Tag Archives: France

The Black Prince’s Campaign of 1356 and the Battle of Poitiers According to the Monk of Malmesbury’s Eulogium historiarum, ca. 1366

The Black Prince’s Campaign of 1356 and the Battle of Poitiers According to the Monk of Malmesbury’s Eulogium historiarum, ca. 1366.[1]  Translated by the Turma ad Latinam of the United States Military Academy (Cadets Cammack Y. W. Shepler, Paul Conroy, … Continue reading

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‘Mount the War-Horses, Take your Lance in your Grip . . .’ Logistics Preparations for the Gascon Campaign of 1294

In June of 1294 Edward I decided to embark on the most ambitious and desperate campaign of his reign – the recovery of the Gascon lands seized by Philip IV, king of France. Continue reading

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Profit and Loss in the Hundred Years War: the Subcontracts of Sir John Strother, 1374

Profit and Loss in the Hundred Years War: the Subcontracts of Sir John Strother, 1374 By Simon Walker The Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Studies, Vol.58 (1985) Among the Swinburne manuscripts in the Northumberland County Record Office is preserved a … Continue reading

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Killing or Clemency? Ransom, Chivalry and Changing Attitudes to Defeated Opponents in Britain and Northern France, 7-12th centuries

Killing or Clemency? Ransom, Chivalry and Changing Attitudes to Defeated Opponents in Britain and Northern France, 7-12th centuries Matthew J. Strickland Krieg im Mittelalter (2001) On 25 September, 1066, the forces of King Harold II of England fell upon the … Continue reading

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Ships and Fleets in Anglo-French warfare, 1337-1360

Ships and Fleets in Anglo-French warfare, 1337-1360 Timothy J. Runyan American Neptune: v.46 (1986) The most consuming military and naval conflict of later medieval Europe was the Hundred Years’ War. Beginning in 1337 and continuing until 1453 this struggle involved … Continue reading

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The Military Revolutions of the Hundred Years’ War

The Military Revolutions of the Hundred Years’ War Clifford J. Rogers The Journal of Military History: v.57 (1993) The Military Revolution The concept of the “military revolution” first entered the historical literature with Michael Roberts’s famous inaugural lecture, “The Military … Continue reading

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Dover Castle and the Great Siege of 1216

Dover Castle and the Great Siege of 1216 John Goodall Chateau Gaillard XIX: Actes du Colloque International de Graz, 1998 (2000) Commanding the shortest sea crossing between England and the Continent, Dover Castle was a vital strategic and communication lynch-pin … Continue reading

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Philippe de Remy’s description of a fictionalised tournament at Ressons-Gournay (c.1241)

Translated by David Crouch Philip de Remy (d.c.1264) was a poet, novelist and knight from the region of the northern Ile-de France. He was in royal service by the 1230s, being bailiff of the Gatinais from Count Robert of Artois, … Continue reading

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The Siege of Termes (1210), according to the Historia Albigensis

Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay is one of the most important sources for the Albigensian Crusades. It is likely that he traveled with the Crusader armies of Simon de Montfort, and was an eyewitness to many of the events he describes. … Continue reading

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The Siege of Termes (1210), according to the Song of the Cathar Wars

The flourishing of a dualist heresy in Languedoc at the end of the twelfth century, known as Catharism, led to conflict with the Catholic Church. After the murder of a Papal legate in 1208, Pope Innocent III ordered a crusade … Continue reading

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The Siege of Toulouse in 1217-18, according to The Chronicle of William of Puylaurens

William of Puylaurens covered events relating to the history of Languedoc from the twelfth century to the mid-1270s.  The main subject of his history is the Albigensian Crusade, which lasted from 1209 to 1229.  Along with the Historia Albigensis of … Continue reading

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The Origin of the Second Crusade

The Origin of the Second Crusade George Ferzoco The Second Crusade and the Cistercians (1992) In seeking to establish the formal origin of the Second Crusade, one finds that in Vetralla on December 1,1145, Pope Eugenius III issued the crusading … Continue reading

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Looking Back on the Second Crusade: Some Late Twelfth-Century English Perspectives

Looking Back on the Second Crusade: Some Late Twelfth-Century English Perspectives Peter W. Edbury The Second Crusade and the Cistercians It was as long ago as 1953 that Giles Constable published his seminal study, “The Second Crusade as seen by … Continue reading

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Two Poems by the Twelfth-Century Knight-Troubadour Bertran de Born

Bertran de Born (c.1140-1202), lord of Autofort, was one of the most famous French troubadours of the Twelfth century. His poetry covers a wide variety of topics, including warfare. Be’m plai lo gais temps de pascor[1] Well do I love … Continue reading

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The Battle of Gisors, 1198, according to Roger of Hoveden

The Annals of Roger of Hoveden provide an account of the Battle of Gisors between Richard I of England and Philip Augustus of France, which took place in 1198. Hoveden writes down two versions of this battle, and includes a … Continue reading

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Warfare in England and France in 1173-74, according to William of Newburgh

William of Newburgh (d.1198) was one of England’s most important historians in the twelfth century.  In the following section, he details the war that broke out in 1173 between Henry II against his son, Henry, called ‘The Younger’.  Henry II … Continue reading

