What was the general size of an army in the medieval era?
During the Hundred Years War, the Quarter Master Muster Rolls for the army of Edward I for his invasion of France in 1346 total just over 48,000 men. However, this would include squires, pages,servants, waggoners, workmen, and general hangers on – anyone, in fact, on the official payroll of the army. The English rarely seem to have been able to put a force of more than 10,000 in the field for any given battle. A Roll of Heraldry for the 14th century states the total of those of armigerous families old enough to bear arms – in other words knights – in the kingdom at just over 7000. Given the usual English army ratio of 1 knight to 5 foot soldiers during the period, this would give a total of 42,000 fighting men available as a whole. France, with a much larger population (15 million to the 2 and a half million in England) could put much larger armies in the field; that at Agincourt (1415) totalled 30,000, and was lacking the Burgundian contingent, the Duke of Burgundy having concluded an