Looking for some History books on the era.

[Tangogulf]

Hello all;

I just purchased the game and was lucky enough to have found these informative boards.

I know very little about the history of the Medieval era. I have decided to do an English campaign to start. I'm wondering if some of you good people might direct me to some reputable books that I could find on Amazon, that give me an overview of the history of the time?

Specifically the political, religious and cultural history of Medieval England. As well, something on daily life, major battles and battle strategies/tactics would be great too!

Thanks for any and all help

[Derfasciti]

Welcome to the boards!

First off, I'd suggest you post this in the Monastery as they would know a lot about it probably.

Secondly, there are zillions of medieval books. I suggest you just check out your local library and have a field day at it:charge:

English history you might want to check out things on the war of Scottish Independence, biographies of Edwards I,II, and III. Hundred years war would also be helpful. A history of Ireland, Scotland and the Normans all would probably be helpful too.


Daily life: Life in a medieval City, Life in a Medieval Village, and I believe there is a castle one. All by Joseph and Frances Gies. :book:


Happy searching and hope you stay a member among us.:smiley2:

[Alden]

I don't think you could go wrong with A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman. Very entertaining and readable survey of the high middle ages (mostly the 1300s), organized around the life of this one particular French nobleman who managed to be involved in almost all the important events of the age. I gather professional historians don't hold it in particularly high regard but I never let that bother me.

[CaptainSolo]

I can't recommend Jonathon Sumptions 'Trial by battle Vol 1' and the sequal highly enough.It is the history of the hundred years war between England and France and is very in depth but very readable at the same time.
It also gives a lot of insight into life in both medieval England and France at that time and describes the events that led to the hundred years war beautifully.
It's also an excellent source of information on things like the feudal system,medieval politics,finance,alliances and relationships.
Definitely the best i have read on Medieval England.

Sumptions books have also been used many times by fictional writers who are researching - Bernard Cornwell for one.

For the longbow and the English medieval army in particular Donald Featherstone is a good read and if the crusades take your fancy i'd recommend Steven Runcimans 'history of the Crusades Vol 1 -3.


Hope that helps and happy reading.

[Von Nanega]

Another good one is Soldiers of the Faith. It talks about the crusades.

[Sir_Hawkwood]

Arrrggghhh...

I cannot fit any more books into my shelf... I have volumes lying on the floor, gathering dust...I need to stop buying books...

Why did I view this thread?...

Well... Seeing as I'm here.. Heres a short selection of the ones on the floor, close to me...

Castle
Marc Morris
0-7522-1536-1

The book of the Medieval Knight
Stephen Turnbull
1-86019-864-3

Castles in context
Robert Liddiard
0-9545575-2-2

The art of war
Sun Tsu
0-19-501476-6

Warhorse
Ann Hyland
0-7509-0746-0


For the love of god, please close this post... I'm weak, and have no more room left in my house for any more books...

Where'd I leave my debit card...

No... Noooo... Please... no...

[Quillan]

So you say you're out of book space?
Naturally you're out of book space.
Everyone's always out of book space.
If you're not out of book space, you're probably not worth knowing.

[Sir_Hawkwood]

So you say you're out of book space?
Naturally you're out of book space.
Everyone's always out of book space.
If you're not out of book space, you're probably not worth knowing.


Ah, you're right Quillan...From now on the guests will sleep on the sofa...Sod em!!!

Many thanks
SJH

[Freedom Onanist]

A first rate book on the era concentrating on the Longbow

The Great Warbow by Robert Hardy.

It goes into great (but readable) length about the longbow, dispells many myths about it, details scientific studies done on it, including those at the Royal Military College of Science (ie by real scientists with real ballistics knowledge and measurement equipment, not some random bloke on the History Channel) . Describes its origins (not uniquely Welsh), its use, the people who used it, the battles it featured in, the tactics the Frensh used to counter it, the general historical scene, etc... It is properly unbiased and very, very, interesting. Can not recommend it enough. Available from a well known online book retailer.

[CaptainSolo]

A first rate book on the era concentrating on the Longbow
The Great Warbow by Robert Hardy.

I definitely second that.
He's certainly recognised as the authority on the Warbow by other authors and is always credited in other writers books.

[Zenicetus]

A first rate book on the era concentrating on the Longbow

The Great Warbow by Robert Hardy.

That's a terrific book. It was the only one I bought as a companion to the game when it first came out, since I wasn't up for reading a big general history of the period. This book covers it from the perspective of one weapon, which for me is a great approach. I learned a lot in the process. There are chapters on crossbow and a bit on the Eastern bows to put the longbow in perspective. And you'll lean a lot about armor, defensive castle design, and field battle tactics too. Highly recommended.

