Category Archives: BookReview

Brian Todd Carey, Joshua B. Allfree, John Cairns, Warfare in the Age of the Crusades: The Latin East (Reviewer- Nicholas Wallace)

Brian Todd Carey, Joshua B. Allfree, John Cairns Warfare in the Age of the Crusades: The Latin East (Pen & Sword, 2022), 312pp. $34.95 Professor Brian Todd Carey, the retired U.S. Army Sergeant Joshua Allfree, and the cartographer John Cairns … Continue reading

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Brian Todd Carey, Joshua B. Allfree, John Cairns, Road to Manzikert: Byzantine & Islamic Warfare, 527-1071 (Reviewer- Daniel Fratini)

Brian Todd Carey, Joshua B. Allfree, John Cairns Road to Manzikert: Byzantine & Islamic Warfare, 527-1071 (Pen & Sword, 2021), 204pp. £14.99 As most Byzantine military historians know the Battle of Manzikert is seen as a decisive moment in the … Continue reading

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James Titterton. Deception in Medieval Warfare: Trickery and Cunning in the Central Middle Ages (Reviewer- Haggai Olshanetsky)

James Titterton Deception in Medieval Warfare: Trickery and Cunning in the Central Middle Ages (The Boydell Press, 2022), 292pp. $125 War is a realm full of secrecy, uncertainty, misinformation, and blunders. Unlike Hollywood, no war is only a pitched battle … Continue reading

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The Medieval Tournament as Spectacle: Tourneys, Jousts and Pas d’Armes, 1100-1600, eds. Alan V. Murray and Karen Watts (Reviewer- Joe Morrel)

Alan V. Murray and Karen Watts (eds.) The Medieval Tournament as Spectacle: Tourneys, Jousts and Pas d’Armes, 1100-1600 (Boydell and Brewer, 2023), 263pp. $38.95 (pb) The Medieval Tournament as Spectacle contains a series of articles examining the cultural impact and … Continue reading

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Anthony Kaldellis and Marion Kruse, The Field Armies of the East Roman Empire, 361-630 (Reviewer- Evan Schultheis)

Anthony Kaldellis and Marion Kruse The Field Armies of the East Roman Empire, 361-630 (Cambridge University Press, 2023), 228pp. $110 Anthony Kaldellis and Marion Kruse’s The Field Armies of the East Roman Empire, 361-630 opens with a clear and concise … Continue reading

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Michael P. Warner, The Agincourt Campaign of 1415: The Retinues of the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester (Reviewer- Simon Egan)

Michael P. Warner The Agincourt Campaign of 1415: The Retinues of the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester (Boydell & Brewer, 2021), 258pp. $115 The last number of years have witnessed a growing interest in the conflict commonly known as the … Continue reading

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Stephen Morillo, War and Conflict in the Middle Ages: A Global Perspective (Reviewer- Stuart Gorman)

Stephen Morillo War and Conflict in the Middle Ages: A Global Perspective (Polity, 2022), 257pp. €21.50 War and Conflict is a combination of history of philosophy, military history, political history, and climate history. It advances both a radical argument about … Continue reading

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Trevor Russell Smith and Michael Livingston (eds.) Of Knyghthode and Bataile (Reviewer- Trevor J. Davis)

Trevor Russell Smith and Michael Livingston (eds) Of Knyghthode and Bataile (Medieval Institute Publications, 2021), 180pp. $29.95 The study of warfare in medieval Europe is an undertaking fraught with uncertainty, in large part due to the limits of the documentary … Continue reading

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Wojtek Jezierski, Risk, Emotions, and Hospitality in the Christianization of the Baltic Rim, 1000-1300 (Reviewer- Patrick Eickman)

Wojtek Jezierski Risk, Emotions, and Hospitality in the Christianization of the Baltic Rim, 1000-1300 (Brepols, 2022), 356pp. €50 Wojtek Jezierski’s Risk, Emotions, and Hospitality in the Christianization of the Baltic Rim, 1000-1300 investigates how perceptions of risk and danger shaped … Continue reading

