Professor Anne Curry

Professor Anne Curry

History
School of Humanities
University of Southampton
Southampton
S017 1BJ

Position: Head of the School of Humanities; Professor of Medieval History

Research interests

My research focuses on the Hundred Years War. This began with my BA dissertation on the treaty of Troyes, an amazing peace settlement of May 1420 which made Henry V heir to the throne of France. Had it proved longer lasting, we would have had a double monarchy of England and France, and the history of Europe could have been much different.

My MA was on Cheshire in the reigns of Henry IV and V. This might seem to be a move away from warfare, but I discovered that the Welsh war to put down Glendower's rebellion was partly funded from the revenues of the earldom of Chester, which was of course part of the lands of Henry V as prince. And the financial records I studied even gave the names of the Cheshire archers on the Agincourt campaign.

For my doctorate I studied the English occupation of Normandy between 1422 and 1450 from the military perspective. I was so lucky to find such a rewarding topic. The archival sources are extremely rich, and mainly located in France, so lots of good food too. I have also been able to investigate a wide range of aspects, such as the impact of war on the towns of Normandy, and the sexual activities of the English soldiers. I have even dabbled in the history of accountancy in examining how the English moved from English to French methods of financial administration.

I then began to look in more detail at the conquest of Normandy by Henry V, which brought me to Agincourt. Everyone knows about this because of Shakespeare, but I wanted to strip away the hyperbole of later centuries. This meant working through the mass of surviving financial records in The National Archives at Kew and in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris to reconstruct the sizes of the English and French armies.

My conclusions, to be found in Agincourt: A New History (2005, paperback 2006), are dramatic. The English were undoubtedly 'happy' but by no means 'few'. They had between 8,500 and 9,000 at the battle whilst the French had only a few thousand more at most. The chronicle accounts of the battle are what we would today call 'spin'.  I have analysed this in detail in my The Battle of Agincourt: Sources and Interpretations (2000), which also includes translations of all the key texts.

What now?

When studying for my PhD I began to collect the names of soldiers. They were on file cards in those days, but thanks to an award from the British Academy in 1988 I started to create a computer database. This proved extremely useful in preparing my entries for the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, and I was also able to supply information on military careers to the History of Parliament Trust, other fifteenth-century historians, and genealogists. But I had not collected the names of the archers because there were so many. My research student, Adrian Bell, was able to look at both men-at-arms as well as archers for his doctorate on the Armies of 1387 and 1388, and showed just how valuable a computer-based study could be. We won three-year research grant (2006-9) from the Arts and Humanities Research Council to investigate The Soldier in the Later Middle Ages, 1369-1453. The Research Assistants on the project were Dr Andy King, a specialist on the Anglo-French border wars, and Dr David Simpkin, who has worked on the armies of Edward I and Edward II. The project student, Adam Chapman, studied for a PhD on the contribution of the Welsh to 'English' armies.

Our aim was to create a database of all known soldiers, not simply those serving in France, and to use it to examine whether we could speak of professional soldiers in this period. There has been a tendency to say that this was something which began in the early modern period.

We have now completed the three years of the funding and are revolutionising the subject. We already have a searchable website and are adding more names all the time.

We have given many talks on the subject in the UK, USA and France. You will see some of our findings on the website (especially Soldier profiles). Other publications are now underway. There is also a strand of the Fifteenth Century conference to be held at the University of Southampton between 2 and 4 September 2010 devoted to the theme of England’s wars 1399-1500. 

And more

I have also been returning to my initial studies on the treaty of Troyes, and developing a new project on women and warfare in the middle ages. I am also continuing to publish on the English in Normandy 1415-50, and have been working on the battle of Bosworth in connection with the lottery funded project there.

You can watch there the podcast of the conference held in February 2010 concerning the recently discovered site of the battle. I gave a talk on the armies of Richard and Henry at the battle.

