War and Combat, 1150-1270

War and Combat, 1150-1270 PDF Author: Catherine Hanley
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 9780859917810
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 278

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Book Description
An investigation of the depiction of warfare in contemporary writings, in both fictional narratives and factual accounts. War and combat were significant factors in the lives of all conditions of people during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; thousands of men, women and children prepared for, engaged in and suffered from the consequences of almost endemic armed conflict. However, while war and combat feature prominently in many of the forms of literature written at the time, the theme of warfare in some types of narrative source remains a relatively under-studied area. This book offers an investigation of the depiction of warfare in contemporary writings, in both fictional narratives and factual accounts, aiming to bridge the gap between the disciplines of literature and military history. Using both established sources and the latest research, the author examines how the application of what is now known about the practical and technological aspects of medieval warfare can aid us in our understanding of literature. She also demonstrates, via an investigation of a corpus of Old French chronicles, epics and romances, how the judicious study of sources that are not always considered reliable can, in turn, inform us about contemporary perceptions of, and attitudes towards, war and other forms of armed combat. Dr Catherine Hanley was formerly a Research Associate in the Department of French at the University of Sheffield; she is now a freelance editor and historicalnovelist.

War and Combat, 1150-1270

War and Combat, 1150-1270 PDF Author: Catherine Hanley
Publisher: DS Brewer
ISBN: 9780859917810
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 278

Get Book Here

Book Description
An investigation of the depiction of warfare in contemporary writings, in both fictional narratives and factual accounts. War and combat were significant factors in the lives of all conditions of people during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; thousands of men, women and children prepared for, engaged in and suffered from the consequences of almost endemic armed conflict. However, while war and combat feature prominently in many of the forms of literature written at the time, the theme of warfare in some types of narrative source remains a relatively under-studied area. This book offers an investigation of the depiction of warfare in contemporary writings, in both fictional narratives and factual accounts, aiming to bridge the gap between the disciplines of literature and military history. Using both established sources and the latest research, the author examines how the application of what is now known about the practical and technological aspects of medieval warfare can aid us in our understanding of literature. She also demonstrates, via an investigation of a corpus of Old French chronicles, epics and romances, how the judicious study of sources that are not always considered reliable can, in turn, inform us about contemporary perceptions of, and attitudes towards, war and other forms of armed combat. Dr Catherine Hanley was formerly a Research Associate in the Department of French at the University of Sheffield; she is now a freelance editor and historicalnovelist.

War and Memory at the Time of the Fifth Crusade

War and Memory at the Time of the Fifth Crusade PDF Author: Megan Cassidy-Welch
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271085126
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
In this book, Megan Cassidy-Welch challenges the notion that using memories of war to articulate and communicate collective identity is exclusively a modern phenomenon. War and Memory at the Time of the Fifth Crusade explores how and why remembering war came to be culturally meaningful during the early thirteenth century. By the 1200s, discourses of crusading were deeply steeped in the language of memory: crusaders understood themselves to be acting in remembrance of Christ’s sacrifice and following in the footsteps of their ancestors. At the same time, the foundational narratives of the First Crusade began to be transformed by vernacular histories and the advent of crusading romance. Examining how the Fifth Crusade was remembered and commemorated during its triumphs and immediately after its disastrous conclusion, Cassidy-Welch brings a nuanced perspective to the prevailing historiography on war memory, showing that remembering war was significant and meaningful centuries before the advent of the nation-state. This thoughtful and novel study of the Fifth Crusade shows it to be a key moment in the history of remembering war and provides new insights into medieval communication. It will be invaluable reading for scholars interested in the Fifth Crusade, medieval war memory, and the use of war memory.

War and Violence in the Western Sources for the First Crusade

War and Violence in the Western Sources for the First Crusade PDF Author: Sini Kangas
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004693599
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 437

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Book Description
Medieval Westerners accepted killing for religion and praised the outcome of the First Crusade (1096-1099). At the same time, their attitude to violence was ambivalent. Theologians shunned the practical use of force, while the warrior aristocracy valued the capacity for physical destruction. In the absence of theological doctrine on the practicalities of holy warfare, the first crusaders draw their ideas about killing from diverse and sometimes conflicting traditions. This book answers questions about how religious violence was described, justified and remembered in the sources of the First Crusade. What was the relation between faith, convention, and action?

Armies of Feudal Europe 1066-1300

Armies of Feudal Europe 1066-1300 PDF Author: Ian Heath
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1326686216
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
This is a reprint of the 1989 second edition of this book in our "Armies and Enemies" series. It includes details of armies from Andalusia, Bulgaria, England, Estonia, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, the Ordensstaat of the Teutonic Knights, the Earldom of Orkney, the Papal State, Poland, Prussia, Lithuania, the Low Countries, Kievan Russia, Scandinavia, Scotland, Serbia, Sicily, Spain, Venice, Wales and Wendland.

Soldiers' Lives through History - The Middle Ages

Soldiers' Lives through History - The Middle Ages PDF Author: Clifford J. Rogers
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313042012
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
The most dangerous arms in the world are those of horse and lance, because there is no means of stopping them, wrote a 15th-century commander, Jean de Bueil. From the fall of the Roman Empire to the end of the 15th century, the men (and a few women in disguise) who reported for military service or who led other men, scouted and skirmished, plundered and burned. If they did not slaughter the peasants they met, they took them prisoner to be sold as slaves or ransomed at heavy cost. It was a brutal time. Rogers illuminates the history of medieval soldiers in wartime and in peacetime, describing the lives of those who attacked, and those who defended, the fortified castles, towns, and lands of Europe and beyond in the Middle Age.

