Category Archives: BookReview

Susan B. Edgington, Baldwin I of Jerusalem, 1100-1118 (Review by Francesca Petrizzo)

Susan B. Edgington Baldwin I of Jerusalem, 1100-1118 (Routledge, 2019) 204 pp. $140.00 The third book in the Rulers of the Latin East series investigates the dawn of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem. The life and career of Baldwin, Godfrey … Continue reading

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Philip J. Caudrey, Military Society and the Court of Chivalry in the Age of the Hundred Years War (Brian Ditcham)

Philip J. Caudrey Military Society and the Court of Chivalry in the Age of the Hundred Years War (Boydell & Brewer, 2019) 227 pp. $99.00/£60.00 As far back as 1832 the indefatigable antiquarian Sir Harris Nicholas identified the potential historical … Continue reading

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Ϸhorsteinn Helgason, The Corsairs’ Longest Voyage: The Turkish Raid in Iceland 1627, translated by Anna Yates and Jóna Ann Pétursdóttir (Simon Egan)

Ϸhorsteinn Helgason The Corsairs’ Longest Voyage: The Turkish Raid in Iceland 1627 (Brill, 2018) 372 pp. $185.00/€154.00 In the summer of 1627, the island of Iceland was subjected to two large-scale raids led corsairs from the North African entrepôts of … Continue reading

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Nicholas Savy, Bertrucat d’Albret, ou le destin d’un captaine gascon du roi d’Angleterre pendant la guerre de Cent Ans (Brian Ditcham)

Nicholas Savy Bertrucat d’Albret, ou le destin d’un captaine gascon du roi d’Angleterre pendant la guerre de Cent Ans (Archeodrom, 2015) 476 pp. €30.00 Bertrucat d’Albret held a high- even preeminent- position among the routier leaders whose companies spread terror … Continue reading

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Anthony Musson and Nigel Ramsay (eds), Courts of Chivalry and Admiralty in Late Medieval Europe (Brian Ditcham)

Anthony Musson and Nigel Ramsay (eds.) Courts of Chivalry and Admiralty in Late Medieval Europe (The Boydell Press, 2018) 250 pp. $99.00/£60.00 In recent decades the activities of Courts of Admiralty and, perhaps even more, Courts of Chivalry in the … Continue reading

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Joanna Bellis and Laura Slater (eds.), Representing War and Violence, 1250-1600 (Million)

Joanna Bellis and Laura Slater (eds.) Representing War and Violence, 1250-1600 (The Boydell Press, 2016) 232 pp. $90.00 Representing War and Violence is an important contribution to the recent scholarly discourse on how medieval people interacted with, justified, or condemned … Continue reading

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Michael Lower, The Tunis Crusade of 1270: A Mediterranean History (Phillips)

Michael Lower The Tunis Crusade of 1270: A Mediterranean History (Oxford University Press, 2018) ) xvi + 216 pp. £60.00 The crusades of the thirteenth century have received much less scholarly attention than those of the twelfth. Monograph-length studies on … Continue reading

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Michael S Fulton, Artillery in the age of the Crusades: Siege warfare and the development of trebuchet technology (Purton)

Michael S Fulton Artillery in the age of the Crusades: Siege warfare and the development of trebuchet technology (Brill, 2018) 514 pp. $156.00/€130.00 Medieval artillery has been a subject of fascination since the nineteenth century. The interest is shared by … Continue reading

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Savy, La Ville Fortifiée de la Guerre de Cent Ans (v. 1345-v. 1395): Armement et Tactique. (Ditcham)

Nicholas Savy La Ville Fortifiée de la Guerre de Cent Ans (v. 1345-v. 1395): Armement et Tactique (Archeodrom, 2017) 256 pp. $24.00/€20.00 Even academically trained historians are apt, however unconsciously, to see the events of the fourteenth century phases of … Continue reading

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Georgios Theotokis and Aysel Yıldız (eds.) A Military History of the Mediterranean Sea: Aspects of War, Diplomacy, and Military Elites (Fissel)

Georgios Theotokis and Aysel Yıldız (eds.) A Military History of the Mediterranean Sea: Aspects of War, Diplomacy, and Military Elites (Brill, 2018) XV + 473 pp. $120.00/€100.00 At first glance, this book’s title conjures up an incongruous image of Fernand … Continue reading

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Acre and its Falls: Studies in the History of a Crusader City, edited by John France (Brian Ditcham)

John France (ed.) Acre and its Falls: Studies in the History of a Crusader City (Brill, 2018) 214 pp. $92.00/€80.00 The fall of Acre to the Mamluk armies in 1291 is conventionally seen as marking a major caesura in the … Continue reading

