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This chapter examines the process by which the settlement put in place in 1388-90 slowly came apart in the mid-1390s, as Richard II used his acknowledged status as king and man to reassert his authority. It examines how the king used his position to entertain the grievances of those dissatisfied with the existing balance of power, for example in Gascony and in the English localities. It considers how Richard was subsequently able to re-perform a series of rites of passage which had failed to establish his manhood in his teens, notably with his expedition to Ireland and with his second marriage, to Isabel of France. By 1397 the king had established his adult power on a reasonably secure basis; it only remained to be seen whether he would use his position to preserve the status quo, or to pursue manly revenge against those who had defied him in 1386-8.

This chapter locates the 1279–80 hundred rolls in the inquiring culture evident in many parts of 13th-century Europe. It examines Edward I's other English inquiries, most particularly those of 1274–5, and the legislation which followed them, and also the 1255 hundred roll inquiry of Henry III's reign. Tables give circuits and commissioners for the 1255 and 1274–5 inquiries together with a discussion of their articles of inquiry. Comparisons are drawn with Edward's other inquiries in Gascony, the Channel Islands, and Wales.

The chapter opens with discussion of how Edward I's stance on appeals affected the constitutional position of Scotland at the opening of Balliol's reign. Examination of appeals brought from Scotland to English courts at the time shows that few Scots from mainland Scotland had recourse to English justice. John Balliol, called before the King's Bench to explain his failure to do justice in one case, appealed to the terms of the 1290 Treaty of Birgham but to no avail. The deterioration of the English position in Gascony lessened tension for the Scots, who established a council to take over government from Balliol, refused to provide troops for Edward in Gascony and made a treaty with Philip IV of France 1295.

This chapter examines the geographical origins of Hundred Years War soldiers more systematically. First it examines whether military recruitment occurred across the whole of England and Wales, and whether particular areas provided a disproportionate number of soldiers; additionally, whether men from certain regions tended to serve in particular theatres. In the second part, the evidence of soldiers from outside England and Wales is investigated. These soldiers were recruits from other dominions of the crown, such as Ireland and Gascony, as well as local men recruited to serve within their own war theatres, such as in Brittany and Normandy, and soldiers who came from other parts of Europe. Can we detect a deliberate policy of ‘overseas’ recruitment to boost troops raised within England and Wales?

This chapter looks at the battle for Poitou and the battle for Gascony. On December 14, 1241, King Henry III summoned his magnates to London at the end of January ‘to discuss arduous affairs specially touching our state and that of our kingdom’. His aim was to explain a project to which he was already passionately committed, namely an expedition to Poitou to recover the province lost to the king of France back in 1224. Far more than in 1230, this project was to be Henry's own. There was no longer Hubert de Burgh beside him to guide policy and counsel caution. Nor was there any other mentor of the stature of Peter des Roches, William, bishop-elect of Valence, or the legate Otto. Success or failure would be Henry's alone.

This chapter describes how, before his departure from Gascony in the autumn of 1243, Henry III had worked hard to set the province to rights. He had toured the duchy, reconciled competing factions, maintained his rights, and bolstered the defences against external attack, or at least tried to do so. But, as a would-be conqueror of Gascony had once said, it was like trying to plough the seashore. For the next ten years, Henry was never free from Gascon worries. They led him in 1248 to place the duchy under Simon de Montfort and, when that ended in disaster, they forced him in 1253 to go there himself, despite being now pledged to go on crusade. Henry's concentration on Gascony and commitment to the crusade reflected the more general international situation, which left him with little else to do. There was no chance of attempting to recover the lost continental empire. Indeed, the ten years between Henry's two sojourns in Gascony in 1243 and 1253 saw a significant shift in the European balance of power towards the Capetian kings of France.

This chapter explores the Gascon expedition and the beginnings of the Sicilian affair. After the great parliament of May 1253, Henry III knew there was no escaping Gascony. His letters now spoke of ‘the war and great disturbance’ and the fear that Gascony, ‘unless it is quickly succoured, may soon be lost forever’. On May 25, Henry formally told the Gascons he was coming. By this time Henry was already assembling the ships for his passage. As for men, Henry called on his tenants-in-chief. Henry paid close attention to the government of England in his absence, placing the queen at the summit of his plans. But there was no Gascon victory, or not immediately. In December of 1254, Henry's own fear of a Castilian invasion reached a peak. In February of 1254, at the very time that he was agreeing the Castilian terms, Henry accepted a papal offer to put Edmund, his second son, on the throne of Sicily.

The conclusion draws together ideas from the book, suggesting a few key points. First, it draws attention to the cultural agency of ‘exemplars’, or what folklorists have sometimes called ‘star performers’. Singers and storytellers like Henri Vidal, Marie Bouzats, or Catherine Gentes are not just important because they were typical, but because they played leading roles in local cultures. The conclusion argues that such exemplars allow historians to perceive changing cultures of the body which cannot be reduced to the simple advent of a ‘modern’ body. The example of the moorlands of Gascony suggests broader patterns in the history of the body during the period of modernization.