So just thought I'd let all you ladies and gents who are really into this type of thing that the database for the medieval soldier is up!!! I know a number of hte people involved and they have put a lot of time into this resource. It should be of invaluable help for finding people who served and their rank etc. www.medievalsoldier.org It is a fantastic resource so enjoy it and if you bump into any of the people who worked on it I think they deserve a good pat on the back!

RPM

Matthew Flynt, Archer, late 14th c.

Very cool. Thanks a million for the link!

Glad it is useful. I was quite excited to find a few with my surname as well. Well one man actually but is seems he was a full time soldier and since my guess is most of his family was on the other side makes some sense.

RPM

Funny how something like this can turn one's expectations on their heads. "My" guy apparently was a naval archer. Of all the ancestral martial activities I've wondered about over the years, that one never entered my mind. Gives me some new perspective. Another archer in the database–Raulyn del Flynt–apparently fought on dry land in France. That's more like what I had in mind. :D

I have been quite interested in naval archery since I heard Edward III had two ships of archers to one ship of ment at arms. The description of this made me spend hours trying to figure out how they were employed in the battle but is proved close to impossible. I have some ideas but they were extremely common use of archers and all the way to Henry VIII they are a big part of the navy.

The man sharing my surname appears to be serving the nevill's in a castle in North Wales. He is a yeoman or listed as one and serves there for over a decade. A professional soldier it would seem. Still suprised he was there as the Moffets all are Scots and likely many would have been in France with the Douglasses or home doing other interesting deeds.

RPM

Gee, there are no "Grisetti" surnames (he said with mock surprise).
Looking at other ancestral names, I find
- Blanchard, Richard - rank - Archer
- Jones, William - also an archer.
Thanks, Randall.

I can't seem to find any reference to Sir John Chandos or anyone who served under him. In fact, finding anything before about 1370 was rather difficult. Is there a certain date range that this project covers, or is it intended to be the whole 100 Years' War? If it is 1370 and on, for instance, the fact that I can't find Chandos makes sense (he died 1 Jan 1370).

-Grey

my father's side is from normandy, thought a belair might pop up but no luck. it would be nice to know i had an ancestor in that war but part of me is happy it wasn't on the english side :p
the irish side didn't pop up ether. i know for a fact they were profetional soldiers (gallowglass), i guess they were still out of english controll in those days. still happy about not serving the english :p

Greyson,

The dates they cover are listed on their front page. 1369-1453. Everything pre 1369 is not in the database and likely never will be as records just are hard to come by that are as full as these ones are. The databse is very accurate for the time period it is in as it goes by pay records. If you fought you are in it. That said there are plenty of records that as time has gone by have become faded and impossible to read. The nature of the business we are in I am afraid.


Robin,

Not to be doubting your database search skills but I found William your second listed in the database so perhaps maybe using the fuzzy search key or various spellings would help? ;) Montague is another form perhaps. On a fuzzy search I got a list of about 1/2 dozen or more montagues under just the men at arms search so my guess is the database has who you are looking for just not how you are looking. :D It may be that they are not all uploaded as this is still ongoing.

Monta* under surname search so far rbought up the most. Tried giving a link but did not work.


Sean,

I was very suprised to find a Moffet in english empoly.... but it makes sense. He served in a garrison in the 1400's and 1410's in North Wales.... What took place early in the 1400's I wonder.... ;)

So not incomplete at least but limited in time covered yes. It may also be that they have not finished uploading all the names but there you have it.

RPM

Okay, you got me... Obviously my database skills are alittle rusty. I had tried searching under Montacute, Montague, Montaigu, and even the old form Monteacuto. Guess I never thought to try a fuzzy search.
Either way its good to see my peeps represented. This actually got me to pokin around lookin for roots on the Smith side last night on genealogy sites. Unfortunately I can only make a firm trace of the Smith side back into the 16th, so I am unable to make conlusions of relation to Smiths of the HYW. Well I suppose I should be happy to have an Earl (or 4) from the HYW in the family . :D
What I don't understand is why Thomas de Montagu isn't included in the database. He is by far the most prominant Montagu of the HYW. Hell, he even gets his own encyclopedia Britanica article, so obviously some parts of the database are incomplete.

Thanks Randall, that answers my question. Somehow I had just missed that statement on the main page.

Sorry for asking a stupid question.

-Grey

No worries gents, I have the same thing happen all the time.

Robin,

I tried to contact my friend who is working on it to ask what has been uploaded because I tried again this afternoon to find yout Thomas and I could not find him. I then tried a few more searchs figuring I could find it by other, methods. Then I tried by year.... Looks like right now it only goes to 1408. Therefore everything after 1409 is not in it still. My bad. I guess that is good as we have lots more to look forward to (1409-1453). Smith would be a hard one. Not because scarcity of Smith as a surname but frequency and knowing if they are the same ones.

I have a list on hardcopy I will dive into and see if he (Thomas) is there.

RPM

John Luttrell, Esquire. Man-at-arms in service to Edward de Courtenay, earl of Devon, 1387 Exped Naval

Luttrell is the furthest back I could remember at the moment. Come Christmas I am going to borrow my grandmother's lineage manual and start searching for ancestors.


Also, what does Exped mean, expeditionary perhaps?

Robin,

No I know the gent you are talking about pretty well. He was one of the primary movers and shakers of the time so I know the man pretty well. I did look on the hard copy and Thomas is listed as to France for the campaign.

Matthew,

Exped is expedition. I have been doing some family history lately as well. Found some relations recieved lands from Robert Bruce and were excluded when the regions went to Douglass, meaning that they were the kings vassals directly... pretty cool.

RPM

Update: The database appears to have been expanded significantly. I'm now finding records from the 1440s.