Warfare of the Middle Ages – The Crusades PDF – Medieval Tactics

Medieval Military History Books PDF – Collectionthe Middle Ages

Free online pdf books on Medieval Military History. Be patient as the page loads. Some books: read Warfare in Feudal Europe 730-1200 online free, Warfare in the Middle Ages read free online, Castles, Rethinking Chivalry and Courtly Love, Crown and Nobility: England 1272-1461, Sword Fighting: a manual for actors & directors read online, Going to War in Viking Times read free online, read Battlefield: decisive conflicts in history online, read Warrior: a visual history of the fighting man online, Books on medieval warfare, Knight: the warrior and world of Chivalry free online, read online The Pursuit of Power, Arms and Uniforms: the age of chivalry read free online, read Mercenaries at War 1550-1789 free, read The Art of War in the Middle Ages free, God’s Battalions: the case for the Crusades read online free, read free online Chaucer’s World, Samurai: an illustrated history, When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World free online, Agincourt: Henry V and the battle that made England read free online.

Crusades Books PDF – Collection

Free online pdf books on the Crusades. Some books: Arab Historians of the Crusades, The Crusades through Arab Eyes, The Atlas of the Crusades, A New History of the Crusades, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Crusades, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades, King Richard the Lionhearted and the Crusades, The Story of the Crusades, The Damascus Chronicle of the Crusades, The Knights Templar and the Crusades, The Byzantine Empire on the Eve of the Crusades.

The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land

Asbridge, Thomas

Ecco 2010

Asbridge sets out to “uncover what drove Muslims and Christians alike to embrace the ideals of ‘jihad’ and crusade, and considers how these holy wars reshaped the medieval world and why they continue to influence events today”. – Publisher.

War in the Middle Ages

Contamine, Philippe

Blackwell 1996

“Covering the ten centuries following the fall of Rome, War in the Middle Ages engages all aspects of its subject, including the military customs and conditions of the various Western European states; armor and weaponry recruitment; and rules of combat developed to limit bloodshed. Philippe Contamine writes with an awareness that, in both theory and fact, medieval warfare was constantly evolving. He opens with a chapter on Roman military disintegration and the practice of warfare in the barbarian kingdoms erected on the empire’s ruins. He then shows how feudalization multiplied conflicts, and describes the resulting growth of the “great stone civilization” of the castle. In the area of military method, he emphasizes three innovations: gunpowder, standing armies and the increased use of infantry, supplying in each case a wealth of data and documentation… Ever mindful of the chaos and devastation that war brings, War in the Middle Ages nonetheless offers a clear and consistent picture of the military ethos of a millennium.” -Publisher.

The Illustrated Face of Battle: A Study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme

Keegan, John

Viking 1989

Military historian John Keegan’s groundbreaking analysis of combat and warfare
The Face of Battle is military history from the battlefield: a look at the direct experience of individuals at the “point of maximum danger.” Without the myth-making elements of rhetoric and xenophobia, and breaking away from the stylized format of battle descriptions, John Keegan has written what is probably the definitive model for military historians. And in his scrupulous reassessment of three battles representative of three different time periods, he manages to convey what the experience of combat meant for the participants, whether they were facing the arrow cloud at the battle of Agincourt, the musket balls at Waterloo, or the steel rain of the Somme.
“This, without any doubt, is one of the half-dozen best books on warfare to appear in the English language since the end of the Second World War” -Michael Howard, Sunday Times (London).

Medieval Warfare: a History

Keen, Maurice, ed.

Oxford University 1999

“This richly illustrated book explores over seven hundred years of European warfare, from the time of Charlemagne to the end of the middle ages (c.1500). The period covered has a distinctive character in military history. It was an age when organization for war was integral to social structure, when the secular aristocrat was by necessity also a warrior, and whose culture was profoundly influenced by martial ideas. Twelve scholars, experts in their own fields, have contributed to this finely illustrated book. It is divided into two parts … In both parts of the book, the overall aim has been to offer the general reader an impression, not just of the where and the when of great confrontations, but above all of the social experience of warfare in the middle ages, and of the impact of its demands on human resources and human endurance.” Publisher.

The Atlas of the Crusades

Riley-Smith, Jonathan, ed.

Facts on File 1991

“The Atlas of the Crusades chronicles Christendom’s Holy Wars, charting the entire 700-year history of the Crusades with a brilliant integration of text, illustrations, and more than 150 maps.” -Publisher

Contents: PART 1: The way of God — The First crusade, 1096-1102 — Buiding a movement — The first settlers of the latin east, 1098-1187 — War on three fronts, 1145-48 — The new knighthood — The muslim advance and christian resistance, 1150-1187 — The third crusade, 1187-1197 — PART 2: The defence of christendom — Christian expansion in Europe — The crusade as a means of control — Criticism and popular reaction — The sack of Constantinople and conquest of Greece — The home front — Crusades to North Africa, 1217-1272 — Settlers, traders and missionaries — Muslims and mongols — PART 3: Crusading and the world of chivalry — Crusading in crisis — Traditions maintained in Europe — Island and coastal settlements — New strategies, new enemies — The fall of Constantinople — PART 4: The last crusaders — Crusading in a changed world — The legacy.

