Admin for mercenary company in 1471

[Stefan ap Llewelyn]

My group does the battle of Tewkesbury each year (1471, England).

I am not able to fight for at least one of the show days as I will be watching my children. So I was going to do some period admin for our (mercenary) group.

What sort of equipment would I need to get? What would be used to write etc? Would paper be available, leather bound books etc?

Does anyone have any information on what sort of admin would be involved? I have read about the contract being written and torn and then half given to each party. Is the same procedure used by mercenary groups indeed are there any recorded procedures for how this was handled?

How would the inspection work? Would a royal representative visit the mercenary group and count the amount of troops etc?

[jester]

The contract was written twice on a piece of paper and then the two halves were separated. This gave each party a complete contract and if there was a dispute the two halves could be brought together to prove they each had a valid copy.

You should talk to Chef de Chambre as 1471 puts you into the age of the Compagnies d'Ordonnance and he's probably got some insight there.

There was a lot of supply/logistics oriented work that had to be done. Men and horses needed to be fed, watered, sheltered, and given places to shit. Most of the written work probably would have been done by a clerk who would have taken notes on wax tablets. The logistical work was probably done by valets.

[CTrumbore]

Well, from (slightly) later German.. a paymaster's desk is fairly common. As well as a ledger of who is signed up, their rank, and value.

in 1471 I see absolutely NO reason a notebook would not have been available. The problem was not making paper, it was printing it for mass distribution. So, there's no reason to assume a bound, (but blank) ledger would be available.

[Glen K]

So, there's no reason to assume a bound, (but blank) ledger would be available.

You mean "no reason to assume a bound, (but blank) would NOT be available," right?

[CTrumbore]

Yeah.. that's what I meant.

[chef de chambre]

In an accurate context, in the field, you would not be having anything to do with making an indenture - an indenture would have been completed months, or in an English context even years prior. They were normally arranged between noblemen, and semi-professional soldiers in the gentry, who would most commonly contract to provide the service 'to ride and go', of a few professional followers, often related to them. It isn't strictly speaking mercenary - it certainly wasn't to the people involved in the contracts in those contexts, unlike (commonly, not universally) on the continent.

In England, indentures aren't what they are in Italy, or the rest of the continent - their primary use was to arrange long-term contracts of service between English nobles and retainers outside of the immediate household, being an essential element of what has been called 'bastard feudalism'. On the continent, in Italy in example, they arranged (comparatively) short lengths of contracted service of mercenary companies which existed independently of any permanent relationship between company and towns they worked for, as independent entities.

At any rate, what you would be realistically doing in the field, would most likely be to take an accurate roll of the men in service, the equipment they possessed, and then providing that information to your captain, who in turn would supply it at request to your employer. You would most likely be taking the information immediately on a set of wax tablets, then transferring them into a more permanent form on parchment or paper after the roll was taken. Most likely, were you a mercenary company, there would be a representative of your employer present, verifying the roll was correct, and not mucked about with or inflated as to numbers and equipment by you lot.

This might realistically be associated with a pay day. Otherwise, you would be normally acting as a secretary for your companies captain, taking dictated letters, for private communication, or requests to your employers, or the like. As a clerk, you would probably make money on the side, again, taking dictated letters for members of your company for a small sum, dictating a last will and testament, or the like.

At any rate, you would have nothing to do with the indenture itself, this is usually made out by your employer, although you might be present to witness it, and verify it (what was written) was accurate as to what was promised to your captain. Again, this would not have taken place in the field immediately before a battle, but at the very beginning of your contracted service. Note, that this does not presume illiteracy on the part of your captain at all. As a clerk, you might very well have some training in law - you would be checking out that you were not taken advantage of in details.

I hope this helps.

[RandallMoffett]

I think Chef has more or less hit the nail on the head. I know there are documents that have ledger like listings in them for payments and deposits which would be much more likely to be what you'd see as Chef is saying. Imagine you are out in the field. You have costs for food, repairs, materials, perhaps a bribe here and there for information of locals (as torture even then was often realized as being of questionable utility, though money helps loosen a tongue).

But Bob is totally right on about the indenture itself. I have seen things often called reviews done in Lancastrian France that are reviewers going garrison to garrison asking who was there and looking over their gear before paying them or fining them.

Did not see this post before but very interesting stuff.

RPM

[Stefan ap Llewelyn]

This is great, thanks!

Randall, do you have a link to these documents?

[RandallMoffett]

No but Anne Curry has them in her Thesis- ‘Military Organization in Lancastrian Normandy 1422-50'. You can find much more in the originals I suspect but she has a good section on this in here Thesis.

RPM