An illustrated history and guide to the Battle of Hastings by two leading medieval military historians.The Battle of Hastings, fought on 14 October 1066, changed the course of English history. This most famous moment of the Norman Conquest was recorded in graphic detail in the threads of the Bayeux Tapestry, providing a priceless glimpse into a brutal conflict.In this fresh look at the battle and its surrounding campaigns, leading medieval military historians...

In 1428 a young girl from a small French village approached the royal castle of Vaucouleurs with a now famous tale. Heavenly voices, she said, had told her to seek out the Dauphin, Charles, so that he might give her an army with which to deliver France from its English occupiers. The ensuing tale of Joan's military success is told here in a gripping and authoritative narrative. Previous works have concentrated on the religious and feminist aspects of Joan's career; this is...

These articles are devoted to the two main aspects of medieval warfare: men and technology. Men fought, led, and ultimately killed in war, while the technology that they used facilitated these tasks. The first group of essays highlights human strengths in the fighting of medieval wars, with a focus on events of the 14th and 15th centuries, specifically the Anglo-French wars and wars against the Turks. A second group addresses the technological side of warfare, in particular the advent and ...

War was epidemic in the late Middle Ages. It affected every land and all peoples from Scotland and Scandinavia in the north to the southern Mediterranean Sea coastlines of Morocco, North Africa, Egypt, and the Middle East in the south, from Ireland and Spain in the west to Russia and Turkey in the east. Nowhere was peaceful for any significant amount of time. The period also saw significant changes in military theory and practice which altered the ways in which campaigns were conducted, ba...

This fascinating reference covers the weapons and armor used by warriors from the 4th to the 15th century and discusses how and why they changed over time.In the Middle Ages, the lack of standardized weapons meant that one warrior's arms were often quite different from another's, even when they were fighting on the same side. And with few major technological advances in that period, the evolution of those weapons over the centuries was incremental. But evolve they ...

The articles in this volume explore the way in which military developments helped to sculpt, out of very strange and diverse components, our familiar Europe. The period studied covers the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the rise of the Carolingian Empire and its eventual collapse, leaving a vacuum in the heart of Europe into which flowed new forces: the Vikings from outside and the great lords from within.

A highly illustrated account of one of the major battles of Italy's 13th century wars, immortalized in the Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri who was one of the combatants.Campaldino is one of the important battles between the Guelphs and Ghibellines - the major political factions in the city states of central and northern Italy. It heralded the rise of Florence to a dominant position over the area of Tuscany and was one of the last occasions when the Italia...

A highly illustrated study of the medieval Italian battle of Castagnaro, the famous English condottiere captain Sir John Hawkwood's greatest victory.The battle of Castagnaro, fought on 11 March 1387 between the Veronese and the Paduans, is one of the most famous Italian medieval conflicts in the English-speaking world. This is thanks in no small part to the exploits of the renowned English mercenary (or condottiero) captain, Sir John Hawkwood. Com...

A fresh, provocative history that renews our understanding of France in the world through short, incisive essays ranging from prehistoric frescoes to Coco Chanel to the terrorist attacks of 2015.Bringing together an impressive group of established and up-and-coming historians, this bestselling history conceives of France not as a fixed, rooted entity, but instead as a place and an idea in flux, moving beyond all borders and frontiers, shaped by exchanges and mixtures. Presented in ...

"A delightful exposition of commonly-encountered statistical fallacies and paradoxes and why they matter." —Samuel H. Preston, coauthor of Demography: Measuring and Modeling Population ProcessesAn essential guide to the ways data can improve decision making.Statistics are everywhere: in news reports, at the doctor's office, and in every sort of forecast, from the stock market to the weather. Allen B. Downey knows well that people have an innate abil...

A study of how doctors and surgeons treated the brutal injuries and illnesses suffered by medieval combatants.Soldiers of the Middle Ages faced razor-sharp swords and axes that could slice through flesh with gruesome ease, while spears and arrows were made to puncture both armor and the wearer, and even more sinister means of causing harm produced burns and crush injuries. These casualties of war during the 500-year period between the ninth and thirteenth centuries...

The first book to study the four wives of Queen Victoria's sons as a family group—based partly on previously unpublished material from the Royal Archives.The first to join the family of the "Grandmama of Europe" was Alexandra, eldest daughter of the prince about to become King Christian IX of Denmark. Charming, ever sympathetic and widely considered one of the most attractive royal women of her time, she was prematurely deaf and suffered from a limp which was made f...