Reading and War in Fifteenth-century England

Reading and War in Fifteenth-century England PDF Author: Catherine Nall
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 1843843242
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
Reading, writing and the prosecution of warfare went hand in hand in the fifteenth century, demonstrated by the wide circulation and ownership of military manuals and ordinances, and the integration of military concerns into a huge corpus of texts; but their relationship has hitherto not received the attention it deserves, a gap which this book remedies, arguing that the connections are vital to the literary culture of the time, and should be recognised on a much wider scale. Beginning with a detailed consideration of the circulation of one of the most important military manuals in the Middle Ages, Vegetius' De re militari, it highlights the importance of considering the activities of a range of fifteenth-century readers and writers in relation to the wider contemporary military culture. It shows how England's wars in France and at home, and the wider rhetoric and military thinking those wars generated, not only shaped readers' responses to their texts but also gave rise to the production of one of the most elaborate, rich and under-recognised pieces of verse of the Wars of the Roses in the form of 'Knyghthode and bataile'. It also indicates how the structure, language and meaning of canonical texts, including those by Lydgate and Malory, were determined by the military culture of the period.

Reading and War in Fifteenth-century England

Reading and War in Fifteenth-century England PDF Author: Catherine Nall
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 1843843242
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
Reading, writing and the prosecution of warfare went hand in hand in the fifteenth century, demonstrated by the wide circulation and ownership of military manuals and ordinances, and the integration of military concerns into a huge corpus of texts; but their relationship has hitherto not received the attention it deserves, a gap which this book remedies, arguing that the connections are vital to the literary culture of the time, and should be recognised on a much wider scale. Beginning with a detailed consideration of the circulation of one of the most important military manuals in the Middle Ages, Vegetius' De re militari, it highlights the importance of considering the activities of a range of fifteenth-century readers and writers in relation to the wider contemporary military culture. It shows how England's wars in France and at home, and the wider rhetoric and military thinking those wars generated, not only shaped readers' responses to their texts but also gave rise to the production of one of the most elaborate, rich and under-recognised pieces of verse of the Wars of the Roses in the form of 'Knyghthode and bataile'. It also indicates how the structure, language and meaning of canonical texts, including those by Lydgate and Malory, were determined by the military culture of the period.

Humanism, Reading, & English Literature 1430-1530

Humanism, Reading, & English Literature 1430-1530 PDF Author: Daniel Wakelin
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 019921588X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
Wakelin uses new methods and theories in the history of reading to uncover fresh information about the design, ownership, and marginalia of books in a neglected period in English literary history. This is the first book to identify the origins of the humanist tradition in England in the 15th century.

Concerns and Preoccupations

Concerns and Preoccupations PDF Author: Linda Clark
Publisher: Boydell Press
ISBN: 1843837579
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 173

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Book Description
This series [pushes] the boundaries of knowledge and [develops] new trends in approach and understanding. ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW

Medieval Warfare 1300–1450

Medieval Warfare 1300–1450 PDF Author: Kelly DeVries
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351918443
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 534

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Book Description
War was epidemic in the late Middle Ages. It affected every land and all peoples from Scotland and Scandinavia in the north to the southern Mediterranean Sea coastlines of Morocco, North Africa, Egypt, and the Middle East in the south, from Ireland and Spain in the west to Russia and Turkey in the east. Nowhere was peaceful for any significant amount of time. The period also saw significant changes in military theory and practice which altered the ways in which campaigns were conducted, battles fought, and sieges laid; and changes in the leadership, recruitment, training, supply and financing of armies. There were changes in the relationship between those waging warfare, from generals to irregular troops, and the society in which they lived and for or against which they fought; the frequency of popular rebellions and the participation in them by townspeople and peasants; changes in the desire to undertake Crusades, and changes in technology, including but not limited to gunpowder weapons. This collection gathers together some of the best published work on these topics. The first section of seven papers show that throughout Europe in the later Middle Ages generals led and armies followed what are usually defined as "modern" strategy and tactics, contrary to popular belief. The second part reprints nine works that examine the often neglected aspects of the process of putting and keeping together a late medieval army. In the third section the authors discuss various ways that warfare in the fourteenth and fifteenth century affected the society of that period. The final sections cover popular rebellions and crusading.

