Introduction to volume II

Summary

It would not be very much of an overstatement to say that modern academic writing about medieval warfare – in English, at least – began with Sir Charles Oman, whose first essay on the subject was written in 1884 and later expanded into his History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages, which went through two editions (1898 and 1924). Oman’s brisk narrative weaving together weaponry, military institutions and exemplary battles is typical of the pioneering generation of literature on the subject – and not just in English, as attested by such works as Hans Delbrück’sGeschichte der Kriegskunst im Rahmen der politischen Geschichte (three editions between 1900 and 1920) and Ferdinand Lot’s L’Art militaire et les armées au Moyen Age en Europe et dans le Proche Orient (1946). Another characteristic shared by all of these early surveys is their lack of interest in the world beyond Europe, except to the extent that Europeans came into contact with that world through encounters such as the Crusades (as suggested by the wording of Lot’s title).