Welsh Journals

reconstruction and re-appraisal has begun in fine fashion with a volume which will prove an indispensable aid to further study. ROGER TURVEY Ammanford THE WELSH WARS OF EDWARD I. By J. E. Morris [1901]. Alan Sutton, Stroud, 1996. Pp. xiv, 327. £ 39.50. This reprint of the pioneering work in the field of Edwardian army studies is to be warmly welcomed, despite its prohibitive price. J. E. Morris's book broke new ground when it was first published in 1901, for he was the first historian fully to realize the potential of the rich archival materials concerning English royal armies at the Public Record Office. Drawing on a wide range of records, most notably the largely unpublished (and still so) pay-rolls and related exchequer accounts, Morris traced the course of the Welsh wars of 1277, 1282-83, 1287 and 1294-95 and reconstructed the English armies which fought in them. As a coda to his book, Morris considered the armies with which Edward I conducted his Scottish and continental campaigns. Whilst, by and large, other late Victorian investigators of military matters relied heavily on chronicles or were content to be antiquarian collectors of information, Morris's approach was altogether more sophisticated. Displaying considerable percipience and technical skill, he pieced together the evidence yielded by the records and, correlating this with the narrative sources, offered a convincing, nuanced picture of English royal armies in action. In Morris's hands, the Edwardian army is a complex organism, difficult to mobilize and keep in the field in challenging campaigning conditions, its composition constantly shifting as a result of a variety of recruitment practices and campaign attrition, its performance influenced by, among other things, logistical considerations, the personalities of its captains and the effectiveness of naval support. Morris's references to the Boer War may have lost something of their contemporary resonance, yet the scholarship of his book and the insights that it offers retain much of their freshness. Moreover, whilst being a ground-breaking work of military history, Morris's book also explored the relationship between the king's campaigns and the political events and constitutional developments of the period; and, in offering a masterly lesson in how to interpret Edwardian military records, he was in effect providing a model for all scholars about to venture into what was at that time the largely uncharted waters of the public records. The