England’s Enemies? Framing Feelings about Foreigners and Mercenaries in High Medieval War Narratives

Abstract

This article investigates the limits of the English image of the foreign mercenary as enemy and external other by examining how contemporary chroniclers framed relationships between foreign fighters and their English employers or captors. Centring on accounts of Flemish mercenaries in the Battle of Fornham (1173) during England’s domestic war, and on speculative and hypothetical writing about mercenaries’ fates, it examines Jordan Fantosme, Roger of Howden, Jocelin of Brakelond, and Gerald of Wales as Christian writers working in England, and reporting on war and its consequences. It argues that stereotypes of foreign mercenaries came under scrutiny when writers considered power imbalances in mercenaries’ relationships, and reflected on shared experiences of war. Although support for the English nation found value in the idea of victory over a foreign enemy, a sense of national integrity did not require it: ideas of regret, mercy, and common humanity were equally compelling in understanding people from the external world.