124 RENTS AND SERVICES
King.1 The rest had gone: some no doubt killed or taken away
wounded; some having served their time; but, for the most part,
these amateur soldiers had just faded away, and started on the
long trudge back to their more peaceful fields. From their seat
at the village ale-house we may well imagine them entertaining
their fellows with stories of their adventures: some of them,
perhaps like Langland's man,
With a look like a lion and lordly in speaking;
The boldest of beggars; a boaster who has nothing;
A teller of tales in towns and in taverns;
He says what he never saw and swears to his honesty;
He devises deeds that were done by no man,
Or is the witness of his well doing, and will say sometimes:
"Look! If you believe me not, or think I lie basely,
Ask him or ask him, and he can tell you
What I suffered and saw."2
During the fourteenth century things became worse for the
villein. Edward III made many and imperative demands for his
services, going so far, at times, as to ask for the mustering of all
able-bodied men between the ages of sixteen and sixty. How-
ever exaggerated we may estimate this to have been—a huge
demand in the hope of a moderate response—there can be
no doubt that the call for men must have affected every village
in England. As we have seen, the Statute of Winchester had
recognised the potentialities of a peasant force trained to arms,
and the next fifty years saw the peasantry of England becoming
more and more familiar with their weapons. The bowmen of
Cr6cy were the men who had trained on the village greens
throughout England, and side by side with them stood their
sturdy companions of field and plough, now, however, armed
with knife and cudgel.
It is at least doubtful whether these men were more willing
recruits than their brothers had been in the time of Edward I.
There are signs enough throughout the reign of Edward III that
1 Morris, op. cit. 301. Cf, the army at Berwick in 1298: " 16,000 foot on
Feb. 9th; relays brought the figure up to 21,500, but soon it dropped to
18,000 and to 15,000 again, and in March to 10,000 and 5,000." Dr Morris
calculates that in all 21,500 foot were engaged, "and though that high total
was maintained only for a few days, 18,000 on an average served for over a
month, and 10,000 for six weeks". Op. cit. 285-6,
2 Piers Plowman, B. xm, 302-10*