From Fields of Labour to Fields of War looks at life for the common soldier.
For the common man in the fifteenth century life was hard. For three days a week he farmed his master's land and for three more he farmed the land he rented. All this for scant reward; his crops gave just enough for him and his family with some small amount left over to trade. But worse than this; if his master called him to war he must go, risking his life in the quarrels of noblemen far removed from his own daily struggle.
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Villeins (derived from the Latin for 'worker at a rural villa') were the second lowest class of peasant; only slaves ranked below them. Another class of peasant, the 'Freeman' ranked above them. The word peasant was not used at the time and is a later addition to the language
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The law forbade villeins from owning any weapons. This meant that if they were to be armed for war it would be at the expense of their master. Many were given hooks or spikes to fight with but they had no training in how to use them
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Some had pieces of armour lent to them by their lords and many had pieces of their own which they had scavenged from the bodies of the fallen in earlier battles
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The law Servitium Debitum required that nobles should provide the king with men for a period of forty days. By the time of The Wars of the Roses, this length of time was no longer sufficient as warfare had changed since the law was written. Many men had to serve for longer periods, but they were paid for their service. With wars lasting longer and longer, they were becoming an expensive business
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Many men also had disfigurements and injuries such as missing eyes, ears or limbs; though these were rarer as most men who lost a limb soon died from lack of blood or infection
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In 1363 King Edward III declared, "... that every man in the same country, if he be able-bodied, shall make use... of bows and arrows... and so learn and practise archery." It was not only football that was banned. Also punishable by imprisonment were "handball, hockey, coursing and cockfighting..." and "other such idle games"
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At the top were the nobility who governed and fought for the nation; in the middle were the monks and the clergy who prayed for the nation; and at the bottom were the peasants who worked to feed the nation. It seems a little unfair that they were also expected to fight alongside the nobility whose task was meant to be fighting
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The Yorkist army was led by the 10-year-old Lambert Simnel, a pretender to the throne and the son of a tradesman. He bore a resemblance to the Royal Family of York and so the Yorkists pretended that he was Edward Plantagenet, the rightful king
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This was not always beneficial. At least on his lord's manor, he was guaranteed land to farm; in the city he had nothing. Unless he knew a trade, which very few peasants did, he was unlikely to find all but the most menial and low-paid work
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The new Tudor king issued tight controls on his barons. He took away their right to have armies and so their power dwindled. Future arguments between barons would be settled by the king himself
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