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Beginning with the chapters on warfare in the first three volumes of the New Cambridge Modern History, Sir John Hale's writings on the subject present an original and rich assessment of war's place in Renaissance life and thought. The first section of this collection constitutes a major contribution to the study of Renaissance fortifications, their design, planning and execution, and their political as well as their military significance. The second deals with the recruitment and training of officers and men. In the third, contemporary reactions to war are analysed in a variety of social and intellectual contexts. The archival and literary sources drawn on are primarily Italian, in the second place English, but the imaginative scene is that of western Europe as a whole.
Beginning with the chapters on warfare in the first three volumes of the New Cambridge Modern History, Sir John Hale's writings on the subject present an original and rich assessment of war's place in Renaissance life and thought. The first section of this collection constitutes a major contribution to the study of Renaissance fortifications, their design, planning and execution, and their political as well as their military significance. The second deals with the recruitment and training of officers and men. In the third, contemporary reactions to war are analysed in a variety of social and intellectual contexts. The archival and literary sources drawn on are primarily Italian, in the second place English, but the imaginative scene is that of western Europe as a whole.
A history of the evolution of military technology among knights in Renaissance Europe from the fifteenth century to the seventeenth century. The Art of Renaissance Warfare tells the story of the knight during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries—from the great victories of Edward III and the Black Prince to the fall of Richard III on Bosworth Field. During this period, new technology on the battlefield posed deadly challenges for the mounted warrior; but they also stimulated change, and the knight moved with the times. Having survived the longbow devastation at Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt, he emerged triumphant, his armor lighter and more effective, and his military skills indispensable. This was the great age of the orders of chivalry and the freemasonry of arms that bound together comrades and adversaries in a tight international military caste. Men such as Bertrand du Guesclin and Sir John Chandos loom large in the pages of this book—bold leaders and brave warriors, imbued with these traditions of chivalry and knighthood. How their heroic endeavors and the knightly code of conduct could be reconciled with the indiscriminate carnage of the “chevauchee” and the depredations of the “free companies” is one of the principal themes of this informative and entertaining book.
Winner of the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize from the Canadian Historical Association Weapons and Warfare in Renaissance Europe explores the history of gunpowder in Europe from the thirteenth century, when it was first imported from China, to the sixteenth century, as firearms became central to the conduct of war. Bridging the fields of military history and the history of technology—and challenging past assumptions about Europe's "gunpowder revolution"—Hall discovers a complex and fascinating story. Military inventors faced a host of challenges, he finds, from Europe's lack of naturally occurring saltpeter—one of gunpowder's major components—to the limitations of smooth-bore firearms. Manufacturing cheap, reliable gunpowder proved a difficult feat, as did making firearms that had reasonably predictable performance characteristics. Hall details the efforts of armorers across Europe as they experimented with a variety of gunpowder recipes and gunsmithing techniques, and he examines the integration of new weapons into the existing structure of European warfare.
Renaissance military memoirs studied for what they reveal of contemporary attitudes towards war, selfhood and identity. This is a study of autobiographical writings of Renaissance soldiers. It outlines the ways in which they reflect Renaissance cultural, political and historical consciousness, with a particular focus on conceptions of war, history, selfhood and identity. A vivid picture of Renaissance military life and military mentality emerges, which sheds light on the attitude of Renaissance soldiers both towards contemporary historical developments such as the rise of the modern state, and towards such issues as comradeship, women, honor, violence, and death. Comparison with similar medieval and twentieth-century material highlights the differences in the Renaissance soldier's understanding of war and of human experience.
"Wide-ranging in place and time, yet tightly focused on particular concerns, these new and original specialist articles show how observations on the early history of warfare based on the relatively stable conditions of the late seventeenth century ignore the realities of war at sea in the middle ages and renaissance. In these studies, naval historians firmly grounded in the best current understanding of the period take account of developments in ships, guns and the language of public policy on war at sea, and in so doing give a stimulating introduction to five hundred years of maritime violence in Europe."--BOOK JACKET.
"Covering the years between the end of the Hundred Years War and the beginning of the Thirty Years War, this book explains the part played by war in the lives of individuals in the early modern phase of European history."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This social history of war from the third millennium BCE to the 10th-century CE in the Mediterranean, the Near East and Europe (Egypt, Achamenid Persia, Greece, the Hellenistic World, the Roman Republic and Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the early Islamic World and early Medieval Europe) with parallel studies of Mesoamerica (the Maya and Aztecs) and East Asia (ancient China, medieval Japan). The volume offers a broadly based, comparative examination of war and military organization in their complex interactions with social, economic and political structures, as well as cultural practices.
The Italian Renaissance marked a period of political and military turmoil. Many regional wars were fought between the states ruled by Milan, Venice, Genoa, Florence, the Papacy, Siena and Naples. For more than 50 years starting in 1494, major foreign powers also exploited these divisions to invade Italy; both France and Spain made temporary alliances with city states to further their ambitions, and early in the 16th century the Emperor Charles V sent armies from his German realms to support the Spanish. These wars coincided with the growth of disciplined infantry – carrying not only polearms and crossbows but also handguns – which proved capable of challenging the previously dominant armoured knights. The widespread use of mercenaries ushered in the early development of the 'pike and shot' era that succeeded the 'High Middle Ages'. During this period costumes, armour and weapons varied greatly due to their national origins and to the evolution of tactics and technology. This masterfully illustrated study offers a fascinating insight into the many armies which fought in Italy during this turbulent period, explaining not only their arms and equipment, but also their structure and successes and failures on the battlefield.