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Rosalind Brown-Grant and Mario Damen (trans), A Chivalric Life: The Book of the Deeds of Messire Jacques de Lalaing (Reviewed by James Titterton)

Rosalind Brown-Grant and Mario Damen (trans) A Chivalric Life: The Book of the Deeds of Messire Jacques de Lalaing (Boydell & Brewer, 2022), 375pp. $115 This volume is an English translation of a fifteenth-century biography, recounting the short but eventful … Continue reading

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Martijn A. Wijnhoven, European Mail Armour: Ringed Battle Shirts from the Iron Age, Roman Period and Early Middle Ages (Reviewer- Haggai Olshanetsky)

Martijn A. Wijnhoven European Mail Armour: Ringed Battle Shirts from the Iron Age, Roman Period and Early Middle Ages (Amsterdam, 2021), 507pp. €181 Any military system that attempts to provide protection to mobile elements in the battlefield needs to reach … Continue reading

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Helena Schrader, The Holy Land in the Era of the Crusades: Kingdoms at the Crossroads of Civilizations, 1100–1300 (reviewed by Trevor J. Davis)

Helena P. Schrader The Holy Land in the Era of the Crusades: Kingdoms at the Crossroads of Civilizations, 1100-1300 (Pen & Sword, 2022), 341pp. $42.95 The crusades are a source of nearly constant and perennial fascination for scholars and a … Continue reading

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John D. Grainger. The forty sieges of Constantinople. The great city’s enemies and its survival (Lucas McMahon)

John D. Grainger The forty sieges of Constantinople. The great city’s enemies and its survival (Pen & Sword, 2022), 288pp. $42.95 This book sets out to look at the sieges of the city of Byzantion/Constantinople over the long term, starting … Continue reading

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Daniel Baloup, L’homme armé: Expériences de la guerre et du combat en Castille au XVe siècle (Reviewer- Brian Ditcham)

Daniel Baloup L’homme armé: Expériences de la guerre et du combat en Castille au XVe siècle (Casa de Velázquez, 2022), 309 pp. €35.00 Lope Garcia de Salazar was a paradoxical figure. A brutal thug even by the bloodstained standards of … Continue reading

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Radosław Kotecki, Carsten Selch Jensen and Stephen Bennett (eds), Christianity and War in Medieval East Central Europe and Scandinavia (Reviewer- Kyle Lincoln)

Radosław Kotecki, Carsten Selch Jensen and Stephen Bennett (eds) Christianity and War in Medieval East Central Europe and Scandinavia (Amsterdam: ARC Humanities Press, 2021), 310 pp. Normally, thirteen is considered an unlucky number, and in the days of the CoViD-19 … Continue reading

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Medieval and Modern Civil Wars, eds. Jón Viðar Sigurðsson and Hans Jacob Orning (Reviewer- James Davis)

Jón Viðar Sigurðsson and Hans Jacob Orning Medieval and Modern Civil Wars (Brill, 2021), 316 pp. $200 This collection of essays brings together a variety of scholars and differing methodological approaches to bear on the history of civil conflict in … Continue reading

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Michael Livingston, Never Greater Slaughter: Brunanburh and the Birth of England (Reviewer- Steven A. Walton)

Michael Livingston Never Greater Slaughter: Brunanburh and the Birth of England (Oxford: Osprey, 2021), 224 pp. $28.00 Michael Livingston is carving a wide path in medieval military studies, through prolific publications and especially organizing primary source books in conjunction with … Continue reading

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Justine Firnhaber-Baker, The Jacquerie of 1358: A French Peasants’ Revolt (Reviewer- Sean McGlynn)

