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Medieval warfare

Medieval warfare is the warfare of the Middle Ages. Technological, cultural, and social advancements had forced a severe transformation in the character of warfare from antiquity, changing military tactics and the role of cavalry and artillery (see military history). In terms of fortification, the Middle Ages saw the emergence of the castle in Europe, which then spread to the Holy Land (modern day Israel and Palestine).

Relics[edit]

The practice of carrying relics into battle is a feature that distinguishes medieval warfare from its predecessors or early modern warfare and possibly inspired by biblical references.[9] The presence of relics was believed to be an important source of supernatural power that served both as a spiritual weapon and a form of defence; the relics of martyrs were considered by Saint John Chrysostom much more powerful than "walls, trenches, weapons and hosts of soldiers"[10]


In Italy, the carroccio or carro della guerra, the "war wagon", was an elaboration of this practice that developed during the 13th century. The carro della guerra of Milan was described in detail in 1288 by Bonvesin de la Riva in his book on the "Marvels of Milan". Wrapped in scarlet cloth and drawn by three yoke of oxen that were caparisoned in white with the red cross of Saint Ambrose, the city's patron, it carried a crucifix so massive it took four men to step it in place, like a ship's mast.[11]

Battleaxe

Bow

Weapons


Medieval weapons consisted of many different types of ranged and hand-held objects:


Armour


Artillery and Siege engine


Animals

(2006). History of the Bishops of Salona and Split – Historia Salonitanorum atque Spalatinorum pontificum (in Latin and English). Budapest: Central European University Press. ISBN 978-963-7326-59-2.

Archdeacon, Thomas of Split

(1992), Military Medieval Technology, Broadview Press, ISBN 0-921149-74-3

DeVries, Kelly

Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (1999), "Naval Warfare after the Viking Age, c. 1100–1500", in (ed.), Medieval Warfare: A History, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 230–252, ISBN 0-19-820639-9

Keen, Maurice

Gillingham, John (1992), "William the Bastard at War", in Strickland, Matthew (ed.), Anglo-Norman warfare: Studies in Late Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman Military Organization and Warfare, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, pp. 143–160,  0-85115-327-5

ISBN

Glete, Jan, Warfare at Sea, 1500–1650: Maritime Conflicts and the Transformation of Europe. Routledge, London. 2000.  0-415-21455-6

ISBN

(1977), "The date and purpose of Vegetius' De Re Militari", Traditio, xxxiii: 65–100, doi:10.1017/S0362152900009077, JSTOR 27831025, S2CID 151406462

Goffart, Walter

Guilmartin, John Francis, Gunpowder and Galleys: Changing Technology and Mediterranean Warfare at Sea in the Sixteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, London. 1974.

Hattendorf, John B. & Unger, Richard W. (editors), War at Sea in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Woodbridge, Suffolk. 2003.  0-85115-903-6 [1]

ISBN

Liddiard, Robert (2005), Castles in Context: Power, Symbolism and Landscape, 1066 to 1500, Macclesfield: Windgather Press Ltd,  0-9545575-2-2

ISBN

Lehmann, L. Th., Galleys in the Netherlands. Meulenhoff, Amsterdam. 1984.  90-290-1854-2

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Marsden, Peter, Sealed by Time: The Loss and Recovery of the Mary Rose. The Archaeology of the Mary Rose, Volume 1. The Mary Rose Trust, Portsmouth. 2003.  0-9544029-0-1

ISBN

Nicholson, Helen (2004), Medieval Warfare: Theory and Practice of War in Europe, 300–1500, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan,  0-333-76330-0

ISBN

Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus (1996), Milner, N. P. (ed.), Vegetius: epitome of military science, Translated Texts for Historians, vol. xvi, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press

Rodger, Nicholas A. M., "The Development of Broadside Gunnery, 1450–1650." Mariner's Mirror 82 (1996), pp. 301–324.

Rodger, Nicholas A. M., The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain 660–1649. W.W. Norton & Company, New York. 1997.  0-393-04579-X

ISBN

Laury Sarti, "Perceiving War and the Military in Early Christian Gaul (ca. 400–700 A.D.)" (= Brill's Series on the Early Middle Ages, 22), Leiden/Boston 2013,  978-9004-25618-7.

ISBN

Siege warfare, open battles, weapons, armour and fighting techniques.

Medieval Warfare

Database of thousands of English soldiers during the later medieval period

Medieval History Database (MHDB), which includes medieval military records

Guide to researching records of medieval soldiers, from the British National Archives site