Posts: 2,698 Location: Indonesia
Thu 19 Mar, 2015 7:31 am
| Pieter B. wrote: |
| I read some of the first chapters and recall an event involving a few crossbowmen using their crossbow as shield and I believe there was another account of a raid on a mill (though that might've been another memoir). |
The "special forces" raid on the mill was Montluc. I'm quite certain about that since I've read that part of his memoirs twice or three times.
| Quote: |
| Is there a book, article or secondary source on this "small war" I've read the Byzantine manuals and gleamed some information from it but I feel there is still something missing. If books covering the middle ages in this regard don't exist, would a later book covering this sort of countryside skirmishing be applicable to the middle ages in a way? |
I don't think there's a modern work specifically dedicated towards covering the day-to-day routine of small-scale skirmishes and raids in the Middle Ages. It was something people learned on the job, so it would have been hard to put down into writing to begin with; we have the same problem today with the training of soldiers, since we might have a crapload of manuals and guidelines and regulations on small-scale fireteam tactics but in reality what distinguishes the professionals from the wannabes is the unwritten stuff -- the intimate degree of teamwork and coordination that can only be built through living, training, and fighting together.
As for using later sources, it depends on which source. Bayard and Monluc aren't that far removed from the Late Middle Ages, so they're still pretty good for figuring out how things worked in, say, the second half of the 15th century or so. But don't underestimate the really contemporary sources either -- we have some memoirs from the 14th and 15th century that have been edited and published already, and you can find their titles in the bibliography of good modern books on medieval warfare. The one I can name right off the top of my head is Ramon Muntaner's chronicle of the Catalan Company -- it has been translated into English, and some older editions might be online already.
Posts: 645
Thu 19 Mar, 2015 5:09 pm
Thanks for the pointers.
I did find a free version online. Here it is for benefit of other viewers.
http://www.yorku.ca/inpar/muntaner_goodenough.pdf
You
cannot post new topics in this forum
You
cannot reply to topics in this forum
You
cannot edit your posts in this forum
You
cannot delete your posts in this forum
You
cannot vote in polls in this forum
You
cannot attach files in this forum
You
can download files in this forum