Justine Firnhaber-Baker The Jacquerie of 1358: A French Peasants’ Revolt (Oxford University Press, 2021), 319 pp. $102.00 For all its lingering notoriety in France, the Jacquerie of 1358 has received surprisingly scant attention. Prior to Firnhaber-Baker’s The Jacquerie of 1358, … Continue reading

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The Tournaments at La Hem and Chauvency, trans. by Nigel Bryant (Reviewer- James Titterton)

Nigel Bryant (translator) The Tournaments at La Hem and Chauvency (The Boydell Press, 2020), 128 pp. £60.00/$80.00. This volume presents English prose translations of two separate works of Old French verse, each recalling a late thirteenth-century tournament. There are sound … Continue reading

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Late Medieval and Early Modern Fight Books: Transmission and Tradition of Martial Arts in Europe (14th to 17th centuries), Daniel Jaquet, Karin Verelst, and Timothy Dawson (eds.) (Reviewer- Jose M. Rodriguez)

Daniel Jaquet, Karin Verelst, and Timothy Dawson (eds.) Late Medieval and Early Modern Fight Books: Transmission and Tradition of Martial Arts in Europe (14th to 17th centuries) (Brill, 2016), 636 pp. $253.00 The archaeology of conflict is a new and … Continue reading

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Donald J. Kagay and L.J. Villalon, Conflict in Fourteenth-Century Iberia: Aragon vs. Castile and the War of the Two Pedros (Reviewer- Simon Egan)

Donald J. Kagay and L.J. Villalon Conflict in Fourteenth-Century Iberia: Aragon vs. Castile and the War of the Two Pedros (Brill, 2021), 587 pp. $210.00 Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in exploring new theatres in the conflict traditionally … Continue reading

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Alan V. Murray, Baldwin of Bourcq: Count of Edessa and King of Jerusalem, 1100-1131 (Francesca Petrizzo)

Alan V. Murray Baldwin of Bourcq: Count of Edessa and King of Jerusalem, 1100-1131 (London: Routledge, 2022), 280 pp. $128.00 The new offering from the Routledge Rulers of the Latin East series makes for a superb addition to the canon … Continue reading

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Samuel A. Claussen, Chivalry and Violence in Late Medieval Castile (Julia Roumier)

Samuel A. Claussen Chivalry and violence in Late Medieval Castile (Boydell & Brewer, 2020), 244 pp. $99.00 The striking iconographic choice of the cover of this book, which features the hero who embodies the Hispanic chivalric ideal by antonomasia, the … Continue reading

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Conor Whately, Procopius on Soldiers and Military Institutions in the Sixth-Century Roman Empire (Haggai Olshanetsky)

Haggai Olshanetsky Procopius on Soldiers and Military Institutions in the Sixth-Century Roman Empire (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 300 pp. €104.00/$125.00 Conor Whately is an expert on Roman military history and has published several books on the Roman army. The current book … Continue reading

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Łukasz Różycki, Battlefield Emotions in Late Antiquity: A Study of Fear and Motivation in Roman Military Treatises (Georgios Theotokis)

Łukasz Różycki Battlefield Emotions in Late Antiquity: A Study of Fear and Motivation in Roman Military Treatises (Leiden: Brill, 2021), 333 pp. €145.00/$174.00 One of the toughest challenges involved in writing about medieval warfare is that of describing what battle … Continue reading

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Arthur C. Wright, English Collusion and the Norman Conquest (Andrew Rollo)

Arthur C. Wright English Collusion and the Norman Conquest (Pen & Sword, 2020), 224 pp. $44.95 Arthur Wright’s book, English Collusion and the Norman Conquest, describes itself on the inside cover as ‘a comprehensive analysis of eleventh century warfare as … Continue reading

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Larisa Orlov Vilimonović, Structure and Features of Anna Komnene’s Alexiad: Emergence of a Personal History (Lucas McMahon)

