Sir Charles Oman's classic two-volume history of warfare in the Middle
Ages is the key work for understanding the changing face of battle as it
was tested, refined and transformed through centuries of upheaval. Both
scholarly and accessible this is wonderful account, from a gifted
writer, of the characteristic strategies, tactics, military
organisation, and of the developments in war that took place during the
Middle Ages.
Volume One charts the period from 378 to the battle of Marchfield in
1278 which decided the fate of Austria and marked the ascendancy of the
armoured knight. Includes the transition from the Roman to Medieval
Warfare and the development of Cavalry, the Byzantine Army and its
development, the Crusades, the Visigoths, the Lombards, the Franks, the
Anglo-Saxons, Charlemagne, the Vikings and Magyars, their weaponry, arms
and armour. With detailed descriptions of particular battles such as
Adrianople, Louvain, Hastings and Lewis.
Volume Two covers Edward the First's Welsh Wars, Bannockburn, the
Hundred Years War, the rise of the Swiss, the Condottieri in Italy, the
Housesit Wars and the wars of the Roses. Particular importance is
accorded to the early use of gunpowder and its revolutionary impact on
tactics, siege craft and politics and conduct of war.