Right Policy

Bad Execution
Part I

Capture of Jean II at the Battle of Poitiers 1358 during the

Hundred Years War

In past history there is little that is more frustrating than politicians pursuing correct and / or sensible policy by inept and sometimes disastrous methods.

In previous postings I discussed various aspects of the Hundred Years war including the foolish and counterproductive efforts at political influence of Humphrey the Duke of  Gloucester.1 Now Humphrey was adamantly opposed to the peace policy of the government of Henry VI. However his opposition had little constructive in it and all Humphrey proposed was a redoubling of the war effort in order to get all of England's "rights" in France. That Humphrey's views were totally unrealistic and fantasy laden was obvious at the time and even more obvious now. Sadly the greater realism of Humphrey's opponents did not also translate into greater skill or realism in executing this more realistic policy.

Contours

Of Tyranny

Henry VIII

Henry VIII has been one of the most studied of English monarchs; a man who was indeed larger than life. In popular lore he is one of the best known of English rulers. Certainly he has been filmed multiple times. From the film The Private Life of Henry VIII, to Anne of a Thousand Days, to A Man for All Seasons and The Other Boleyn Girl there is an army of film portrayals of Henry VIII.1

Sources

and “Truth”

France in 1429 C.E.

In a previous posting I took apart the book Conquest by Juliet Barker,1 about the conquest and loss of Normandy during the Hundred Years War. In the posting I criticized Juliet Barker’s book for being “Patriotically Correct”, and frankly biased and anti-French.

The English Civil War

The Money Background

Battle of Naseby 1645

The English Civil War (1642-1646) is perhaps one of the most discussed and debated subjects in the historiography of English history; it is also one of the areas most afflicted, yes that is the word, with myth. This includes myths of origin. Here I will discuss some of the background to the English Civil War.

The Surge

English Lee Family c. 1800 C.E.

Population history is one of the most interesting and yet unexplored aspect of human history. Although demographic information is often provided in standard text books; little use is made of such things in terms of explaining historical phenomena.

A classic example is the remarkable surge in the population of England that began in the late 17^th century, and that proceeded with only a few hiccups for a little over 2 centuries. In fact it can be argued that the population surge in fact began earlier at around 1600 C.E. This is in fact debatable given that the English population experienced significant setbacks during this time.

Vortigern

A Tantalising Figure

Vortigern being presented-
 with his Saxon Bride.

The period after the Roman’s abandoned, or were driven out of England is perhaps the most obscure period in English history we know virtually nothing about this time period. In fact historical knowledge of any reliability only really begins again in the late 6^th century and not coincidentally at the same time the Christianity was reintroduced to England.1

During this early part of this time period two sources refer to a King named Vortigern who supposedly invited the Anglo-Saxons to settle in exchange for service as military units. Supposedly the Saxons had then risen in revolt and took control over much of England until they were halted by the Britons lead by Arthur. I have previously discussed why it is likely that Arthur is a mythological character but it appears that Vortigern is actually a real person.2

A Snap Shot

The British Aristocracy c. 1880

Hush by James Tissot
British Aristocrats at Play

In 1880 the wealthiest, most politically powerful Aristocracy on Earth was the British Aristocracy. It Politically and Economically dominated Britain and through their domination of Britain, the British Empire. What follows is a brief snap shot, so to speak, of the British Aristocracy at its height c. 1880.

1672

Louis XIV

Some years live in historical memory, like 1789, or 1914 or 1989 and some important dates are largely forgotten or were never historically remembered to begin with. Such is the case with the year 1672.

Guns in the Narrow Sea

The Armada’s Fire Power and the English Navy’s

Battle During the Armada Campaign

One of the most perplexing problems in Military history is the question of just how did the Armada campaign fail? The after all it was called “The Invincible Armada”. The Spanish were upon the sailing of the Armada almost comically confident but it ended in disaster and defeat.

“King Arthur”

The Man who is Probably a Myth

Dying Arthur and the Ladies of Avalon

The following is a slightly reworked version of two comments I posted on the site Skeptical Humanities.1 I have slighting modified it and added references and expanded it a bit.

King Arthur has been in my opinion a great obstacle in the way of studying post-Roman Britain. People spend their time trying to figure who he may have been rather than tell us anything useful about the time period.

The Falklands War
A Note

Map of the Falklands

Sometimes nations go to war over the most trivial matters. Perhaps one of the most telling indications of a war over trivialities is the Falklands war of 1982.

Henry VIII’s

First “Divorce”

Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon

When Henry VIII decided that he needed to get a "divorce" from his wife Catherine of Aragon so he could marry his mistress Anne Boleyn he, at least at the beginning, did not intend to cause profound changes in English society and church he simply wanted to “divorce” Catherine so he could marry another women so that he could have more, preferably male children.

Joan’s

Violated “Purity”?

Jeanne d'Arc

Much has been and will continue to be written about Jeanne d’Arc. (Joan of Arc in English) Her story is one of the strangest and yet one of the most compelling stories to have really happened. If it had been made up it would have been dismissed as unbelievable. Many small mysteries still remain concerning her life and mission. We do not have for example a clear idea of when she was born for one.1

One small mystery is the question of what precisely happened to her after her recantation in Rouen before she recanted her recantation. In other words was Jeanne raped?

