English Armies during Glyndwr's rebellion

[HRE Joseph III]

So Ive lived in Wales for 7 years now, and I'm finally getting around to doing some Welsh wargaming with Owain Glyndwr's rebellion (using Lion Rampant).

My question is, what were the composition of English armies during the rebellion? There doesn't seem to be many sources for the period.

I know that English armies of the period were quite longbow heavy, but would there be fewer archers when fighting the Welsh? Its my understanding that quite a few longbowmen in English armies were from Wales.

Any sources or references would be welcome. Thanks in advance.

-Joe

[Arlequín]

I agree with Humakt, your force need only resemble what you're trying to represent; a mounted patrol is not going to be a proportional representation of the entirety of 'The Army' - it will just be a few men at arms and mounted archers. In like manner a wagon convoy is not going to be protected by men at arms, the PBI will get the job and probably those will be drawn from some leader's 'naughty list' of defaulters.

The historical bits since you asked for them though;

The Statute of Winchester of 1285 made it law that all free men holding land worth between £2-£5 in rent should own a bow; or crossbow if they lived in a forest. A Statute of Edward III (1363) 'The Archery Law' as it's commonly called, ordered practice butts to be erected and made it law for all free able-bodied men to practice on Sunday with their bows on pain of a fine. England was not short of archers, with or without the Welsh; there were actually more English Archers than there were Welsh Archers in raw numbers of population.

I can't think of any books off-hand for the revolt, my interests have always been much later in the 15th Century, but I imagine the English armies were little different to any of the Hundred Years War, with the exception that a 'Militia' was employed through commissions of array; a facet abandoned for continental wars for almost a century.

My take on the English is that;

The lords would have their professional retinues, of a rough proportion of one man at arms per two to three archers. 'Man at Arms' ranged from a minority of fully-armoured to a majority of part-armoured, men on horseback. The Archers would have had jacks as a minimum and were probably all mounted too. Any foot archers employed were likely manning the castle walls.

These forces would have been supplemented by a mixed bag of militia, who would also have formed the 'town militias'. Ostensibly the majority of these would be bowmen in accordance with the law, but probably also contained a fair number of men with other weapons (bills, glaives, spears) and a small minority of 'men at arms'. Their usefulness was debatable in a foreign war, but they were made of the same stuff as the majority of the Welsh rebels and were defending their homes too.

[westwaller]

There is an Osprey book on the 'Scottish & Welsh' wars.

[HRE Joseph III]

Thanks for the helpful answers guys. In that case I'm just going to build a good mixture of stuff.

Which is great, because those Perry Agincourt plastics are just awesome.

[twrchtrwyth]

Mortimer's army at Bryn Glas is said to have included all the militia from Hereford and his Welsh tenants from Maelienydd, archers, these are the ones that changed sides during the battle. So, mounted men-at-arms for Mortimer, foot yeomen and/or serfs for the militia and archers and/or bidowers for the tenants.

[Arlequín]

I'm inclined to think you could include 'Serjeants' within the militia. You would have a pyramid of population ranging from a few well-equipped men down to a mass of ill-equipped ones, so the more militia you raised the lower the average standard of equipment.  

While there would be the same pyramid of population in North Wales, I imagine it was broader at the base than that of the English (and because of the English), so fewer Serjeants - more Yeomen.

What little I know of the North Welsh suggests that the longbow was traditionally used as a close-range ambush weapon and that the majority weapon type was the spear. I would therefore actually allow Welsh longbow-armed Bidowers the same upgrade to 'Expert' as ordinary archers can have, for the same effect and points cost. Obviously these would replace any option for 'Archer' units.

In the South-West of Wales, you also have 'Little England beyond Wales', which would provide an Anglo-Flemish force to mess around with; arguably giving an option for pikemen.