Medieval Reading List

Ok, I went through all my books last night to stack up a pile on those that have information on the period of this game and also the period slightly prior to 1080. I'm pretty good for politics and social history, Scottish history, Byzantine and Middle Eastern history, but have a large gap for actual military history. Can anyone recommend any good general books about Medieval warfare (other than the Osprey series)? 'Medieval Warfare - A History' by M Keen looks interesting. Anyone have that?

(I started a similar thread at .com, but it didn't seem to go anywhere :no: )

'War in the Middle Ages' by Phillip Contamine is considered to be required reading for War Studies & Defence Studies at the University level. It is a very good book, kinda technical but lots of information....

'Alexiad' by Anna Comenna for a Byzantine perspective, I found to be very interesting, if a bit slow in places.

Paul Keagan: "A History of Warfare" has some information on war & mankind in general. Starts pretty much with the caveman up to the atomic bomb. But it has a hige part about the relevant period. And it`s a good read....

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Originally Posted by Subedei

Paul Keagan: "A History of Warfare" has some information on war & mankind in general. Starts pretty much with the caveman up to the atomic bomb. But it has a hige part about the relevant period. And it`s a good read....

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Think you mean "A History of Warfare" by John Keegan ~:)

It is a very good read.

If you want a more macro military perspective I would recommend Mohamed et Charlemagne by Henri Pirenne (in whatever language you prefer). It has some good information on the Merovingian period thru Charlemagne.

there should be a fairly complete list of titles in this thread
https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=27424

Excellent stuff. Now to hunt some of them down

Moved.

Trial by Fire and Trial by Battle, the first two parts of the history of the Hundred Years War by Jonny Sumption. Tremedous reads

I can't recommend reading Keegan's "A History of Warfare". Keegan may be the most famous military historian in the world (and he's a great speaker-- I saw him give a lecture in Toronto once), but his knowledge of the medieval period is sub-par.

Much better, together with Contamine as noted above, is J. F. Verbruggen's The Art of Warfare in Western Europe during the Middle Ages from the Eighth Century (Warfare in History). It's in a new translation (the old one was abridged and many of the notes were cut out, so get this new translation: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/085...lance&n=283155 ).

C. W. C. Oman's work is quite famous, but not particularly accurate, IMHO; it is also very dated now. For the older works, I prefer Delbruck: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/083...lance&n=283155

I've read Keen's Medieval Warfare: A History, and I can say it is quite good. It's more a collection of essays than a real history, but many senior medieval military historians contribute essays, and some of them are excellent.

If you're of a more scholarly bent, you should note two new academic journals: The Crusades and the Journal of Medieval Military History. The latter is edited by Kelly DeVries (nice guy-- we gave papers at a conference together once) and Bernard Bachrach, probably the two most prominent north american Medieval military historians.

So, lots of good stuff. But for introductions, I'd stick with Contamine, Verbruggen and Keen.

Medieval Warfare Sourcebook, I can't remember who it was edited by but I'll have a look at it when I get home and get back to you.

For sources on the web, the society for medieval military history (the De re militari society) runs a great website with tons and tons of both primary and secondary sources, including translated medieval chronicles, articles, books and even dissertations on medieval military history. I highly recommend it:

http://www.deremilitari.org/

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Originally Posted by HighLord z0b

Medieval Warfare Sourcebook, I can't remember who it was edited by but I'll have a look at it when I get home and get back to you.

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Its by David Nicolle - I know cos I was given volume 1 for free by a mate at the weekend :2thumbsup: (he had more than one copy). Just scanned it quickly so far, but looks a very good if a little technical read. I'm not expecting Churchillian prose, but there's lots of info on things like armour, tactics etc.