Guns and Men in Medieval Europe, 1200-1500

Contents: Introduction; Men: God and defeat in medieval warfare: some preliminary thoughts; Medieval declarations of war: an example from 1212; God, leadership, Flemings and archery: contemporary perceptions of victory and defeat at the Battle of Sluys, 1340; Contemporary views of Edward III's failure at the Siege of Tournai, 1340; Hunger, Flemish participation and the flight of Philip VI: contemporary accounts of the Siege of Calais, 1346-47; A woman as leader of men: Joan of Arc's military career; The lack of a Western European military response to the Ottoman invasions of Eastern Europe from Nicopolis (1396) to Mohács (1526); Guns: The forgotten battle of Bevershoutsveld, 3 May, 1382: technological innovation and military significance; The use of gunpowder weaponry by and against Joan of Arc during the Hundred Years War; Gunpowder weaponry at the Siege of Constantinople, 1453; Gunpowder and early gunpowder weapons; The technology of gunpowder weaponry in Western Europe during the Hundred Years War; The impact of gunpowder weaponry on siege warfare in the Hundred Years War; The effectiveness of 15th-century shipboard artillery; A 1445 reference to shipboard artillery; Gunpowder weaponry and the rise of the early modern state; Military surgical practice and the advent of gunpowder weaponry; Methodology: Catapults are not atomic bombs: towards a redefinition of 'effectiveness' in premodern military technology; Index.

Kelly DeVries, Loyola College in Maryland, USA