Slashdot Mirror
Medieval UK Battle Records Released Online
eldavojohn writes "Do you have ancestors who served in the British military under Henry V or fought in the Hundred Years War? Look them up online now that 250,000 medieval battle records are online and available for searching. According to the project details (PDF): 'The main campaigns of the period were to France but there were others to Flanders, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Wales and Scotland, a much wider geographical spectrum than before 1369. In addition, garrisons were maintained within England (such as that held at the Tower of London), the Channel Islands, Wales and the marches, as well as at Calais and in Gascony. In the fourteenth-century phase of the Hundred Years War, the English also held some garrisons in areas of northern France, and in the fifteenth century phase, there was a systematic garrison-based occupation of Normandy and surrounding regions...'"
If you were wondering who won, it was the British.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Lots of records with no family /surname. "What's your name soldier?" "John" "Right, stick him down scribe, John the archer".
Don't hold your hopes out if you were dreaming to find your ancestor on some particular march out to France or Scotland. Not unless your ancestors happen to be the Dukes of Northumberland or the like...
...check out John Keegan's Face of Battle. It covers the battle of Agincourt and several other major battles - Waterloo and the Somme. This book really gives you a feel for the human element in these battles.
As an additional stamp of approval, it's also on both the Army and USMC reading lists.
The Army reading list
Actually, bureaucrats were a creation of the monarchy and essential to their attempts at absolutism.
Before bureaucracy, the king's only way of making something happen beyond his own landholdings was to apply pressure down a chain of one or more (generally recalcitrant) nobles who theoretically owed him ties of obedience and/or kinship; but, in practice, enjoyed considerable autonomy. Bureaucrats, by contrast, were simply commons with technical skills(yes, reading, writing, and bookkeeping count, even when you don't do them with computers) and depended directly on the monarchy for their positions.
Everybody loves to hate them, and sometimes they deserve it; but bureaucracy is one of the defining characteristics of the move from feudalism to the nation-state.
SCA is not ancient or historical. It's an excuse for Internet Tough Guy to put on black leather, take a few tokes, and finally make it with that weird chick at the pet store.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
"Trebuchet... catapult"
Slashdot readers put a lot of mental effort into being funny. Often Slashdot story comments are dominated by humor.
Another subject: The story to which Slashdot could have linked: Was your ancestor a social climbing soldier in the Hundred Years War?. That story leads to a story that contains a link to the database. I didn't want to post that link because it might be Slashdotted.
I imagine that there are at least dozens of libraries that archive major newspapers to microfilm (err, microform, I guess) and store it in artificial, man made caves.
Apparently, some of the archives go back a ways:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspaperarchive
And some are enormous:
http://www.loc.gov/about/facts.html
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
I should add these population numbers:
1350, England: 2,500,000
1345, France: 20,200,000
Da Blog
Scotland is not now, and never has been, part of England.
Is here. Share and enjoy.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
In the 14th century most people would have held St Edmund as the patron saint of England. St George was more associated with the Knights Of The Garter and the monarchy. It wasn't really until the 16th century that St George had fully taken over the national role.
Listen to my latest album here