History of the Art of War: Within the Framework of Political History. Vol. 3. The Middle Ages

Description

Translated from the German by Walter J. Renfroe, jr. Originally published in German under the title "Geschichte der Kriegskunst im Rahmen der politischen Geschichte". Hans Delbrück's "History of the Art of War" long ago attained the status of a classic work in military history. Recently Walter Renfroe, retired West Point professor, undertook the first translation into English of the 1923 edition of Delbrück's four volumes. That effort has now reached the third volume, "The Middle Ages", which covers from Carolingian times to the 16th century. From the eighth century through the Middle Ages feudalism determined the nature of European warfare. "Medieval Warfare" begins in the time of Charlemagne, who maintained a military system of freemen and of vassals bound to him in service for lands granted in fief. These pages are crowded with recreations of famous events like the Battle of Hastings and movements like the Crusades; with the brightest flowers of knighthood, and with the mercenary grandeur of Byzantium. Hans Delbrück shows how feudal military organization varied in different countries and why the knightly forces could not hold up against the barbarous Normans. He studies military developments in the kingdoms that rose with the collapse of the Carolingian Empire, as well as the trend toward mercenary armies. When the Swiss peasants, forming the first true infantry, defeated the Burgundian knights in the fourteenth century, the era of modern warfare had begun.