Medieval Chroniclers as War Correspondents during the Hundred Years War: The Earl of Arundel's Naval Campaign of 1387

Summary

Historians are able to draw upon a diverse range of medieval chronicles to reconstruct and comment on battles and campaigns from the Hundred Years War. For instance, Clifford Rogers in his persuasive monograph on the Edwardian phase of the war makes extensive use of chroniclers to support his thesis. Jonathan Sumption, writing on the same period, is more circumspect, commenting that most of the chronicles ‘are episodic, prejudiced, inaccurate and late’. In the light of these opposing approaches, are we able to take a measured view and judge the accuracy of such war reporting in the absence of twenty-four-hour news channels and embedded correspondents?

Kelly DeVries has outlined a framework for dealing with the literary licence sometimes used by chroniclers. He suggests that ‘with care, military history … can be reconstructed by comparing what the various sources say about an event and by further comparing it with traditional practice’. He suggests that, by crossreferencing in this way, the facts of events can be discerned without losing any of the drama included in contemporary narratives. This chapter will attempt to use this methodology to reconstruct one campaign from the Hundred Years War, that of 1387. This will be further developed by using the governmental records of the expedition which survive within the archives of the English Exchequer and Chancery.

This expedition may not have been one of the most famous or memorable of the Hundred Years War, but it was not without its own share of drama. In addition, the relative wealth of chronicle descriptions for this expedition can be compared with a number of surviving governmental records to make this a worthwhile exercise. The campaign of 1387, led by Richard Fitzalan, earl of Arundel, fell in the midst of political events that would colour the reign of Richard II. This naval action, within the period of Appellant supremacy, was followed by a brief civil war that culminated in the battle of Radcot Bridge in December 1387, at which the supporters of Richard II, led by Robert de Vere, duke of Ireland, were chased away by the superior forces of the Appellants.