This thorough update of a classic book includes fully revised content, new sections on the use of horses, handguns, incendiary weapons, and siege engines, and new illustrations.
First published in 1992, Medieval Military Technology has become the definitive book in its field, garnering much praise and a large readership. This thorough update of a classic book, regarded as both an excellent overview and an important piece of scholarship, includes fully revised content, new sections on the use of horses, handguns, incendiary weapons, and siege engines, and eighteen new illustrations. The four key organizing sections of the book still remain: arms and armor, artillery, fortifications, and warships. Throughout, the authors connect these technologies to broader themes and developments in medieval society as well as to current scholarly and curatorial controversies.
This is the second update of "A Cumulative Bibliography of Medieval Military History and Technology," which appeared in 2002. It is meant to do two things: to present references to works on medieval military history and technology not included in the first two volumes; and to present references to all books and articles published on medieval military history and technology from 2003 to 2006. These references are divided into the same categories as in the first two volumes and cover a chronological period of the same length, from late antiquity to 1648, again in order to present a more complete picture of influences on and from the Middle Ages. It also continues to cover the same geographical area as the first and second volume, in essence Europe and the Middle East, or, again, influences on and from this area. The languages of these bibliographical references reflect this geography.
The Middle Ages are commonly divided into three periods--early, high or central, and late. Each period was marked by its own crises and wars, and the weapons and fighters reflected the technological and other advancements being made. This book is a richly illustrated history of warfare in Western Europe during those years. Part One, the early Middle Ages, covers the late Romans, the Germanic invaders and Byzantines, the Franks, the Vikings and Hungarians, and the Anglo-Saxons and Normans in England. Part Two, the high or central Middle Ages, considers the feudal system, knights and chivalry, knights at war, infantrymen, land warfare, siege and naval warfare, crusades in Palestine, templars and hospitalers, the Reconquista in Spain, and the Teutonic knights. Part Three, the late Middle Ages, discusses the evolution of new types of armor and weapons, the Hundred Years' War, mercenaries, and firearms.
Chronicles the evolution of weapons and armor from the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginnings of the Reformation, covering the early medieval, Carolingian, Crusade, and late medieval periods. Includes illustrations.
This three-volume encyclopedia examines all aspects of warfare and military technology in medieval times. It provides an exhaustive and accurate view of how and why wars were waged throughout Europe, the Byzantine Empire, and the Crusader States from circa 500 CE to circa 1500. --from publisher description.
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; in fortification 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 where and 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.
This profusely illustrated and thoroughly researched book describes in detail the diverse methods used to attack and defend castles during the Middle Ages. In a groundbreaking study — the first to shed light on the purpose, construction techniques, and effectiveness of medieval fortifications, noted nineteenth-century architect and writer Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc discusses such architectural elements as dungeons, keeps, battlements, and drawbridges. In addition to describing a vast number of European structures — among them fortifications at Carcassonne, Paris, Avignon, Vincennes, Lubeck, Milan, and Nuremberg — he examines the use of artillery and trenches, as well as such weapons as battering rams, mines, and the long-bow. A concise, scholarly reference for architectural historians, this absorbing history will appeal as well to medievalists, military buffs, and anyone interested in the evolution and development of the castle.