Medieval Armies and Weapons in Western Europe
Jean-Denis Lepage has once again produced a valuable resource for young students interested in medieval warfare. His latest work Medieval Armies and Weapons in Western Europe sets out to provide a work that is aimed at what Lepage calls an “intermediate level.”(2) His main goal is to provide an introductory piece for those students and readers who are seeking a broad knowledge of medieval warfare without being familiar with the medieval world. With this intended audience most specialized researchers and academics will have little use for most of the material. The book is divided into three parts reflecting the generally accepted periods of the middle ages, namely the Early Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages, and the Late Middle Ages.
The first part, the Early Middle Ages focuses on the 6th –11th centuries. This section focuses the various armies and warriors that were moving across Europe at the time. Lepage’s standard approach is to discuss a group (i.e., the Normans), review their history, focus on the warriors and their tactics, then their equipment and finally a brief history of the role they played. Lepage’s initial discussion is on the history of the period and the background of each group. He starts, predictably with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the Roman Imperial army. Additionally he discusses the invading Huns and Germanic tribes as well as the Byzantines. He then moves on to the later groups of the Early Middle Ages. The Franks, Vikings, and Anglo-Saxons are all described in some detail, though he adds nothing new to the scholarship. Nonetheless his discussion of these topics and groups is better and more advanced than most works aimed at this type of audience.
Part two of the work deals with the High Middle Ages, here denoting the 11th through 13th centuries. This part is by far the longest and most in depth. The organization is different than the previous section. Rather than focusing on the regions of Europe and their groups, Lepage focuses first on the development of feudalism and knighthood including the advent and rise of the tournament.
Lepage then addresses the equipment and outfitting of the soldiers during this period. His first study of the equipment concerns the knight. This includes not only the expected arms and armour of the knight but also his horse. Lepage rightly describes the importance of the horse to the knight. After Lepage covers the noble elite he moves onto the infantrymen. Much of this discussion is dedicated to their weapons, first pole weapons and then long-range weapons. This is followed up by a discussion of the production of the equipment. The inclusion of the importance of the horse and details on the production of the equipment help to set this work apart from other books at this level.
After discussing the arming of the knights and footmen in the High Middle Ages he puts the two together on the medieval battlefield. Here again he surpasses other introductory works by explaining that there were many types of warfare in the middle ages and not all of them were the same. Included in this section is a discussion of medical treatment, though Lepage ignores the evidence discovered by excavations at Visby and Towton showing that the medieval medicine, particularly battlefield medicine, was effective enough to put wounded soldiers back on the field and instead claims it was “appallingly primitive” and “killed more often than it cured” (126). A particularly valuable chapter in Part II concerns sieges and naval warfare. His discussion includes the various tactics and machines employed in a siege. This is followed up by two specific examples of sieges from the records, namely Lisbon in 1147 and Château-Gaillard in 1204. The ships and naval warfare descriptions are also welcome in this type of work.
The final four chapters of Part II focus on the crusades and knightly orders. These are exceptionally well detailed and well researched. Chapters eleven through fourteen provide extensive detail about the Reconquista, Templars, Hospitalers, and Teutonic Knights. In addition to the well known orders there are also descriptions of minor orders including the Knights of St. Thomas of Canterbury at Acre, the Order of San Stefano, and the Dobrzyn.
Part III of Medieval Armies and Weapons focuses on the Late Middle Ages defined here as the 14th and 15th centuries. The first chapter deals with the evolution of armour at the end of the Middle Ages, though he begins with 1250. Lepage argues that there is no change in the weapons of this period so he focuses only on the armour. The next chapter, though brief, is devoted entirely to the Hundred Years’ war. This leads nicely into the discussion of the rise of mercenaries and the decay of feudalism. In this chapter many of the more famous mercenary groups of late Europe, including Hussites, Landsknechten, and Tercios are discussed. The final section is a discussion of firearms including their role in sieges and fortifications as well as naval warfare.
As previously mentioned this work is aimed at introductory readers. In this regard the book is excellent and should replace the ubiquitous books from the 60’s on medieval weapons that are present in nearly every library. That being said there are some problems in this book. Some of the most glaring problems are simply the repeating of old myths that are known to be false such as Viking helms having horns (33) and armoured knights helpless on foot (270). Medieval Armies and Weapons in Western Europe is not an analytical work and as such most scholars will find little of value in the text of this book. The illustrations are well done though most of the arms and armour depicted appear to be more decorative than functional weapons. Overall this book is excellent for school libraries and non-specialists alike and Lepage has provided a much needed update in this area.