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Luigi Russo, I crociati in Terrasanta. Una nuova storia (1095-1291) (Petrizzo)

Luigi Russo I crociati in Terrasanta. Una nuova storia (1095-1291) (Rome: Carocci Editore, 2018) 284 pp. €22,00 [The review is also available in Italian below] The study of the crusades has long been a marginal area in the Italian academic … Continue reading

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Alexander Sarantis, Justinian’s Balkan Wars: Campaigning, Diplomacy and Development in Illyricum, Thrace and the Northern World A.D. 527-565 (McMahon)

Alexander Sarantis Justinian’s Balkan Wars: Campaigning, Diplomacy and Development in Illyricum, Thrace and the Northern World A.D. 527-565 (Francis Cairns, 2016) ) xviii + 500 pp. $127.50/£85 Based on the author’s 2006 Oxford doctoral dissertation, Alexander Sarantis has produced a … Continue reading

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Tobias Capwell, Armour of the English Knight 1400–1450 (Mondschein)

Tobias Capwell Armour of the English Knight 1400–1450 (Thomas Del Mar Ltd., 2015) 308 pp. £54.00-£75.00 Tobias Capwell—jouster/re-enactor, curator at the Wallace collection, and author of several other excellent works on arms, armor, and their use—presents the answer to the major … Continue reading

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Military Communities in Late Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Andrew Ayton, eds. Gary P. Baker, Craig L. Lambert, and David Simpkin (Brian Ditcham)

Gary P. Baker, Craig L. Lambert, and David Simpkin Military Communities in Late Medieval England: Essays in Honour of Andrew Ayton (The Boydell Press, 2018) 324 pp. $99.00 The present volume recognises the contribution of Andrew Ayton to the study of … Continue reading

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Linda Paterson (in collaboration with Luca Barbieri, Ruth Harvey and Anna Radaelli and with an appendix by Marjolaine Raguin), Singing the Crusades: French and Occitan Lyric Responses to the Crusading Movements, 1137-1336 (Brian Ditcham)

Linda Paterson Singing the Crusades: French and Occitan Lyric Responses to the Crusading Movements, 1137-1336 (D.S. Brewer, 2018) 350 pp. $99.00 As the rather complex bibliographic citation suggests, this is not a completely standard monographic publication. It is rather the hard … Continue reading

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

Radosław Kotecki, Jacek Maciejewski, and John S. Ott (eds.) Between Sword and Prayer: Warfare and Medieval Clergy in Cultural Perspective (Brill, 2018) 608 pp. $156.00/€135.00 Violence and bloodshed represent glaring violations of the biblical and canonical principles that members of the … Continue reading

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Danielle E.A. Park, Papal Protection and the Crusader: Flanders, Champagne, and the Kingdom of France. 1095-1222 (Brian Ditcham)

Danielle E.A. Park Papal Protection and the Crusader: Flanders, Champagne, and the Kingdom of France. 1095-1222 (Boydell & Brewer, 2018) 254 pp. $99.00 British readers of a certain age may associate the potential problems encountered by absent crusaders with a popular … Continue reading

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Mark Hebblewhite, The Emperor and the Army in the Later Roman Empire 235-395 (Bileta)

Mark Hebblewhite The Emperor and the Army in the Later Roman Empire 235-395 (Routledge, 2017) 240 pp. $149.95 In 1984, J. B. Campbell published a seminal study dealing with the interplay between the Roman emperor and his army. [1] His work … Continue reading

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Simon John, Godfrey of Bouillon: Duke of Lower Lotharingia, Ruler of Latin Jerusalem, c. 1060-1100 (Petrizzo)

Simon John Godfrey of Bouillon: Duke of Lower Lotharingia, Ruler of Latin Jerusalem, c. 1060-1100 (Routledge, 2018) 284 pp. $144.95 Godfrey of Bouillon, who rose to be leader of the First Crusade, died shortly after the conquest of Jerusalem leaving behind … Continue reading

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Joanna Bellis, The Hundred Years War in Literature, 1337-1600 (Smith)

Joanna Bellis The Hundred Years War in Literature, 1337-1600 (Boydell & Brewer, 2016) 312 pp. $99.00 This volume re-examines the reciprocal relationship between language and national identity in late-medieval England, especially in relation to the Hundred Years War. Although scholars have … Continue reading

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Craig M Nakashian, Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England, 1000-1250: Theory and Reality (Lincoln)

Craig M Nakashian Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England, 1000-1250 (Boydell & Brewer, 2016) 304 pp. $99.00 There has been a considerable increase in scholarship investigating the application of legal and canon legal norms in recent years and its impact on larger … Continue reading