Larisa Orlov Vilimonović Structure and Features of Anna Komnene’s Alexiad: Emergence of a Personal History (Amsterdam, 2018), 358 pp. $136.00 Those wishing to understand to enigmatic history written by the unhappy daughter of the medieval Roman emperor Alexios (r. 1081-1118) … Continue reading

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Duccio Balestracci, Stato d’Assedio: Assedianti e Assediati dal Medioevo all’età Moderna (Brian Ditcham)

Duccio Balestracci Stato d’Assedio: Assedianti e Assediati dal Medioevo all’età Moderna (Il Mulino, 2021), 372 pp. €25.00 It is a truism among scholars of medieval and early modern warfare that anyone who pursued a career of arms could expect to … Continue reading

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The Sword: Form and Thought, eds. Lisa Deutscher, Mirjam Kaiser, Sixt Wetzler (Haggai Olshanetsky)

Lisa Deutscher, Mirjam Kaiser, Sixt Wetzler (eds.) The Sword: Form and Thought (Boydell & Brewer, 2019), 294 pp. $99.00 This book presents the proceedings for the second Sword Conference that was held in November 2015 at the Deutsches Klingenmuseum Solingen. … Continue reading

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Georgios Theotokis, Bohemond of Taranto: Crusader and Conqueror (Francesca Petrizzo)

Georgios Theotokis Bohemond of Taranto: Crusader and Conqueror (Pen & Sword, 2021), 208 pp. £19.99 Georgios Theotokis’ timely monograph comes to fill (but, by design, only partially) a gap in the recent anglophone scholarship on the First Crusade. In his … Continue reading

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Erika Graham-Goering, Princely Power in Late Medieval France; Jeanne de Penthièvre and the War for Brittany (Brian Ditcham)

Erika Graham-Goering Princely Power in Late Medieval France; Jeanne de Penthièvre and the War for Brittany (Cambridge University Press, 2020), 288 pp. $99.00 The war over the succession to the duchy of Brittany which formed a substantial sub-theatre during the … Continue reading

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Warfare in the Norman Mediterranean, ed. Georgios Theotokis (John France)

Georgios Theotokis (ed.) Warfare in the Norman Mediterranean (Boydell & Brewer, 2020), 252 pp. $99.00 Historians, even medieval historians, have their stars. These are peoples, things, ideas, movements that somehow we cannot leave alone. The Vikings, cultural renaissances, military revolutions, … Continue reading

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Federico Canaccini, 1268: La Battaglia di Tagliacozzo (Brian Ditcham)

Frederico Canaccini 1268: La Battaglia di Tagliacozzo (Editori Laterza, 2019), 172 pp. €18.00 On 28 October 1268 a blonde teenager mounted the scaffold in Naples, followed by a number of German and Italian noblemen. According to some chronicles, he addressed … Continue reading

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A Companion to Chivalry, eds. Robert W. Jones and Peter Coss (Craig M Nakashian)

Robert W. Jones and Peter Coss (eds.) A Companion to Chivalry (The Boydell Press, 2019), 348 pp. $99.00. The study of medieval chivalry has been a vibrant subfield for generations, and this recent edited collection promises to advance the discussion … Continue reading

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Ilkka Syvänne, Military History of Late Rome 425–457 (Haggai Olshanetsky)

Ilkka Syvänne Military History of Late Rome 425-457 (Pen & Sword, 2020), 180 pp. $39.95 This book is the fourth volume in Ilkka Syvänne’s series on the military history of Late Rome, which is planned to comprise seven volumes. The … Continue reading

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Christopher Gravett, The Medieval Knight (Madeleine S. Killacky)

Christopher Gravett The Medieval Knight (Osprey, 2020), 192 pp. $15.00 Interest in medieval knights is as old as knighthood itself. This means that any new book addressing knighthood needs to be particularly creative in its execution. Christopher Gravett’s The Medieval … Continue reading

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Bob Bennett & Mike Roberts, The Wars of Alexander’s Successors 323-281 BC, Vol. I: Commanders & Campaigns (Haggai Olshanetsky)

