Reports
LP Letters and Papers Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of
Henry VIII, 1509-47, J. Brewer, (ed.), vols.1-4; J.
Gairdner (ed.) vols.5-13; J. Gairdner and R. Brodie
(eds.) vols.14-21, (London, 1862-1910), vol. I (pt.1),
no.5 (2).
Military Revolution G. Parker, Military Revolution: Military Innovation and
the Rise of the West, 1500-1800 (Cambridge, 1996)
RWS* J. R. Hale, Renaissance War Studies (London, 1983)
State Papers State Papers, Henry VIII, 11 volumes (London, 1831-
1852)
SR Statutes of the Realm, A. Luders et al (eds.)
‘Trewe Encountre’ The Trewe Encountre,’ in A Ballade of the Scottyshe
kynge by John Skelton (Detroit, 1969)
TRP Tudor Royal Proclamations, P. L. Hughes and J. F.
Larkin (eds.) (London, 1964)
Supply Services C. S. L. Davies, Supply Services of the English Armed
Forces, 1509-50 (Oxford, D.Phil Thesis, 1963)
The Chivalric D. J. B. Trim, The Chivalric Ethos and the
Development of Military Professionalism (Leiden,
2003)
* This book is a compilation of the author’s published articles. The individual
chapter cited will be identified in the footnote, alongside the reference to the book
and page, however, only the volume title will be described in the bibliography.
Conventions
Transcriptions
Transcriptions of manuscript source material, especially punctuation and spelling,
have been kept as close as possible to the original document. Ligatures have been
written out in full and contractions have been identified by placing brackets
around the omitted letters. Capitals have been transcribed as in the original
manuscript, abbreviations such as etc. have not been extended and the ampersand
(abbreviating ‘and’) has been transcribed as ‘&’.
The only exceptions to these rules have been in the case of ff, which has been
transcribed as a capital ‘F’, whilst Roman numerals have been converted to Arabic
for ease of reference. ‘F’ has also been modernised to ‘s’ where this was obviously
the intention in contemporary printed material. This book has primarily followed,
L. Munby, Reading Tudor and Stuart Handwriting (Chichester, 1988).
Dates
Except where the regnal year is directly referred to, all dates have been
modernised, with the new year starting on 1 January. Reference has been made to
C. R. Cheney (revised by M. Jones), A Handbook of Dates, new edition
(Cambridge, 2000).
Published Material
Sections of Chapter One have been published in the journal archives, however,
revisions have been made to this material since publication. See: J. J. Raymond,
‘Henry VIII and the English Military Establishment’, Archives: The Journal of the
British Records Association, vol. 28 (2003), pp. 97-112.
Acknowledgments
The completion of this book has left me with numerous debts of gratitude for
academic and financial support. I must begin by thanking the Arts and Humanities
Research Board for the award of a Doctoral scholarship, without which I would
have been unable to complete this research. I must also thank the Department of
History at the University of Exeter for the provision of a teaching scholarship,
which provided invaluable teaching experience. The libraries of the University of
Exeter, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford and Cambridge, the British Library and Public
Record Office have all been extraordinarily supportive and helpful. Most especially
I would like to thank the inter-library loans office at Exeter who have searched
valiantly for various obscure references!
Academically my first debt must be to my supervisor Professor Jeremy Black,
who has helped guide me through the maze of literature on early modern warfare
and steered me away from various ‘blind allies’. His support has been invaluable
and for his honest appreciation of my work and generosity in entertaining me at
his house on occasions too numerous to note I am very grateful. I must also
acknowledge the influential support of Dr. Mike Duffy, Dr. Alex Walsham and
numerous other staff and postgraduate members of the department at Exeter who
have supported me throughout my research. The instructive comments and advice
offered by my doctoral examiners Professor Nicholas Rodger and Dr. George
Bernard have remedied various omissions and much developed this work.
I would also like to thank the department of History at Lancaster University
for inspiring me to postgraduate study. Most especially the charismatic and
impassioned lectures of the late Dr. Marcus Merriman and his final year special
subject, Mary Queen of Scots. I should also like to acknowledge the kindness and
support shown by numerous academics in reading and commenting on my
chapters over the course of this project. Most especially I would like to thank Dr.
S. Gunn for remarking on draft chapters, suggesting corrections and providing
encouragement. Likewise Dr. D. Grummitt has shown considerable academic
generosity in allowing me to read a draft of his excellent forthcoming work on the
military garrison at Calais. Gervase Phillips, whose book the Anglo-Scots Wars was
so influential in developing my interest in the Tudor military, has also provided
invaluable support, taking time to meet me and discuss my work and make
suggestions about archives and publications. Finally, Professor Mark Fissel’s