MEDIEVAL WARFARE
 
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF BOOKS/JOURNALS ON MEDIEVAL WARFARE
 
 

The following is a short, but useful listing of sources in English that contain information on medieval warfare.  It is designed to help the student begin looking more deeply into the subject matter and to write his or her semester paper. 

Works that contain a substantial primary source component have been separated off into their own category.  (Remember, visual materials generated during the Middle Ages also constitute primary sources; consequently, looking through what I have called "Illustrated Works" may help in the search for primary material.)

This list is constantly undergoing revision; as a result, it is wise to keep checking it to see if useful bibliography for your project has been added.

Hint:  If you are writing about the history of a particular battle, you may wish to start with Charles Oman's two volume work which treats war in the traditional manner--one battle at a time!

 

General Works:

John Beeler, Warfare in Feudal Europe 730-1200

Philippe Contamine, War in the Middle Ages (trans. Michael Jones)

John France, Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades 1000-1300

Lynn Montross, War Through the Ages (chapters dealing with the Middle Ages)

Charles W. C. Oman, The Art of War in the Middle Ages

Charles W. C. Oman, A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages (2 vols:  378-1278; 1278-1485)

Grant Uden, A Dictionary of Chivalry

Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror

J. F. Verbruggen, The Art of Warfare in Western Europe during the Middle Ages (trans. Sumner Willard and S.C.M. Southern)


Illustrated Works:

Morris Bishop, The Horizon Book of the Middle Ages

David Edge and John Miles Paddock, Arms and Armor of the Medieval Knight:  An Illustrated History of Weaponry in the Middle Ages

H. W. Koch, Medieval Warfare

Richard Humble, Warfare in the Middle Ages


Military Technology, Weapons, Weapon-Use:

Jim Bradbury, The Medieval Archer

R. H. C. Davis, The Medieval Warhorse

Kelly DeVries, Medieval Military Technology

Steven Muhlberger, Jousts and Tounaments:  Charny and th Rules for Chivalric Sport in Fourteenth Century France

David C. Nicolle, Arms and Armour of the Crusading Era 1050-1350 (2 vol.:  Illustrations; Commentary)

David C. Nicolle (ed.), A Companion to Medieval Arms and Armour

Ewart Oakeshott, Records of the Medieval Sword

Ralph Payne-Gallwey, The Crossbow, Medieval and Modern Military and Sporting:  Its Construction, History & Management
 

Battles:  (see also Crusades, Hundred Years War)

Georges Duby, The Legend of Bouvines
 

Castles:

R. Allen Brown, English Castles

Philip Warner, The Medieval Castle

Alberto A. Weissmuller, Castles from the Heart of Spain


Crusades
and Military Orders:

Thomas Asbridge, The First Crusade, A New History:  The Roots of Conflict between Christianity and Islam

Robert Chazan, European Jewry and the First Crusade

Joseph F. O'Callaghan, Reconquest and Crusade in Medieval Spain

Zoe Oldenbourg, The Crusades

Jonathan Phillips, The Fouth Crusade and the Sack of Constantinople

Piers Paul Read, The Templars

Joseph R. Strayer, The Albigesian Crusade

Christopher Tyerman, The Invention of the Crusades

Rene Weis, The Yellow Cross:  The Story of the Last Cathars 1290-1329


Hundred Years War:

Andrew Ayton, Knights and Warhorses:  Military Service and the English Aristocracy Under Edward III

Norman F. Cantor, The Last Knight:  The Twilight of the Middle Ages and the Birth of the Modern Era

Anne Curry (ed.), Agincourt 1415

Kelly DeVries, Joan of Arc:  A Military Leader

H. J. Hewitt, The Organization of War under Edward III

Christopher Hibbert, Agincourt

John Bell Henneman, Olivier de Clisson and Political Society in France Under Charles V and Charles VI

