Commissioner of Array

A commission of array was a commission given by English sovereigns to officers or gentry in a given territory to muster and array the inhabitants and to see them in a condition for war, or to put soldiers of a country in a condition for military service. The term arrayers is used in some ancient English statutes, for an officer who had a commission of array.

Commissions of array developed from the ancient obligation of all free men to defend their tribal lands. Commissioners were usually experienced soldiers, appointed by the crown to array able bodied men from each shire. By the time of the Wars of the Roses, conscript levies were less important than troops raised by indenture.

A Commission of Array was established in October 1403 by King Henry IV by letters patent to raise an army to resist the Welsh rebellion of Owen Glendower, who had recently captured Newport Castle. The commission issued by the king at Gloucester on 7 October 1403 to leading members of the local gentry was as follows:

Commission to Maurice Russell, Gilbert Dynys, John Rolves and John Harsefelde to assemble all the able fencible men, footmen and horsemen, of the hundreds of Barton Regis by Bristol, Hembury, Pokelchurche, Thornbury, Grymboldesasshe, Berkeley and Whiston and bring them sufficiently armed to the town of Chepstowe by Thursday next at the latest to go with the King or his lieutenant to Wales to resist the rebels bringing with them victuals for 4 days and to take horses from those who have them who cannot labour and deliver them to those who can labour but lack horses. By K.

On October 27, 1473 Commission to John Arundell, knight, John Colshyll, knight, Robert Willoughby, knight, John Crocker, knight, John Fortescue, Henry Bodrugan, John Sturgeon, Thomas Whalisburgh, John Trenowith, Thomas Trefrye, John Arundell, John Tremayne, John Carmynowe Richard Eggecombe, John Devyok, Oliver Wyse, Edward Assheton, John Pentyre, John Moyle, William TreTenoar, John Penpons, John Wydeslade the younger and William Horde to array the king's lieges of the county of Cornwall, and of other counties adjacent if necessary, to conquer John, late earl of Oxford, and. other rebels who have entered St. Michael's Mount, CO. Cornwall, and to bring back the mount into the king's hands and provide for its safe-custody and defence.

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