Bob Bennett & Mike Roberts The Wars of Alexander’s Successors 323-281 BC, Vol. I: Commanders & Campaigns (Pen & Sword, 2019), 236 pp. £12.99 This book is not a new one, but a reprint with a newly designed paperback cover. … Continue reading

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Julian Whitehead, Espionage in the Divided Stuart Monarchy 1685-1715 (Jasmin Ditcham)

Julian Whitehead Espionage in the Divided Stuart Monarchy 1685-1715 (Pen & Sword, 2020), 200 pp. $49.95 There has been an increase in the study of early modern European espionage and intelligence gathering in the past couple of decades which has … Continue reading

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Stephen Spencer, Emotions in a Crusading Context, 1095-1291 (Patrick Eickman)

Stephen Spencer Emotions in a Crusading Context, 1095-1291 (Oxford University Press, 2020), 320 pp. $85.00 Stephen J. Spencer’s Emotions in a Crusading Context: 1095-1291 is part of Oxford University Press’ Emotions in History series. Spencer participates in a growing conversation … Continue reading

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Patrick Brugh, Gunpowder, Masculinity, and Warfare in German Texts, 1400-1700 (Dan Spencer)

Patrick Brugh Gunpowder, Masculinity, and Warfare in German Texts, 1400-1700 (University of Rochester Press, 2019), 272 pp. $125.00 The adoption of gunpowder weapons was one of the most significant developments of the late Middle Ages. Over time this new technology … Continue reading

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Ilkka Syvanne, Aurelian and Probus: The Soldier Emperors Who Saved Rome (Haggai Olshanetsky)

Ilkka Syvanne Aurelian and Probus: The Soldier Emperors Who Saved Rome (Pen & Sword, 2020), 304 pp. £30.00 This is the most recent edition of the attempt made by Pen & Sword Books to publish a book depicting the military … Continue reading

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Donald O’Reilly, Lost Legion Rediscovered: The Mystery of the Theban Legion (Haggai Olshanetsky)

Donald O’Reilly Lost Legion Rediscovered: The Mystery of the Theban Legion (Pen & Sword, 2011), 208 pp. £19.99 Before we delve into this book, we need to understand the very unique subject matter that the book deals with. According to … Continue reading

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Dan Spencer, Royal and Urban Gunpowder Weapons in Late Medieval England (Brian Ditcham)

Dan Spencer Royal and Urban Gunpowder Weapons in Late Medieval England (Boydell & Brewer, 2019), 282 pp. $99.00/£60.00 Although the English were early adopters of gunpowder weaponry (according to Giovanni Villani they were using guns on the field at Crécy), … Continue reading

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Montius, Petrus, Pietro Monte’s Collectanea: The Arms, Armour and Fighting Techniques of a Fifteenth-Century Soldier, ed. by Jeffrey L. Forgeng (Mark Geldof)

Jeffrey L. Forfeng (ed.) Montius, Petrus, Pietro Monte’s Collectanea: The Arms, Armour and Fighting Techniques of a Fifteenth-Century Soldier (The Boydell Press, 2018), 333 pp. $99.00. Pietro Monte’s Exercitiorum atque artis militaris collectanea in tris [sic.] libros distincta (printed at … Continue reading

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Militärisches Entscheiden Voraussetzungen, Prozesse und Repräsentationen einer sozialen Praxis von der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert, eds. Martin Clauss and Christoph Nübel (eds) (Brian Ditcham)

Martin Clauss and Christoph Nübel (eds) Militärisches Entscheiden Voraussetzungen, Prozesse und Repräsentationen einer sozialen Praxis von der Antike bis zum 20. Jahrhundert (Campus Verlag, 2020), 496 pp. € 52.00. The processes and cultures of military decision-making form a well-recognised sub-field … Continue reading

