ABSTRACT

The detailed, record of one of the musters hdd in accordance with Commission of Array, known as the Bridport muster roll, survives in the Dorset Record Office, It is dated to the Sunday following the feast of St Giles in the 36th year of King Edward VI, that is, 4 September 1457. The distance weapons with which the men were armed were longbows, of which 114 are recorded, together with a large quantity of arrows. The hand-to-hand Weapons are more varied. There are 69 swords in the list, daggers, glaives, pollaxes, axes, spears, bills, heavy maces, staves, and a hanger. The commonest of the defensive equipment is the sallet, of which there are 74, closely followed by the jack, of which there arc 67, and there are in addition 4 pairs of gauntlets, mail shirts, brigandines, complete armours, set of leg harness and a cuirass.