Kings, Knights and Bankers

Kings, Knights and Bankers PDF Author: Richard Kaeuper
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004302654
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
In Kings, Knights, and Bankers, Richard Kaeuper presents a lifetime of medieval research on Italian financiers, English kingship, chivalric violence, and knightly piety. His foundational work on public finance connects Italian merchant banking with the growth of state power at the turn of the fourteenth century. Subsequent articles on law and order offer measured contributions to the continuing debate over the growth of governance and its relationship with contemporary disorder. He also convincingly proves that knights, the foremost military professionals of the medieval world, considered their prowess as both a source of honor and of sanctification. All interested in the history of medieval chivalry, governance, piety, and public finance can learn from this impressive collection of articles.

Prowess, Piety, and Public Order in Medieval Society

Prowess, Piety, and Public Order in Medieval Society PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004341099
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 433

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Book Description
Richard Kaeuper’s career has examined three salient concerns of medieval society - knightly prowess and violence, lay and religious piety, and public order and government - most directly in three of his monographs: War, Justice, and Public Order (Oxford, 1988), Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe (Oxford, 1999), and Holy Warriors (Penn, 2009). Kaeuper approaches historical questions with an eye towards illuminating the inherent complexities in human ideas and ideals, and he has worked to untangle the various threads holding together cultural constructs such as chivalry, licit violence, and lay piety. The present festschrift in his honor brings together scholars from across disciplines to engage with those same concerns in medieval society from a variety of perspectives. Contributors are: Bernard S. Bachrach, Elizabeth A.R. Brown, Samuel A. Claussen, David Crouch, Thomas Devaney, Paul Dingman, Daniel P. Franke, Richard Firth Green, Christopher Guyol, John D. Hosler, William Chester Jordan, Craig M. Nakashian, W. Mark Ormrod, Russell A. Peck, Anthony J. Pollard, Michael Prestwich, Sebastian Rider-Bezerra, Leah Shopkow, and Peter W. Sposato.

Bloodied Banners

Bloodied Banners PDF Author: Robert W. Jones
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
ISBN: 1843835614
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Groundbreaking reassessment of the role played by armour, weapons and heraldry in medieval warfare, showing their cultural as well as military significance. `A penetrating investigation of medieval martial display... The reader is struck by its originality, and by its sophisticated and critical interpretative engagement with historical and literary sources. Particularly notable is the author's subtle exploration of the function of armour: not only its practical role, but as a form of display... A refreshingly different approach to the world of the medieval combatant and his place within that "host of many colours" that was a medieval army, it adds a new dimension to our understanding of medieval warfare.' Dr ANDREW AYTON, Senior Lecturer in History, University of Hull The medieval battlefield was a place of spectacle and splendour. The fully-armed knight, bedecked in his vivid heraldic colours, mounted on his great charger, riding out beneath his brightly-painted banner, is a stock image of war and the warrior in the middle ages. Yet too often the significance of such display has been ignored or dismissed as the empty preening of a militaristic social elite. Drawing on a broad range of source material and using innovative historical approaches, this book completely re-evaluates the way that such men and their weapons were viewed, showing that martial display was a vital part of the way in which war was waged in the middle ages. It maintains that heraldry and livery served not only to advertise a warrior's family and social ties, but also announced his presence on the battlefield and right to wage war. It also considers the physiological and psychological effect of wearing armour, both on the wearer and those facing him in combat, arguing that the need for display in battle was deeper than any medieval cultural construct and was based in the fundamental biological drives of threat and warning. ROBERT W. JONES gained his PhD from Cardiff University.

Kill Them All

Kill Them All PDF Author: Sean McGlynn
Publisher: The History Press
ISBN: 075095194X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
The Albigensian crusade 1209-1229) by the Catholic Church against the Cathar heretics of southern France is infamous for its brutality. Marked by massacres and acts of appalling cruelty, these deeds are commonly ascribed to the role of religious fanaticism. This book is the first to offer a dedicated military history of the whole Crusade; in so doing it refutes this old view. By telling the story of the Crusade through its dramatic sieges, battles and campaigns and offering expert analysis of the warfare involved, the author reveals the Crusade in a new light – as a bloody territorial conquest in which acts of terror were perpetrated to secure military aims rather than religious ones. The result is an exciting and at times disturbing book that tells the dramatic military events of the Crusade and its leading characters – Simon de Montfort, Louis the Lion, Innocent III, Peter of Aragon, Count Raymond of Toulouse - through the voices of those contemporary writers who fought it and experienced it.

Chess in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age

Chess in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age PDF Author: Daniel E. O'Sullivan
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
ISBN: 3110288818
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 264

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Book Description
The game of chess was wildly popular in the Middle Ages, so much so that it became an important thought paradigm for thinkers and writers who utilized its vocabulary and imagery for commentaries on war, politics, love, and the social order. In this collection of essays, scholars investigate chess texts from numerous traditions – English, French, German, Latin, Persian, Spanish, Swedish, and Catalan – and argue that knowledge of chess is essential to understanding medieval culture. Such knowledge, however, cannot rely on the modern game, for today’s rules were not developed until the late fifteenth century. Only through familiarity with earlier incarnations of the game can one fully appreciate the full import of chess to medieval society. The careful scholarship contained in this volume provides not only insight into the significance of chess in medieval European culture but also opens up avenues of inquiry for future work in this rich field.