Synopses & Reviews
In recent years military history has moved out of its specialized ghetto and has come to be regarded as central to the mainstream study of the past. The concepts of a "military revolution" (consisting of the emergence of large infantry-based armies in early-modern Europe, the use of potent gunpowder weapons, and the rapid escalation of war costs) are now seen to have had far-reaching political and social consequences for European society. Indeed, war itself is now seen as a major engine of state development during this period.
The essays in this volume set out to demonstrate the integration of military history with the broader concerns of historians. They also suggest that the military history of the Middle Ages was more dynamic than is often recognized, and that the military revolution needs to be interpreted by placing it in the context of rapid socio-political transformation.
Table of Contents
Introduction: the military revolution from a medieval perspective, Andrew Ayton, J.L. Price. The conqueror's footprints in Domesday Book, J.J.N. Palmer; towns, mottes and ring-works of the conquest, Barbara English; alms for the Holy land - the English Templars and their patrons, John Walker; knights, esquires and military service - the evidence of the Armorial cases before the Court of Chivalry, Andrew Ayton;; town defences in medieval England and Wales, D.M. Palliser; war and peace in the Works of Erasmus - a medieval perspective, Peter Heath; Josse Clichtove and the Just War, Howell A. Lloyd; "wise and experimented" - Sir William Pelham, Elizabethan soldier and landlord, c.1560-87, R.W. Ambler; a state dedicated to war? the Dutch Republic in the 17th century, J.L. Price.