Category Archives: Articles

From Tyrants to Soldiers of Christ: the nobility of twelfth-century Leon-Castile and the struggle against Islam

From Tyrants to Soldiers of Christ: the nobility of twelfth-century Leon-Castile and the struggle against Islam Simon Barton (University of Exeter) Nottingham Medieval Studies: v.44 (2000) On 2 July 1120, Bishop Diego of León made a generous grant of property, … Continue reading

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The imperial roots of Merovingian military organization

The imperial roots of Merovingian military organization Bernard S. Bachrach Military Aspects of Scandinavian Society in a European Perspective, AD 1-1300 (1997) Since the mid nineteenth century early medieval military history has been reduced to a rather simple formula. Prior … Continue reading

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Robin Hood and Military Service in the Fourteenth Century

Robin Hood and Military Service in the Fourteenth Century Andrew Ayton Nottingham Medieval Studies: v.36 (1992) Abstract On 21 November 1338, forty-three archers joined the company of troops entrusted with the security of the Isle of Wight. The garrison pay-roll, … Continue reading

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Edward III and the English aristocracy at the beginning of the Hundred Years War

Edward III and the English aristocracy at the beginning of the Hundred Years War By Andrew Ayton Harlaxton Medieval Studies: v.7 (1998) At Ipswich on 17 June 1340, a week before the battle of Sluys, an English knight, William Tallemache, … Continue reading

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Frontier Warfare in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem: The Campaign of Jacob’s Ford, 1178-79

Frontier Warfare in the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem: The Campaign of Jacob’s Ford, 1178-79 Malcolm Barber The Crusades and their Sources: Essays Presented to Bernard Hamilton (1998) The construction by the Latins of the fortress of Chastellet at the place … Continue reading

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The Development of Battle Tactics in the Hundred Years War

The Development of Battle Tactics in the Hundred Years War Matthew Bennett Arms, Armies and Fortifications in the Hundred Years War (1994) It is a common aphorism that the history of war is too important to be left to military … Continue reading

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Les transports maritimes genois vers la Terre Sainte

Les transports maritimes genois vers la Terre Sainte Michel Balard (Universite de Reims) I Comuni Italiani nel Regno di Gerusalemme (1986) Multi de melioribus Ianuensibus iUa die crucem suscepe­ runt … et reliqui plures qui tanti fuerunt quod duodecim ga­ … Continue reading

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Fleet Operations in the First Genoese-Venetian War, 1264-1266

Fleet Operations in the First Genoese-Venetian War, 1264-1266 John E. Dotson Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies v. 30 (1999) This brief article is not intended to review the history of the First Genoese-Venetian War over its whole length from 1257 … Continue reading

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King John’s expedition to Ireland, 1210: the evidence reconsidered

King John’s expedition to Ireland, 1210: the evidence reconsidered Seán Duffy Irish Historical Studies, v.30, n. 117 (1996) The valiant efforts of certain professional historians to redeem the reputation of King John of England have had a limited impact on the … Continue reading

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Caballus et Caballarius in Medieval Warfare

Caballus et Caballarius in Medieval Warfare Bernard S. Bachrach The Study of Chivalry: Resources and Approaches (1988) The little poem “For Want of a Nail” has for centuries conveyed to children a glimpse of the fundamental technical underpinnings of the … Continue reading

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Medieval siege warfare: A reconnaissance

Medieval siege warfare: A reconnaissance Bernard S. Bachrach The Journal of Military History, vol. 58 no. 1 (January, 1994) Abstract Historians writing during the later nineteenth and the twentieth centuries unambiguously recognized the importance, indeed the central role, played by siege … Continue reading

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The Military Revolution from a Medieval Perspective

The Military Revolution from a Medieval Perspective Andrew Ayton and J.L. Price The Medieval Military Revolution: State, Society and Military Change in Medieval and Early Modern Europe Although there is continuing disagreement concerning the essential nature of the military revolution; … Continue reading

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Espionage and Intelligence from the Wars of the Roses to the Reformation

Espionage and Intelligence from the Wars of the Roses to the Reformation Ian Arthurson Nottingham Medieval Studies v.35 (1991) Abstract In the period between the Wars of the Roses and the Refonnation spies were used in foreign and military-affairs and … Continue reading

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German Bishops and the Military Retinues in the Medieval Empire

German Bishops and the Military Retinues in the Medieval Empire Arnold, Benjamin (University of Reading) German History, v.7 (1989) The majority of bishops in medieval Germany were born into aristocratic or knightly kindreds which prided themselves upon their proficiency in war­ … Continue reading

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From Alfred to Harold II: The Military Failure of the Late Anglo-Saxon State

From Alfred to Harold II: The Military Failure of the Late Anglo-Saxon State Richard Abels The Normans and their Adversaries at War: Essays in Memory of C. Warren Hollister (Boydell, 2001) Abstract “It would be a serious error,” Warren Hollister acutely … Continue reading

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The Battle of Hastings according to Gaimar, Wace and Benoit: rhetoric and politics

According to Jean Blacker, the Norman Conquest was ‘the most visible cause of the upsurge in historical writing in twelfth-century England’ and in the continental territories controlled by successive Anglo-Norman and Norman-Angevin rulers. Continue reading

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Rural Fortifications in Western Europe and Byzantium, Tenth to Twelfth Century

Rural Fortifications in Western Europe and Byzantium, Tenth to Twelfth Century Mark Whittow Byzantinische Forschungen v.21 (1995) Abstract In 1992-warmly encouraged by Cyril Mango-Hugh Barnes and I, plus a team of Oxford undergraduates, began what is planned in the first … Continue reading

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The Viking Hasting in Franco-Scandinavian Legend

The Viking Hasting in Franco-Scandinavian Legend By Frederic Amory Saints, Scholars and Heroes: Studies in Medieval Culture (1979) Introduction: “Une histoire de Hasting à travers les chroniques serait fort instructive,” Lucien Musset has said, very truly. Not that such  history has … Continue reading

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“Fino alle mura di Babilonia”. Aspetti militari della conquista normanna del Sud

“Fino alle mura di Babilonia”. Aspetti militari della conquista normanna del Sud Giovanni Amatuccio Rassegna Storica Salernitana, n.30 (1998) L’apparizione dei Normanni nell’XI  sullo scenario mediterraneo si caratterizza, a livello militare, come un incontro-scontro con le diverse realtà preesistenti: Longobardi, Bizantini … Continue reading

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Saracen Archers in Southern Italy

Saracen Archers in Southern Italy De Re Militari, June (2001) Giovanni Amatuccio During the first phase of their Southern Italian conquest, the Normans included archers in their troops; but such usage seems to have been sporadic and simple. The tactic … Continue reading

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English Logistics and military administration, 871-1066: The Impact of the Viking Wars

English Logistics and military administration, 871-1066: The Impact of the Viking Wars Richard Abels Military aspects of Scandinavian society in a European perspective, AD 1-1300 (1997) King Harold Godwineson is remembered as one of the great `losers’ in history, the … Continue reading

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Means, Motive, Opportunity: Medieval Women and the Recourse to Arms

Why did medieval women go to war? The usual explanation is that such actions take place in crisis situations when the absence of male authority creates a power vacuum and class temporarily trumps gender–the lady defending the castle while her husband is away on crusade motif. Continue reading

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