Records: the Council on Military Affairs

England was in trouble. Upheaval in the countryside and existential uncertainty looming on every border, the Crown Prince was going to use the parliamentary moment as a mandate to sweep away every vestige of failure so far. This manifest in two ways fundamental ways:

* Changing what didn't work.
* Adding what was missing.

He createdthe ***Council on Military Affairs***. This included Edward's younger brothers John of Gaunt, who'd trashed his way through France on his failed "Great Chevauchée" and Thomas of Woodstock the Lord High Constable (or “Constable of the Realm”). This also included Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk (the Earl Marshal by inheritance). These were the top three English military officers, essentially the gang who couldn't shoot straight, and they had an inkling this was going to be *rough...*

The Council also included half a dozen other earls, starting with John Hastings, 2nd Earl of Pembroke, who'd been appointed Edward III's lieutenant of Aquitaine – and whose maritime planning lost control of the channel due to a crushing loss to Castile at the naval Battle of La Rochelle.

A dozen barons and a couple dozen knights were also ordered to participate in the Council, all of whom were recently in France. *Or should have been in France:* Sir Hugh Calveley and Sir John Devereux, for instance, were both contracted to fight for Hastings, but never showed up.

Those giving testimony were guaranteed immunity from John of Gaunt to speak their mind. Beyond, it included academics and military scholars, including representatives from both Cambridge and Oxford. *And it included the Boys*.

Without naming names, the consensus uncovered two massive problems:

* No money.
* No training.

One the collective was comfortable enough to name names (mostly in private counsel with the Crown Prince), there were also the significant hurdles of *poor strategy*, *poor tactics*, *poor leadership* and so on. Those were somewhat correctable if they could get money and training (to replace the amateurs who were leading them). The conclusion, though, was that this was going to take time – something they didn't have. Also, it was going to bruise blue-blooded egos...

## **Analyzing the Royal Army**

The analysis was short: *there was no “Royal Army.”* There was no standing army. No retinue. There was no organized pool of manpower, nor even a standardized way to recruit, pay, care for, train or lead. There were a thousand best practices and lessons learned standing in Westminster Hall *that second* – and nobody was recording any of it.

The representatives from Cambridge and Oxford got to work. So began the ***Academy of Royal Arms***...

There was no force to speak of, at all, without relying on recruitment and coordination of the barony – and with members of the almost-Royal Family *also* a part of the barony (i.e., *John of Gaunt)*, or the supposed Royal Army coordinator, Thomas of Woodstock, 1st Duke of Gloucester the Lord High Constable (or “Constable of the Realm”).

Family was *always* important, but Thomas was a young 21 and had so far failed to organize one soldier in the time he’d been appointed. Perhaps related, at this point, he had no appreciable military experience. In fact, under the last few of years of management, effectively under John of Gaunt, England had lost most of Aquitaine and was so unimpressive as to invite France to resume hostilities.

Crown Prince Edward counseled his young brother in the duty of Lord High Constable (or “Constable of the Realm”). This counseling very discreetly included time time with young Edward and Richard, who would be providing... *tutoring*.

### **An Argument for a Royal Army**

The Council made a chapter in the rapidly growing book of strategy and history, this one dedicated to someone that was technically distant family – *and a major competitor:* Charles V of France. He'd become king of France in 1364, and with the help of talented advisers known as the Marmousets, his skillful management of the kingdom allowed him to replenish the royal treasure and to restore the prestige of the House of Valois. This alone had notes from Richard on his work on Economy, finances and management.

The key for the chapter on strategy was Charles V’s first permanent army paid with regular wages. In one regard, this was more to liberate the French populace from the companies of routiers who regularly plundered the country when not employed – but in that effect, it was working. Now, Led by Bertrand du Guesclin, the new French Army was honing its skills in the Iberian war against the English.

#### **Prince Edward had Righteous Momentum**

The Council announced exactly where this was going. From members of Parliament, and the barony at large, if this was acted upon, it represented a distinct change from the precedent of Edward III. The king had broadened the barony, creating a certain camaraderie between royalty and nobility. Like his health, and that of his son, that camaraderie had since eroded.

Central to Edward III's policy was reliance on the higher nobility for purposes of war and administration. This was the very definition of feudalism, though effectively a variation given the chain of command. While his father had regularly been in conflict with a great portion of his peerage, Edward III successfully created a spirit of camaraderie between himself and his greatest subjects.

Both Edward I and Edward II had been limited in their policy towards the nobility, allowing the creation of few new peerages during the sixty years preceding Edward III's reign. The young king reversed this trend when, in 1337, as a preparation for the imminent war, he created six new earls on the same day. At the same time, Edward expanded the ranks of the peerage upwards, by introducing the new title of duke for close relatives of the king.

Furthermore, Edward bolstered the sense of community within this group by the creation of the Order of the Garter, probably in 1348. A plan from 1344 to revive the Round Table of King Arthur never came to fruition, but the new order carried connotations from this legend by the circular shape of the garter.

