Some time ago I came across a 1512 reference to ‘coats’ being issued to soldiers and officers of the fleet, and ‘jackets’ being issued to mariners and gunners. My intention with the current project is to assemble the kit to portray a soldier from the fleet in 1513, but as a future project it might be fun to augment the kit so that I can also portray a mariner. I’m quite interested, therefore, in the differences between these coats and jackets, so I followed up the reference to one of its two original sources, and found some other interesting collateral information in the process. I’ll come on to jackets in Part 2, but first, here’s the text of the document in question:
Indenture between Henry VIII. and Sir Edward Howard, witnessing that the said Admiral shall command the fleet now ready for sea with 3,000 men of war, over and above the 700 soldiers, mariners, and gunners in The Regent. His wages to be 10s., and every captain's, 1s. 6d. per diem; every soldier's, mariner's, and gunner's, 5s. per month wages, and 5s. per month victuals. Coats of every captain and soldier 4s., of every mariner and gunner 20d. Is to return at the end of three months to Southampton to revictual. His fleet to consist of 18 ships (portage and deadshares of each given); sc. The Regent of 1,000 tons, The Mary Rose of 500 tons, The Peter Pomegranet of 400, John Hopton's ship 400, The Nicholas Reede 400, The Mary John 240, The Anne of Greenwich, 160, The Mary George 300, The Dragon 100, The Lyon 120, The Barbara 140, The George of Falmouth 140, The Peter of Fowey 120, The Nicholas of Hampton ten score tons, The Martenet 9 score tons, The Genet 70 tons, The Christopher Davy 160 tons, The Sabyen 120. To have 2 crayers for revictualling. Conduct money for soldiers, &c., to be 6d. per day, from their homes to the place of shipment, accounting 12 miles for a day's journey. Half the prizes, &c., to be reserved for the King. Dated 8 April 3 Hen. VIII. (Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, Henry VIII, Volume 1: 1509-1514, item. 3,117)
The first thing that I found interesting about this was that soldiers were paid 5 shillings per month. When recreating a character I like to have a rough idea of how much they earned, so that’s a nice find for me. But what really struck me is that apart from the ship’s captain there appears to be no distinction in the wages of any other officers or petty officers. However, a later document in the same volume is also of interest:
The Trinyte Sovereigne.—To Sir Thomas Wyndham, vice-admiral, 10s. a day; Sir Arthur Plantagenet, captain, 18d. a day; 299 soldiers, 260 mariners and 40 gunners, at 5s. a man per month; 37½ "dedshares" at 5s. each; rewards to the master gunner, 5s. a month, his mate and 4 quartermasters 2s. 6d. a month, and 34 other gunners, 20d. a piece; two clerks to the admiral at 8d. a day. Total, 178l. 14s.
The ‘dedshares’, or dead shares, were a form of accounting fiction which involved an increase in the number of men to be paid wages, the excess money being divided up to provide extra sums for officers. In this case the extra money is paid to the master gunner and his subordinates. This second document also shows, for what it’s worth, that soldiers’ wages were the same in 1514 as they were in 1512 – it’s a safe assumption that they were 5 shillings a month in 1513.
One final thought on the indenture. Soldiers were to be paid 6d per day ‘conduct money’, that is, a kind of travelling expenses payment intended to be spent on food and lodging while the troops made their way from wherever they were recruited to their port of embarkation. The same soldiers could be fed and housed in their ships for only 5 shillings per month. It’s also very interesting to note that they were only expected to travel twelve miles per day. Presumably this was not a forced marching pace, but even so, it still seems a fairly small distance. Modern army marching speed is reckoned to be 4 miles per hour, so even at a strolling speed of 3mph twelve miles ought to be doable in four hours. Factoring in some time spent resting, eating, and getting lost, plus dealing with poor quality roads, twelve miles per day is still fairly easy going. A bit more research reveals, however, that Howard’s contingent from the fleet landed at Newcastle, marched 60 odd miles North to Flodden, fought the battle, and returned to their ships at Newcastle in the space of sixteen days, so perhaps twelve miles per day is about right.
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