I forgot to mention that I was also one of the editors of the Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, being responsible for the 1422-53 section. You can buy the CD of this on Amazon, and it is now available on British History on-line (by subscription). I have also worked on the military experience of the Speakers of the Commons.

More on me

At Southampton I am Head of the School of Humanities. I am also chair of the University’s Graduate School Committee.

I am very active in the historical community. I am President of the Historical Association (2008-11), and was a Vice President of the Royal Historical Society between 2006 and 2009. I was a member of the RAE 2008 panel, and have also served on several AHRC panels.

 I am co-editor of the Cambridge History of Warfare and to 2009 also edited the Journal of Medieval History, a leading international academic journal.
I have given many academic papers in the UK, Europe, USA and Australia, and gave the Journal of Medieval Military History Lecture at Kalamazoo in 2008. I have also appeared on Radio and TV, and given many lectures to general audiences, including the anniversary lecture at Agincourt. I am always keen to receive invitations to speak.

Areas where I can offer postgraduate supervision

I am very keen to attract students interested in medieval military history, and especially on any aspect of the Hundred Years War. I can also supervise dissertations on late medieval English and French political history, the role of women, and in medieval English local history. I have supervised many students on topics as diverse as: English diplomats 1376-1422; technological change in warfare in the early fourteenth century; logistics under Edward I; the New Forest; Guildford Castle; markets in medieval Berkshire; Isabeau of Bavaria, queen of France; the study of arms and armour in the post-medieval period. My recent and current postgraduates are:

  • Adam Chapman - the Welsh Soldier (awarded PhD December 2009)
  • Randall Moffett - The Defences of Southampton (awarded PhD August 2009)
  • Lynda Pidgeon - The Woodville family
  • Drew Martinez (MRes) – Military ordinances (later middle ages and early modern)

Contact

Room: 1135
Tel:  (+44) 02380 595419
Email: a.e.curry@soton.ac.uk

Complete Publications list

Books

  • The Hundred Years War (London: Macmillan Press, 1993). 183 pp. Second edition (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2003). 168 pp.
  • The Battle of Agincourt. Sources and Interpretations (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2000). 480 pp.
  • Essential Histories. The Hundred Years War. (Botley: Osprey Books, 2002). 120 pp.
  • Agincourt. A New History (Stroud: Tempus Publishing, 2005). 319 pp. plus illustrations. (paperback edition, 2006, 357 pp.)
  • The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, vols X, XI and XII (1422-1453) (Woodbridge: Boydell Press 2005). 1410 pp.

Electronic Publications

Parliament Rolls of Medieval England on CD Rom (SD-Editions in association with Cambridge University Press, The National Archives and The History of Parliament Trust, 2005). I was responsible for the section from 1422 to 1453. (The whole edition is currently being revised and mounted on the web as a searchable on-line publication)

Edited works

  • Arms, Armies and Fortifications in the Hundred Years War, ed. A. Curry and M. Hughes (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1994). 211 pp.
  • England and Normandy in the Middle Ages, ed. D. Bates and A. Curry (London: Hambledon Press, 1994). 336 pp.
  • The Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies. Thirty Years of Medieval Studies at the University of Reading, 1965-95. A Celebration, ed. A. Curry (Reading, 1995). 99 pp.
  • Agincourt 1415. Henry V, Sir Thomas Erpingham and the Triumph of the English Archers, ed. A. Curry (Stroud: Tempus, 2000). 160 pp. (Reissued 2008 as Agincourt 1415. The Archer's Story).
  • Concepts and Patterns of Service in the Later Middle Ages, ed. A. Curry and E. Matthew (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2000). 185 pp.

