A Brief History of Medieval Warfare

For over 150 years, from 1314 to 1485, England fought an almost continuous war with its neighbours: the Campaign of the North when the armies of Robert the Bruce were vanquished, the long, one-hundred-and-sixteen-year conflict with France, finally imploding into bloody civil strife in the Wars of the Roses.

Too often attention has been focused on the bravery of knights and archers during these conflicts, yet face to face confrontations were few. Peter Reid proposes that England’s ability to discipline, provision and finance such a long campaign was at the heart of its success. England’s strength derived from an entire nation being put on a total war footing. Campaigns were won, not just on the battlefield, but through the careful marshalling of troops and supplies.

Interweaving his argument with a dramatic recreation of the main events of the campaigns on land and at sea, Peter Reid presents a new perspective on this turning point in English history. A Brief History of Medieval Warfare is both gripping and powerfully persuasive.