Soldier of the Month

This section will feature sketches of the careers in arms of interesting soldiers, drawing on the evidence provided by the online database. The team will contribute their own favourites to these soldier profiles, focusing on combatants taken from across a broad spectrum of the military community, from the foremost duke to the lowliest archer. We would also like to invite contributions from the wider academic and public audience. All that we ask is that your mini-biographies draw upon the project database as well as using other sources.  We also welcome submission on groups of soldiers, connected by a common theme.

We will give a prize to the best contribution from a non-team member. This will be a signed copy of Anne Curry, Agincourt: a New History (Tempus, 2006 pbk) and will be awarded annually. We will exercise an editorial review process over submissions. Each submission should be no more than 2000 words in length and should follow the style of the soldier of the month posted for December 2007.  Please send submissions electronically to a.r.bell@rdg.ac.uk

August 2008

Our final profile relating to the battle of Shrewsbury focuses upon the archers - one of whom may have scarred Prince Henry for life!

July 2008

For July we present the second of our trilogy of case studies related to the battle of Shrewsbury 1403, the career in arms of the rebellious Sir Thomas Percy, earl of Worcester.

June 2008

This month's installment is the first of a projected trilogy of case studies related to the battle of Shrewsbury 1403.  The first focuses upon the interlinked careers of three knights, Sir John Calveley, Sir Richard Vernon and Sir Hugh Browe, who all met their end on opposing sides at this bloody encounter.

May 2008

May's Soldier of the Month is brought to you by Tony Moore, research assistant on the ESRC funded project 'Credit Finance in the Middle Ages' (also based at the University of Reading).  It looks at Walter Fitzwalter, Baron of Little Dunmow in Essex and demonstrates that the Soldier database can shed new light on the careers of even prominent members of the baronage.

April 2008

Randolph Jones, a self described enthusiastic amateur in medieval studies has provided April's Soldier of the Month.  The focus is Sir Walter Bitterley, 'a right valiant knight', a kings knight of both Richard II and Henry IV, who met an unfortunate end in early fifteenth century Ireland.

March 2008

This month we are pleased to publish a soldier profile written by Richard Leathes, a family historian.  It describes the rise of the esquire, Thomas de Mussenden, who as a younger son, was able to utilise his martial prowess to secure his fortune.

February 2008

For February’s entry as soldier of the month we are taking a dive into largely uncharted waters, with an attempt to reconstruct the military career of one of the more obscure members of the military community, Robert de Fishlake.

January 2008

This month’s soldier is Sir William Clifford. Like Owain Glyn Dŵr, he was a rebel, but unlike Owain, he was also a great survivor.

December 2007

The first soldier of the month is a future prince, who was spurred into rebellion by the non-delivery of a letter!