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Martin Aurell, The Lettered Knight: Knowledge and Aristocratic Behaviour in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries, tr. Jean-Charles Khalifa and Jeremy Price (Million)

Martin Aurell The Lettered Knight: Knowledge and Aristocratic Behaviour in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (Central European University Press, 2017) 468 pp. $70 In the past two decades, scholars of chivalry have placed the study of imaginative literature (e.g., romances, … Continue reading

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Prowess, Piety, and Public Order in Medieval Society: Studies in Honor of Richard W. Kaeuper, eds. Nakashian and Franke (Muhlberger)

Craig M Nakashian and Daniel P Franke (eds.) Prowess, Piety, and Public Order in Medieval Society: Studies in Honor of Richard W. Kaeuper (Brill, 2017) 436 pp. $114.00/€99,00 This festschrift celebrating the scholarly and professional career of Richard Kaeuper of the … Continue reading

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Richard Wadge, Verneuil, The Second Agincourt 1424: The Battle of the Three Kingdoms (Brian Ditcham)

Richard Wadge Verneuil, The Second Agincourt 1424: The Battle of the Three Kingdoms (The History Press, 2015) 256 pp. £20.00 Looking back in the 1460’s over a military career lasting some forty years, the Burgundian knight and chronicler Jean de … Continue reading

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The Fifth Crusade in Context The Crusading Movement in the Early Thirteenth Century, eds. Mylod, Perry, Smith, and Vandeburie (Phillips)

E.J. Mylod, Guy Perry, Thomas W. Smith, Jan Vandeburie (eds.) The Fifth Crusade in Context The Crusading Movement in the Early Thirteenth Century (Routledge, 2017) 240 pp. $149.95/£110. 2017 marks the 800th anniversary of the year that the first contingents of … Continue reading

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Bernard S. Bachrach and David S. Bachrach, Warfare in Medieval Europe c. 400-c.1453 (Titterton)

Bernard S. Bachrach and David S. Bachrach Warfare in Medieval Europe c. 400-c.1453 (Routledge, 2017) 410 pp. hb- $150.00, pb- $44.95 With television shows such as Game of Thrones and a host of video games testifying to the enduring appeal … Continue reading

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Desperta Ferro Antigua y Medieval n.º32: La Guerra de los Cien Años (Albright)

Desperta Ferro Antigua y Medieval n.º32: La Guerra de los Cien Años (I) (Desperta Ferro Ediciones, 2016) 7€ For understandable reasons, the Hundred Years’ War is a particularly noteworthy subject within English and French language historiography concerning the late Middle … Continue reading

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Thom Richardson, The Tower Armoury in the Fourteenth Century (Fissel)

Thom Richardson The Tower Armoury in the Fourteenth Century (Royal Armouries, 2016) 254 pp. £40.00 Thom Richardson, who retired after a thirty-year career with the Royal Armouries which culminated in his service as Deputy Master, succeeds in writing a solidly … Continue reading

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Andrew D. Buck, The Principality of Antioch and its Frontiers in the Twelfth Century (Albright)

Andrew D. Buck The Principality of Antioch and its Frontiers in the Twelfth Century (Boydell, 2017) 296 pp. $99.00 The Principality of Antioch was one of the more obscure Crusader states and it has received comparatively less attention than, for … Continue reading

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Daniel M.G. Gerrard, The Church at War: The Military Activities of Bishops, Abbots and Other Clergy in England (Bachrach)

Daniel M.G. Gerrard The Church at War: The Military Activities of Bishops, Abbots and Other Clergy in England, c. 900-1200 (Routledge, 2016) pp. xiv and 320, $149.95 The problem of the involvement of clerics in war exercised ecclesiastical authorities as … Continue reading

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Craig M Nakashian, Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England, 1000-1250 (Duggan)

Craig M Nakashian Warrior Churchmen of Medieval England, 1000-1250 (Boydell & Brewer, 2016) 304 pp. $99.00 As with the Crusades, studies of the clergy and violence in the Middle Ages seem to be booming these days, and this is an interesting … Continue reading

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Craig Taylor and Jane Taylor (trs.), The Chivalric Biography of Boucicaut (Albright)

Craig Taylor and Jane H.M. Taylor, tr. The Chivalric Biography of Boucicaut, Jean II Le Meingre (Boydell, 2016) 244 pp. $99.00 Fair-minded English-language readers interested in the Hundred Years’ War may often have cause to lament the fact that there are … Continue reading

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Environment, Society, and the Black Death, ed. by Per Lagerås (Albright)

