HSRU 4305: Seminar: Warfare & Medieval Society: The Hundred Years War
Dr M. Kowaleski
Fall Term 1998, Fordham University
Aims of the Course: This course focuses on the historiography of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) and the Wars of the Roses (1455-85), with particular attention paid to the military, social, and economic history context of these wars. The course also aims to introduce students to the primary sources and methodologies that historians employ to study these two conflicts. In the research essay, students will have an opportunity to analyze both the historiography and sources of a particular theme or debate in the military history of the late middle ages.
Grading: Students are expected to attend all class meetings and to be prepared to discuss all the assigned readings. Inadequate preparation will be reflected in a lower Discussion mark, while each unexcused absence will result in a subtraction of five points from the student’s final Discussion grade.
Discussion 40%
Report 25%
Final Essay 35% (due November 23)
Required Readings: All the required readings are on reserve in Walsh Library. The following texts are also available at the Fordham University Bookstore.
Christopher Allmand, The Hundred Years War: England and France at War c. 1300-c. 1450 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988)
Andrew W. Boardman, The Medieval Soldier in the Wars of the Roses (Sutton Publishing, 1988)
Jim Bradbury, The Medieval Archer (Boydell Press, 1985)
Peter Coss, The Knight in Medieval England 1000-1400 (Alan Sutton Publishing, 1993)
Froissart, Chronicles, trans. Geoffrey Brereton (Penguin, 1968)
J. Pollard, ed. The Wars of the Roses (St Martin’s Press, 1995)
The other readings for the course are available in the Readings Book which is on reserve in Walsh Library. Items which are also available in a separate copy on reserve are noted with a * .
From time to time, the instructor will also hand out additional primary sources for discussion.
Report: Each student will be asked to give one oral report (10-15 minutes) on a topic selected by the instructor. Each report should be accompanied by a 2-3 page typed report which contains the following: 1) student’s name, the course number, date, and title of the report; 2) an annotated bibliography of four to six articles or books about the topic. Annotations should consist of a summary analysis or description of the work (about 5-9 sentences) which succinctly points out the particular contribution of the work to the topic. Each oral report will be followed by about five to ten minutes of questions from the other students.
Essay: A final essay, typed and double-spaced, of no less than 20 and no more than 25 pages (including notes) is due on Monday, November 23 by 5 p.m. Two points will be subtracted from the final essay grade for each day the paper is late (thus, if you turn it in on Monday, November 30, after Thanksgiving, you will have 14 points taken off the essay grade). Students should see Dr Kowaleski no later than October 8 to settle on a essay topic. A preliminary report on the essay is due on Monday, October 26 by 5 p.m. It should contain the following: 1) student’s name and title of essay; 2) a 1-2 page description of the issue to be examined, with special attention paid to the primary sources historians have used to explore this issue; 3) a list of the bibliographies you employed to search for relevant sources; 4) bibliography of at least three primary sources and fifteen secondary sources you could use in the essay, five of which must be annotated. For the final essay, students must 1) start the paper with an introduction of one to two paragraphs which describes the topic to be considered and points to the importance/significance of the topic; 2) include footnotes and a bibliography of works cited in the essay; 3) cite a minimum of two different primary sources and seven different secondary sources in the footnotes and bibliography.
Discussion Topics and Readings:
Sept. 3: Historians and Primary Sources for the Study of the Hundred Years War
Reading: Froissart, Chronicles: 9-29 *
Sept. 10: The Origins and Transformation of Knighthood
Readings: Peter Coss, The Knight in Medieval England 1000-1400 *
Sept. 17: The Origins and Causes of the Hundred Years War
Readings: C. Allmand, The Hundred Years War: 1-53 *
Froissart, Chronicles: 37-61 *
Anne Curry, The Hundred Years War (1993): 32-58 *
Malcolm Vale, “England, France and the Origins of the Hundred Years War,” in
England and her Neighbours, ed. M. Jones and M. Vale (1989): 199-216
Report: Froissart as Historian and Chronicler
Sept. 24: Strategy, Tactics, and Command Structure
