Researchers at the University of Reading and University of Southampton have developed an online database of just under 90,000 service records for soldiers active toward the latter phases of the Hundred Years War (1369-1453). It’s available at http://www.icmacentre.ac.uk/soldier/database/search.php. As you might imagine this database is proving fairly popular, so it’s running a bit slowly at the moment.

There’s only one search form but you can search for a variety of data types, including surname, rank, commander, year, and activity. I did a surname search for Archer and got 59 results. Results are provided in a table that includes full name, rank, commander, year, and nature of activity. (I suppose you should be able to sort by any of the data columns but I got an error every time I tried.)

There are references in each listing but I can’t find a key to what the references are for. (This is a pilot database so I’m sure it’s not complete.) It seems like some soliders are listed multiple times for different activities, ranks, etc.

Some folks have understood this database way better than I’ve managed to; the site has a selection of soldier profiles. These biographies use information from the soldier database and elsewhere to provide biographical information on a number of different soldiers, from archers to knights to Barons. These make for interesting if somewhat academic reading.

Bear in mind this information is from the 14th century, so beginning genealogists are not going to have a lot of luck here unless some cousin or ancestor has done a lot of spadework. On the other hand, if you’re interested in English or military history, you’ll find this database very interesting just as a historical document.