HSRU
4305: Seminar: Warfare & Medieval Society: The Hundred Years War
Dr M. Kowaleski
Fall
Term 1998, Fordham University
Aims
of the Course: This course focuses on the
historiography of the Hundred Years War (1337-1453) and the Wars of the Roses
(1455-85), with particular attention paid to the military, social, and economic
history context of these wars. The
course also aims to introduce students to the primary sources and methodologies
that historians employ to study these two conflicts.
In the research essay, students will have an opportunity to analyze both
the historiography and sources of a particular theme or debate in the military
history of the late middle ages.
Grading:
Students are expected to attend all class meetings and to be prepared to discuss
all the assigned readings. Inadequate
preparation will be reflected in a lower Discussion mark, while each unexcused
absence will result in a subtraction of five points from the student’s final
Discussion grade.
Discussion
40%
Report
25%
Final Essay
35% (due November 23)
Required
Readings: All the required readings are on
reserve in Walsh Library. The
following texts are also available at the Fordham University Bookstore.
Christopher Allmand, The Hundred Years War: England and France at War c. 1300-c. 1450
(Cambridge Univ. Press, 1988)
Andrew W. Boardman, The Medieval Soldier in the Wars of the Roses (Sutton Publishing,
1988)
Jim Bradbury, The Medieval Archer (Boydell Press, 1985)
Peter Coss, The
Knight in Medieval England 1000-1400 (Alan Sutton Publishing, 1993)
Froissart, Chronicles,
trans. Geoffrey Brereton (Penguin, 1968)
J. Pollard, ed. The Wars of the Roses (St Martin’s Press, 1995)
The other readings for the course are
available in the Readings Book which is on reserve in Walsh Library.
Items which are also available in a separate copy on reserve are noted
with a * .
From time to time, the instructor will
also hand out additional primary sources for discussion.
Report:
Each student will be asked to give one oral report (10-15 minutes) on a topic
selected by the instructor. Each
report should be accompanied by a 2-3 page typed report which contains the
following: 1) student’s name, the course number, date, and title of the
report; 2) an annotated bibliography of four
to six articles or books about the topic. Annotations
should consist of a summary analysis or description of the work (about 5-9
sentences) which succinctly points out the particular contribution of the work
to the topic. Each oral report will be followed by about five to ten minutes of
questions from the other students.
Essay:
A final essay, typed and double-spaced, of no less than 20 and no more than 25
pages (including notes) is due on Monday, November 23 by 5 p.m.
Two points will be subtracted from the final essay grade for each day the
paper is late (thus, if you turn it in on Monday, November 30, after
Thanksgiving, you will have 14 points taken off the essay grade).
Students should see Dr Kowaleski no later than October 8 to settle on a
essay topic. A preliminary report
on the essay is due on Monday, October 26 by 5 p.m.
It should contain the following: 1) student’s name and title of essay;
2) a 1-2 page description of the issue to be examined, with special attention
paid to the primary sources historians have used to explore this issue; 3) a
list of the bibliographies you employed to search for relevant sources; 4)
bibliography of at least three primary sources and fifteen secondary sources you
could use in the essay, five of which must be annotated.
For the final essay, students must 1) start the paper with an
introduction of one to two paragraphs which describes the topic to be considered
and points to the importance/significance of the topic; 2) include footnotes and
a bibliography of works cited in the essay; 3) cite a minimum
of two different primary sources and seven different secondary sources in the
footnotes and bibliography.
Discussion Topics and Readings:
Sept. 3: Historians and Primary Sources
for the Study of the Hundred Years War
Reading: Froissart, Chronicles:
9-29 *
Sept. 10: The Origins and
Transformation of Knighthood
Readings: Peter Coss, The Knight in
Medieval England 1000-1400 *
Sept. 17: The Origins and Causes of the
Hundred Years War
Readings: C. Allmand, The Hundred
Years War: 1-53 *
Froissart, Chronicles: 37-61 *
Anne Curry, The Hundred Years War
(1993): 32-58 *
Malcolm Vale, “England, France and the Origins of the Hundred Years War,” in
England and her Neighbours, ed.