Readings: C. Allmand, The Hundred Years War: 54-82 *
Nicholas Hooper and Matthew Bennett, Cambridge Illustrated Atlas: Warfare. The Middle Ages (1996): 116-23, 128-35 *
Froissart, Chronicles: 68-96, 120-45 *
C. J. Rogers, “Edward III and the Dialectics of Strategy, 1327-1360,”
Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 6th ser., 4 (1994): 83-102
Matthew Bennett, “The Development of Battle Tactics in the Hundred Years War,”
in Arms, Armies and Fortifications in the Hundred Years War, eds. A. Curry and M. Hughes (1994): 1-20 *
Report: John of Gaunt and the Spanish Campaign
Oct. 1: Recruitment, Remuneration, and Composition of the Armies
Readings: C. Allmand, The Hundred Years War: 91-115 *
Anthony Tuck, “Why Men Fought in the Hundred Years War,” History Today, 33:4 (1983): 35-40
K. Fowler, “The Armies,” in The Age of Plantagenet and Valois (197?): 93-139 *
Andrew Ayton, “English Armies in the Fourteenth Century,” in Arms, Armies and Fortifications: 21-38 *
Anne Curry, “English Armies in the Fifteenth Century,” in Arms, Armies and Fortifications: 39-68 *
Report: Booty, Plunder and the Division of the Spoils of War
Oct. 8: Joan of Arc and the French Ascendancy
Readings: Régine Pernoud, Joan of Arc by Herself and Her Witnesses (1962): *
The Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, trans. Peter F. Thompson (1966): 293-316
Kelly DeVries, “A Woman as Leader of Men: Joan of Arc’s Military Career,” in
Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc, ed. B. Wheeler and C. T. Wood (1996): 3-18
Report: Bertrand Du Guesclin, Constable of France
Oct. 15: The Medieval Archer
Readings: Jim Bradbury, The Medieval Archer: 1-16, 58-179 *
Kelly DeVries, “Catapults are Not Atom Bombs: Towards a Redefinition of ‘Effectiveness’ in Premodern Military Technology,”
War in History, 4 (1997): 454-70 (esp. 460-4)
C. J. Rogers, “The Efficacy of the English Longbow: A Reply to Kelly DeVries,” War in History, 5 (1998): 233-42
Report: Archers and Archery before the Hundred Years War
Oct. 22: The War at Sea
Readings: C. Allmand, The Hundred Years War: 82-90 *
Froissart, Chronicles: 62-5, 113-19, 303-8 *
Ian Friel, “Winds of Change? Ships and the Hundred Years War,” in Arms, Armies and Fortifications: 183-93 *
Norman Longmate, Defending the Island (1989): 357-75
C. Richmond, “The War at Sea,” in The Hundred Years War, ed. K. Fowler: 96-121*
Report: The King’s Ships and the Royal Navy
Oct. 29: War and the Non-Combatant in France
Readings: Froissart, Chronicles: 146-66 *
Michael Jones, “War and Fourteenth-Century France,” in Arms, Armies and Fortifications: 103-20 *
Michael Wolfe, “Siege Warfare and the Bonnes Villes of France,”
in The Medieval City Under Siege, ed. I. A. Corfis and M. Wolfe (1995): 49-68 *
Nicholas Wright, Knights and Peasants: The Hundred Years War in the French Countryside (1998): 62-79, 89-95, 117-28 *
Anne Curry, “The Impact of War and Occupation on Urban Life in Normandy, 1417-1450,” French History 1 (1987): 157-81
Report: Spies and Intelligence-Gathering
Nov. 5: The Home Front: Propaganda and Nationalism
Readings: C. Allmand, The Hundred Years War: 136-72 *
W. M. Ormrod, “The Domestic Response to the Hundred Years War,” in Arms, Armies and Fortifications: 83-101 *
James A. Doig, “Propaganda, Public Opinion and the Siege of Calais in 1436,”
in Crown, Government and People in the Fifteenth Century, ed. R. E. Archer (1995): 107-43
Report: Truces and Diplomacy
Nov. 12: Debate on the Costs and Rewards of the Hundred Years War
Readings: C. Allmand, The Hundred Years War: 120-35 *
K. B. McFarlane, “War, the Economy and Social Change: England and the Hundred Years War,” in
England in the Fifteenth Century (1981): 139-50 [first printed in Past and Present (1962)] *
M. M. Postan, “The Costs of the Hundred Years War,” in Essays on Medieval Agriculture (1978): 63-80
[first published in Past and Present (1964)] *
R. Bridbury, “The Hundred Years War: Costs and Profits,” in
Trade, Government and Economy in Pre-Industrial England, ed. J. M. Winter (1976): 80-95
Michael K. Jones, “Ransom Brokerage in the Fifteenth Century,” in
Guerre et société en France, en Angleterre et en Bourgogne XIVe-Xve siècle (1991): 221-35
Report: Debate on the Impact of Gunpowder Artillery
Nov. 19: The Causes and Context of the Wars of the Roses
Readings: A. J. Pollard, ed., The Wars of the Roses (1995), Chapters 1-8 *
Report: Bastard Feudalism
Report: What happened to the Princes in the Tower?
Nov. 26: No Class. Thanksgiving
Dec. 3: Soldiers during the Wars of the Roses
Reading: Andrew W. Boardman, The Medieval Soldier in the Wars of the Roses (1998) *
Report: Debate on the “Military Revolution”
