...custodiebat. ' Military They saw something very like military tenure. No matter with which we have to deal is darker than the constitution of the English army on...clear that, as a matter of fact, 'the host' was no longer 'the nation in arms.' The common folk of a shire could hardly be got to fight outside their...

...a century ago FW Maitland cautiously remarked that in all Saxon history there was 'no matter . . . darker than the constitution of the English army on the eve of its defeat'.1 His caution has not won universal imitation. Where Maitland was hesitant, other historians...