The 1544 campaign in France is unusual in that a first-hand account was written by a Welsh officer, Elis Gruffudd: The Enterprises of Paris and Boulogne, trans. M. B. Davies (Cairo, 1944). Leacon’s account of the ravaging of the French countryside is based on his account. Tudor warfare often involved the spoliation of the civilian population, but usually as a by-product of the military campaigns. In 1544, however, Henry VIII specifically ordered the terrorization of civilians both in France and, especially, Scotland.
The town of Rolfswood is fictitious, as is Hoyland Priory, although its former mother house, Wherwell Priory, was real. Many former monastic establishments were sold off in the 1530s and far more in the 1540s, as noted, to raise money for Henry’s war. Jeremy Hodgkinson’s The Wealden Iron Industry (Stroud, 2009) was very useful on the iron industry, as was the display at Lewes Museum in Sussex. The fireback which Shardlake sees in Liphook can be seen at Lewes Museum. Roger Ascham’s Toxophilus remains in print (Lightning Source, UK). On archery, Richard Wadge’s Arrowstorm: the World of the Archer in the Hundred Years War (Staplehurst, 2007) was especially useful, as were, for the Mary Rose, Ann Stirland’s The Men of the Mary Rose: Raising the Dead (Stroud, 2005) and David Childs’s The Warship Mary Rose (London, 2007). J. J. Goring’s The Military Obligations of the English People, 1511–1558 (Ph.D. thesis, 1955) was invaluable on the recruitment of early Tudor armies. For the Court of Wards I consulted H. E. Bell, An Introduction to the History and Records of the Court of Wards and Liveries (Cambridge, 1953) and J. Hurstfield, The Queen’s Wards (London, 1958).
Despite the wealth of works on Tudor history, no one has yet written a history of the war of 1544–6. Somebody should.