ABSTRACT
During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries the armies of the English kings differed less from those of the sovereigns of the Continent than at any other period in history. The Norman influence had assimilated the military forces of our island to those of the rest of Western Europe. When in the later twelfth century the title miles began to be strictly confined to the upper ranks of the military class, serviens (sergeant) is the most usual term for the horsemen of lower status. No account of the armies of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries would be complete without mention of the mercenary cavalry. In the eleventh century the important part of a continental army consists of all the warriors holding fiefs, either directly from the Crown or as sub-tenants, on condition of doing service on horseback. The common people suffered from the plundering propensities which the mercenaries had picked up on the Continent.
