Roy has found records
indicating two PACES were active
in military conflicts in the 1300s
During the reign of King EDWARD III

FROM: http://www.icmacentre.ac.uk/soldier/database/search_musterdb.php
CLICK HERE=To go to that site

JOHN PACE

Researching John Pace's captain and commander I found that they were Devonshire men (the county, or shire, is just called DEVON in England). It is on the southern coast of England; the chief town is PLYMOUTH.

I found his captain, Benedict Botteshale, as a rich merchant who was designated as a collector of the 1377 Dartmouth poll tax, a tax implemented by Parliament to help pay for the war against France.

DARTMOUTH is a town in County Devon. I did not find his commander, Philip de Courtenay, but the Courtenay family, of French origin, became Earls of Devon, a title that remains to this day.

Therefore it is most likely that John Pace was a Devon man.

JOHN PACE was a man-at-arms.

The free dictionary http://www.thefreedictionary.com/man-at-arms defines a man at arms as "(Military) a soldier, esp a heavily armed mounted soldier in medieval times". To be mounted at that time meant a higher status than that of a normal foot soldier. The chart indicates that he was involved in a naval expedition in 1374. What was a mounted horseman doing in a naval expedition? Perhaps just en route to France to fight there.

In Wikipedia I read that in 1374 John of Gaunt reached Bordeaux, France. That is the only event I can find for that year, but it was not a naval expedition. John of Gaunt's exhausted army reached Bordeaux after marching through France, and they were beaten back and had to return to England. John Pace was a mounted horseman; was he at Bordeaux? I don't know how this squares with "Exped Naval." Maybe John Pace was one of the contingent that brought John of Gaunt back to England. We can only speculate.

WILLIAM PACE

There is even less to go on for WILLIAM PACE, but from general knowledge and other reading, I know that not just anyone could be an archer.

The English longbow
required a lot of strength and much skill. It was a better weapon than the muskets that colonists brought to Jamestown and remained so for some time after. Among other things, a group of archers could shoot a shower of arrows high in the air to rain down behind enemy lines, terrorizing the fighters there. The musket was only popular because it did not require strength or much training or skill. Almost anyone could fire a musket; not so a powerful English longbow.

WILLIAM may have been involved in any of the altercations of the years 1369-72.

In 1372 England was losing badly in France; perhaps he was killed there and that is why this year terminates his service.

The following events
that may have involved WILLIAM PACE
came from Wikipedia:

Wikipedia - TREATY of BRETIGNY

The TREATY of BRETIGNY in 1360
ceded huge areas of northern and western France to English sovereignty. Hostilities arose again in 1369 as English armies under the king's third son, JOHN of GAUNT, invaded France.

English military strength, weakened considerably AFTER THE PLAGUE, gradually lost so much ground that by 1375,

EDWARD agreed to the TREATY of BRUGES, leaving only the coastal towns of Calais, Bordeaux, and Bayonne in English hands.

Mercenary troops replaced feudal obligations as the means of gathering armies. So William Pace was probably paid for his services.

HOWEVER, an understanding of possible events of JOHN PACE and WILLIAM PACE's military careers might be better understood by looking at the Royalty of that and previous eras and conflicts involved.

In those days England and France shared close relationships between the Nobility and Royalty of both countries. This was often the source of common conflict and no doubt these PACE men were likely involved in the conflicts.

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