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

A classic in the field of military history, it is the work of an English historian many regard as the founding father of medieval military studies, Charles William Chadwick Oman (1860-1946).  Amazingly, it was written in 1885 as an undergraduate essay; and despite Oman’s far longer, two volume History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages, produced late in life, it is this shorter essay that has remained in print ever since.  To the extent that there is a textbook in the class, this will be it.

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

This book contains an very extensive collection of the sources available for studying the First Crusade (1095-1100), one of the most notable events of the medieval period and one of the best covered.  It has been assigned to show students the kinds of source material on which  most scholars of medieval military events must rely.
 

Book Chapter

Lynn White, Jr., "Stirrup, Mounted Shock Combat, Feudalism, and Chivalry," in Medieval Technology and Social Change (Oxford, 1962).

John Clements, "Wielding the Weapons of War:  Arms, Armor, and Training Manuals During the Later Middle Ages," in The Hundred  Years War:  A Wider Focus, ed. L. J. Andrew Villalon and Donald J. Kagay (Brill, 2004).

Kelly DeVries, "God and Defeat in Medieval Warfare:  Some Preliminary Thoughts," in The Circle of War in the Middle Ages, ed. Donald J. Kagay and L. J. Andrew Villalon (The Boydell Press, 1999).

Stephen Morillo, The "Age of Cavalry" Revisited," in The Circle of War in the Middle Ages, ed. Donald J. Kagay and L. J. Andrew Villalon (The Boydell Press, 1999).


(All required book chapters and articles will be posted on the website.  Click through the author's name to the article.  If you do not already have Adobe PDF reader installed on your computer, you can easily download it free from the Adobe website.)