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The Use of Gunpowder Weaponry by and Against Joan of Arc During the Hundred Years War

The Use of Gunpowder Weaponry by and Against Joan of Arc During the Hundred Years War Kelly DeVries (Loyola University) War and Society: v.14 (1996) Abstract This article explores the possibility of a link between Joan of Arc and the … Continue reading

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Contemporary Views of Edward III’s failure at the Siege of Tournai

Contemporary Views of Edward III’s failure at the Siege of Tournai Kelly DeVries Nottingham Medieval Studies: v.39 (1995) The naval battle of Sluys, the first major conflict of the Hundred years War, was fought on 24 June 1340. By the … Continue reading

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God, leadership, Flemings and Archery: Contemporary Perspectives of Victory and Defeat at the Battle of Sluys 1340

God, leadership, Flemings and Archery: Contemporary Perspectives of Victory and Defeat at the Battle of Sluys 1340 Kelly DeVries American Neptune: v.55 (1995) Most historians of the Hundred Years War see the battle of Sluys, fought on June 24, 1340, … Continue reading

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The Nationality of Men-at-Arms serving in English Armies in Normandy and the pays de conquete, 1415-1450: A Preliminary Survey

The Nationality of Men-at-Arms serving in English Armies in Normandy and the pays de conquete, 1415-1450: A Preliminary Survey Anne Curry (University of Reading) Reading Medieval Studies: 18 (1992) This article is based on a computer assisted study of muster … Continue reading

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Carolingian Arms and Armor in the Ninth Century

Carolingian Arms and Armor in the Ninth Century Simon Coupland Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies: v.21 (1990) This study seeks to ascertain the nature of the armament carried by the Carolingian army in the ninth century by examining the written, … Continue reading

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La musique militaire dans le fonstionnement des armees: l’example francais (v.1300-v.1550)

La musique militaire dans le fonstionnement des armees: l’example francais (v.1300-v.1550) Philippe Contamine From Crecy to Mohacs: Warfare in the Late Middle Ages (1997) Abstract Mon propos s’adresse à <<tous ceux qui prennent plaisir a lire et escorter les faits … Continue reading

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Warrior Neighbours: Alfonso el Sabio and Crusader Valencia: an Archival Case Study in His International Relations

Warrior Neighbours: Alfonso el Sabio and Crusader Valencia: an Archival Case Study in His International Relations Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies v.21 (1990) Abstract The thirteenth century was a turning point in the physical evolution of western European countries. As … 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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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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Potter — Monarchs of the Renaissance (Albright)

Philip J. Potter Monarchs of the Renaissance: The Lives and Reigns of 42 European Kings and Queens Jefferson, South Carolina: McFarland, 2012. 351pp. $40.00. ISBN 0-7864-6806-5. On the back cover of this book, there is a quotation that is belied … Continue reading

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Episodes of Medieval Warfare from the History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours

One of the most important sources from the early medieval period is The History of the Franks, written in the late sixth century by Gregory of Tours, the bishop of Tours for twenty-one years and an important political figure in the Merovingian kingdom. Continue reading

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The tournament at Lagny-sur-Marne, from the History of William the Marshal

The following text details the tournament held at Lagni-sur-Marne, in 1179. Organized by Henry, count palatine of Champagne and Brie, this tournament was unusually large, with the writer of our history estimating that 3,000 knights attending. Continue reading

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Payments made to the men sent by the City to aid the King in his war with France (1338)

Paid to 40 men-at-arms for their arms and wages, 60 pounds.  Paid to the 60 archers, for their wages, bows and arrows, and other necessaries, 30 pounds.  Paid to the men-at-arms and archers aforesaid, as a courtesy, by order of … Continue reading

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Alessandro Beneditti, The Battle of Fornovo (1495)

Charles VIII, attempting to seize control of southern Italy for use as a platform for war against the Ottoman Turks, lead the most powerful army in Europe at that time down through Italy, defeating one Italian province after another. Continue reading

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Letter from Aymeric, Patriarch of Antioch, to Louis VII, King of France (1164)

In the following letter, the Patriarch of Antioch describes events in the Crusader States that took place in 1164.  To describe briefly, the King of Jersualem, Amalric I, joined forces with a Kurdish emir, Shirkuh, to besiege the Egyptian city … Continue reading

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Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Battle of Agincourt, 1415

This account of the famous battle of Agincourt comes from Enguerrand de Monstrelet (d.1453), governor of Cambrai and supporter of the French crown. CHAPTER CXLIII – THE KING OF FRANCE COLLECTS A GREAT BODY OF MEN-AT-ARMS FROM ALL PARTS OF … Continue reading

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TMR 12.02.22 Aurell, Le chevalier lettré (Livingstone)

Aurell, Martin. Le chevalier lettré: Savior et conduite de l’aristocratie aux XIIe et XIIIe siècles. Fayard: Paris, 2011. Pp. 540. EUR 26. ISBN: 978-2-213-66233-6. Reviewed by Amy Livingstone, Wittenberg University, [email protected] Available at The Medieval Review TMR 12.02.22

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