EBOOK Medieval Warfare:A History

This richly illustrated book explores over seven hundred years of European        warfare, from the time of Charlemagne to the end of the middle ages (c.1500). The        period covered has a distinctive character in military history. It was an age when        organization for war was integral to social structure, when the secular aristocrat        was by necessity also a warrior, and whose culture was profoundly influenced by        martial ideas.Twelve scholars, experts in their own fields, have contributed to this        finely illustrated book. It is divided into two parts. Part I seeks to explore the        experience of war viewed chronologically with separate chapters on, for instance,        the Viking age, on the wars and expansion of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, on        the Crusades and on the great Hundred Years War between England and France. The        chapters in Part II trace thematically the principal developments in the art of        warfare; infortification and siege craft; in the role of armoured cavalrymen; in the        employment of mercenary forces; the advent of gunpowder artillery; and of new skills        in navigation and shipbuilding. In both parts of the book, the overall aim has been        to offer the general reader an impression, not just of the whereand the when of        great confrontations, but above all of the social experience of warfare in the        middle ages, and of the impact of its demands on human resources and human        endurance.