M. Jones and M. Vale (1989): 199-216
Report: Froissart as Historian and Chronicler
Sept. 24: Strategy, Tactics, and
Command Structure
Readings: C. Allmand, The Hundred
Years War: 54-82 *
Nicholas Hooper and Matthew Bennett, Cambridge
Illustrated Atlas: Warfare. The Middle Ages (1996): 116-23, 128-35 *
Froissart, Chronicles: 68-96, 120-45 *
C. J. Rogers, “Edward III and the Dialectics of Strategy, 1327-1360,”
Transactions of the Royal Historical
Society, 6th ser., 4 (1994): 83-102
Matthew Bennett, “The
Development of Battle Tactics in the Hundred Years War,”
in Arms, Armies and Fortifications in the
Hundred Years War, eds. A. Curry
and M. Hughes (1994): 1-20 *
Report: John of Gaunt and the Spanish Campaign
Oct. 1: Recruitment, Remuneration, and
Composition of the Armies
Readings: C. Allmand, The Hundred
Years War: 91-115 *
Anthony Tuck, “Why Men Fought in the Hundred Years War,” History
Today, 33:4 (1983): 35-40
K. Fowler, “The Armies,” in The Age of Plantagenet and Valois (197?): 93-139 *
Andrew Ayton, “English Armies in the Fourteenth Century,” in Arms,
Armies and Fortifications: 21-38 *
Anne Curry, “English Armies in the Fifteenth Century,” in Arms, Armies and Fortifications: 39-68 *
Report: Booty, Plunder and the Division of the Spoils of War
Oct. 8: Joan of Arc and the French
Ascendancy
Readings: Régine Pernoud, Joan of
Arc by Herself and Her Witnesses (1962):
*
The
Chronicles of Enguerrand de Monstrelet, trans. Peter F. Thompson (1966):
293-316
Kelly DeVries, “A Woman as Leader of Men: Joan of Arc’s Military Career,”
in
Fresh Verdicts on Joan of Arc, ed.
B. Wheeler and C. T. Wood (1996): 3-18
Report: Bertrand Du Guesclin, Constable of France
Oct. 15: The Medieval Archer
Readings: Jim Bradbury, The
Medieval Archer: 1-16, 58-179 *
Kelly DeVries, “Catapults are Not Atom Bombs: Towards a Redefinition of
‘Effectiveness’ in Premodern Military Technology,”
War in History, 4 (1997):
454-70 (esp. 460-4)
C. J. Rogers, “The Efficacy of the English Longbow: A Reply to Kelly DeVries,” War in History, 5 (1998): 233-42
Report: Archers and Archery before the Hundred Years War
Oct. 22: The War at Sea
Readings: C. Allmand, The Hundred
Years War: 82-90 *
Froissart, Chronicles: 62-5, 113-19, 303-8 *
Ian Friel, “Winds of Change? Ships and the Hundred Years War,” in Arms,
Armies and Fortifications: 183-93 *
Norman Longmate, Defending the
Island (1989): 357-75
C. Richmond, “The War at Sea,” in The
Hundred Years War, ed. K. Fowler: 96-121*
Report: The King’s Ships and the Royal Navy
Oct.
29: War and the Non-Combatant in France
Readings: Froissart, Chronicles: 146-66 *
Michael Jones, “War and Fourteenth-Century France,” in Arms,
Armies and Fortifications: 103-20 *
Michael Wolfe, “Siege Warfare and the Bonnes
Villes of France,”
in The Medieval City Under Siege, ed.
I. A. Corfis and M. Wolfe (1995): 49-68 *
Nicholas Wright, Knights and Peasants: The Hundred Years War in the French Countryside
(1998): 62-79, 89-95, 117-28 *
Anne Curry, “The Impact of War and Occupation on Urban Life in Normandy, 1417-1450,” French History 1 (1987): 157-81
Report: Spies and Intelligence-Gathering
Nov. 5: The Home Front: Propaganda and
Nationalism
Readings: C. Allmand, The Hundred
Years War: 136-72 *
W. M. Ormrod, “The Domestic Response to the Hundred Years War,” in Arms,
Armies and Fortifications: 83-101 *
James A. Doig, “Propaganda, Public Opinion and the Siege of Calais in 1436,”
in Crown, Government and People in the
Fifteenth Century, ed. R. E. Archer (1995): 107-43
Report: Truces and Diplomacy
Nov. 12: Debate on the Costs and
Rewards of the Hundred Years War
Readings: C. Allmand, The Hundred
Years War: 120-35 *
K. B. McFarlane, “War, the Economy and Social Change: England and the Hundred
Years War,” in
England in the Fifteenth Century (1981): 139-50 [first printed in Past
and Present (1962)] *
M. M. Postan, “The Costs of the Hundred Years War,” in Essays
on Medieval Agriculture (1978): 63-80
[first published in Past and Present
(1964)] *
R. Bridbury, “The Hundred Years War: Costs and Profits,” in
Trade, Government and Economy in
Pre-Industrial England, ed. J. M. Winter (1976): 80-95
Michael K. Jones, “Ransom Brokerage in the Fifteenth Century,” in
Guerre et société en France, en
Angleterre et en Bourgogne XIVe-Xve siècle (1991): 221-35
Report: Debate on the Impact of Gunpowder Artillery
Nov. 19: The Causes and Context of the
Wars of the Roses
Readings: A. J. Pollard, ed., The Wars of the Roses (1995), Chapters 1-8 *
Report: Bastard Feudalism
Report: What happened to the Princes in the Tower?
Nov. 26: No Class. Thanksgiving
Dec. 3: Soldiers during the Wars of the
Roses
Reading: Andrew W. Boardman, The
Medieval Soldier in the Wars of the Roses (1998) *
Report: Debate on the “Military Revolution”