Winners of the Verbruggen Prize

2004 - Warfare and Society in the Barbarian West, 450-900, by Guy Halsall 
(Published by Routledge)

Halsall offers a nuanced and at times provocative account of the transition of the composition, recruitment, and personnel of armies from the late Roman empire to the late Carolingian era in the Latin West. Despite finding a general similarity of developments in the
practice of war across Europe (including England), Halsall appreciates the differences among the various barbarian successor kingdoms. He demonstrates both the lasting imprint of the late Roman military system and its transformation as paid regular armies gave way in the sixth and seventh centuries, first to armies raised from men who claimed an ethnic identity, usually barbarian, then to
forces principally comprised of the landowning elite and their followings, and finally, in both England and Francia, to the raising of armies by the state according to property qualifications.  The book is certain to spur debate and, hopefully, further research into military matters in the early middle ages.

2003 - War, Cruel and Sharp: English Strategy under Edward III, 1327-1360, by Clifford J. Rogers
(Published by Boydell & Brewer)

In War, Cruel and Sharp, Dr Rogers offers a powerfully argued and thoroughly researched reassessment of the military and political strategies which Edward III and the Black Prince employed to achieve this astounding result. Using a narrative framework, he makes the case that the Plantagenets' ultimate success came from adapting the strategy which Robert Bruce had used to force the 'Shameful Peace' on England in 1328. Unlike previous historians, he argues that the quest for decisive battle underlay Edward's strategy in every campaign he undertook, though the English also utilized sieges and ferocious devastation of the countryside to advance their war efforts.

2002 - Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe, by Richard W. Kaeuper 
(Published by Oxford University Press)

Paul Gans, one of the members of the Verbruggen Prize Committee, gave the following speech during the presentation of this first ever Verbruggen Prize:

The Verbruggen Prize Committer of De Re Militari consists of two distinguished knights of military history, Richard Abels and Matthew Strickland, and one squire, me. Unfortunately, neither of my betters could be presented today. Thus the honor of announcing the winner of the Verbruggen Prize falls to me.

A fair number of recent books were nominated for the Verbruggen Prize and the choice was not easy. But we persevered, sweating over our emails, until a clear winner emerged.

The winner is not only an excellent book in its own right, but by happy coincidence is a major extension of ideas suggested by Verbruggen's own The Art of Warfare in Western Europe During the Middle Ages. In that book Verbruggen looks, in part, to the poetry of the period for clues to knightly behavior.

Our winner takes this idea much further. In Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe, Richard Kaeuper examines the mentality of the knightly class and how they regard themselves in relation to the world in which they lived. Kaeuper takes as raw material the enormous amount of chivalric literature written during the High Middle Ages. This literature is filled with heroic convention, impossible feats, and descriptions of glory that would amaze even Hollywood.

From this mix Kaeuper extracts attitudes. he notes the peculiar relationship knights seem to wish to have with the clergy; how they wish to be seen by the noble population, and how they wish to be regarded by royalty. Out of this we, the readers, gain an impression of the mind of the knight, the attitudes that went into it, and the views of the world that result. In our opinion, Kaeuper's book legitimizes the careful use of romance and epic as tools to the understanding of the minds of participants in medieval warfare. 

The result is an amazing insight into the psychological forces that, for example, drove Frecnh knights at times into heroically suicidal charges into the Flemish lines at Courtrai and a refusal to acknowledge the power of English bowmen at Agincourt.

And so it is with great pleasure that, on behalf of the Committee, I announce the winner of the 2002 Verbruggen Prize, Richard W. Kaeuper, for Chivalry and Violence in Medieval Europe published by Oxford University Press.