War in the Middle Ages

This is, quite simply, the best book on medieval European warfare available in any language. It is even marginally better than the French original version, published in 1980, because the bibliography has been updated, plates added, and the text amended in the light of recent research. The work is divided into three parts. First come four chronological chapters dealing with the military history of the Middle Ages from the fall of the Roman Empire to 1490s. Then six more chapters, some very short, cover selected themes in medieval warfare (on the rise of artillery, on contemporary justifications for war and so on). Finally, there is a huge bibliography: the list of around 1,100 items (including works published since 1980) takes up fifty pages.