Axel E.W. Müller Gunpowder Technology in the Fifteenth Century: A Study, Edition and Translation of the Firework Book (The Boydell Press, 2024), 378 pp. $170.00 It would not be quite right to say that the Firework Books are a great … Continue reading →| De Re Militari
Oliver H. Creighton, Robert Liddiard, Alan K. Outram, Carly Ameen, Kate Kanne (eds.) Medieval Warhorse. Equestrian Landscapes, Material Culture and Zooarchaeology in Britain, AD 800-1550 (Liverpool University Press, 2025), 464 pp. $64.00 Horses, and warhorses in particular, belong to the … Continue reading →| De Re Militari
Kathryn Warner Hugh Despenser the Younger & Edward II: Downfall of a King’s Favourite (Pen & Sword Books, 2018), 232 pp. $20.00 In her introduction, Kathryn Warner states bluntly that, as there has never been a study dedicated to Hugh … Continue reading →| De Re Militari
Laurence W. Marvin| De Re Militari
Robert Allred Mysteries of the Norman Conquest: Unravelling the Truth of the Battle of Hastings and the Events of 1066 (Frontline Books, 2022), 248 pp. £18.75 Robert Allred’s Mysteries of the Norman Conquest is an re-examination of one of the … Continue reading →| De Re Militari
Martin Alvira Cabrer Muret 1213. La Bataille décisive de la croisade contre les albigeois (Vent-Terral, 2024), 448 pp. €37.00 For roughly a quarter-century, the Spanish historian Martin Alvira Cabrer has produced a steady stream of publications on the Albigensian Crusade, … Continue reading →| De Re Militari
Monthly Archives: March 2025 | deremilitari.org
Yearly Archives: 2025 | deremilitari.org
Journal of Medieval Military History Volume XXIII (2025) Edited by Craig M. Nakashian and Peter W. Sposato This volume examines the diverse ways in which medieval European cities, towns, and other urban communities engaged with warfare. For northern Europe, articles … Continue reading →| De Re Militari
Donahue, John F., and Lee L. Brice (eds.) Brill’s Companion to Diet and Logistics in Greek and Roman Warfare (Brill, 2023), 454 pp. $199.00 The expression, “Amateurs talk tactics/strategy; professionals talk logistics,” became widely popular after the failure of Russia’s … Continue reading →| De Re Militari
Rabbi Joseph ben Joshua ben Meir was born in Avignon in 1496, and lived most of his life in Genoa. His chronicle, written in Hebrew, begins with Adam, but quickly progresses to an account of the First Crusade, and mostly … Continue reading →| De Re Militari
Here is an example of old fashioned Italian fortifications: a tower within Castel Bolognese (in Northern Italy, between Imola and Faenza) was judged too high to resist to bombards, hence the Bolognese government ordered to lower it. Spectabilis eques civis et … Continue reading →| De Re Militari
He set off from Pisa on the 26th of December along with don Ferrante [d’Este], Filippo Albanese, Annibale da Doccia, some 140 men-at-arms lightly equipped with their sallets, Giovanni Greco and other commanders of 500 mounted crossbowmen and stradiotti. They rode the whole night in order to get to Montopoli; and so as to cross the river [the Arno] easily they waded across it near Pontedera, where many artillery shots were fired at them. One grazed the aforesaid provveditore’s arm, whi...| De Re Militari
Ill.mo S.re mio. Per le altre gente che sono passate ho fatto scrivere a V. Ex.a et così farò per quelle passaranno. Ma de queste che sono oggi passate, ho deliberato per questa de mia mano dare adviso a la S.V., non perché la cosa sia de importantia alchuna, ma per mio piacere, parendomi mentre ch’io scrivo di ragionar cum v.a cel.ne. Essendo adunque quella occupata, differisca el legere questa mia et anche non la legendo non ne farà molta perdita. Dico adunque che hoggi è passato...| De Re Militari
The following is a letter from Ludovico il Moro, duke of Milan to the new commander of Milan castle in January 1490.| De Re Militari
The matter in hand prompts me to say a few words about the equipment of the English soldiery. There is hardly any without a helmet, and none without bows and arrows; their bows and arrows are thicker and longer than those used by other nations, just as their bodies are stronger than other peoples’, for they seem to have hands and arms of iron. The range of their bows is no less than that of our arbalests; there hangs by the side of each a sword no less long than ours, but heavy and thic...| De Re Militari
In 1480, a Florentine named Giovanni Ridolfi traveled from Milan to Genoa. His observations on his journey include the following description of a castle in Milan.| De Re Militari
Dilecte noster. Voressemo che come da te tu monstrassi haver inteso che nui a questa Pasqua de Mazo proxima vogliamo far trare cum le balestre quatro o cinque presii, tra li quali ge ne serà uno forsi de XX braza de veluto. Et vedesti intravenire se in lo tuo vicariato ge fosse alcuno che dicesse voler venir a trar et che havesse la balestra che fosse sua. Et ne avisasti de quanti ne fossero in esso tuo vicariato et il nome loro, non monstrando de ciò haver havuto lettera alcuna da nui.| De Re Militari
