Military Organisation

Abstract

Post-Conquest Anglo-Norman society was a society organised for war. In this it was, of course, typical of its age. Though we cannot talk of a ‘war economy’ in the eleventh century, the Anglo-Norman kings spent at least as much of the country’s resources on war and preparation for war as any modern totalitarian regime.¹ The bulk of royal taxation was employed for military purposes; the agents of royal government were first and foremost military men; land tenure was determined by royal and aristocratic need for armed forces. Yet how this society was organised remains the most vexed matter of all. How far did the Norman colonists depend on Anglo-Saxon practice? How far were they innovatory? How much did the mounted knights contribute to the armed strength of Anglo-Norman England, and when and how was knight service introduced? These are weighty questions. Their hypothetical solutions owe much to the prejudices—including those of race and politics—of contemporary historians; just as they have since the seventeenth century.