Hi, my name's Kevin Hicks, welcome to my YouTube channel The History Squad. Now today's video is
about camp life for a medieval bowman in an English army. It was asked for by one of my
patreon members Michael Swatton and so I've done my Kevin thing, is I've made a model. Now you've
got to excuse me, I'm recovering from COVID. I've been sick, but I'm not too bad at the moment,
I'm improving negative so I thought I'd do this little uh video for you.
Camp life, medieval camps. Something I didn't know that there was a guy called the harbinger.
I'd heard of the Harbinger of Doom, is that he's coming to your town and telling you that
there's an army behind him and you've got to put them up because that was the harbinger's job.
If you're not gonna camp out in the open, you're gonna go to a town, he will sort out,
him and his men, all of the billeting. He had armed men with him, he was a man of station,
you didn't mess around with this man because this is the guy who will make sure that there is food,
there is accommodation. So here's the man you've got to keep on the right side of.
But there was a formula. If you had a massive camp, if it was an army camp
there were four roads, yeah, that literally crossed the camp. In the center of the camp was
the marketplace and also where the commanders had their pavilions. Many of the pavilions,
these enormous medieval tents, were actually joined by corridors, so they didn't actually
go out of their let's say their meeting tent into their sleeping tent. But the idea of this is to
kind of give us an idea how your archer lived. And then you've got to consider archers were valuable
and they were appreciated, especially come the latter part of the Hundred Years War.
Let's not go too deep into there because the French with their guns, (shh, a later
video). But into the Wars of the Roses uh the bowman really was the elite.
Um, the Earl of Warwick reckoned that his household bowmen, one of them was worth two of
anybody else's bowmen, so they were paid six pence a day, not bad wages for the day, but they're also
given uh extra things like bonuses, a house to live in yeah for him and his family. Clothing
passed down from his noble lord. So these guys, they looked the business, they had good bows,
superb arrows, so when you took them on campaign the last thing you want is your teeth arm,
your aggressive bowmen to be shivering under the hedges. The camps were designed to be as
comfortable as they could be. And the wagon trains that contain these camps, some of the noblemen
they had so many wagons full of their tentage, and then you had the people who were employed simply
to put the camp up and then strip the camp down, pack it away and the wagoners and away they went.
The wagon trains that contain these camps were miles upon miles long. I've actually covered this,
I think I've done a video before the baggage train so you could look that one up. But what I've done
is I've made a model right. So the harbinger’s come along, this is a minor camp so let's say
it's for a company or two. The first thing he's got to make sure, that there is fresh water.
So we have water on camp. Also plenty of firewood for the fires, plenty of trees around here no
problems at all. And then siting the latrines, it's very, very important that the latrines are
away and it's, it's hygienic, because the curse of the medieval army, the curse of any army really is
disease. Dysentery that's the one, the bloody flux, you don't want it, so what I'm going to
do is I'm going to walk you around. Oh, hang on a second, little tips that I keep reading about.
So I'm reading about how they set camp. So this one's nice and open, we must be in friendly
territory no problems, but if you're in enemy territory, you fortify your camp with a ditch,
and I thought oh that's just like the Romans. Well yeah because the commanders in the medieval
times read Vegitius, the Epitome of Military Science. I've got the book,
and when I found out that they read the same book as me I'm kind of going wow! I'm learning from
the books that they learned from and it's just wow. There was also, there was discipline here
so the last thing you want is bowmen falling out or men at arms falling out,
so there was a code of discipline. And it was the Earl of Shrewsbury, this is just after
Agincourt so I understand, was sick to death of gangs of whores, prostitutes yeah, camp followers
following the Army, causing problems. So he banned them, and if you were caught with a
group of these ladies within your accommodation then that'll cost you in a fine, a month's wages.
But the girls themselves were in danger here, it was very severe, they would be thrown out,
all of their money confiscated and then there's a little bit added on the end… and break their arms.
So this is serious business when you think about it. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to walk
you around my camp just a little bit to uh to show you what I've done. The one thing that's missing
here is the horse lines and I just didn't have room. So a little tour of my camp, let's start
off with the, the not so nice end. What I've done here is, I've got laborers working away,
they're digging a grave pit, so we've either had a bit of dysentery or something or there's some
casualties from a previous conflict and they're disposing of them now. Now in that field away
from the camp over here, we have the latrines, and we have a guy there who's straining his guts
out. They’re away from the camp and so they're not going to flood the camp if they overflow.