Editing of academic journals

  • Reading Medieval Studies, vol. 12 (1986) to vol. 18 (1992).
  • Journal of Medieval History, 4 issues per annum from Jan. 2001, ongoing

Journal articles

  • 'Cheshire and the royal demesne, 1399-1422', Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, 128 (1978), pp. 113-35.
  • 'The court rolls of the lordship of Macclesfield, 1345-1485', Cheshire History, 12 (1983), pp. 5-10.
  • 'The impact of war and occupation on urban life in Normandy, 1417-1450', French History, 1, part 2 (1987), pp. 157-81.
  • 'Sex and the soldier in Lancastrian Normandy, 1415-50', Reading Medieval Studies, 14 (1988), pp. 17-45.
  • 'David Hugh Farmer: An appreciation', and 'David Hugh Farmer: A bibliography of published works', Reading Medieval Studies, 16 (1990), pp. 5-14.
  • 'The nationality of men-at-arms serving in English armies in Normandy and the 'pays de conquête', 1415-1450: a preliminary study', Reading Medieval Studies, 18 (1992), pp. 135-163.
  • 'Fifteenth-Century Historical Studies', Reading Medieval Studies, 23 (1997), pp. 135-52.
  • 'Medieval Warfare. England and her continental neighbours, eleventh to fourteenth centuries', Journal of Medieval History, 24 (1998), pp. 81-102.
  • 'Review Essay: "The End of the Middle Ages? England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries", ed. J. L. Watts', The Ricardian, 11 (1999), pp. 573-6.
  • 'Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. French responses to Agincourt', Proceedings of the Western Society for French History, vol 28 (University of Colorado Press, 2002), pp. 177-87.
  • 'A game of two halves. The parliaments of Henry VI, 1422-1454', Parliamentary History (2004), pp. 73-102.
  • 'After Agincourt, what next? Henry V and the campaign of 1416', The Fifteenth Century, vol. VII (2007), pp. 23-51.
  • 'The battle speeches of Henry V', Reading Medieval Studies, vol 34 (2008), pp. 77-97.
  • ‘Speakers at war in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries’,  Speakers and the Speakership, ed. P. Seward, Parliamentary History, vol. 29 part 1 (2010), pp. 8-21.
  • ‘Guns and Goddams: Was there a Military Revolution in Lancastrian Normandy 1415-50’, Journal of Medieval Military History, vol. VIII (2010). Awaiting proofs.

