Groundbreaking reassessment of the role played by armour, weapons and
heraldry in medieval warfare, showing their cultural as well as military
significance.
A penetrating investigation of medieval martial display... The reader is
struck by its originality, and by its sophisticated and critical
interpretative engagement with historical and literary sources.
Particularly notable is theauthor's subtle exploration of the function
of armour: not only its practical role, but as a form of display... A
refreshingly different approach to the world of the medieval combatant
and his place within that `host of many colours' that was a medieval
army, it adds a new dimension to our understanding of medieval warfare.
ANDREW AYTON, University of Hull
The medieval battlefield was a place of spectacle and splendour. The
fully-armed knight, bedecked in his vivid heraldic colours, riding out
beneath his brightly-painted banner, is a stock image of war and the
warrior in the middle ages. Yet too often the significance of such
display has been ignored or dismissed as the empty preening of a
militaristic social elite.
Drawing on a broad range of source material and using innovative
historical approaches, this book completely re-evaluates the way that
such men and their weapons were viewed, showing that martial display was
a vital part of the way in which war was waged in the middle ages. It
maintains that heraldry and livery served not only to advertise a
warrior's family and social ties, but also announced his presence on the
battlefield and right to wage war. It also considers the physiological
and psychological effect of wearing armour, both on the wearer and those
facing him in combat, arguing that the need for display in battle was
deeper than any medieval cultural construct and was based in the
fundamental biological drives of threat and warning.
Dr ROBERT W. JONES teaches Medieval History at Advanced Studies in
England, a branch campus of Franklinand Marshall College, in Bath. He
was formerly a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, and
an Associate Lecturer at Cardiff University.