Robin Neillands, The Hundred Years War

Clifford J. Rogers, War Cruel and Sharp

Henry Dwight Sedgwick, The Black Prince

Desmond Seward, The Hundred Years War:  The English in France 1337-1453

Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror

Richard Vernier, The Flower of Chivalry

Marina Warner, Joan of Arc, The Image of Female Heroism
 

Warfare in England:

Hilaire Belloc, Warfare in England


The Military Revolution Debate

Clifford J. Rogers, The Military Revolution Debate:  Readings on the Military Transformation of Early Modern Europe

Andrew Ayton and J.L. Price, The Medieval Military Revolution:  State Society, and Military Change in Medieval and Early Modern Europe


Mongol Warfare

James Chambers, The Devil's Horsemen

David Morgan, The Mongols


Journals:

Journal of Medieval Military History


Professor Villalon's Collections (co-edited with Donald J. Kagay)

The Final Argument:  The Imprint of Violence on Society in Medieval and Early Modern Europe 

The Circle of War in the Middle Ages: Essays on Medieval Military and Naval History

Crusaders, Condottieri, and Cannon : Medieval Warfare in Societies around the Mediterranean                                        

The Hundred Years War:  A Wider Focus


Primary Source Collections:

[While none of these general collections are devoted exclusively or even primarily to military history, given the importance of military events in medieval history, all of these contain some primary materials that may aid the student in writing his or her paper.  They are certainly a good place to start the search.]

G. G. Coulton, Life in the Middle Ages (Four volumes in one) ("Golden Oldie"; still perhaps the best source collection on the Middle Ages)

Norton Downs (ed.), Basic Documents in Medieval History

Patrick J. Geary (ed.), Readings in Medieval History

Maryanne Kowaleski (ed.), Medieval Towns:  A Reader

James Harvey Robinson (ed.), Readings in European History, vol. 1

Barbara Rosenwein (ed.), Readings in the Middle Ages

James Bruce Ross and Mary Martin McLaughlin, The Portable Medieval Reader

Brian Tierney (ed.), The Middle Ages, Volume I:  Sources of Medieval History


Primary Sources:

The Pastons: The Letters of a Family in the War of the Roses
, ed. Richard Barber

The Life and Campaigns of the Black Prince,
ed. Richard Barber

Geoffroi de Charny, A Knight's Own Book of Chivalry

Anna Comnena, The Alexiad

Einhard and Notker the Stutterer, Two Lives of Charlemagne

Otto of Freising, The Deeds of Frederick Barbarossa

Sir John Froissart, The Chronicles of England, France, and Spain

Arab Historians of the Crusades, ed. Francesco Gabrieli

Gutierre Diaz de Gamez, The Unconquered Knight

Islam:  From the Prophet Mohammad to the Capture of Constantinople, ed. and trans. by Bernard Lewis

Ramon Lull, Book of Knighthood and Chivalry & the Anonymous Ordene de Chevalerie

Edward M. Peters, Christian Society and the Crusades 1198-1229

Edward M. Peters, The First Crusade:  The Chronicle of Fulcher of Chartres and Other Source Materials

Christine de Pizan, Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry

Flavius Vegetius Renatus, The Military Institutions of the Romans  (The title of this work by a late 4th century Roman author, a work fairly widely known in the Middle Ages, may vary with the edition. )

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, The Authentic Voices of England from the time of Julius Caesar to the Coronation of Henry II (trans. Anne Savage)

A Muslim Manual of War being Tafrij Al-Kurub Fi Tadbir Al-Hurub, ed. and trans. George T. Scanlon

The Trial of Joan of Arc, ed. Scott

Feudalism, ed. Joseph R. Strayer

Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay, The History of the Albigensian Crusade

J.M. Upton-Ward (trans.), The Rule of the Templars

Judi Upton-Ward (trans.), The Catalan Rule of the Templars

Beowulf (anonymous)

The Poem of the Cid (anonymous)

The Song of Roland (anonymous)
 

 





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