Coercion

Works

Book Cover

One of the most telling of popular myths regarding history is that history shows that force, coercion etc., do not work. Sadly this is simply not the case all too frequently violence does in fact work and work quite well in ”solving” problems. And this idea is allied with the notion that somehow success “proves” that the idea etc., was right.

“Good Duke Humphrey”

A Note

Humphrey: Duke of Gloucester

Little known today Humphrey of Lancaster, (1390-1447 C.E.), was a younger brother of Henry V of England.1 His father was Henry IV of England and he had three brothers, Henry V of England, Thomas of Lancaster the Duke of Clarence, and John of Lancaster, the Duke of Bedford. Humphrey outlived all of his brothers.

Down the Memory Hole

An Unknown French Victory of the Hundred Years War

du Guesclin

The Hundred Years war between England and France is not just interesting in and of itself but also of interest in how it is portrayed in modern day historical consciousness. In England for example we get detailed treatment of the battles of Sluys, Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt and Verneuil.1

Elizabeth I and the Armada

Elizabeth I
The Armada Portrait

In a previous posting I discussed the myths regarding the alleged incompetence and lack of experience of the commander of the Armada, The Duke of Medina Sidonia, and showed what a simple perusal of Spanish records and archives would have shown, that the Duke was a supremely competent administrator and his handling of the Armada was if not brilliant was over all competent.1

Here I will tackle another historical myth, that of the parsimony and “incompetence” of Elizabeth I (1558-1603) in her handling of the war with Spain.

Insipid Romanticism

Mary I Queen of Scots

Mary Queen of Scots is a favourite with the public in that if they know a ruler of Scotland they are more than likely to know that she was Queen of Scotland. One of only four reigning Queens of Scotland.1 Because of Mary I’s tragic fate, i.e., being overthrown and then imprisoned in England and then executed after more than a decade and a half of being imprisoned by order of Queen Elizabeth I of England, Mary – Queen of Scots, became a figure of romance and a figure in “popular” history. The number of fictional accounts, i.e., novels, about Mary – Queen of Scots, is huge and there is even a good play about Mary’s life by Schiller.2

This romanticism has spilled over into actual historical work and as coloured perceptions of Mary and her great antagonist Elizabeth I of England.

Imperial Overstretch

 Movie Poster for The Eagle

SPOILERS AHEAD!

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!

Recently I saw the film The Eagle, which concerned the efforts of a young Roman military officer to get back the lost Roman Eagle of the Ninth Legion Hispana.

In the story Marcus, the Roman military officer is the son of the Commander of the 9th Hispana Legion that was lost in the northern Britain, (modern day Scotland) late in the reign of the Emperor Trajan or early in the reign of Emperor Hadrian, (c. 117-120 C.E.). Young Marcus is appointed a commander of one of the garrisons along Hadrian’s Wall in the north of Britain and in repelling an assault by local Britons he is seriously wounded.

English Forces sent to France in the later part of the Hundred Years War

A Preliminary Review and Analysis

Divided France in 1429 C.E.

The last part of the Hundred Years War although much written about in certain aspects frequently those writings do not give a very good overview of the war. Here I will give a listing, albeit incomplete of English forces sent to France during the period 1415-1453 C.E.

English Forces Sent to Northern France 1415-1453

Year
1415 10,435
1416 0?
1417 10,809
1418 2,000
1419 0?
Total 23,244
AVP14,649

1420 1,275
1421 4,100
1422 1,079
1423 1,520
1424 2,209
1425 1,396
1426 800
1427 1,200
1428 2,694
1429 1,800
Total 18,073
AVP 1,807

1430 7,991
1431 3,448
1432 1,220
1433 1,110
1434 2,088
1435 1,987
1436 7,926
1437 2,067
1438 1,646
1439 963
Total 30,446
AVP 3,045

1440 2,081
1441 3,798
1442 2,500
1443 4,549
14442400
Total 13,328
AVP 2,666

1448 1,000
1449 963
145033,035
Total 4,998
AVP 1,666
G.T.471,494

At the same time English forces were sent to Gascony but far more infrequently and in much smaller numbers.

In 1415 480 men were sent. In 1423 200 men were sent along with 200 more in 1428. In 1431 620 men were sent along with 2,298 in 1439. In 1442 500 men were sent and in 1443 620 men were sent. The English lost Gascony in 1451 but in 1452 an English army of 5,000 men was sent to reconquer Gascony. In 1453 2,325 reinforcements were sent. Despite that the French drove the English out of Gascony in 1453. Thus ending the Hundred Years War. The figures for Gascony even more than the figures for Northern France are incomplete. Even so the total is that in the period 1415-1453 12,243 men were sent to Gascony.

At the same time in 1436 an army of 7,675 was sent to relieve the English port of Calais on the French coast and to ravage the possessions of the Duke of Burgundy. The garrison of Calais was also getting a more or less regular stream of replacements / reinforcements so this figure in incomplete.

