Lewis, N. B., 'The Last Medieval Summons of the English Feudal Levy, 13 June 1385', The English Historical Review 73 (1958), 1-26

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Quick Summary

King Richard II revived an outdated method of gathering an army as a way of reasserting royal authority following a vacuum of power

  • Richard II issued a summons to a general feudal levy on 4 and 13 June 1385
  • The traditional legal obligation to provide military service without pay was not upheld
  • The military expedition which followed the summons was the first to be led by Richard II
Key Conclusion

Lewis explores the decision taken by King Richard II and his advisors to issue writs (orders) for a summons to a general feudal levy on 4 and 13 June 1385. Lewis concludes that although the summons resulted in a muster of the feudal levy – a gathering attended by many lords and nobles – it is unlikely that any of these lords actually served in the king’s army through ‘gratuitous service’ (serving as a legal obligation rather than for pay) in the traditional way associated with the feudal levy. In fact, the army that mustered for Richard was of the same type as the other ‘normal contract armies’ that were typical of the fourteenth century (p. 9).

Content Overview

The summons to a general feudal levy in 1385 was the last known issue of this type of summons, and is significant because it marks an end to the system of military service that had supplied the main strength of the English armies since the Norman Conquest. However, Lewis argues that the feudal levy was also significant for having been summoned at all. A similar summons hadn’t been issued since 1327, and the method of gathering an army had long been superseded by ‘various forms of the general military obligation and by the use of paid contract troops’ (p. 1)

Further Findings

Lewis points out that the military expedition which followed the summons was the first to be led by the king himself. Richard II had reached the age of eighteen without having taken part in a military expedition, giving rise to the ‘popular impression that he was too indolent to exert himself on the country’ (p. 11). The feudal summons, therefore, may have been an attempt to reverse the decline of royal power that had resulted from the infirmity of Edward III in his later years, and the vacuum of power caused by Richard II’s own minority.

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