Per Lagerås, ed. Environment, Society, and the Black Death (Casemate, 2016) 208 pp. £36.00 The subtitle of this book promises an interdisciplinary approach to the late-medieval crisis in Sweden that resulted from the outbreak of the black death, and it delivers … Continue reading

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Hospitaller Piety and Crusader Propaganda, eds. Theresa M. Vann and Donald J. Kagay (Albright)

Theresa M. Vann and Donald J. Kagay, eds. Hospitaller Piety and Crusader Propaganda (Routledge, 2015) 393 pp. $139.95 Admittedly, I did not know exactly what I was reading when I requested this book. From the title alone, I expected a scholarly … Continue reading

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Baronial Reform and Revolution in England, 1258-1267, ed. Adrian Jobson (Albright)

Adrian Jobson, ed. Baronial Reform and Revolution in England, 1258-1267 (Boydell & Brewer, 2016) 284 pp. $99.00 For many people who study English history, it is thought that the importance of the burgesses in the English parliament goes back to the … Continue reading

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Steven Muhlberger, Charny’s Men-at-Arms: Questions Concerning The Joust, Tournaments and War (Hass)

Steven Muhlberger Charny’s Men-at-Arms: Questions Concerning The Joust, Tournaments and War (Freelance, 2014) 111 pp. $25.00 Written around 1350, Geoffrey de Charny’s Questions Concerning the Joust, Tournaments and War (Les demandes pour la joute, les tournois et la guerre) consists of … Continue reading

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Iain A. MacInnes, Scotland’s Second War of Independence (Ditcham)

Iain A. MacInnes Scotland’s Second War of Independence (Boydell & Brewer, 2016) 275 pp. $99.00/£60.00 The Second Scottish War of Independence has long been something of a historical stepchild. In English historiography it tends to be remembered, if at all, as … Continue reading

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Alfred H. Burne, The Crecy War: A Military History Of The Hundred Years War From 1337 to the Peace of Bretigny in 1360 (Albright)

Alfred H. Burne The Crecy War: A Military History Of The Hundred Years War From 1337 to the Peace of Bretigny in 1360 (Pen & Sword, 1955; Reissue 2016) 366 pp. £12.99 This book, written shortly after World War II, forms … Continue reading

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Nicholas A. Gribit, Henry of Lancaster’s Expedition To Aquitaine, 1345-1346 (Albright)

Nicholas A. Gribit Henry of Lancaster’s Expedition To Aquitaine, 1345-1346 (Boydell, 2016) 373 pp. $99.99 For most students of the Hundred Years’ War, thoughts of campaigns and battles leads to pondering about Crècy, Agincourt, or perhaps Poitiers. Yet this book-length treatment … Continue reading

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The Crusades and Visual Culture eds. Elizabeth Lapina, April Jehan Morris, Susanna A. Throop, and Laura J. Whatley (Ilko)

Elizabeth Lapina, April Jehan Morris, Susanna A. Throop, and Laura J. Whatley (eds) The Crusades and Visual Culture (Ashgate, 2015) 286 pp. $109.95 Contrary to the ample scholarship on the political, military, and diplomatic aspects of the crusades, the research on … Continue reading

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Conor Whately, Battles and Generals: Combat, Culture, and Didacticism in Procopius’ Wars (McMahon)

Conor Whately Battles and Generals: Combat, Culture, and Didacticism in Procopius’ Wars (Brill, 2015) 292 pp. $149.99 Conor Whately’s Battles and Generals: Combat, Culture, and Didacticism in Procopius’ Wars is an important book for the study of late antique historiography and … Continue reading

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Phillip Matyszak, Imperial General: The Remarkable Career of Petellius Cerialis (Roberts)

Phillip Matyszak Imperial General: The Remarkable Career of Petellius Cerialis (Pen & Sword, 2011) 188 pp. £19.99 If one were to create a list of the most researched periods in Roman history, the Year of the Four Emperors would receive hardly … Continue reading

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Gareth C. Sampson, Rome Spreads Her Wings: Territorial Expansion Between the Punic Wars (Albright)

Gareth C. Sampson Rome Spreads Her Wings: Territorial Expansion Between the Punic Wars (Pen & Sword, 2016) 278 pp. £25.00 Turning his attention a few centuries before the material for his previous book on the defeat of Rome against Persia at … Continue reading

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Sara Cockerill, Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen (Claussen)

Sara Cockerill Eleanor of Castile: The Shadow Queen (Amberley, 2015) 414 pp. £14.99 Medieval queens consort are typically presented, even in medieval chronicles as supporting figures in the greater narratives focusing on their husbands, sons, and fathers. Eleanor of Castile, the … Continue reading

