All for the Want of a Warhorse: Horse Breeding and Royal Warfare in Thirteenth-Century England - Medievalists.net

"Behind every medieval army stood an enormous need for trained warhorses. Edward I's sweeping policies reveal how seriously medieval monarchs took the challenge of keeping their cavalry mounted. Shakespeare famously depicted King Richard III calling out on Bosworth Field: "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!" Richard found himself in difficulties because his destrier had been killed in the battle."

"But the same plaintive cry could be heard in the next generation from Henry VIII, the son of Henry VII, the victor at Bosworth Field. Henry VIII's officials had to scrounge the entire countryside of the kingdom during the spring of 1512 to obtain horses for his first campaign to France. By the end of Henry's reign, the stock of horses in the realm was running dangerously low, as animals taken for mounted combatants and for carrying supplies were lost in considerable numbers on campaign."

"In 1541 and 1542, the government issued requirements that landowners maintain horses in proportion to the size of their estates. The renewal of Henry VIII's campaigns in 1547 led to a reissuing of the royal commands for landowners to maintain horses. Two decades later, Queen Elizabeth again renewed her father's legislation on the keeping of horses, and, in face of the prospect of an invasion by Spain, established in 1580 "A Special Commission for the Increase and Breeding of Horses.""

Medieval English warfare created an immense demand for trained warhorses and prompted sustained royal intervention. Henry VIII faced severe shortages after campaigns and official scrounging of 1512, with horse stocks depleted by combat losses and disease. The crown banned exports in 1531 and repeatedly ordered landowners to breed and retain horses, issuing proportional requirements in 1541–1542 and renewed commands during later campaigns. By the 1540s England increasingly relied on continental allies for mounts. Two decades after Henry, Elizabeth renewed the legislation and established a 1580 commission to increase and breed horses amid invasion fears.

Read at Medievalists.net