Note 40 — Chapter V
Reading edition
Allusion has already been made to the supplanting of the sheriff's authority by the barons in raising troops, and the consequent fashion of issuing liveries to the corps so formed. It is perhaps worth while to note and dismiss the minute point that the garrison of Calais, the only truly national force belonging at that moment to England, was clothed in scarlet jackets, and were the first English soldiers thus distinguished.