Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

of wine, dozens of herds of live cattle, sheep and pigs and crates of chickens, geese,
even heron and partridges were all shipped across to be used by the royal kitchen.
All of this had to be transported — loaded onto wagons and carts, some of which would
have been commissioned and built for the campaign but many of which would have
been pressed into service from estates and merchants.
Similarly ships would be hired, along with the masters and crew. The English
armies of Edward I that marched into Wales and Scotland in the campaigns of 1282/83
and 1296 respectively were generally shadowed by fleets carrying provisions, just as
Richard's crusading column were followed on their march to Jaffa in 1192.
Despite these preparations food would invariably run short, or soldiers would seek
to augment their rations and their pay. Such ravaging and plundering was of course
wholly inappropriate in one's own lands or in lands one made claims on. Like
Edward III, who hanged 20 men for the looting and burning of the monastery of
St Lucien at Beauvais, Henry V laid out the stiffest of penalties for those who resorted
to theft or looting during the Agincourt campaign. Edward had seen fit to allow the
sack of Philippe of France's personal lands in the Ile-de-France as a challenge to his
CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE •*}*•
A town is sacked during
the Hundred Years War.
The economic devastation
wrought by the English
chevauchees and the
ecorcheurs or 'flayers' -
bands of unemployed
soldiers - was intense,
though localized to the
northern and south-
western regions of France.
(The Art Archive)
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