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


Book Description

From the author of "Victory in the East: A Military History of the First Crusade", this book offers a wide-ranging and innovative survey of crusading warfare, and is intended as a standard reference for students and professional historians alike




Warfare, Crusade and Conquest in the Middle Ages


Book Description

This volume brings together a series of articles by John France, published over a span of more than forty years, covering a number of aspects of the military and crusading history of the Middle Ages, both in Europe and the Near East. An interest in understanding how war worked and why informs a first group of articles, ranging from Carolingian armies to the organisation of war in the 13th century. The focus then turns to the Crusades, the most ambitious conquests of the era, with a set of studies on the First Crusade and others on the manner and conduct of warfare in the territories of the Latin East. The volume also includes a major unpublished analysis, co-authored with Nicholas Morton, of the problems faced by the local Islamic powers in the early Crusading period, reminding us that an army is only as strong as its enemies permit, and suggesting that the crusaders should be seen in this light.




Warfare in Late Byzantium, 1204-1453


Book Description

This book examines Byzantine attitudes towards warfare at a time of crisis when the empire ceased to be a first rate power in the Mediterranean. It investigates the correspondence between official rhetoric and propaganda, on the one hand, and military realities, on the other. It explores the military ethos of the late Byzantine aristocracy and examines Byzantine perceptions of military leadership in comparison to contemporary western European military thinking. The organisation and nature of military operations and the role of the various groups of soldiers are explored to set Byzantine warfare in the wider geographical and cultural context. In addition, this book provides a comprehensive analysis of the influences other medieval cultures exerted on Byzantine military thought, organisation and practice.




The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare


Book Description

This book offers a highly readable account of warfare in Europe and the Mediterranean from the Battle of Poitiers to the Wars of the Roses. With an emphasis on superb full-colour cartography and illustration, The Cambridge Illustrated Atlas of Warfare: The Middle Ages, 768 1487 focuses on military strategy, debunking some of the prevailing myths of medieval warfare. Often characterized as an era dominated by lone knights and long sieges, the Middle Ages in fact had a military culture as sophisticated and complex as our own, with organized armies and a high degree of tactical intelligence. This complexity is detailed in maps, plans, and an informative text. Development of naval warfare, cavalry, and siege tactics are all covered, as is the nature of contemporary logistics and contemporary understanding of the science of warfare.




The Crusades and the Expansion of Catholic Christendom, 1000-1714


Book Description

The Crusades and the Expansion of Catholic Christendom, 1000-1714 is a fascinating and accessible survey that places the medieval Crusades in their European context, and examines, for the first time, their impact on European expansion. Taking a unique approach that focuses on the motivation behind the Crusades, John France chronologically examines the whole crusading movement, from the development of a ‘crusading impulse’ in the eleventh century through to an examination of the relationship between the Crusades and the imperialist imperatives of the early modern period. France provides a detailed examination of the first Crusade, the expansion and climax of crusading during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and the failure and fragmentation of such practices in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Concluding with an assessment of the influence of the Crusades across history, and replete with illustrations, maps, timelines, guides for further reading, and a detailed list of rulers across Europe and the Muslim world, this study provides students with an essential guide to a central aspect of medieval history.




Hattin


Book Description

On July 4, 1187 the legendary Muslim leader Saladin destroyed the Crusader army of the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem with a terrible slaughter at the battle of Hattin - and subsequently restored the Holy City of Jerusalem to Islamic rule. The carnage at Hattin was the culmination of almost a century of religious wars between Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land. It had enormous consequences for the whole medieval world because it produced an intensification of holy war between Islam and Europe for over another century and, in retrospect, marked the beginning of the end for the Crusader presence in the Middle East. In the 20th century, memory of the battle was revived as a symbol of Arab hope for liberation from Crusader Imperialism and in the 21st, it has become a rallying cry for radical Muslim fundamentalists in their struggle for the soul of Islam. In this new volume in the Great Battles series, John France analyzes the origins and course of this pivotal battle, illuminating the roots of the bitter hatred that underlay it and explains its significance in world history - from medieval times to the present.




Castles, Battles, & Bombs


Book Description

Castles, Battles, and Bombs reconsiders key episodes of military history from the point of view of economics—with dramatically insightful results. For example, when looked at as a question of sheer cost, the building of castles in the High Middle Ages seems almost inevitable: though stunningly expensive, a strong castle was far cheaper to maintain than a standing army. The authors also reexamine the strategic bombing of Germany in World War II and provide new insights into France’s decision to develop nuclear weapons. Drawing on these examples and more, Brauer and Van Tuyll suggest lessons for today’s military, from counterterrorist strategy and military manpower planning to the use of private military companies in Afghanistan and Iraq. "In bringing economics into assessments of military history, [the authors] also bring illumination. . . . [The authors] turn their interdisciplinary lens on the mercenary arrangements of Renaissance Italy; the wars of Marlborough, Frederick the Great, and Napoleon; Grant's campaigns in the Civil War; and the strategic bombings of World War II. The results are invariably stimulating."—Martin Walker, Wilson Quarterly "This study is serious, creative, important. As an economist I am happy to see economics so professionally applied to illuminate major decisions in the history of warfare."—Thomas C. Schelling, Winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics




Victory in the East


Book Description

A paperback of John France's new analysis of the strategies and battles of the First Crusade.




The Cambridge History of War: Volume 2, War and the Medieval World


Book Description

Volume II of The Cambridge History of War covers what in Europe is commonly called 'the Middle Ages'. It includes all of the well-known themes of European warfare, from the migrations of the Germanic peoples and the Vikings through the Reconquista, the Crusades and the age of chivalry, to the development of state-controlled gunpowder-wielding armies and the urban militias of the later middle ages; yet its scope is world-wide, ranging across Eurasia and the Americas to trace the interregional connections formed by the great Arab conquests and the expansion of Islam, the migrations of horse nomads such as the Avars and the Turks, the formation of the vast Mongol Empire, and the spread of new technologies – including gunpowder and the earliest firearms – by land and sea.




Bohemond of Taranto


Book Description

“A brilliant picture of a great medieval warrior and crusader, clear and concise, which brings to life the whole Mediterranean world in an age of crisis” (John France, author of Perilous Glory). Bohemond of Taranto, Lord of Antioch, was the unofficial leader of the First Crusade. A man of boundless ambition and inexhaustible energy, he was one of the most remarkable warriors in medieval Mediterranean history. While he failed in his quest to secure the Byzantine throne, he succeeded in founding the most enduring of all the crusader states. In this authoritative biography, Georgios Theotokis presents a detailed portrait of Bohemond as a soldier and commander. Covering Taranto’s contribution to the crusades, Theotokis focuses on his military achievements in Italy, Sicily, the Balkans, and Anatolia. Since medieval commanders generally receive little credit for their strategic understanding, Theotokis examines Bohemond’s war-plans in his many campaigns, describing how he adapted his battle-tactics when facing different opponents and considering whether his approach to war was typical of the Norman commanders of his time.