Graff Friederich von Cilli und graff Ulrich die endtsagten dem von Oesterreich mit aller ihrer macht; und desgleichen der fürst von Oesterreich ihn herwieder und griffen zu beiden seiten mit raub und mit brandt einander an etc. In demselbigen krieg kam ein Bechamb zu dem von Cilli, genandt Jann Wittowecz; der wardt zu haubtmann über den gereisigen zeug gemacht oder gesazt, dem auch darnach der von Cilli durch seiner redligkeit und wohlthat willen das schloss Greben in Windischen landen gele...| De Re Militari
Ralph Moffatt| De Re Militari
The work by Enguerrand de Monstrelet, Governor of Cambrai, covers the years 1400 to 1444. The section given below deals with events in France from 1428 to 1430, focusing on the rise of Joan of Arc, and ending with her capture. Chapters not dealing with military events have been omitted.| De Re Militari
Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, a statesman, poet and humanist, ascended to the Papal throne as Pius II in 1458. Writing in the third person, his work, the Commentaries of Pius II is part autobiography, memoir, diary and history. Much of his work revolves around the warfare and politics of Italy, but he also makes many remarks on events further away, including the following item on Joan of Arc. The text below starts just after Joan arrives in the presence of the Dauphin and asks for an army to re...| De Re Militari
The Hussites, also known as the Taborites, became a formidable fighting force in the early fifteenth-century under the leadership of Jan Ziska (d.1424). In the following two accounts, the first by Enea Silvio Piccolomini (later to be Pope Pius II), from his Historia Bohemorum, and the second found in the Commentarii od Alponsum regum, show how the Hussites used wagons to gain victory.| De Re Militari
In July 1415 King D. João I of Portugal led 242 armed ships left Lisbon for North Africa, taking with him the Infantes Dom Henrique, Dom Pedro and Dom Duarte. The fleet landed near the Moroccan port of Ceuta, and after a short siege, the city was taken on August 22, 1415. The main account for this event comes from the Chronicles of the reign of King Dom Joao I by Gomes Eannes de Azurara (d.1474). Azurara was an assistant to Fernão Lopes in the Portuguese Royal Library and Archives, and in 1...| De Re Militari
A translation of Chapters 181 to 190 from the Latin text in Guillaume le Breton, Gesta Philippi Augusti, in H. François Delaborde, ed., Oeuvres de Rigord et de Guillaume le Breton, historiens de Philippe-Auguste, vol. 1 (Paris: Société de l’Histoire de France, 1882), 264-81.| De Re Militari
Umar Ibn Ibrahim al-Awsi Al-Ansari, also known as Ibn al-‘Adim, was a scholar and a civil servant in Mamluk Egypt in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. Before he died in 1408, he composed a manual on the art of warfare, called the Tafrij al-Kurun fi Tadbir al-Hurub. This work is divided up into twenty books, which deal with various topics, such as the qualities of generals and troops, the use of deception to avoid war, precautions to be taken when marching and setting up c...| De Re Militari
One of the most important battles in European history was fought on September 25, 1396. Nicopolis was the first battle where the Ottoman Turks encountered a Western European army. The Ottomans were led by their sultan, Bayezid I, while the Christian crusaders came from several nations. Among their leaders were several important French and Burgundian figures, namely Philip of Artois, the Constable of France; Jean II le Miengre dit Bouciciault, the Marshal of France; and John the Fearless, Duke...| De Re Militari
Buonaccorso Pitti, who wrote a diary of his life, was a Florentine businessman who went into exile from his city in 1382. His travels took him to the Low Countries and France, where he acted as a money lender and professional gambler, and made strong connections with the French royal court. Pitti also served in several French campaigns, first against Flanders and afterwards against English troops. He also refers to the battle of Courtrai, fought in 1302, which was actually written in th...| De Re Militari
Thomas Walsingham, a Benedictine monk at St Albans Abbey until his death in 1422, was among the most significant chroniclers of the reigns of Richard II and Henry IV. Renowned for his detailed historical works, Walsingham’s account of Henry Despenser’s invasion of Flanders offers greater depth than most other sources on these events. Notably, in this excerpt, Walsingham frequently draws upon the writings of classical authors such as Ovid and Claudian, showcasing his erudition and literary...| De Re Militari
The present attempt is a by-product of the Second SSCLE Conference. Seeking an appropriate site for the session scheduled to take place at the Horns of Hattin, I went over the terrain with Eliot Braun, the archaeologist, who made me aware of Zvi Gal’s survey of the ancient walls along the circumference of the horns and Gal’s excavations of an isolated medieval structure on the summit of the southern horn; this led to the identification (or rather reidentification) of that structure wit...| De Re Militari