Family Lessons 113: Commissioner of Array

My 21x great-grandfather, William de Walton, was appointed one of the King’s Commissioners of Array back in 1315. Supervising ‘the assize of arms and array’ for the county of Lancaster, he was responsible for ensuring that Lancastrian men were provided for the king’s wars, and were suitably equipped. According to J.E. Morris in The Welsh Wars of Edward I (1901), these commissioners were gentlemen who had military experience, and assumed local authority over soldiery that had once belonged to the sheriffs prior to 1282. William was presumably appointed because he had gained some useful tactical experience in previous conflicts. He was born around 1285, so I would suggest that any martial skill was honed after the year 1300. It is therefore likely that he participated in the First War of Scottish Independence and the humiliating Battle of Bannockburn in 1314. Alternatively, he may have seen service in the Anglo-French War (1294–1303). So whether he cut his teeth with the Scots or the French, we cannot tell. Neither war went terribly well for the English; simply exiting the battlefield alive and uncaptured may have been enough to warrant William’s subsequent appointment as Supervisor of the Array. In 1315, the Scots King Robert the Bruce sent his brother Edward to campaign in Ireland against English interests. As Lancashire bordered the Irish sea and William’s lands were in Liverpool, he was the natural choice, and was likely present at the Battle of Kells, which he again managed to survive.

William de Walton was a mid-ranking individual of the high middle ages; a knight and a gentleman, rather than a great lord or powerful magnate. He was to prove useful to Kings Edward I and II, both as a soldier and recruiter/organiser/local commander. If I am right, and he gained his military experience in the French and Scottish wars, he would have seen gory and grizzly sights, and doubtless came close to losing his own life and limb. Our own battles, if we survive them, can make us stronger. The Christian is often pictured as a soldier in the Bible, yet how often do Christ’s soldiers complain about cuts and scrapes? How many of us cry while having seen the least fighting? The greater the knockings and bruisings, the better qualified we are to lead and support others.

Here afterward, brethren, be ye comforted in the Lord, and in the might of his virtue. Clothe you with the armour of God, that ye be able to stand against the ambushings or assailings, of the devil. For why striving is not to us against flesh and blood, but against princes and potentates, against governors of the world of these darknesses, against spiritual things of wickedness, in heavenly things. Therefore take ye the armour of God, that ye be able to against-stand in the evil day; and in all things stand perfect.

Ephesians 6:10-13, Wycliffe's Bible