Sovereign Fantasies

Sovereign Fantasies PDF Author: Patricia Clare Ingham
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN: 0812292545
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
During and after the Hundred Years War, English rulers struggled with a host of dynastic difficulties, including problems of royal succession, volatile relations with their French cousins, and the consolidation of their colonial ambitions toward the areas of Wales and Scotland. Patricia Ingham brings these precarious historical positions to bear on readings of Arthurian literature in Sovereign Fantasies, a provocative work deeply engaged with postcolonial and gender theory. Ingham argues that late medieval English Arthurian romance has broad cultural ambitions, offering a fantasy of insular union as an "imagined community" of British sovereignty. The Arthurian legends offer a means to explore England's historical indebtedness to and intimacies with Celtic culture, allowing nobles to repudiate their dynastic ties to France and claim themselves heirs to an insular heritage. Yet these traditions also provided a means to critique English conquest, elaborating the problems of centralized sovereignty and the suffering produced by chivalric culture. Texts such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, the Alliterative Morte Arthure, and Caxton's edition of Malory's Morte Darthur provide what she terms a "sovereign fantasy" for Britain. That is, Arthurian romance offers a cultural means to explore broad political contestations over British identity and heritage while also detailing the poignant complications and losses that belonging to such a community poses to particular regions and subjects. These contestations and complications emerge in exactly those aspects of the tales usually read as fantasy-for example, in the narratives of Arthur's losses, in the prophecies of his return, and in tales that dwell on death, exotic strangeness, uncanny magic, gender, and sexuality. Ingham's study suggests the nuances of the insular identity that is emphasized in this body of literature. Sovereign Fantasies shows the significance, rather than the irrelevance, of medieval dynastic motifs to projects of national unification, arguing that medieval studies can contribute to our understanding of national formations in part by marking the losses produced by union.

The De Re Militari of Vegetius

The De Re Militari of Vegetius PDF Author: Christopher Allmand
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139500961
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 413

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Book Description
Vegetius' late Roman text became a well-known and highly respected 'classic' in the Middle Ages, transformed by its readers into the authority on the waging of war. Christopher Allmand analyses the medieval afterlife of the De Re Militari, tracing the growing interest in the text from the Carolingian world to the late Middle Ages, suggesting how the written word may have influenced the development of military practice in that period. While emphasising that success depended on a commander's ability to outwit the enemy with a carefully selected, well-trained and disciplined army, the De Re Militari inspired other unexpected developments, such as that of the 'national' army, and helped create a context in which the role of the soldier assumed greater social and political importance. Allmand explores the significance of the text and the changes it brought for those who accepted the implications of its central messages.

Martyrs in the Making

Martyrs in the Making PDF Author: D. Piroyansky
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230582745
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 217

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Book Description
This book explores the late medieval English cults which evolved around 'political martyrs'. By examining these cults the richness of political culture is revealed, and insights offered into the ways in which belief, worship, social and civic identities, and political language and practice were continuously constructed and re-constructed.

Shaping the Nation

Shaping the Nation PDF Author: G. L. Harriss
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198228165
Category : England
Languages : en
Pages : 748

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Book Description
The Black Death. The Peasants' Revolt. The Hundred Years War. The War of the Roses. A succession of dramatic social and political events reshaped England in the period 1360 to 1461. In his lucid and penetrating account of this formative period, Gerald Harriss draws on the research of the last thirty years to illuminate late medieval society at its peak, from the triumphalism of Edward III in 1360 to the collapse of Lancastrian rule. The political narrative centers on the deposition of Richard II in 1399 and the establishment of the House of Lancaster, which was in turn overthrown in the Wars of the Roses. Abroad, Henry V's heroic victory at Agincourt in 1415 led to the English conquest of northern France, lasting until 1450. Both produced long term consequences: the first shaped the English constitution up to the Stuart civil war, while the second generated lasting hostility between England and France, and a residual wariness of military intervention in Europe.

Journal of Medieval Military History

Journal of Medieval Military History PDF Author: Clifford J. Rogers
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 1843838605
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
A collection which highlights "the range and richness of scholarship on medieval warfare, military institutions, and cultures of conflict that characterize the field". History 95 [2010] The comprehensive breadth and scope of the Journal are to the fore in this issue, which ranges widely both geographically and chronologically. The subjects of analysis are equally diverse, with three contributions dealing with theCrusades, four with matters related to the Hundred Years War, two with high-medieval Italy, one with the Alans in the Byzantine-Catalan conflict of the early fourteenth century, and one with the wars of the Duke of Cephalonia inWestern Greece and Albania at the turn of the fifteenth century. Topics include military careers, tactics and strategy, the organization of urban defenses, close analysis of chronicle sources, and cultural approaches to the acceptance of gunpowder artillery and the prevalence of military "games" in Italian cities. Contributors: T.S. Asbridge, A. Compton Reeves, Kelly DeVries, Michael Ehrlich, Scott Jessee, Donald Kagay, Savvas Kyriakidis, Randall Moffett, Aldo A. Settia, Charles D. Stanton, Georgios Theotokis, L.J. Andrew Villalon, Anatoly Isaenko.

Just Wars and Moral Victories

Just Wars and Moral Victories PDF Author: David Whetham
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9047424859
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
While recognising the sophistication of the practice of medieval warfare, many people still have problems reconciling the widespread use of surprise and deception with the code of chivalric warfare. Was chivalry really just a meaningless veneer? If true, perhaps more perplexing are the many cases where surprise or deception were not employed and advantages were therefore sacrificed. This work argues that understanding these apparent inconsistencies requires an appreciation of the moral and legal context of medieval strategic thought. Through taking this approach, chivalric warfare can be seen for what it was - a very real framework or system of rules that allowed a result or decision to be reached which could be accepted by both sides.