Resultaten voor 'david nicolle'

1. David , Nicolle

Crusader Warfare Volume I

This book presents as many aspects as possible of warfare during the period of the crusades within all the cultures most directly involved. To a large extent the current interest in the Crusades reflects the perceived threat of a so-called ""clash of civilisations"".  While warnings of such a supposed clash in our own times are based upon a misunderstanding of the natures of both ""Western"" and ""Islamic"" civilisations, some commentators have looked to the medieval Crusades as an earlier example of such a clash.  In reality they were no such thing.  Instead the Crusades resulted from a remarkable variety of political, economic, cultural and religious factors.  The Crusades, even excluding the Northern or Baltic Crusades, also involved an extraordinary array of states, ruling dynasties, ethnic or linguistic groups and the fighting forces associated with these disparate participants. This volume focuses on Western Europe and the Byzantium Crusades. Latin or Catholic Europe certainly had an ""eastern front"".  Medieval Europeans, and certainly the knightly class which came to bear the brunt of Crusading warfare, would have seen all these fronts as part of Latin Christendom's struggle against outsiders.  The latter ranged from infidels to schismatics, to pagans and other ""enemies of God"".  Excluding Crusading or Christian frontier warfare north of the Carpathian Mountains did not reflect any real military or even political factors on the Latin side of the ""front"".  It is based upon which enemies were to be included and which excluded.  This study looks at Christian and in a few cases ""pagan"" armies whose actions or mere existence in sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia, had a bearing upon military, political and economic relations between Christendom and Islam within the Mediterranean world.

A Companion to Medieval Arms and Armour

A Companion to Medieval Arms and Armour covers the entire period from the fifth to the fifteenth century, a thousand years which saw huge changes in military technology in most of the world's major civilisations. Arms and armour in Europe are the principal focus of the studies, but those of neighbouring civilisations, including the Byzantine Empire, eastern Europe, the steppes and the Islamic world, are also investigated, both for the impact upon them of European technological developments, and for their influence upon developments within western Europe.Arms and armour in Europe developed dramatically during the thousand years from the fifth to the fifteenth century. During this broad sweep of time civilisations rose and fell and population movements swept from east to west, bringing in their wake advances and modifications absorbed and expanded by indigenous populations. So although the primary focus of this book is on the arms and armour of Europe, it also includes neighbouring cultures where these had a direct influence on developments and changes within Europe, from late Roman cavalry armour, Byzantium and the East to the influence of the Golden Horde. A truly impressive band of specialists cover issues ranging from the migrations to the first firearms, divided into three sections: From the Fall of Rome to the Eleventh Century, Emergence of A European Tradition in the High Middle Ages, and New Influences and New Challenges of the Late Middle Ages; throughout there is particular emphasis on the social and technological aspects of medieval military affairs. Contributors: ANDREA BABUIN, JON COULSTON, TIM DAWSON,