When the Cannons Fall Silent: Demobilisation and Re-assimilation in Mid-Fifteenth Century England

当枪声沉寂，士兵们回家后会发生什么？怎样才能使久经沙场和伤痕累累的个人重新融入和平的社会？纵观历史，这些问题一直困扰着社会。这项研究首次在中世纪晚期的英语语境中对这一现象进行了深入的探索。这具有社会和文化意义，并为现代世界继续面临的问题和挑战提供了重要的历史维度。在过去的三十年里，关于中世纪晚期战争的学术研究蓬勃发展，但这项工作的范围往往集中在有限数量的常规路径上：军队招募、军事技术、战场战略、军事精神和指挥官的背景（最近，Bell et al., 2013; Gribit, 2016; Madden, 2018）。几乎没有学术研究表明，当战争和可能成千上万的士兵返回他们的社区时发生了什么。现有学术的一个基本假设是，中世纪的士兵只能通过对其军事功能的审查来定义，并追溯他们的职业生涯。本文通过考虑战斗人员停止战斗时的生活和职业，挑战了这种先入之见。这个项目的重点是15世纪中期，特别是1440-1471年。这一时期见证了英法百年战争（1337-1453）的结束和玫瑰战争中最激烈的军事活动。因此，这项研究的一个重要内容将是在“国家”战争和“内战”的背景下对复员进行比较。“士兵”的定义可能是最广泛的，适用于从卑微的弓箭手到上尉和指挥官的整个社会阶层。关键的研究问题是：- 15世纪中叶的复员过程是如何被国王精心管理的？-退伍军人如何有效地融入当地社区？服兵役对退役军人的职业生涯和生活有什么影响？-如何看待战伤和伤残？这项研究的基础是中世纪士兵数据库，其中包含了百年战争中在英国军队服役的所有已知士兵的服役记录，总数超过10万人。进一步的集结记录将被用来识别玫瑰战争中的战斗人员。通过对入选人员的人类学分析，借鉴中央政府公开和未公开的档案（包括国家档案馆系列E101、C1、KB27和KB9），阐明退伍军人的职业道路。分析将考虑到任职、优待和奖励、婚姻和亲属关系、参与犯罪以及对严重受伤个人的看法等案件。历史学家早就注意到中世纪晚期社会的军事化性质，但很少有学者证明这一真理。这项研究将是第一次深入调查个人生活的军事和非军事方面的交集。它揭示了复员的社会和经济影响，并考虑了通过他们的经历，士兵是否代表了一个不同的品种，或者很容易被同化回“平民”生活。

What happens when the guns fall silent and the soldiers return home? How can battle-hardened and battle-scarred individuals be reintegrated into peaceful society? These questions have faced societies throughout history. This study offers the first in-depth exploration of this phenomenon in a late medieval English context. This has both social and cultural significance, and provides an important historicaldimension to issues and challenges which the modern world continues to face.In the past thirty years, scholarship on late medieval warfare has blossomed, but the scope of this work has tended to focus on a limited number of well-trodden paths: recruitment into armies, military technologies, battlefield strategies, martial ethos and the background of commanders (most recently, Bell et al., 2013; Gribit, 2016; Madden, 2018). Almost no scholarship exists on what happened when warsended and potentially thousands of soldiers returned to their communities. An assumption underlying existing scholarship is that medieval soldiers can only be defined, and their careers traced, by scrutiny of their military function: this thesis challenges that preconception by considering the lives and careers of fighting men when they stopped fighting.The focus of this project is the mid-fifteenth century, specifically the years 1440-1471. The period witnessed the end of the Hundred Years War between England and France (1337-1453) and the most intensive military activity of the Wars of the Roses. An important element in the study will therefore be a comparison of demobilisation in the context of a 'national' war, on the one hand, and a 'civil war', on the other. 'Soldier' is defined in the broadest terms possible and applies across the social scale from the humble archer to captains and commanders.Key research questions are:-How carefully managed by the crown was the process of demobilisation in the mid-fifteenth century?-How effectively did veterans assimilate in their local communities?-In what ways did military service impact on the careers and lives of ex-soldiers?-How were war wounds and disabilities viewed?The building block for the study is the Medieval Soldier Database, which contains the service records of all known men who served in English armies in the Hundred Years War, numbering over 100,000. Further muster records will be used to identify the combatants of the Wars of the Roses. Prosopographical analysis of selected individuals, drawing on the published and unpublished records of central government (including The National Archives series E101, C1, KB27 and KB9), will illuminate the career paths of the veterans. Analysis will consider cases of office-holding, favour and reward, marriage and kinship ties, involvement in crime, and the perception of seriously injured individuals. Historians have long noted the militarised nature of late medieval society, but few scholars have demonstrated this truism. This study will be the first in-depth investigation into the intersection of the military and non-military aspects of individual lives. It shines light on the social and economic impact of demobilisation, and it considers whether, through their experiences, soldiers represented a breed apart, or were easily assimilated back into 'civilian' life.