Among the men who shared the English triumph at Cre'cy there were few with better cause for satisfaction than the sub-marshal of Edward III's army, Sir Thomas Ughtred. For this Yorkshireman, a man in his fifties, the events of 26 August 1346 represented the high point of a career marked by dramatic fluctuations of fortune. By 1346 Ughtred had borne arms for over thirty years, his career following the ups and downs - mainly downs - of the Scottish wars. He had fought at Bannockburn, when his retinue commander, William, Lord Latimer, was taken prisoner; and he himself suffered the same fate at Byland in 1322, though only after a display of courage and skill with arms, which, as John Barbour recalled half a century later, brought him lasting renown. In 1332 he accompanied Edward Balliol to Scotland and participated in the remarkable victory of the Disinherited at Dupplin Moor. In October of the same year, a heroic stand against the Scots at Roxburgh Bridge added still further to his reputation. Association with Balliol's cause was rewarded by land grants, and ensured that Ughtred would serve in each of the Scottish campaigns from Halidon Hill until his appointment as keeper of the town of Perth in 1337. This was an important independent command, but also a poisoned chalice. Despite his best efforts, Ughtred's spell of duty at Perth was to be the most frustrating and ultimately humiliating experience of his life. It was concluded in August 1339 when he was forced, through shortage of supplies, to surrender the town to the Scots. Suggestions were made that he had come to terms too readily, and in the autumn Ughtred's conduct at Perth was investigated in parliament; but, apparently proving as skilful with words as he had so often been with the sword, he succeeded in clearing his name. Within a few months Ughtred was fighting in France, though it was perhaps characteristic of his career at that time that he missed the battle of Sluys (24 June 1340), only joining the English army in time to take part in Robert of Artois's unsuccessful attack on St Omer in late July.

For several years Ughtred's life was both less eventful and more in keeping with what historians have regarded as the usual style of living of the county gentry.