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Guilhem Pépin, Françoise Lainé and Frédéric Boutoulle (eds), Routiers et Mercenaires Pendant la Guerre de Cent Ans; Hommage à Jonathan Sumption (Ditcham)

Guilhem Pépin, Françoise Lainé and Frédéric Boutoulle (eds), Routiers et Mercenaires Pendant la Guerre de Cent Ans; Hommage à Jonathan Sumption (Ausonius, Bordeaux, 2016) 357 pp. €25.00 The Anglophone historiography of the Hundred Years War once focused primarily on the great … Continue reading

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Mike Carr, Merchant Crusaders in the Aegean, 1291-1352 (Fissel)

Mike Carr, Merchant Crusaders in the Aegean, 1291-1352 (Boydell, 2015) 214 pp. $99.00 Mike Carr has written a monograph designed to “cut across the sub-genres of economic and crusading history” (p 6). He qualifies and corrects common assumptions about the conduct … Continue reading

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Scott Lomax, Nottingham: The Buried Past Of A Historic City Revealed (Albright)

Scott Lomax, Nottingham: The Buried Past Of A Historic City Revealed (Pen & Sword Archaeology, 2013) 176 pp. $24.95 In reading this book, it quickly becomes clear how important it is that the author himself has been involved with the … Continue reading

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Beyond the Gates of Fire: New Perspectives on the Battle of Thermopylae, eds. Christopher Matthew and Matthew Trundle (Albright)

Christopher Matthew and Matthew Trundle, eds. Beyond the Gates of Fire: New Perspectives on the Battle of Thermopylae (Pen & Sword, 2013) 228 pp. $22.11 Seeking to capitalize on the contemporary appeal of movies like 300 and the general reputation … Continue reading

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Muhlberger, Royal Jousts at the End of the Fourteenth Century & The Combat of the Thirty (Sposato)

Royal Jousts at the End of the Fourteenth Century, Deeds of Arms Series 1 The Combat of the Thirty, Deeds of Arms Series 2 ed. and trans. by Steven Muhlberger (Freelance Academy Press, 2012) I- viii, 88 pp., $24.95; II- … Continue reading

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Michael Livingston and Kelly DeVries, eds, The Battle of Crécy: A Casebook (Smith)

Michael Livingston and Kelly DeVries, eds. The Battle of Crécy: A Casebook (Liverpool University Press, 2015) 524 + xiv pp. £75 / $120 (hardcover), £25 / $39.95 (paperback) Nothing quite encapsulates for us the seemingly pervasive wars of the later … Continue reading

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Richard Kaeuper, Kings, Knights and Bankers: The collected articles of Richard W. Kaeuper, ed. by Christopher Guyol (Muhlberger)

Richard W. Kaeuper Kings, Knights and Bankers: The collected articles of Richard W. Kaeuper, ed. by Christopher Guyol (Brill, 2016) xv + 392 pp. $172 Kings, Knights and Bankers collects a substantial amount of material from the scholarship of Richard … Continue reading

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Hussein Fancy, The Mercenary Mediterranean: Sovereignty, Religion and Violence in the Medieval Crown of Aragon (Brian Ditcham)

Hussein Fancy The Mercenary Mediterranean: Sovereignty, Religion and Violence in the Medieval Crown of Aragon (University of Chicago Press, 2016) xv + 310 pp. $40.00/£ 26.00 In 1284 King Pere II of Aragon faced a major crisis. His attempts to … Continue reading

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Toni Mount, Dragon’s Blood & Willow Bark: The Mysteries of Medieval Medicine (Albright)

Toni Mount Dragon’s Blood & Willow Bark: The Mysteries of Medieval Medicine (Amberley, 2014) 304pp.  $34.95 The author of this entertaining and somewhat gossipy book about medieval medicine explains her purpose for writing the book towards the end of this … Continue reading

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Timothy Venning, An Alternative History of Britain: The English Civil War (Jasmin Ditcham)

Timothy Venning An Alternative History of Britain: The English Civil War (Pen & Sword, 2015) 285pp.  $39.95 The value of the ‘what if’ school of historical research is still much debated among historians and Timothy Venning’s volume belongs firmly in … Continue reading

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Sue Parrill and William B. Robison, The Tudors on Film and Television (Albright)

Sue Parrill and William B. Robison The Tudors on Film and Television (McFarland, 2013) 352pp.  $75.00 A dense and challenging read, this book provides a focused and intense analysis of representations of Tudors in film and television that demonstrates a … Continue reading

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