Merchant captains supplied England's professional fighting companies

Many nobles could not permanently retain large bodies of troops, so captains assembled paid companies that might include hundreds of archers and men-at-arms. These soldiers fought for contracts and profit, trained together, and could also serve abroad as mercenaries. Their preference for survival and tactical advantage contrasted with aristocratic ideals of honorable combat and helped produce an army willing to use every available trick. Their continued usefulness also made feeding, paying, and retaining them an operational priority rather than an afterthought.