[Julius_Nepos]

As far as Medieval History Texts go I spend quite a lot of time reading Methuen's "A History of Europe" series. It's divided in Eras and the most pertinent for the M2TW campaign would be 911-1198, 1198-1378, and 1378-1494. These books are out of print and if you get them on amazon, don't go for the paperback versions, they're pretty awful.

There's also the older versions of the Cambridge Medieval History series (far too expensive new), and some specialized books that you might look into, one I recommend highly is "Chronicles of the Crusades" by Elizabeth Hallam. You might also consider George Ostrogorsky's "History of the Byzantine State." That book has many pertinent bits of info in its later chapters. A.A. Vasiliev also did a two volume set of books on the Byzantine Empire (Volume II being the one you'd want to look into).

Beyond that, there are many other books you can look into for both earlier and later eras. Either way it can add to your understanding of the period at hand. Like Charles Oman's "Dark Ages" which goes from 476 to the 10th century AD, and the current text I'm reading in the Methuen series, covering 1494-1610 written by A.J. Grant. Anyway hope this helps your search.

[Lochar]

I was looking for stuff like this as well, one guy at a bookstore couldnt remember authors name but said he did a series of them between timelines. His only clue was he used 3 names.

I wanted also coverage of the roman era altho I do have couple for that already.

Did pick up an expensive book the other day called Battle by R.G. grant that covers 3000 bc to present.

Has nice photos and artwork and gives some nice input.

[metatron]

Anything from these people:

http://www.ospreypublishing.com/

[Tangogulf]

Hey thanks for all the replies. It was only after Derfasciti reply that I realized that Im clearly in the wrong forum. I'm going through the replies now and making a list of everything that I might want.

I find playing a game like this so much more enjoyable if I can put myself in the mindset of the people living at the time...so these books on the history will definitely help.

[Tangogulf]

A first rate book on the era concentrating on the Longbow

The Great Warbow by Robert Hardy.

.

Hi Freedom, Im doing a search on Amazon.com for this book and I receive the following two results:

The Great Warbow by Matthew Strickland

Longbow: A Social and Military History by Robert Hardy


Can you let me know which of these it is that you recommend. Both look terrific.

[CaptainSolo]

The Great Warbow by Matthew Strickland
Longbow: A Social and Military History by Robert Hardy
Can you let me know which of these it is that you recommend. Both look terrific.


Anything to do with the longbow then look no further than Hardy.He is recognised as the authourity on them.
In the absence of hard facts many authors will usually agree with his assessments.

Like i said earlier writers of both fiction and none fiction will usually use Hardy's works as source material.

[IronMonkey]

Hello! Here are some books I've been reading as of late for getting into the spirit of the medieval era:

1.) "Warriors of God", by James Reston, Jr.. Great book! chronicles the 3rd crusade, involving: Saladin, Richard the Lionheart and a host of characters who were portrayed fictionally in the movie "Kingdom of Heaven" such as Sibylla_Queen of Jerusalem, Reginald of Chatillon_Lord of Kerak, Balian of Ibelin_Baron of the Old Guard, Guy of Lusignan_King of Jerusalem, Baldwin IV_leper king of Jerusalem.

2.) "Genghis Khan_and the making of the modern world", by Jack Weatherford. The history of the Mongol rise to power and the effects of the Mongol's conquest on Europe, China and the Middle East.

3.) "The Civilization of the Middle Ages" by Norman F. Cantor. Great book for an overall sketch the of Medieval world.

Hope this helps!

[Jagger]

Wow, am I the first to recommend "The Memoirs of the Lord of Joinville"? The Lord of Joinville was a knight of King Phillip during the crusades. The book is absolutely fascinating with some incredible first hand descriptions of battles including the major defeat before Cairo. His book is free and available here on line:

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp20728

I can't recommend this book strongly enough. :2thumbsup:

[Babblearossa]

I highly recommend 'Baudolino' by Umberto Eco (also wrote name of the rose) that I just read this summer. It traces basically the latter half of HRE emperor freddys reign, so covers papal interference, deposing popes, crushing rebillious cities, crusading, crusaders deserting, rebellious italian city/states and all manner of good stuff that shows up in the game.

It's not england specific but you'll certainly be dealing with mr. pope and likely with rebillious cities refusing to acknowledge your empirialness. Plus Umberto is one of the best medievalists around and a great writer to boot.