The Battle of Hastings is a unique collection of materials focused on one of the most significant battles in European history. It includes all the primary sources for the battle, including pictorial, and seminal accounts of the battle by the major historians of the last two centuries. Stephen Morillo, in his own important piece, first sets the scene, describing the political situation in western Europe in the mid-eleventh century, and the events of 1066. He then introduces the sources, reviewing the perspective of their medieval authors, and traces the history of writing about the battle. An...

When Edward III came to the throne of England in 1327, England's military reputation had reached a low ebb. The young king's first campaign against the Scots was a complete failure, and the next year the shameful peace' set the seal on Robert Bruce's victory in the First Scottish War of Independence. Twenty-two years later, however, King Jean II of France and King David II of Scotland were both prisoners in London, an English army was camped outside Paris, and Edward was widely considered the most skilful warrior in the world. Clifford Rogers uses contemporary documents (campaign bulletins,...

Contemporaries considered Edward III of England "the wisest and shrewdest warrior in the world," but he has not fared so well in the estimation of modern historians, many of whom have argued that he was a fine tactician but a poor strategist. This is despite the fact that by 1360 the English had become the foremost martial nation of Europe; that famous victories had been won at Dupplin Moor, Halidon Hill, Crecy, and Poitiers; and David II of Scotland and Jean II of France were Edward's prisoners, and the French, with the Treaty of Bretigny, had agreed to surrender a third of their kingdom to...

The studies in this book examine and illuminate the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman military institutions that supported and shaped the conduct of war in northwestern Europe in the central middle ages. Taken together they challenge received opinion on a number of issues and force a profound reconsideration of the manner in which the Normans and their adversaries, Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Angevins and the Welsh, prepared for and waged war. Contributors: RICHARD ABELS, BERNARD BACHRACH, KELLY DEVRIES, JOHN FRANCE, C.M. GILLMOR, ROBERT HELMERICHS, NIELS LUND, STEPHEN MORILLO, MICHAEL PRESTWICH,...

Methods and Approaches in Forest History is a companion to Forest History: International Studies on Socioeconomic and Forest Ecosystem Change, which includes over 20 papers from the same conference held in Florence in 1998. This volume focuses on the different approaches and methods adopted in the study of forest history. The interdisciplinary nature of these studies is emphasized, bringing in the different perspectives of anthropologists, botanists, ecologists, foresters, historians, geneticists and geographers. This volume demonstrates the rich diversity of approaches and...

This collection of sources and interpretations lays bare the truth about the wars of Edward's reign... Professor Rogers has provided a valuable service to scholars, students and general readers alike in bringing together this fascinating collection. MATTHEW BENNETT When Edward III came to the throne of England in 1327, England's military reputation had reached a low ebb. The young king's first campaign against the Scots was a complete failure, and the next year the "shameful peace" set the seal on Robert Bruce's victory in the First Scottish War of Independence. Twenty-two years later,...

Selected by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Title. The warfare of the late Anglo-Saxon period had momentous consequences for the development of the English state following Alfred the Great's reign. This book provides a comprehensive guide, with extracts in translation from the principal sources for our knowledge, accompanied by the most important interpretations by scholars through the ages, and new introductions by the present author. It looks at every aspect of the topic, from land and sea forces to logistics and campaigning, from fortifications and the battlefield to the final...

Military activity was central to Anglo-Scots relations in the first half of the sixteenth century, playing an important role in the formation of the multi-national Tudor state and the process of political union. This book examines both the organisational nature of the two nations' military establishments and provides a detailed operational study of military activity. It challenges notions that the British Isles were peripheral to the trends of mainstream continental warfare through a detailed study of the manner in which both Scottish and English armies demonstrated a commitment to tactical...

This very accessible narrative...tells the story of 'the first two important battles of 1066', Fulford Gate and Stamford Bridge, and of the leaders of the opposing English and Norwegian factions. CHOICE The evidence of later 12th- and 13th-century Norse sagas, Snorri Sturlusson's Heimskringla, and the less well known Norwegian Kings Sagas...present far more detail about the invasion and its battles than the more widely accepted sources could possibly allow... He places the invasion in a broad context. He outlines the Anglo-Scandinavian nature of the English kingdom in the eleventh century,...

Over the course of half a century, the first two kings of the Saxon dynasty, Henry I (919-936) and Otto I (936-973), waged war across the length and breadth of Europe. Ottonian armies campaigned from the banks of the Oder in the east to the Seine in the west, and from the shores of the Baltic Sea in the north, to the Adriatic and Mediterranean in the south. In the course of scores of military operations, accompanied by diligent diplomatic efforts, Henry and Otto recreated the empire of Charlemagne, and established themselves as the hegemonic rulers in Western Europe. This book shows how Henry...