5 - Diplomacy and Defensive Warfare

Summary

The two preceding chapters have focussed principally on the military activities of Edward III's household knights in relation to large-scale military campaigning. Important though service on such campaigns was, it formed only part of the duties expected of the king's knightly retainers. Their involvement on international diplomatic embassies and in defending England, and English-held lands abroad, from foreign invasion was also considerable. Unlike other forms of ‘military’ service, diplomacy and defensive warfare were on-going processes, often requiring individuals to be away from England, and their own private estates, for extended periods. Household knights were thus ideal candidates for such work. Their obligation to serve the king as and when required meant that the year-round nature of these endeavours did not prove a barrier. Moreover, their position as the king's personal retainers meant that, in the majority of cases, the king would have been familiar with each knight's individual abilities and could be confident that, if chosen to act as a royal diplomat or as keeper of a strategically important castle, the household knight chosen would be able to carry his task competently. Finally, the formal connection that existed between the king and his household knights meant that such appointments were accompanied by an additional degree of royal oversight, or perhaps even royal authority. This was particularly valuable in relation to the royal embassies dispatched during this period. In this chapter, the extent to which Edward's household knights were utilised in the arenas of diplomacy and defensive warfare will be examined to complete the picture of the part they played in furthering the king's (often lofty) foreign ambitions.

International Diplomacy

Our current understanding of international diplomatic practice in the Middle Ages owes a great deal to Pierre Chaplais. Chaplais’ work, focussed principally on the mechanics of medieval diplomacy, elucidated the minutiae of how embassies, diplomatic correspondence, and the negotiation of treaties worked in practice from the Anglo-Saxon age to the fifteenth century. Given the extensiveness of Chaplais’ work, subsequent research in this field has been, until fairly recently, limited. The only other scholar to consider medieval diplomacy in any depth in the twentieth century was George Cuttino, a contemporary of Chaplais. Like Chaplais, Cuttino took the whole of the Middle Ages as his focus, limiting the attention he gave to the fourteenth century.