The Crusades: A Short History

Riley-Smith, Jonathan

Yale University 1987

A comprehensive history of the Crusades: an account of the theology of violence behind the Crusades, the major Crusades, the experience of crusading, and the crusaders themselves.

Crusades, Christianity, and Islam

Riley-Smith, Jonathan

Columbia University 2008

“The Crusades were penitential war-pilgrimages fought in the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean, as well as in North Africa, Spain, Portugal, Poland, the Baltic region, Hungary, the Balkans, and Western Europe. Beginning in the eleventh century and ending as late as the eighteenth, these holy wars were waged against Muslims and other enemies of the Church, enlisting generations of laymen and laywomen to fight for the sake of Christendom… From this history, Riley-Smith traces the legacy of the Crusades into modern times, specifically within the attitudes of European imperialists and colonialists and within the beliefs of twentieth-century Muslims… Whether regarded as a valid expression of Christianity’s divine enterprise or condemned as a weapon of empire, crusading has been a powerful rhetorical tool for centuries. In order to understand the preoccupations of Islamist jihadis and the character of Western discourse on the Middle East, Riley-Smith argues, we must understand how images of crusading were formed in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.” -Publisher.

The First Crusaders, 1095-1131

Riley-Smith, Jonathan

Cambridge University 1997

Much has been written about the crusades, but very little about the crusaders. What moved them to go? What preparations did they need to make? How did they react to their experiences? This book comes up with detailed answers to these questions, and offers the first systematic reading of a large cache of contemporary source-material. Clusters of crusaders can be identified in individual family groups, and the collective commitment of these claims manifested itself in support for the new settlements in the east.

The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades

Riley-Smith, Jonathan, ed.

Oxford University 2001

In The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades, the story of the Crusades is told as never before in an engrossing, authoritative, and comprehensive history that ranges from the preaching of the First Crusade in 1095 to the legacy of the crusading ideals and imagery that continues today. Here are the ideas of apologists, propagandists, and poets about the Crusades, as well as the perceptions and motives of the crusaders themselves and the means by which they joined the movement.
The authors describe the elaborate social and civic systems that arose to support the Crusades–taxation, for example, was formalized by the Church and monarchs to raise enormous funds needed to wage war on this scale. And here are vivid descriptions of the battles themselves, frightening, disorienting, and dangerous affairs, with keen and insightful commentary on the reactions of the Muslims to a Christian holy war. Extensively illustrated with hundreds of photographs, paintings, drawings, maps, chronologies, and a guide to further reading, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades even includes coverage of crusades outside the eastern Mediterranean region and post-medieval crusades.

VINTAGE BOOKS – Warfare of the Middle Ages

The Crusades: The Story Of The Latin Kingdom Of Jerusalem

Archer, T. A. & C. L. Kingsford

Putnam’s Sons 1895

Contents: Introduction – Peter the Hermit and Urban the Pope – The First Crusade -The muster and the march to Antioch – The First Crusade -The first fruits of conquest: Edessa and Antioch – The First Crusade -the capture of the Holy City – Godfrey de Bouillon – The land and its organization – The conquest of the land- Baldwin I – The conquest of the land-the Franks in Northern Syria – The conquest of the land- Baldwin II – The Military orders – The Kingdom at its Zenith- Fulk of Anjou – Zangi and the Fall of Edessa – The Second Crusade – Loss and gain – The rival kings – Nur-ed-din and Amalric – The rise of Saladin – The fall of Jerusalem – The life of the people – The Third Crusade – the gathering of the host – The Third Crusade – The siege of Acre – The Third Crusade – the campaigns of Richard – Arms, Armour, and armaments – The kingdom of Acre – the struggle for recovery – The Crusades of St. Louis and Edward I – The Kingdom of Acre – its decay and destruction – The close of the crusades – Conclusion.

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History of the Crusades, Vol 1

Volume 2

Volume 3

Michaud, Francois

Armstrong & Son 1882

Joseph François Michaud (1767-1839) began his career as a writer and editor of Royalist newspapers in Paris during the French Revolution. He survived a death sentence ‘in absentia’ and then a brief spell in prison in 1800, after which he set aside journalism for a number of years and began writing and editing books. He published the first volume of ‘History of the Crusades’ in 1811, and the first volume of ‘Universal Biographies’ the same year. He continued working on the Crusades history until the end of his life, while editing a newspaper and publishing other books. The complete ‘History of the Crusades’ was published in six volumes in 1840. -Info from Wikipedia.
This history, which glorified the Christian war against ‘infidels’, was very influential in the nineteenth century as a stimulus for imperial expansion.

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A History of the Art of War: The Middle Ages from the Fourth to the Fourteenth Century

Oman, Charles

Methuen 1898

Describes the continuity in the history of warfare, the development of tactics, the changes in equipment, methods of fortifications, and the growth of military tradition. Military affairs of central and eastern Europe are less extensively discussed than those of England and France. (Guide to Historical Lit. 1st. ed.)