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Nic Fields, God’s Viking: Harald Hardrada. The Life and Times of the Last Great Viking (Jasmin Ditcham)

Nic Fields God’s Viking: Harald Hardrada. The Life and Times of the Last Great Viking (Pen & Sword, 2019) 366 pp. £20.00 Nic Fields attempts to go where others have been before in trying to write a history of the … Continue reading

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Gabriele Esposito, Armies of the Hellenistic States 323 BC- AD 30 (Haggai Olshanetsky)

Gabriele Esposito Armies of the Hellenistic States 323 BC- AD 30 (Pen & Sword, 2019) 155 pp. $34.95 This book is one of the recent additions to the series “Armies of the Past,” authored by Gabriele Esposito. Esposito is a … Continue reading

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Baldric of Bourgueil, “History of the Jerusalemites”: A Translation of the Historia Ierosolimitana, trans. Susan B. Edgington, introduction by Steven J. Biddlecomb (John Hosler)

Susan B. Edgington and Steven J. Biddlecombe Baldric of Bourgueil, “History of the Jerusalemites”: A Translation of the Historia Ierosolimitana (Boydell & Brewer, 2020) 224 pp. $99.00 Baldric of Bourgueil (alternatively, Baldric of Dol, d. 1130) was a writer of … Continue reading

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Radosław Kotecki, Jacek Maciejewski, and John S. Ott (eds), Between Sword and Prayer: Warfare and Medieval Clergy in Cultural Perspective (Kyle Lincoln)

Radosław Kotecki, Jacek Maciejewski, and John S. Ott (eds) Between Sword and Prayer: Warfare and Medieval Clergy in Cultural Perspective (Brill, 2018) 564 pp. $172.00 Under normal circumstances, collected volumes with sixteen chapters and an introduction might seem, at first … Continue reading

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Dweezil Vandekerckhove, Medieval Fortifications in Cilicia: The Armenian Contribution to Military Architecture in the Middle Ages (Haggai Olshanetsky)

Dweezil Vandekerckhove Medieval Fortifications in Cilicia: The Armenian Contribution to Military Architecture in the Middle Ages (Brill, 2019) 284 pp. $179.00 This book is the most recent volume in Brill’s History of Warfare series. It focuses on the medieval fortifications … Continue reading

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Charles D. Stanton, Roger of Lauria (c.1250-1305) “Admiral of Admirals” (Fabrizio Martino)

Charles D. Stanton Roger of Lauria (c.1250-1305) “Admiral of Admirals” (The Boydell Press, 2019) 346 pp. $115.00 The term “admiral” was used for the first time by King Roger II, in its Latin form “amiratus amiratorum” in 1133, to designate … Continue reading

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Sue Brunning, The Sword in Early Medieval Northern Europe: Experience, Identity, Representation (Iason-Eleftherios Tzouriadis)

Sue Brunning The Sword in Early Medieval Northern Europe: Experience, Identity, Representation (The Boydell Press, 2019) 213 pp. $99.00 Sue Brunning’s book belongs to a long line of research regarding early medieval swords. However, instead of staying within the well-established … Continue reading

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Peter Purton, The Medieval Military Engineer: From the Roman Empire to the Sixteenth Century (Trevor J. Davis)

Peter Purton The Medieval Military Engineer: From the Roman Empire to the Sixteenth Century (Boydell & Brewer, 2018) 365 pp. $99.00 In this excellent monograph, Peter Purton endeavors to shed new light on the important role of military engineers in … Continue reading

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Anke Fischer-Kattner and Jamel Ostwald (eds), The World of the Siege: Representations of Early Modern Positional Warfare (Brian Ditcham)

Anke Fischer-Kattner and Jamel Ostwald (eds.) The World of the Siege: Representations of Early Modern Positional Warfare (Brill, 2019) 316 pp. $126.00 It was a proverbial truism that an early modern soldier would spend far more time sitting out sieges … Continue reading

