Ralph Moffatt
Medieval Arms and Armour: A Sourcebook, Volume II 1400-1450
(The Boydell Press, 2024), 242 pp. $85.00
As someone with a longstanding investment in the history of the crossbow, my interest in Ralph Moffat’s series of sourcebooks was practically preordained and I am happy to report that there is certainly plenty within the covers of the latest volume to excite me. Several avenues of future research occurred to me as I read through its pages, and I expect that students of other aspects of medieval arms, armour, and material culture will have similar experiences with this excellent book. They will not be the only ones, however, as the information contained within the second Medieval Arms and Armour volume has something to teach any medievalist, regardless of their chosen specialty. At a fundamental level, sourcebooks and translations are an essential and often underappreciated body of work for making history more accessible to a wider audience, and in doing so spreading specialist knowledge to more and more people. In the second volume in his series of sourcebooks Ralph Moffat has shown just how valuable this work is and in doing so expands on our knowledge of medieval society and culture.
The book contains 109 transcribed, and mostly translated, written sources – that figure may actually be higher as some of the individual numbered items included two or more sources – and an extensive glossary of terms including photos of examples. Included are many transcribed inventories, of course, which give a snapshot of the wide terminology used in medieval records as well as frequently recording the cost of individual items. These are an incredibly valuable source, of course, but they can drag when reading them over and over. Thankfully, Medieval Arms and Armour also includes many more fascinating bits, including a recipe for varnish, a description of Irish mercenaries at the siege of Rouen, and descriptions of the missile wounds suffered by Joan of Arc and Henry V, among others. There is something in this book for anyone with a passing interest in the material of medieval war.
First and foremost, Medieval Arms and Armour is a showcase for the diversity of medieval weapons and armour. While interesting on their own for showing what weapons and armour were used contemporarily, the possible earliest origins for some types, and the costs and repair requirements for them these sources often also provide a window into the wider material culture. They can further enhance our understanding of the bureaucracy and everyday economy of warfare in late medieval Europe. This wider material culture aspect of the sources helps to ensure that Medieval Arms and Armour has something to offer everyone, not just specialists in medieval weaponry. While the latter will get the most out of these sources, most medieval scholars and students would benefit from spending at least an hour or two flicking through its pages.
The choice to include the sources’ text in their original language alongside translations elevates Medieval Arms and Armour to be among the very best sourcebooks. Especially in a field filled with fraught terminology like historical weaponry, it is essential to have access to the exact original wording if the source is to be used for serious academic work. The translations also provide their own scholarly interpretation, as the author has had to make important decisions, explained in the book’s introduction, about how to parse and present many of the documents. Several of the English language documents are presented in their original form, albeit with some clarity in the spelling, which is understandable given the target audience, but there are places where providing a translation into modern English would have made the book more accessible, particularly to students or anyone who doesn’t specialise in medieval English texts.
While the translations and introduction provide useful context for the documents and their meaning, at times I wished there was more commentary and footnotes. Part I of Medieval Arms and Armour presents several interesting questions for readers to consider while reading alongside a justification for how the sources were chosen and presented, and for that it is invaluable, but after reading my fourth or fifth list of weaponry I wished for a little more commentary from the author. That is not to say that there is no information or commentary. I was particularly interested in the suggestion on pages 185-86 that the term “bodkin” used to refer to a type of arrowhead might be a misreading of a primary source and that the actual term was a “byker” head. These kinds of misunderstandings have happened before, and if this argument holds up to further analysis this could have a substantial impact to my specific sub-field. However, this felt a bit buried in the text and it could be overlooked, especially as few other areas in the book make explicit arguments about modern history and terminology.
This is not to detract from the included sources, which are excellent, but some more notes on the context of the original sources as well as possibly footnotes or another section pointed readers towards more similar sources would also have enhanced the book’s utility. The people who already know how to find the full range of sources on these subjects will be those who benefit from it the least, so more tools to provide a launching off point for future research would possibly have served its audience a bit better. It’s a very minor critique – more a request for more from the author than a criticism of what the book contains – but the author clearly has substantial expertise and I would l have loved for him to share more of it.
My final critique is as minor as all those have come before, and it is just that I wish the Illustrated Glossary, Part III in the published book, had come before the written sources. People using Medieval Arms and Armour as a reference will not have any problem with its structure. However, I read the book cover to cover, and even as someone with more than a passing familiarity with medieval weapons and armour I would have benefited greatly from a refresher on what each term means first. As well, each item in the Illustrated Glossary includes a reference for which documents in Part II refer to that item – a wonderful inclusion – and if the glossary were presented first then it would work as a sort of preview for what readers can expect in the book. It would better frame the documents and potentially help to avoid the natural repetitiveness that can happen when reading over inventory after inventory. The structure is the same as the previous volume, though, and presumably is set for the series but I wish I had read Part III before Part II.
Overall, Medieval Arms and Armour is an excellent book and a great addition to the scholarship on medieval military history. More than just a book about arms and armour it captures the elements of society that created, repaired, supplied, and otherwise made their living off the warfare of social elites and those who served them. It is a valuable snapshot of a core element of medieval society.
Stuart Ellis-Gorman
Independent Scholar
[email protected]