Chapters in books

  • 'The first English standing army? Military organization in Lancastrian Normandy, 1422-1450', in Patronage, Pedigree and Power in Later Medieval England, ed. C.D. Ross (Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1979), pp. 193-214.
  • 'L'effet de la libération d'Orléans sur l'armée anglaise: les problèmes de l'organisation militaire en Normandie de 1429 à 1435', in Jeanne d'Arc: une époque, un rayonnement, ed. R. Pernoud (Paris: CNRS, 1982), pp. 95-106.
  • 'Towns at war: Norman towns under English rule, 1417-1450', in Towns and Townspeople in the Fifteenth Century, ed. J.A.F. Thomson (Gloucester: Alan Sutton, 1988), pp. 148-72.
  • 'Le service féodal en Normandie pendant l'occupation anglaise, 1417-50', in La France anglaise au moyen age, ed. P. Contamine (Paris: CNRS, 1988), pp. 233-57.
  • 'The English army in the fifteenth century', in Arms, Armies and Fortifications in the Hundred Years War, ed. A. Curry and M. Hughes (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 1994), pp. 39-68.
  • 'Lancastrian Normandy: the Jewel in the Crown?', in England and Normandy in the Middle Ages, ed. D. Bates and A. Curry (London: Hambledon Press, 1994), pp. 235-52.
  • 'Thirty years of Medieval Studies at the University of Reading. A personal view', in The Graduate Centre for Medieval Studies. Thirty Years of Medieval Studies at the University of Reading, 1965-95. A Celebration, ed. A. Curry (Reading, 1995), pp. 1-7.
  • 'Les gens vivans sur le pays pendant l'occupation de Normandie, 1417-1450', in La guerre, la violence et les gens au moyen age. 1. Guerre et violence (Paris: CTHS, 1996), pp. 209-21.
  • 'L'administration financière de la Normandie anglaise: continuité ou changement', in La France des principautés. Les chambres des comptes xive et xve siècles (Paris: CHEF, 1996), pp. 83-103.
  • 'The organisation of field armies in Lancastrian Normandy', in Armies, Chivalry and Warfare in Medieval Britain and France, ed. M. Strickland (Stamford: Paul Watkins Press, 1998), pp. 207-31.
  • 'Domesday Berkshire' and 'The distribution of population and wealth in medieval Berkshire' in An Historical Atlas of Berkshire, ed. J. Dils (Berkshire Record Society, 1998), pp. 18-19, 26-27.
  • 'La Chambre des comptes de Normandie sous l'occupation anglaise, 1417-50 (textes et documents)', in Les Chambres des comptes en France aux xive et xve siècles (Paris: CHEF, 1998), pp. 91-125.
  • 'L'occupation anglaise du xve siècle: la discipline militaire et le problème des gens vivans sur le pais', La Normandie dans la Guerre de Cent Ans, 1346-1450, ed. J-Y. Marin (Milan and Paris: Skira-Seuil, 1999), pp. 47-9.
  • 'Isolated or integrated? The English soldier in Lancastrian Normandy', in Courts and Regions of Medieval Europe, ed. S. Rees Jones, R. Marks and A.J. Minnis (York Medieval Press, 2000), pp. 191-210.
  • 'Henry V: A life and reign' in Agincourt: 1415. Henry V, Sir Thomas Erpingham and the Triumph of the English Archers, ed. A. Curry (Stroud: Tempus, 2000), pp. 9-20.
  • 'Sir Thomas Erpingham. A life in arms', in Agincourt: 1415. Henry V, Sir Thomas Erpingham and the Triumph of the English Archers, ed. A. Curry (Stroud: Tempus, 2000), pp. 53-77.
  • 'Bourgeois et soldat dans la ville de Mantes pendant l'occupation anglaise de 1419 à 1449', Guerre, pouvoir et noblesse au moyen age, ed. J. Paviot and J. Verger (Paris: CTHS, 2000), pp. 175-84.
  • 'Richard II and the war with France', The Reign of Richard II, ed. G. Dodd (Stroud: Tempus Publishing, 2000), pp. 33-50.
  • 'War, peace and national identity in the Hundred Years War', in Thinking War, Peace and World Orders in European History, ed. A. Hartmann and B. Heuser (London: Routledge, 2001), pp. 141-53.
  • 'The loss of Lancastrian Normandy in 1450. An administrative nightmare?', in The English Experience in France, ed. D. Grummitt (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002), pp. 24-45.
  • 'Le traité de Troyes. Un triomphe pour les Anglais ou pour les Français?', Images de la Guerre de Cent Ans, ed. J. Maurice and D. Couty (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 2002), pp. 13-26.
  • 'The "coronation expedition" and Henry VI's court in France, 1430-32', in The Lancastrian Court, ed. J. Stratford (Stamford: Paul Watkins Press, 2003), pp. 30-54.
  • 'France and the Hundred Years War, 1337-1453', France in the Later Middle Ages, ed. D. Potter (The Short Oxford History of France) (OUP, 2003), pp. 90-116.
  • 'Harfleur et les Anglais, 1415-1422', La Normandie et l'Angleterre au moyen âge, ed. V. Gazeau (Paris: Publications du CRAHM, 2003), pp. 173-87.
  • 'Henry V's conquest of Normandy 1417-1419: the siege of Rouen in context', Guerra y Diplomacia en la Europa Occidental 1280-1480. XXXI Semana de Estudios Medievales. Estella 19-23 de julio 2004 (Pamplona: Gobernia de Navarra, 2005), pp. 237-54.
  • 'Personal links and the nature of the English war retinue: a case study of John Mowbray, earl marshal, and the campaign of 1415', Liens, reseaux et solidarités, ed. E. Anceau, V. Gazeau and F.J. Ruggiu (Paris: Publications de la Sorbonne, 2006), pp. 153-67.
  • 'Les villes normandes et l'occupation anglaise: l'importance du siège de Rouen', Les villes normandes au moyen âge, ed. P. Bouet et F. Neveux (Caen: Presse Universitaire de Caen, 2006), pp. 109-124.
  • 'Pour ou contre le roi d'Angleterre. La discipline militaire et la contestation de pouvoir en Normandie au quinzième siècle (1415-1422)', Images de la contestation du pouvoir dans le monde normand, ed. C. Bougy and S. Poirey (Caen: Presse Universitaire de Caen, 2007), pp. 147-62.
  • 'The military ordinances of Henry V: texts and contexts', War, Government and Aristocracy in the British Isles c 1150-1500, ed. C. Given-Wilson, A. Kettle and L. Scales (Woodbridge, 2008), pp. 214-49.
  • 'Two kingdoms, one king. The treaty of Troyes (1420) and the creation of a double monarchy of England and France', in The Contesting Kingdoms: France and England 1420-1700, ed. G. Richardson (Aldershot: Ashgate Press, 2008), pp. 23-41.
  • ‘Soldiers’ wives in the Hundred Years War’, Soldiers, Nobles and Gentlemen. Essays in honour of Maurice Keen, ed. P. Coss and C. Tyerman  (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2009), pp. 198-214.
  • Anne Curry, Adrian Bell, Adam Chapman, Andy King and David Simpkin, ‘Languages in the military profession in later medieval England’, The French of England in the later middle ages, ed. R. Ingham (Boydell Press, 2010), pp. 74-93.
  • ‘Les armées anglaises de la guerre de Cent Ans’, La France et la Grande Bretagne: un couple impossible, ed. J-Ph. Genet (CNRS, 2010). Awaiting proofs.
  • ‘Harfleur under English rule 1415-1422’, The Hundred Years War. A Wider Focus, vol. 3, ed. A. Villalon and D. Kagay (Brill, 2010-11). This is an extended version in English of the paper published in French in 2003. Awaiting proofs.
  • ‘ “And if in war many evil things are done, they never come from the nature of war but from false usage, as when a man-at-arms takes a woman and does her shame and injury or sets fire to a church.” The theory and practice of female immunity in the Medieval West’, Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones, ed. E. Heineman (Penn State Press, forthcoming). Accepted for publication.
  • ‘Les anglais face au procès’, Jeanne d’Arc: de l’hérétique au saint, ed. F. Neveux (Presse Universitaire de Caen, forthcoming). Accepted for publication.
  • ‘War or peace? Philippe de Mézières, Richard II and Anglo-French diplomacy’, Philippe de Mezières, ed. R. Blumefeld-Kosinski and K. Petkov (Brill, forthcoming). Accepted for publication.
  • ‘The Hundred Years War’, Strategy: from Alexander the Great to the Present, ed. C. S. Grey and J. A. Olsen (Oxford University Press, forthcoming). Commissioned paper; volume now out to review.

