The year 1996 marks the 550th Anniversary of an anonymous manuscript which represents one of the earliest surgical works written in English. Generally attributed to Thomas Morstede, Serjeant-Surgeon to King Henry V, the book was for many centuries considered to have been lost and has escaped detailed examination by the surgeons of today. We present a modern translation of its first chapter in which the author outlines the range of equipment a fifteenth-century surgeon would use, the personal qualities all surgeons should possess, and the manner in which surgical practice should be conducted.