Adam Chapman

Institute of Historical Research, University of London, Victoria County History, Editor and Training Coordinator

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I am primarily a medieval historian whose interests include various aspects of later Medieval Wales between Edward I's conquest of Gwynedd to Bosworth and beyond. In addition, I am interested in the poets of fifteenth century Wales, their work and their social and political context. I am also interested in the whole gamut of British local history, the landscapes of Britain and senses of place from the Middle Ages to the ever-moving present.

In my current role with the Victoria County History of England, I am responsible for editing the famed 'Red Books', providing detailed, standardised records of -perhaps one day - each parish in England. This has provided me with working knowledge of many aspects of England's history from the eleventh century to the ever-moving present.

I am also interested in the digital humanities and through my work at the Institute of Historical Research, am involved directly with two important projects, British History Online (BHO) and the Bibliography of British and Irish History (BBIH), in collaboration with the Royal Historical Society.
Address: Victoria County History
Institute of Historical Research
University of London
Senate House
London WC1E 7HU

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Books by Adam Chapman

Welsh Soldiers in the Later Middle Ages, 1282-1422

Update: First review published with Reviews in History - http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/... more Update: First review published with Reviews in History - http://www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1898

Published in August 2015, this monograph discusses the various roles played by Welsh soldiers in England's armies from the Edwardian conquest of Wales in the 1280s to the death of Henry V in 1422. The first part of the book, a chronological survey, demonstrates the different ways in which Wales was used as a recruiting ground by successive kings of England and the ways in which attitudes to war beyond the borders of Wales were expressed in Welsh society. In addition, it examines the changes in Welsh society over this period and the ways in which these contributed to the rebellion led by Owain Glyndwr and the early effects of this upon the involvement of the Welsh in the conflicts of the fifteenth century. The second part of the book looks in more detail at the nature of military obligation as it existed in Wales and the March of Wales including survivals from the laws of Welsh rulers and new developments following the conquest. It goes on to look at how these mechanisms of obligation worked in practice and concludes with a study of what made Welsh soldiers distinct from their English contemporaries.

Drawing upon a vast range of archival and literary sources (in Welsh, French, Latin and English) this book shed new light on what it meant to be a soldier and how soldiers from particular part of the English realm shaped the capacity of English kings to wage war abroad and to combat challenges at home.

A History of the County of Somerset XI: Queen Camel and the Cadburys

by Adam Chapman and mary siraut

A comprehensive account of the ten parishes comprising the southern half of the Catsash hundred, ... more A comprehensive account of the ten parishes comprising the southern half of the Catsash hundred, an area rich in its archaeology and history, is presented here, in the authoritative detail which is the hallmark of the Victoria County History. To the north, the Barrows, of which Queen Camel, North Cadbury and Sparkford (home of the Haynes Motor Museum) are the largest and most populous, lying in an area rich in archaeology and history. To the south, prominent hills include Cadbury Hill, crowned by Cadbury Castle, an Iron Age hill fort dating from 600-400 BC. In South Cadbury and the surrounding parishes there is much evidence of prehistoric activity such as Bronze-Age finds. From a later period, the manor at Queen Camel is recorded in 1066, though decimated by fire in 1639 and subsequently rebuilt in local Blue Lias stone; and the sites of abandoned medieval homesteads are visible at Sparkford, Weston Bampfylde, Sutton Montis and Maperton. Later still, Compton Castle in Compton Pauncefoot was constructed in 1821 while North Cadbury's medieval manor house still survives today. Edited by Mary Siraut, with contributions from Matthew Bristow and Adam Chapman.

