Use this medieval army cost calculator to estimate the silver, provisions, and wages required to field a feudal army — based on historical 13th–14th century English pay records.
| Unit Type | Count | Daily (pence) | Total Cost (shillings) |
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| Item | Qty | Unit Cost (shillings) | Total (shillings) |
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Select your campaign duration using the slider or text field, then choose an era to apply the correct historical pay scales. Enter the number of each troop type — from elite knights to common spearmen — and add any siege equipment or supply wagons. Click "Calculate Army Cost" to instantly see total silver expenditure in pence, shillings, and pounds, plus a per-category breakdown.
Results are presented in period-accurate English medieval currency: 12 pence = 1 shilling, 20 shillings = 1 pound (240 pence = 1 pound). A modern purchasing-power equivalent is also shown.
Medieval feudal armies were expensive undertakings financed through a complex mix of feudal obligation, mercenary hire, and royal taxation. England's Exchequer Rolls and the Pipe Rolls record wages with remarkable precision: a knight banneret in Edward I's Welsh campaigns (1277–1295) earned 4 shillings per day, a knight 2s, a mounted sergeant 12d, a crossbowman 4d, and a foot archer 3d. These rates rose sharply after the Black Death (1348–50) as labour scarcity drove wages up by roughly 30–50%. Provisioning — food, fodder, wine, and arrows — added a further 40–60% on top of wages depending on how well a campaign was supplied; this calculator uses a fixed 40% baseline, the lower and better-documented end of that range for well-organised English campaigns. A fully equipped destrier (war horse) could cost £40–£80 — equivalent to a knight's annual wage.
Understanding medieval military costs reveals why kings so frequently ran out of money, why campaigns ended prematurely, and why taxation was such a politically charged issue. The Hundred Years' War (1337–1453) placed severe strain on several Italian banking houses — including the Bardi and Peruzzi — who had lent Edward III vast sums. At its peak, England was spending tens of thousands of pounds per year on continental warfare, requiring parliaments to grant unprecedented tax levies.
For wargamers, historians, novelists, and students, this calculator bridges the gap between abstract troop numbers and the concrete economic reality of medieval warfare — answering questions like: how long could a typical baron sustain 200 men in the field? (Answer: rarely more than 40 days without royal subsidy.) What did a major Edwardian campaign actually cost in modern terms? These numbers transform statistics into stories.
Wages are drawn from documented English royal army pay scales, primarily from the reign of Edward I (1272–1307) for the High Medieval scale, adjusted ±25–40% for early and late medieval periods respectively. For each troop type:
Total Wages (pence) = Daily Rate (pence) × Number of Troops × Campaign Days
To convert pence to shillings, divide by 12. To convert shillings to pounds, divide by 20 (equivalently, divide pence by 240 to get pounds directly).
Provisioning is calculated at a fixed 40% of total troop wages (the conservative end of the historically attested 40–60% range, based on Prestwich's research on well-supplied Edwardian armies). Siege engine construction costs use lump-sum figures derived from surviving English and French accounts — a trebuchet cost approximately £100 (2,000 shillings) to construct, while a mangonel ran roughly £20 (400 shillings). These siege-engine lump sums are treated as historically fixed and do not scale with the era multiplier, unlike wages, which rise or fall with the chosen era. Supply and transport wagons, by contrast, are costed as a daily hire rate (6d per wagon per day) and do scale with era, since wagon-hire prices moved with general wage inflation just like a soldier's pay. The modern equivalent uses a purchasing-power multiplier of approximately £1 medieval = £1,000 modern (based on Oxford University historical price estimates).
Take the calculator's own defaults: a 40-day High Medieval (mid-era, multiplier ×1.0) campaign with 50 knights (24d/day), 150 mounted sergeants (12d/day), 300 men-at-arms (4d/day), 200 crossbowmen (4d/day), 400 longbowmen (3d/day), 500 spearmen (2d/day), 30 engineers (6d/day), and 10 surgeons (12d/day).
Knights: 50 × 24d × 40 days = 48,000 pence ÷ 12 = 4,000 shillings. Sergeants: 150 × 12d × 40 days = 72,000 pence ÷ 12 = 6,000 shillings. Spearmen: 500 × 2d × 40 days = 40,000 pence ÷ 12 = 3,333.3 shillings. (Remember: divide pence by 12 for shillings — dividing by 240 instead gives pounds, a common mix-up.)
Summed across all eight troop types, total troop wages come to exactly 25,000 shillings (£1,250 medieval). Provisioning adds 40% on top: 10,000 shillings (£500). Separately, siege equipment — 2 trebuchets at a fixed 2,000s each, 4 mangonels at 400s each, and 1 battering ram at 120s — totals 5,720 shillings; these lump-sum construction costs don't change with era, unlike daily wages. Add 80 wagons hired at 6d/day for 40 days (1,600 shillings, which does scale with era like wages), and the full Logistics line reaches 7,320 shillings. Grand total: 42,320 shillings, or £2,116 medieval sterling — genuinely comparable to a small barony's annual revenue.
Results are expressed in the medieval English currency system: pence (d), shillings (s), and pounds (£). The conversion rates are historical: 12 pence = 1 shilling, 20 shillings = 1 pound. A modern purchasing-power equivalent is also displayed for context.
The pay rates are based on documented English royal army records, primarily from Michael Prestwich's seminal work Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages and the published Pipe Rolls. They are accurate for English armies 1250–1400; Continental armies (French, Holy Roman Empire) used broadly similar rates but with some regional variation.
The calculator focuses on campaign running costs (wages + provisioning + logistics). Initial equipment costs — armour, weapons, horses — are partially reflected in the per-unit daily rates, which were higher for heavily equipped units partly to offset their equipment investment. A full equipment purchase cost would require a separate estimator.
Medieval silver had enormous purchasing power relative to today's money. Historians estimate £1 medieval sterling corresponds to approximately £1,000 in modern purchasing power (roughly $1,200–1,300 USD), based on commodity price comparisons. Major medieval campaigns were genuinely nation-defining financial commitments — the equivalent of modern defence budgets.
Siege engine construction is treated as a historically fixed lump-sum cost (e.g., roughly £100 for a trebuchet) drawn from surviving account rolls, so it stays constant across eras in this calculator. Daily wages and wagon-hire rates, by contrast, moved with general wage inflation and do scale with the era you select.
Wagons weren't combatants earning a soldier's wage — they were hired capital assets, like siege engines. Grouping them together keeps the "Troop Wages" figure a true reflection of what fighting men were paid, separate from equipment and haulage costs.
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