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Christofer Herrmann, Der Hochmeisterpalast auf der Marienburg: Konzeption, Bau und Nutzung der modernsten europäischen Fürstenresidenz um 1400 (Gregory Leighton)

Christofer Herrmann Der Hochmeisterpalast auf der Marienburg: Konzeption, Bau und Nutzung der modernsten europäischen Fürstenresidenz um 1400 (Michael Imhof Verlag, 2019) 600 pp. 89.00 € Professor Christofer Herrmann (Uniwersytet Gdańsk / Technische Universität Berlin) is a leading expert on the … Continue reading

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The Uses of the Bible in Crusader Sources. (eds.) Elizabeth Lapina and Nicholas Morton (Angela Pacheco)

Elizabeth Lapina and Nicholas Morton (eds.) The Uses of the Bible in Crusader Sources (Brill, 2017) 514 pp. $197.00 The media often brings back the world of the crusades through films and books on the matter, but there is always … Continue reading

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Roger Crowley, The Accursed Tower: The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades (Michael Fulton)

Roger Crowley The Accursed Tower: The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades (Yale University Press/Basic Books, 2019) 304 pp. $25.00 It is an unfortunate reality that most introductory discussions of the crusades continue to give disproportionate attention … Continue reading

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Georgios Kardaras, Byzantium and the Avars: Political, Diplomatic, and Cultural Relations (Lucas McMahon)

Georgios Kardaras Byzantium and the Avars: Political, Diplomatic, and Cultural Relations (Brill, 2019) 252 pp. $192.00 When it rains, it pours. Accessing material on the Avars has been a difficult matter in the English-speaking world, with limited literary source material … Continue reading

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Craig Taylor, A Virtuous Knight: Defending Marshal Boucicaut (Jean II Le Meingre, 1366-1421) (Brian Ditcham)

Craig Taylor A Virtuous Knight: Defending Marshal Boucicaut (Jean II Le Meingre, 1366-1421) (York Medieval Press, 2019) 203 pp. $99.00 Sometimes a book’s title can summarise its contents very neatly. In this case it is the subtitle which tells the … Continue reading

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Georgios Chatzelis, Byzantine Military Manuals as Literary Works and Practical Handbooks: The Case of the Tenth-Century (Lucas McMahon)

Georgios Chatzelis Byzantine Military Manuals as Literary Works and Practical Handbooks: The Case of the Tenth-Century Sylloge Tacticorum (Routledge, 2019) 211 pp. $140.00 The Sylloge Tacticorum is a military manual written in Greek attributed to the emperor Leo VI (r. … Continue reading

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Mollie M. Madden, The Black Prince and the Grande Chevauchée of 1355 (Matt Raven)

Mollie M. Madden The Black Prince and the Grande Chevauchée of 1355 (The Boydell Press, 2018) 262 pp. $99.00 In September 1355, Edward the Black Prince, Edward III’s eldest son, landed in Gascony accompanied by an army. Between 5 October … Continue reading

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To Win and Lose a Medieval Battle: Najera (April 3, 1367), a Pyrrhic Victory for the Black Prince. (eds.) L. J. Andrew Villalon and Donald J. Kagay (John France)

L.J. Andrew Villalon and Donald J. Kagay (eds.) To Win and Lose a Medieval Battle: Najera (April 3, 1367), a Pyrrhic Victory for the Black Prince (Brill, 2017) 650 pp. $197.00 This is an immensely thorough and detailed study of … Continue reading

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Richard J. Blakemore & Elaine Murphy, The British Civil Wars at Sea 1638 – 1653 (Jasmin Ditcham)

Richard J. Blakemore & Elaine Murphy The British Civil Wars at Sea 1638 – 1653 (Boydell & Brewer, 2018) 225 pp. $115.00/£65.00 To a student of the British Civil Wars, it soon becomes obvious that the perception one is given … Continue reading

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