Papers by Adam Chapman

Languages in the Military Profession in Later Medieval England

Boydell and Brewer eBooks, Mar 18, 2010

Languages in the Military Profession in Later Medieval England often been suggested that language... more

The soldier experience in the fourteenth century

The "long" fourteenth century saw England fighting wars on a number of diverse fronts -... more The "long" fourteenth century saw England fighting wars on a number of diverse fronts - not just abroad, in the Hundred Years War, but closer to home. But while tactics, battles, and logistics have been frequently discussed, the actual experience of being a soldier has been less often studied. Via a careful re-evaluation of original sources, and the use of innovative methodological techniques such as statistical analysis and the use of relational databases, the essays here bring new insights to bear on soldiers, both as individuals and as groups. Topics addressed include military service and the dynamics of recruitment; the social composition of the armies; the question of whether soldiers saw their role as a "profession"; and the experience of prisoners of war. Contributors: Andrew Ayton, David Simpkin, Andrew Spencer, David Bachrach, Iain MacInnes, Adam Chapman, Michael Jones, Guilhem Pepin, Remy Ambuhl, Adrian R. Bell

The soldier in later Medieval England : an online database

'The posthumous knighting of Dafydd Gam', Journal of Medieval History 43:1 (2017)

The Welsh esquire, Dafydd Gam, was one of the few casualties named in contemporary English accoun... more The Welsh esquire, Dafydd Gam, was one of the few casualties named in contemporary English accounts of the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. In these sources, his status as an esquire was not contested and these sources informed William Shakespeare, who included his name among the dead in his play Henry V (1599). Later antiquarians and modern traditions consistently refer to Dafydd as Sir Dafydd Gam and state that he was knighted as he lay dying on the battlefield. The article argues that the tradition that Dafydd Gam was knighted before or after the battle is erroneous, and that its origins lie not in the legends associated with Agincourt but in the political concerns of Dafydd’s descendants, principally his grandson, William Herbert (d. 1469), in asserting his ancestry and status in the political struggles in England in the 1450s and 1460s.

Post-War Planning: A Medieval Historian's Perspective

As a medieval historian, documentary sources for the 20th century are unfamiliar and fundamentall... more As a medieval historian, documentary sources for the 20th century are unfamiliar and fundamentally different, being generally easily legible, written in English, and often typewritten. That said, for a medievalist, what a document was designed to do is fundamental to understanding what a document contains and the way in which that information is presented.

'Welsh Archers at Agincourt: myth and reality', The Historian, The magazine of the Historical Association, 127, Autumn 2015

This article debates the evidence for a Welsh presence among Henry V's highly-successful force of... more

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'A Call to Arms, the recruitment of Henry's army' Medieval Warfare, 2015 Special Edition - 1415: The Battle of Agincourt

This piece describes the recruitment of Henry V's army in 1415 for a special edition of the popul... more

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'He took me to the Duke of York' - Henry Griffith, 'a man of war'

Ann Parry Owen, Barry Lewis and Dylan Foster Evans (eds) Gwalch Cywyddau Gwŷr: Ysgrifau ar Guto’r Glyn a Chymru’r Bymthegfed Ganrif/Essays on Guto'r Glyn and Fifteenth century Wales, Dec 21, 2013

The rise of the native gentry in Wales in the later medieval period has been described as ‘a phen... more The rise of the native gentry in Wales in the later medieval period has been described as ‘a phenomenon of outstanding importance’. The origins of several of the gentry families of northern and southern Wales have been examined in some detail. The Tudurs of Penmynydd, Anglesey, the Perrots and their circle in Pembrokeshire and, notably, the house of Dinefwr, Carmarthenshire, have received their due, but there are still a great many families, lesser in reputation but nonetheless successful, whose stories are far from fully explored. The Parry family of Herefordshire is best known to sixteenth-century historians for producing Blanche Parry, one of Elizabeth I’s gentlewomen whose extravagant memorial, depicting both the queen and Blanche, survives in Bacton Church, Herefordshire. This paper is concerned with the life and career of Henry Griffith, an esquire of Richard, Duke of York, a soldier in France, where he commanded the Ordnance Company and in the Wars of the Roses where he was among William Herbert, earl of Pembroke's circle. It brings together Henry's life and career as a soldier and disturber of the peace through official records surviving in England and France and in the Welsh poetry devoted to him and is essay in a volume devoted to the works of the poet Guto'r Glyn and the society in which he worked in fifteenth century Wales.