The processes by which the Welsh went to war in the later Middle Ages were, necessarily, a reflection of the wider society of the shires and March of Wales. In general, for the English Crown and for English lords, the benefit of their Welsh estates was overwhelmingly financial; studies of Marcher estates in the fourteenth century have frequently commented upon the ways in which lords extracted increasing revenues from their property as well as the ways in which they protected and furthered their interests at the expense of their tenants. The military foundations of these estates went some way towards providing a foundation for the authority of the Marcher lords. Most claimed their authority by usurping the native princes and relied upon their Welsh tenants to support their interests against those of the surviving Welsh rulers in the thirteenth century. The completion of the conquest of Pura Wallia did nothing to undermine this. Going to war remained a key obligation of Welsh tenants to their English lords just as it had to their Welsh princes. This chapter follows on from the last in considering the practicalities of raising troops for the shires and liberties of Wales and how these related to the theory of obligation. It examines the ways in which Welsh soldiers came to be included in English armies, the process of selection and the ways in which Marcher lords responded to the impositions of the Crown and the exigencies of England's wars. Since, with the exception of rebellions against English rule, these wars were conducted far from Wales, this chapter also examines the ways by which soldiers from Wales went to English armies and the measures taken to ensure their integration.

Recruitment: The Welsh and Scottish Wars

It is in the recruitment of English royal armies that military reality overtakes the theory of obligation. As we have seen, there were numerous survivals of milita obligations in royal shires and Marcher liberties. It is all but impossible to establish how these were reflected in the general processes of military recruitment with precision. The abandonment of feudal service and the rise of paid infantry in the reign of Edward I was noted by Morris at the beginning of the twentieth century.