ABSTRACT
In terms of wider historical significance, how armies were raised is probably the most important question to confront any examination of early medieval warfare. In this problem lie many of the keys to the dynamics of post-Roman sociopolitical change. In our period we can chart a development from the last regular standing armies of Roman times to the earliest of the armies of lords and their landed retainers that characterised central medieval military forces. It should not be thought, however, that this development was inevitable or preordained, or that its outlines were everywhere the same. We shall see change dependent upon particular circumstances, and specific attempts to respond to that change. The evidence for the survey is patchy in coverage over both time and place, and never much more than suggestive. We can do no more than sketch its general contours from uneven sources: normative sources that we cannot be sure are descriptive, and descriptive sources that we cannot be sure are typical. It is clear that the development ‘on the ground’ was much messier than this sketch must inevitably make it appear. Clearly, therefore, to understand how early medieval armies were raised and organised we must break down the four and a half centuries that concern us into sub-periods, and contextualise the evidence as far as possible.
