Journal of Medieval Military History

Volume 5

Like the earlier volumes of The Journal of Medieval Military History, this one includes articles covering the full chronological range of the Middle Ages and using a wide variety of approaches-including literary, prosopographical, technological, and narrative-based analysis– to the broad topic of medieval warfare. The journal has developed a reputation for fostering debate over key issues in medieval military history, and that tradition continues here with Bernard Bachrach’s argument against what he terms the “German-maximalist” idea that Early Medieval military structures and practices were sharply different from Late Antique ones. Michael Ehrlich challenges some common views of the Hattin campaign of 1187, while Nicholas S. Kanellopoulos and Joanne K. Lekea analyze the little-known Byzantine war against Bulgaria in 1254-1256. Richard Kaeuper’s article (based on his De Re Militari special lecture at the International Congress of Medieval Studies) emphasizes the value of chansons de geste and other “romance” material for understanding the mentalité of the martial lay aristocracy of medieval Christendom, and Steven C. Hughes explores how the linkage between courage, prowess and gentlemanly honor expressed itself in the peculiar form of the military duel in Italy, tracing developments from the late medieval period through the early modern era. The factors that motivated gentlemen to fight-in open warfare rather than personal combats-are also at the heart of another contribution, Malcom Mercer’s study of the composition of the Lancastrian forces at the Battle of Tewkesbury. Readers more interested in material developments than cultural ones will welcome the studies by Mark Dupuy and Michael Basista, which cast light on the development of the crossbow and the trebuchet.

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Contents

• Literature as Essential Evidence for Understanding Chivalry, by Richard W. Kaeuper
• The Battle of Hattin: A Chronicle of a Defeat Foretold?, by Michael Ehrlich
• Hybrid or Counterpoise? A Study of Transitional Trebuchets, by Michael Basista
• The Struggle between the Nicaean Empire and the Bulgarian State (1254-1256): towards a Revival of Byzantine Military Tactics under Theodore II Laskaris, by Nicholas S. Kanellopoulos and Joanne K. Lekea
• A “Clock-and-Bow” Story: Late Medieval Technology from Monastic Evidence, by Mark Dupuy
• The Strength of Lancastrian Loyalism during the Readeption: Gentry Participation at the Battle of Tewkesbury, by Malcolm Mercer
• Soldiers and Gentlemen: The Rise of the Duel in Renaissance Italy, by Steven C. Hughes
• Debate: “A Lying Legacy” Revisited: The Abels-Morillo Defense of Discontinuity, by Bernard S. Bachrach