Writing army lists for the Wars of the Roses

[Dave Knight]

I think it also depends on the definition of men at arms.  I automatically think of guys in a fair bit of mainly plate armour.  Could that definition be stretched to include some of better armoured Billmen?

[Jim Webster]

From memory the muster rolls from Cumberland and Westmoreland show a lot of spearmen (admittedly a little later than this).
My suspicion (note how I swerved round using the word 'guess') is that the 'non-bow' formed up together as 'bills'.

[Erpingham]

From memory the muster rolls from Cumberland and Westmoreland show a lot of spearmen (admittedly a little later than this).
My suspicion (note how I swerved round using the word 'guess') is that the 'non-bow' formed up together as 'bills'.

This research also showed the strange case of districts who were all spears and all bills, if I recall. suggesting either local tendencies or, more likely, lazy record keeping.  If we look at musters from various places in 15th century, there are plenty of men with "staves" rather than bills.  In this case, a staff is probably a spear, so mixed units of bills and spears among militia might be quite common. Long spears appear in Welsh 16th century musters, as do clubs, so they might exist in slightly different proportions there.  I noted while reading this week that Rhys ap Thomas was commissioned to raise 200 long spearmen in Wales to fight in Brittany in 1488, so the evidence certainly creeps backwards towrds the WOTR.