Internet publications

Other output

  • Eleven entries in the New Oxford Dictionary of National Biography on fifteenth-century chroniclers and soldiers. Group entry on 'Participants in the battle of Agincourt' (October 2008).
  • Entries in The Oxford Companion to British History, The Oxford Companion to Military History, Le Dictionnaire de moyen âge, The Penguin Atlas of British History.
  • 'Joan of Arc', The Great Commanders, ed. Andrew Roberts (Quercus Publishing, 2008), pp. 356-63.
  • ‘The battle of Agincourt’, BBC History Magazine, July 2005.
  • Section on England and France in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century, The Chronicles of Froissart (Exhibition at The Royal Armouries, and DVD, ed. P. Ainsworth (2007). Now on line.
  • Adrian R. Bell, Adam Chapman, Anne Curry, Andy King and David Simpkin, ‘What did you do in the Hundred Years War, Daddy? The Soldier in Later Medieval England’, The Historian: The Magazine of the Historical Association (Number 96, Winter 2007), pp. 6-13.
  • Quarterly President’s Column, The Historian: The Magazine of the Historical Association 2009-11.
Teaching responsibilities for Professor Anne Curry
Module title Module code Discipline Role
The Soldier in later medieval England HIST6057 History Course leader
Renaissances and Reformations CMRC6002 Medieval & Renaissance Culture Tutor

