ABSTRACT
In his public pronouncements, Edward III found no difficulty in explaining his successes in the Hundred Years War. God had shown him his blessing, ‘by his righteous judgement and of his lawful power . . . out of respect for our right and according to our deserts’.1 War was in theory a form of trial before God, in which divine intervention would ensure that victory went to the side whose cause was just. It was this concept of war as a trial which led to the repeated challenges between Edward III and Philip VI to settle their dispute by means of single combat, for in such a fight God could declare whose cause was just quite as easily as in a fullscale battle. Edward even suggested that the issue might be determined by Philip’s testing divine approval by walking into a cage of lions, and by demonstrating his ability to cure scrofula. In practical terms, however, both Edward and his opponents placed more trust in the strength of their armies than in questionable manifestations of heavenly approbation. In order to resolve many of the problems posed by the war, it is necessary to analyse military organization and to investigate the motives that led men to fight. Traditional military history, with its stress on battles, and its maps with armies neatly depicted in coloured squares, provides few of the answers. The English war effort must be examined in a wide context, but initially the armies themselves need to be investigated.