This reinforcement of the aristocracy must be seen in conjunction with the war in France, as must the emerging sense of national identity. Just as the war with Scotland had done, the fear of a French invasion helped strengthen a sense of national unity, and nationalize the aristocracy that had been largely Anglo-French since the Norman conquest.

Since the time of Edward I, popular myth suggested that the French planned to extinguish the English language, and as his grandfather had done, Edward III made the most of this scare. As a result, the English language experienced a strong revival; in 1362, a Statute of Pleading ordered the English language to be used in law courts, and the year after, Parliament was for the first time opened in English. At the same time, the vernacular saw a revival as a literary language, through the works of William Langland, John Gower and especially The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

Yet the extent of this Anglicisation must not be exaggerated. The statute of 1362 was in fact written in the French language and had little immediate effect, and parliament was opened in that language as late as 1377. The Order of the Garter, though a distinctly English institution, included also foreign members such as John V, Duke of Brittany and Sir Robert of Namur. Edward III – himself bilingual – viewed himself as legitimate king of both England and France, and could not show preferential treatment for one part of his domains over another.

#### **The Politics of a Royal Army**

Nobody was advocating an absolute royal prerogative, but after the collective competition as the nobility grasped for power, it was a sign that an unchecked aristocracy invited corruption (something the commons obviously agreed with).

The call for a royal retinue for military protection, instead of a fraternal, martial court, was seen as a way to keep larger elements of the barony in check as much as any foreign threats.

#### **Tables of Organization and Equipment**

Organic steps had already been taken for founding an *Academy of Royal Arms* (ARA). Ultimately, the whole fact-finding process of the Council of Military Affairs would be the founding the annals of the Academy. It was already approved by consensus that centralized, standardized Royal recruitment and training would pass through the ARA. The Academy would provide the template and even *if* Lords were to contribute armies to the cause, they would follow the precedents and desires of the Crown.

*That was a start*.

They'd lost most of their holdings in France and they'd lost control of the Channel. At its simplest, then, they needed an Army and a Navy. That oversimplified it a bit, but it was a talking point.

Breaking it down, they needed a *Royal Army*. In any action, this needed to be the marquee force. Further, they needed this to be a survivable, high-quality force. It was more realistic to keep a smaller, high-impact army than expect to be able to recruit massive numbers that ensured victory (especially when they were still suffering a post-plague shortage of manpower).

Further, and proven in the northern conflicts of his father, in the marches and high-risk border areas, they needed a permanent, professional guard force of comparable quality to the Royal Army. They had to *be* Royal Army, capable of action anywhere if called on, but equipped and trained for defensive specialization.

Looking at the channel, they needed a *Royal Navy*. They needed dedicated warships, and they needed the tool of the future upon those ships: *cannons*. Nobody had yet put cannons on boats – though Castilian flaming arrows worked well against the English – and the English needed crew to operate those guns. Most of the lessons boiled down to the recent major loss demonstrated at La Rochelle.

Largely, the Castilians had more maneuverable galleys – not great oceangoing vessels, but for slamming together ships for infantry battles at sea, their tactics worked wonders. The English had started strong, but Ambrosio Boccanegra had simply drafted overwhelming numbers. *And Pembroke drafted underwhelming numbers*. Soldiers specialized for maritime fighting was another lesson here: *they needed Marines*.

Finally, for whatever Arms they built in England, if they held territory *over there*, they had to have troops loyal to England who were permanently stationed *over there*. That meant doing everything they were planning in the home countryside, across the depth and breadth of Aquitaine. And likely in Ireland, Scotland, and France itself if they ever wanted a lasting peace.

As players were relieved of duty, the word went out to find the newest and the best of anything and everything martial, land or sea. If they were going invest gold and blood, they were going to make it count.

## **A More Personal Detail**

Further, the role of Earl Marshal was to include protecting the monarch as well as management of the King’s Horses and Stables. This had unwisely become an inherited position, which now fell to Margaret, Duchess of Norfolk. Margaret was lovely (if unlucky), and she was certainly not arranging any bodyguards, nor coordinating support for the horses…

Likewise, Prince Edward relieved Margaret of Earl Marshal and took the role on himself, immediately reforming and formalizing the Sergeants-at-Arms. They would *officially* provide personal protection to the monarch – *and the entire Royal family* – and act as bailiffs for Parliament.

Prince Edward leaned on history here, backdating their founding to read as 1189, the year Richard I of England (the “Lionheart”) took the throne. Richard I had a small, fierce personal retinue and affinity. Likewise, Edward III had, at one time, a substantive retinue. After the recent trek through France, John of Gaunt's affinity was perhaps even larger (though had largely diminished since his return). Right now, the Crown Prince had little more than a handful of staff.

This official, organized group of Sergeants-at-Arms would be shaped in the precedent of Richard I. From 1189, Prince Edward traced their ebb and flow to current day and chartered them as an *official* extension of the *Royal Household*.

Again, with the quiet assistance of his sons, the Prince built the Sergeants-at-Arms as an organization that would go far deeper than the eye could see.

**Created:** the ***Plantagenet Sergeants-at-Arms***