Publications from e–Prints Soton

Curry, Anne, Bell, Adrian, Chapman, Adam, King, Andy and Simpkin, David (2010) The Anglo-Norman Language and its Contexts. In, Ingham, Richard (ed.) Languages in the Military Profession in Later Medieval England. York, GB, York Medieval Press, 74-93.
Curry, Anne, Bell, Adrian, Simpkin , David and Chapman, Adam (2010) Languages in the military profession in later medieval England. In, Ingham, Richard (ed.) The Anglo-Norman Language and its Contexts. Woodbridge, GB, York Medieval, 74-93.
Curry, Anne (2010) Speakers at war in the late 14th and 15th centuries. Parliamentary History, 29, (1), 8-21. (doi:10.1111/j.1750-0206.2009.00127.x)
Curry, Anne (2009) Soldiers’ wives in the Hundred Years War. In, Coss, Peter and Tyerman, Christopher (eds.) Soldiers, Nobles and Gentlemen: Essays in Honour of Maurice Keen. Woodbridge, UK, Boydell Press, 198-214.
Curry, Anne (2008) Two kingdoms, one king: the Treaty of Troyes (1420) and the creation of a double monarchy of England and France. In, Richardson, Glenn (ed.) 'The Contending Kingdoms': France and England 1420–1700. Aldershot, UK, Ashgate, 23-42.
[file icon]Curry, Anne (2008) The military ordinances of Henry V: texts and contexts. In, Given-Wilson, Chris, Kettle, Ann and Scales, Len (eds.) War, Government and Aristocracy in the British Isles, c.1150-1500: Essays in Honour of Michael Prestwich. Woodbridge, UK, Boydell, 214-249.
Curry, Anne (2008) The battle speeches of Henry V. Reading Medieval Studies, XXXIV, 77-98.
[file icon]Curry, Anne (2007) After Agincourt, what next? Henry V and the campaign of 1416. In, Clark, Linda (ed.) Conflicts, Consequences and the Crown in the Late Middle Ages. Woodbridge, UK; Rochester, USA, Boydell, 23-52. (The Fifteenth Century VII).
Given-Wilson, C., Brand, P., Curry, A., Ormrod, W.M. and Phillips, J.R.S. (eds.) (2005) The parliament rolls of Medieval England, 1275-1504, Woodbridge, UK; London, UK, Boydell; National Archives, 9800pp.
Curry, Anne (2005) Agincourt: a new history, Stroud, UK, Tempus, 352pp.
[file icon]Curry, Anne (2005) Henry V’s conquest of Normandy 1417-19: the siege of Rouen in context. XXXI Semana de Estudios Medievales Estella 19-23 de Julio 2004, 237-254.
Curry, Anne (2005) The Parliament rolls of Medieval England 1275-1504. Henry VI 1422-31, Woodbridge, UK, Boydell & Brewer, 485pp.
Curry, Anne (2005) The Parliament rolls of Medieval England 1275-1504. Henry VI 1432-1445, Woodbridge, UK, Boydell & Brewer, 508pp.
Curry, Anne (2005) The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England 1275-1504. Henry VI 1447-1460. In, Given-Wilson, Chris (ed.) The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England 1275-1504. Woodbridge, UK, Boydell & Brewer, 1-325.
[file icon]Curry, Anne (2004) ‘A game of two halves': Parliament 1422-1454. (In special issue 10, Parchment and People: Parliament in the Middle Ages edited by Linda Clark). Parliamentary History, 23, (1), 73-102.
Curry, Anne (2003) The coronation expedition and Henry VI’s court in France 1430-32. In, Stratford, Jenny (ed.) The Lancastrian Court. Donington, UK, Shaun Tyas, 29-52.