Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages

by Michael Prestwich

Medieval warfare was hard, gruelling and often unrewarding. While military life in this era is sometimes pictured in terms of knights resplendent in armour and bearing colourful standards and coats of arms, the reality more often consisted of men struggling against cold, damp and hunger, pressing elusive foes who refused to do battle. In this fascinating book, Michael Prestwich re-creates the real experience of medieval warfare, examining how men of all ranks of society were recruited, how troops were fed, supplied, and deployed, the development of new weapons, and the structures of military command. Michael Prestwich challenges many common assumptions about medieval warfare. He shows that medieval commanders were capable of far more sophisticated strategy than is usually assumed: spies were an important part of the machinery of war, and the destruction of crops and burning of villages were part of a deliberate plan to force a foe to negotiate, rather than an indication of lack of disc