Thom Richardson FSA is former Deputy Master, now Curator Emeritus, at the Royal Armouries. He holds a PhD from the University of York and is the former editor of both the Journal of the Arms and Armour Society and Arms & Armour. He has authored numerous books and articles on armour and related subjects.
Based on a remarkable series of financial records, painstakingly
analysed by one of the world's leading experts on arms and armour,
this book is a brilliant assessment of how the English crown
prepared for and responded to the demands of warfare. Dr Richardson
does his predecessors as keepers of the Tower armouries proud: his
conclusions will transform our understanding of the 'English way of
war'.
*Professor Anne Curry*
Thom Richardson brings to light the largest collection of written
sources available to arms and armour scholars and enthusiasts. His
work on the Privy Wardrobe records held in the Tower of London
arsenal establishes new dates for introduction of plate armour, the
end of the Great Helm and the proliferation of the longbow - even
clarifying how many arrows were carried into battle by individual
archers. In short, this book answers century-old questions on
fourteenth-century military history; how much easier my own
research would have been if this had been available 35 years
ago!
*Professor Kelly deVries*
Thom Richardson writes as the latter-day successor to the clerks of
the Privy Wardrobe who were in charge of the armoury at the Tower
of London in the fourteenth and early fifteenth century. In this
study of their surviving accounts, Richardson's knowledge of the
arms and armour of the period enables him to identify the exact
pieces described in their accounts and to relate them to surviving
examples, in itself an important achievement. This will be an
essential source for anyone interested in the weaponry of the
period and the changes in its manufacture and technology.
*Richard Barber*
An outstanding work on the topic … essential reading for all
medieval military historians.
*Dr Dan Spencer*
This book will be essential for any scholar studying the arms,
armor, and military administration of England during the fourteenth
and early fifteenth century.
*Professor David S. Bachrach*
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