But when we go into the camp itself we have a wagon train that's just arrived, and this
one here, this model I've got here is great, because it shows you how much kit they carried.
I mean I've got another wagon, a covered wagon here parked uh up and people are
continually unloading it. These are the enormous constructions. So as we come
round to the back of the camp here we've got a, a pot on the boil. That'll be pottage. Pottage,
oat-based stew. Well I've had many a bowl of pottage. I've had pease pottage, cabbage pottage,
I've had pottage with fish in it, with bacon in it, I've had every pottage you can imagine. Now
if I remember correctly, now if anybody knows anything about this to substantiate it I'd
love to hear from you. Back in England there was a pub that had a pottage bowl
and what they did every day, it was never allowed to go cold, it was boiled up
they added stuff to it every day and there was never a case of food poisoning but that pottage
bowl had been going for approximately 200 years so I understand. Now this is one of the legends
you pick up yeah? It was only stopped through the European government and food standards or
something like that. Now I do like a drop of pottage, but there's another little thing,
if this is true, about the Scots with their pottage. They used to let it go cold and then cut
the oatmeal cake off the top, lay it down and lace it with spirits, what we call whiskey, scotch,
and that will be contained for the winter time and it would ferment. If you know about these things,
let me know because I love these little tidbits. So you've got a pottage bowl here,
now they would transport their pottage bowl with coals attached to them to keep them warm and then
they will boil them up when it's ready for the meal. This is, great things, the way things are
moving. But I've got labourers, common workers, they've got their lean-to shelters or they're just
underneath a wagon and then you come in we've got the nobleman's pavilion here. The archers
accommodation yeah, another tentage here, but the camp isn't complete. The workers are going on,
the ladies have started the cooking. The portable oven. I find that fascinating
that they would have a portable oven so they can have bread, fresh baked bread. So you've
got bakers, you've got cooks, you've got all of these different people on top of the soldiers,
so as I go around there's somebody else cooking there. There is a lady here, I got a couple of
girls there, so they would be on camp, but these aren't your camp followers, these are wives,
these are part of the family. There is your water barrel and you've got men queuing up there to fill
up. So I've made it so this would be moved, refilled and bought back for the fresh water.
Fodder for the animals. I've got some laborers working away over here on captured pavises. So
they'll be stripping the paint off those or over painting them. Uh and then finally, my
favorite bit, I've done some archery practice. I've made a butts, couple of targets on posts
and the archers are shooting away. Vitally important that the bowmen prove themselves,
they keep themselves fit, strong, healthy. So the system worked, it had to work and it had
to be good. But there were times when it could break down, if the harbingers had got it wrong,
if the camp was too big. Take Harfleur, Henry V’s camp at Harfleur, must have been enormous.
Dysentery. A third of his army dead from dysentery I understand at Harfleur and a
third of his army had to be sent back, so the latrines were obviously placed in the wrong
um situation there. The weather was bad, the water was bad, it was a disaster.
Henry V marches his army north towards Calais which resulted in the Agingourt battle,
but they couldn't take tents. There were pack horses. Million and a half arrows you ain't got
room for tents, so the men on the march they would have slept very rough. So they could yeah? Because
it wasn't a disaster at the end of the day, look at the battle itself, they were able to fight.
And this is another reflection on the character of these men, English and Welsh, medieval times.
And it's interesting camp life, we've got everything going on but once the archers
have finished practice, the wagons are away and the wagon lines and the horses are all seen too
then it's downtime, and uh, what would it have been like? Well I've done the big re-enactment
camps and it's wonderful when somebody pulls out a flute and simply plays a tune and they sing, and
of course there will be ale, there will be games. Nine man's morris for instance, even backgammon,
but uh you've got to have active sports haven't you? The old early forms of football and wrestling
and all of these kind of things would have been going on and there would have been laughter,
because something I've learned is they had a sense of humor, just like me and they liked
a joke. So the camp would have been bustling, smoking, bustling, the aroma of food. Stay away
from the latrines, you don't want that aroma and the sound of music as it wafts around.
Camp life, it couldn't have been that bad could it? Well I hope you enjoyed our little video
there, if you did like, share and subscribe and please turn on the notifications button.
The all notification button so you know what's coming on down the line. We've got lots ready
to film. And now a special shout out for three of my patrons Lexi, Mark Wright and
Michael Anderwald, hey guys thanks a million. Your support keeps this going. Bye for now.