Non-Book Review: Henry Of Lancaster’s Expedition To Aquitaine, 1345-46

Henry Of Lancaster’s Expedition To Aquitaine, 1345-46: Military Service And Professionalism In The Hundred Years’ War, by Nicholas A. Gribit

As someone who reads quite prolifically for the De Re Militari, I have developed quite a library on various matters of the military history of the Middle Ages [1], but in looking at the library I have, I realized I did not have any books that specifically dealt with the Hundred Years’ War from them, which is a strange omission given the large and varied context of books I have from them. At any rate, I saw a book that related to matters of war and society and figured that this would be an obvious and straightforward way of addressing this absence while also providing an enjoyable and scholarly book to read. Those who wish to read my review should consult my scholarly book review when it posts (see the last post below under note [1]), but in the meantime I would like to comment on my first impressions of the book from what I can see at first investigation before reading.

Looking at the table of contents, I can see from the beginning that this is a particular type of book that appeals to a scholarly audience interested in questions of army composition, military performance, and matters of recruitment and bureaucratic administration. This is clearly a war and society book, with about 250 pages of core material that deal with a specific successful military operation and examine what sort of people go to war, the types of troops and their proportions found in a notable force, as well as questions of structure, formation, cohesion, and patterns of service, and looking at the supplementary material there is about 80 more pages containing a transcription of Lancaster’s Indenture as well as a catalog of the men who fought in Lancaster’s army, which has some very detailed information in it about the people in his retinue, the sort of material that many would skip because it is in an appendix, but which looks like it has a lot of interesting stories in it, even if there are a worrying number of people with the same names. To be sure, this book does not have the look or subject matter of a bestseller, but it does look like a very thoughtful book about a matter of personal and scholarly interest from someone who clearly took the time to master their source material. That bodes well for my enjoyment when I get down to reading it.

[1] See, for example:

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/06/19/non-book-review-medieval-britain-in-100-facts/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/06/03/non-book-review-nottingham-the-buried-past-of-a-historic-city-revealed/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/05/21/non-book-review-beyond-the-gates-of-fire/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/04/24/non-book-review-richard-iii-the-king-in-the-car-park/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/04/02/non-book-review-john-de-courcy-prince-of-ulster/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/03/20/non-book-review-dragons-blood-willow-bark/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2016/01/14/non-book-review-the-tudors-on-film-and-television/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/12/19/non-book-review-the-british-navy-in-the-baltic/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/09/18/non-book-review-jasper-tudor-dynasty-maker/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/09/02/non-book-review-mercenaries-and-their-masters/

https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/non-book-review-the-wars-of-the-roses-the-conflict-that-inspired-game-of-thrones/