The Totals and Average Per Years if you include Gascony and Calais works out as follows:

1415-1419, Total – 23,724 AVP – 4,745
1420-1429, Total - 18,473 AVP – 1,847
1430-1439, Total - 41,039 AVP – 4,104
1440-1444, Total - 14,448 AVP – 2,890
1448-1450, Total - 4,998   AVP – 1,666
1451-1453, Total - 7,324   AVP - 2,442
Grand Total - 91,4125

As I mentioned above these figures are not complete and neither do they include mercenaries or local forces employed on the continent but they do tell us something about war making at this time.

Aside from revealing the small size of Medieval armies of the time the above figures also give some idea of how the small size of such armies didn’t preclude military effectiveness. It also illustrates the limits that Medieval governments had in terms of keeping up army strength. The simple fact is that Henry V’s ability in 1415 and again in 1417 to raise an expeditionary force of over ten thousand man was basically a huge effort and not one easily repeated. It has been known for some time that even before Henry V’s death there was growing resistance to Henry V’s efforts which were likely simply unsustainable for England hence the significant slacking off during the 1420’s even before Henry V’s death.6 It is of interest that despite this reduction in English commitment the period 1420-1428 was over all a very successful period for the English.7

All that changed in 1429 with the appearance of Joan of Arc, the relief of Orleans and the coronation of Charles VII in Rheims. In their struggle to maintain their possessions in France the English had to strain there reserves of financial and military strength for a prolonged period of time and for a much longer duration than under Henry V. It also appears that financially the situation was less positive than under Henry V. Despite this during the 1430’s the English were able to pull off sending the largest number of forces to the continent. In 1436 a total of 15,601 men were sent, about half to Northern France and the rest to Calais. The effort was unprecedented and a fiscal horror for the English government.8 The war was clearly unsustainable the longer it went on. It is common to condemn the government of Henry VI for not prosecuting the war vigorously. It appears that to the extent that they were able they did so. Further the erosion of the English position after Joan of Arc was not due to any lack of effort by the English government to contain the damage. Their efforts were considerable they were simply not sufficient because English resources were not sufficient. Certainly when faced with understandable resistance to continued financial exaction's to prosecute an un-winnable war Henry VI’s advisers did their level best overall.9

In the 1440’s there was a overall slacking of effort related to the resistance to further exactions to finance a war that both being slowly lost and grinding on and on. Fortunately the devastation caused by the war in France made a truce a good idea for them also. So in 1444 the Truce of Tours was agreed to.10

The French building on work done before were able to use the truce to build up their financial and military resources. The English government severely hamstrung by massive debts and poor credit and a population adverse to more war taxes and loans was unable to profit much from the truce. Those serious fiscal etc., problems were aggravated by some truly bad policy decisions. So when the truce broke down in 1449 the result was disaster.11

The French overran the English possessions in Northern France in a year, (1449-1450). Hamstrung by their serious problems the English government still managed to send 4,000 reinforcements over but it was not enough.12

After the loss of Gascony in 1451 the English in one last very costly effort managed to send 5,000 men to reconquer Gascony in 1452 and 2,325 men to reinforce them in 1453. It was again simply not enough and the effort greatly damaged English government finances. In the end it appears that conquering France was beyond the resources of England and that the Hundred Years War was not lost through lack of effort by the English but by lack of means.13

1. AVP – Average Per Year

2. Year of Truce of Tours. Truce of Tours lasts 1444-1449.

3. 1450 year English driven out of Northern France.

4. Grand Total for Northern France 1415-1450.

5. These figures and all the other ones used in this essay come from, Curry, Anne, English Armies in the Fifteenth Century, in Arms, Armies and Fortifications in the Hundred Years War, Ed. Curry, Anne & Hughes, Michael, The Boydell press, Bury St. Edmund, Suffolk, 1994, pp. 39-68, at pp. 44-48, Griffiths, R. A., The Reign of King Henry VI, Second Edition, Sutton Pub., Gloucestershire, 1998, pp. 178-208, 443-473, 482-532. In the last table I added the various figures together.

6. Henry V died in 1422. For more about the extent of the English effort see Curry, Ormrod, W. M., The Domestic Response to the Hundred Years War, in Curry et al, pp. 83-101. See also Griffiths above and pp. 107-122.

7. Griffiths, pp. 178-189.

8. Ormrod, Curry, Griffiths, pp. 178-208, 443-473.

9. IBID. and Griffiths, pp. 482-532. For the view that the English were betrayed by an administration that could have fairly easily done more see Barker, Juliet, Conquest, Little Brown, London, 2009.

10. Griffiths, pp. 443-473, Ormrod, Curry, Jones, Michael, John Beaufort, duke of Somerset and the French expedition of 1443, in Patronage, The Crown and the Provinces in Later Medieval England, Ed., Griffiths, R. A., Alan Sutton Humanities Press, New York, 1981, pp. 79-102.

11. Ormrod, Griffiths, pp, 482-532, Rogers, Clifford J., Military Revolutions of the Hundred Years War, The Journal of Military History, v. 57 no. 2, April 1993, pp. 241-278.

12. IBID. Griffiths, Curry.

13. IBID. and Griffiths, pp. 107-122.

Pierre Cloutier