Darren Baker Crusaders and Revolutionaries of the Thirteenth Century: De Montfort (Pen & Sword, 2020) 272 pp. £12.50 Darren Baker undertakes the task of chronicling the family history of the de Montfort’s, a family whose name was formerly heard in … Continue reading →

Harry Pearson Clash of Crowns: The Battle of Byland 1322 (Pen & Sword, 2024) 192 pp. $42.95 In 2023, I was fortunate enough to participate in an excursion from the International Medieval Congress in Leeds to the site of the … Continue reading →

Clive Hart The Rise and Fall of the Mounted Knight (Pen & Sword, 2022) 276 pp. $42.95 This is a book that addresses a subject with a long history of academic controversy, and does so at several levels. Clive Hart … Continue reading →

Dierk Hagedorn & Daniel Jaquet Dürer’s Fight Book: The Genius of the German Renaissance and his Combat Treatise (Greenhill Books, 2022) 320 pp. $45.00 This is a beautifully produced exemplar of an early modern Fechtbuch manuscript, by two authors who … Continue reading →

Tristan Schmidt Armeeführung und Militäreliten in Byzanz, 1081-1203: Selektion, Hierarchie, Repräsentation (Brepols, 2025), 561 pp. €110.00 Given the relatively specialized nature of Byzantine studies, it is understandable that the organization and practice of war in the Eastern Roman empire remain … Continue reading →

Georgios Theotokis and Mamuka Tsurtsumia (eds.) Nikephoros II Phokas and Warfare in the Tenth Century Byzantine World (Brill, 2025), 464 pp. $160.00 Military history is sometimes disparaged; even more so, the study of “great men”. Nevertheless, contemporary mores cannot diminish … Continue reading →

Axel E.W. Müller Gunpowder Technology in the Fifteenth Century: A Study, Edition and Translation of the Firework Book (The Boydell Press, 2024), 378 pp. $170.00 It would not be quite right to say that the Firework Books are a great … Continue reading →

Oliver H. Creighton, Robert Liddiard, Alan K. Outram, Carly Ameen, Kate Kanne (eds.) Medieval Warhorse. Equestrian Landscapes, Material Culture and Zooarchaeology in Britain, AD 800-1550 (Liverpool University Press, 2025), 464 pp. $64.00 Horses, and warhorses in particular, belong to the … Continue reading →

Kathryn Warner Hugh Despenser the Younger & Edward II: Downfall of a King’s Favourite (Pen & Sword Books, 2018), 232 pp. $20.00 In her introduction, Kathryn Warner states bluntly that, as there has never been a study dedicated to Hugh … Continue reading →

Laurence W. Marvin The Damietta Crusade 1217-1221: A Military History (Oxford University Press, 2024), 272 pp. $100.00 The Damietta Crusade of 1217-21, commonly called the Fifth Crusade, is one frequently overlooked and underrepresented in the historiography of the medieval crusading … Continue reading →

Robert Allred Mysteries of the Norman Conquest: Unravelling the Truth of the Battle of Hastings and the Events of 1066 (Frontline Books, 2022), 248 pp. £18.75 Robert Allred’s Mysteries of the Norman Conquest is an re-examination of one of the … Continue reading →

Martin Alvira Cabrer Muret 1213. La Bataille décisive de la croisade contre les albigeois (Vent-Terral, 2024), 448 pp. €37.00 For roughly a quarter-century, the Spanish historian Martin Alvira Cabrer has produced a steady stream of publications on the Albigensian Crusade, … Continue reading →

Donahue, John F., and Lee L. Brice (eds.) Brill’s Companion to Diet and Logistics in Greek and Roman Warfare (Brill, 2023), 454 pp. $199.00 The expression, “Amateurs talk tactics/strategy; professionals talk logistics,” became widely popular after the failure of Russia’s … Continue reading →

Ralph Moffatt Medieval Arms and Armour: A Sourcebook, Volume III 1450-1500 (The Boydell Press, 2024), 218 pp. $75.00 Ralph Moffat’s third, and one presumes final, sourcebook covers the very end of the Middle Ages, from the end of the Hundred … Continue reading →

Rémy Ambühl and Andy King (eds.) Documenting Warfare: Records of the Hundred Years War, Edited and Translated in Honour of Anne Curry (The Boydell Press, 2024), 428 pp. $160.00 Festschriften can be tricky beasts. To receive one is a great honour, … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

John Carr The Pope’s Army: The Papacy in Diplomacy and War (Pen & Sword, 2019), 306 pp. £25.00 John Carr’s The Pope’s Army: The Papacy in Diplomacy and War offers a comprehensive examination of the military and diplomatic endeavors of … Continue reading →

Matthew P. McDiarmaid and James A.C. Stevenson (eds) Barbour’s Bruce: A! Fredome is a Noble Thing! Volumes I, II, & III (Boydell & Brewer, 2023), 264pp. $170.00 The text commonly known as The Brus stands as one of the most … Continue reading →

Michael S. Fulton Contest for Egypt. The Collapse of the Fatimid Caliphate, the Ebb of Crusader Influence, and the Rise of Saladin (Brill, 2022), 193pp. $142.00 Once the early crusaders had worn down the Fatimid Caliphate’s seaports, they faced little … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

Michael Jones The Black Prince (Pegasus Books, 2018), 488 pp. $19.99 There is little doubt that Edward of Woodstock, known to posterity as the Black Prince, is one of the most celebrated figures of the Middle Ages. His sharp rise … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

Ian Hughes A Military Life of Constantine the Great (Pen & Sword, 2021), 304 pp. $42.95 Ian Hughes is a very prolific author, who produced a significant number of books in the last few years. All of them, similar to … Continue reading →

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 →

Frederico Canaccini 1289: La Battaglia di Campaldino (Editori Laterza, 2021), 238 pp. €20.00 It is a rather sobering thought that the history of Italian, and indeed world, literature might have looked very different. On a sweltering June day in 1289, … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

Timothy May The Mongol Art of War (Pen & Sword, 2007), 214 pp. $24.95 The establishment and military expansion of the Mongol Empire in the 12th and 13th centuries is undoubtedly one of the most consequential events in medieval military … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →

Aldo A. Settia Battaglie Medievali (Il Mulino, Bologna, 2020), 353 pp. €25.00 It is a reasonable guess that any book in English (or indeed French) with a title like “Medieval Battles” would be structured around iconic confrontations like Hastings, Bouvines, … Continue reading →

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 →

Steve Tribble The Crusader Strategy: Defending the Holy Land (Yale, 2020), 376 pp. $35.00 Steve Tibble opens this book at the end of the story and in the midst of action, specifically the skirmish at the Springs of Cresson in … Continue reading →

Marc Hyden Gaius Marius: The Rise and Fall of Rome’s Saviour (Pen & Sword, 2017), 344 pp. $39.95 Marc Hyden’s Gaius Marius: The Rise and Fall of Rome’s Saviour takes as its subject one of the most arresting figures of … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

Michael S Fulton Siege Warfare During the Crusades (Pen & Sword, 2019), 344 pp. $42.95/£30.00 There have been a number of well-respected studies of warfare during the crusades but none in English that cover the siege over the whole two … Continue reading →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →