I ended up in an argument with someone over whether or not medieval armies recruited levies more from towns or the countryside^1 , and my interest in and research of is rapidly spiraling out of control. I'm in the process of starting up a blog that compares medieval history with medievalesque fantasy and then offers suggestions as to how using history as more than a superficial cloak can improve and enhance a story. The various forms of recruitment and development of recruitment would make an excellent post for it.
Now, I have plenty of information on the recruitment of English armies from the Early to the Late Middle Ages, good information on EMA "French" armies, and good information on the role of towns in the early Reconquest of Spain. I have some sparse information on LMA French recruitment and some information on the overall organisation and recruitment of armies of the Reconquest up to the mid-13th century. I don't know how many of you would include the Byzantine Empire in the classification of "Europe", but I'm all set there as well.
What I'm missing are sources on France during the HMA and then the rest of Europe almost entirely. I'm especially interested in Scandinavian recruitment and organisation in the EMA, and also the Holy Roman Empire, but I want to do a reasonable survey of Europe proper^2 .
However, I've run into a wall when it comes to finding English language sources on areas outside of England. JSTOR's search engine doesn't really help much, and I'm finding it difficult to find books on the subject, probably both because I don't know the best terms to use and because the subject is mostly dealt with by chapters in books.
Are any historians here able and willing to point me to some English language sources on the subject?
^1 Yes, I know that the "peasant levy" of popular culture never existed, except in local defensive situations. It was a much more complicated beast and, at least by the end of the 13th century in England, was more a militia than a levy.
^2 This is a big task, and I am aware of this. No, probably not fully aware, but what's life for if not making mistakes?
John France, "People against Mercenaries: The Capuchins in Southern Gaul," Journal of Medieval Military History Volume 8, ed. DeVries and Rogers (2010)--the book, not the journal--talks indirectly about who was fighting and why in 12th century (modern) France, emphasizing the pedites over the milites.
France cites: Stephen D. B. Brown, “The Mercenary and his Master: Military Service and Monetary Reward in the Eleventh and Twelfth Century,” History 74 (1989); I've not read it, but maybe that has something for you?
On that basis, I'd suggest widening your search to look for "mercenary" and "mercenaries"--that seems to be a fairly common way that "social history of the military" deals with the topic of where soldiers came from. The anthology Mercenaries and Paid Men would be a good place to start.
I have some English bibliography on recruitment across religious lines (mostly Christian-Muslim in Spain), if you're interested in that? Unfortunately my German stuff is all in German. Military history isn't really what I do, so I can't help like I wish I could. You could try asking for recommendations on high medieval France in this week's Friday Free-for-All and Saturday Reading & Research threads. We have AWESOME medieval milhist flairs.