Medieval Warfare

Book Review

Reviews by "Old Duffer"

Ed Maurice Keen (OUP)

The usual suspects are brought in to put together an overview of the subject. Given its size this is never going to be as valuable as Strickland's Anglo-Norman Warfare but its mission is very different.

After Big Mo has introduced the topic we charge through six chapters in the Phases of Medieval Warfare. These cover (1) Carolingian and Ottonian warfare, (2) Vikings, (3) The age of expansion (up to the Fourth Crusade), (4) Warfare in the Latin East, (5) European warfare 1200 to 1320, and (6) The age of the Hundred Years War. These are all pretty good though the last, by Clifford Rodgers, has some terrible purple passages. I particularly enjoyed the one in which he states that the horses at Courtrai assumed they would be victorious, yes that's right the horses! How he knows is not vouchsafed to us.

The chronological line established in the second section we look at the Arts of Warfare. There are chapters on sieges, the equipment (including those clever horses) of the period, mercenaries, naval warfare, the non-combatant and warfare and the move into gunpowder and standing armies.

All good competent stuff though nothing really exciting.

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