Those Who Fought: An Anthology of Medieval Sources
Peter Speed's Those Who Fought is a wide-ranging, sometimes eccentric collection of sources and commentary whose title derives from the famous "three orders" of medieval society. Indeed, Speed has edited two other books to complete the triad, both published by Italica Press (Those Who Worked [1998], and Those Who Prayed [1998]), neither of which I have read. Readers of the Society for Medieval Military History should take note, then, that the title is a bit misleading: although a fair amount of this work pertains to warfare, it is more accurately a book dedicated to the lives of medieval lay aristocrats and their deeds and culture, both on the battlefield and off it.
The book commences a bit awkwardly as an offering to Speed's kindred spirits in the United States, who, he tells us, have been impacted by European history (xi). Such an obvious fact might go far in explaining the dizzying array of subject matter he touches on. Over the course of seventeen chapters that vary considerably in length and historical context, the reader is introduced to medieval social structure, chivalry, individual kings and kingship, lay aristocratic entertainment, military campaigns, and various aspects of warfare, among others. For sources, the anthology draws upon a wide array of previously translated chronicles, charters, letters, law codes, poetry, inventories and literature which cover the whole of Western Europe, though there is a perceptible bias towards late medieval England and English affairs on the Continent.
A curious aspect of this work is that Speed has opted to view at least a portion of his material through the lens of the "Dark Ages" (p. 7) and feudalism (Chapters 2, 3, 6). This is "curious," insofar as even most textbooks have now abandoned the feudal construct except for heuristic purposes, and insofar as Speed is well aware of the red flags waved so convincingly by Susan Reynolds's Fiefs and Vassals (1994). Yet, despite her "marvelous job of demolition" of feudalism, Speed is troubled that Reynolds "has built nothing new" in its wake (p. xii). Given the complexity and heterogeneity of the roughly thousand-year medieval period, Speed will probably be waiting in vain for any new paradigm to take feudalism's place. Chapter 6 ("Feudalism in Spain") is a case in point: leaping centuries-filled chasms from one document to the next (many of which should probably be read as reverse indicators of the societies they describe), Speed never explains how any of this demonstrates "feudalism" – and, if so, how "feudalism in Spain" differed from feudalism(s?) elsewhere.
From a conceptual standpoint, the book suffers from a basic flaw inherent to Speed's three-ordered society, namely its emphasis on nobles (i.e., knights) as the key component of war in the Middle Ages. Indeed, reappraisals of the nature of medieval warfare by such noted historians as Bernard Bachrach, Jim Bradbury, Nicholas Hooper and Matthew Bennett conclude that sieges were the mainstay of fighting in the Middle Ages, while large-scale battles involving mounted knights were exceedingly rare. (This inconsistency can be seen as early as Charles Oman's The Art of War in the Middle Ages [1885], and even a century later in Philippe Contamine's War in the Middle Ages [trans. 1984]; surprisingly, its implications were not extended.) This was a logical continuation of Roman military practices, which exerted a tremendous influence over warfare even beyond the medieval period. As such, the role of the mounted warrior, much to the chagrin of romantics, was mostly ancillary: in cases of siege, he could do little beyond scouting and raiding, while non-nobles manned engines, sapped walls, supplied food and fuel, and carted away the inevitable toxic dumps that accumulated whenever soldiers and horses remained in position too long. For all of the extended accounts that Speed supplies in Chapter 13 ("Sieges"), the reader emerges more confused than clued in on what exactly it was that knights did during sieges, or on the apparent incommensurability between fighting on horseback and attacking fortifications.
When field engagements did occur, only very foolish, ill-led or suicidal knights charged unsupported into infantry units (see document 136), raising serious doubt about Speed's statements like "cavalry now dominated the battle field [sic]" (p. 13), or "mounted knights dominated war, so that infantry counted for little" (p. 159). As the mainstay of medieval armies, non-noble foot-soldiers did not magically "reappear" in the fourteenth century, so that the putative novelty of infantry-centered combat even in the later Middle Ages is dubious in this critical sense. Interestingly, Speed seems to be at least indirectly aware of this fact in Chapters 14 ("Henry V in France") and 15 ("The New Warfare"), where his treatment necessarily focuses on the critical role of non-noble infantry, dismounted knights, and archers during the Hundred Years War.
Another problem inherent to Speed's three-ordered social approach is the illusion of hard separation between the classes. If we consider just "those who fought" and "those who prayed," for instance, some of the greatest legendary figures of medieval combat derived from the latter group – recall the martial exploits of Bishop Jerome in The Poem of the Cid. But even if not actually fighting, clergy still performed important roles in organizing regional defense. Speed's document 45, wherein the bishop of Barcelona appoints a castellan to Alba, is but one example of the complex intertwining of lay and clerical aristocrats. High-ranking churchmen (and churchwomen) were often drawn from important noble families who might steer some children towards a military career, while others were put on a religious path. Individuals might even pass between the two orders throughout their lives. One interesting case of such crossover is that of Vulgrinus of Vendôme, who began his eleventh-century career as a soldier, but then became a monk of Marmoutier, abbot of St-Serge of Angers, and finally bishop of Le Mans. Thus, strong ties to both the secular and religious worlds – bonds that are largely obscured by the artificially neat, three-part social taxonomy – were very much a reality in medieval society.
Some of Speed's sources would have benefited from a more critical introduction to the unwary reader. For example, Ramón Lull's description of a knight's duties (document 70) seems suspiciously idealistic, suggesting that the reader might profitably interpret it as a reverse barometer of reality. Lull suggests that knights should "protect women, widows, orphans and men who are in trouble and cannot help themselves." Yet, just a few pages later, we read Froissart's account of the siege of Limoges (document 84), where the town's men, women and children were slaughtered. Such inconsistencies and biases in the sources are to be expected, of course. But the "general reader" (p. xi) at whom this book is aimed could profit by gentle reminders to this effect. To be fair, in some sections (e.g., Chapters 14 and 15), Speed has provided decent historical context for the reader to appreciate the complexities of the source materials. The lack of a meaningful introduction to many of the documents, however, is a recurring problem.
Adding to potential frustration, the reference system to the sources is needlessly confusing, particularly considering the novice audience at whom the book is aimed. For example, document 89 gives as its source the Chronicles of the Counts of Anjou. Unless they had been reading the introduction very carefully, readers probably would have missed that this segment is taken from Elizabeth Hallam's Plantagenet Chronicles – though even then, page numbers are lacking. John Page's The Siege of Rouen (documents 145, 146) gets no full citation anywhere that I could find, which could stymie efforts of the interested reader seeking to know more about this source. And referring generally to Froissart's Chronicles without page numbers to the edition is bound to cause irritation.
Finally, one might question the need for such an anthology when so much translated primary source material is readily available on the Web. This criticism cannot be fairly directed toward Speed or his publisher: the Internet was a very desolate place when this book first appeared in 1996, and Web-based resources are fraught with their own particular problems and limitations. Still, the history teacher seeking to introduce his or her students to the medieval world of warfare or lay aristocratic life may find only partial utility in so idiosyncratic a collection of sources as those assembled by Speed. Had it been written on firmer historiographic ground, or had it offered unique insight on its wide array of documents, Those Who Fought might have been a useful introductory text or sourcebook. As it is, the book primarily makes for some pleasant bedside reading, which might have been Speed's goal all along.