Operaciones especiales en la Edad de la Caballería

by Yuval Noah Harari, José Antonio Álvaro Garrido (Translator)

Además de las conocidas batallas campales, los asedios regulares y las maniobras a gran escala, las guerras medievales y de principios de la época moderna también incluían asesinatos, secuestros, traiciones y sabotajes. Estas operaciones encubiertas o especiales se dirigieron principalmente contra personas clave ―principalmente la realeza o los líderes del ejército enemigo―, y contra castillos o lugares estratégicos fortifi cados, incluidos puentes, molinos y presas. Sin embargo, debido a su naturaleza clandestina, estas acciones de «provocación» nunca se han estudiado en detalle. Esta obra de Yuval Hoah Harari viene a rellenar esta importante laguna. Examina en primer lugar una amplia variedad de operaciones especiales, desde el siglo XI hasta el XVI. Tras este repaso, el proferor Harari, se centra en analizar con mayor profundidad seis selectas y emocionantes operaciones: la traición de Antioquía en 1098; el intento de rescatar al rey Balduino II de la mazmorra de Khartpert en 1123; el asesinato de Conrad de Montferrat en 1192; el intento de asaltar Calais en 1350; la «guerra sucia» emprendida por los gobernantes de Francia y Borgoña en las décadas de 1460 y 1470 y la demolición del molino harinero de Auriol en 1536.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Military Fiction, Medieval, Medieval History, War, Military History

384 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Yuval Noah Harari is an Israeli historian and philosopher. He is considered one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals working today.

Born in Israel in 1976, Harari received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 2002. He is currently a lecturer at the Department of History at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and a Distinguished Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for the Study of Existential Risk. Harari co-founded the social impact company Sapienship, focused on education and storytelling, with his husband, Itzik Yahav.

Reviews

[Tamara]

An analysis of the role of what we think of as "special ops" in Medieval warfare. That is, the use of variously sneaky and underhanded tactics to achieve military (or political) aims, without having two armies politely show up and fight each other. Of course, I say sneaky, but really this kind of thing actually usually got things done with less bloodshed, and usually only the blood of the noble jerkwads involved, so theres something to that.

Anyway, theres a thesis bit with like academic theorizing and stuff, which is kind of interesting but not particularly memorable (that is, I read it last year and I don't remember it.) The meat of the book is an analysis of seven special-ops campaigns, from the Crusades and France. These pretty much rock.

Harari is just not above spinning a good yarn then way sheep are not above being woolly. It's all wacky cloack-and-dagger, buckle-and-swash, derring-do with a touch of stupidity so magnificent it still shines after all the centuries. Assassinations, betrayals, disguises, divorces, marriages, lies, princesses put in towers, princesses rescued from towers, (one instance of a princess rescuing herself from tower,) midnight rides, many gates and walls climbed over, etc, etc. It's great.

If anything, theres a little too much political and historical context some times - who cares why they were doing it, just tell me how. Harari is also pretty good about analyzing the sources and mentioning their likely biases and contradictions (which are pretty interesting themselves.) Mostly, it's just a bunch of the kind of weird detail and personal stories I wish dry history books (then the king did this. Then the duke did that. NO THEY DIDN'T. They didn't do anything. Some soldier did that. What was it like?) had more of, that give some a sense of the day-to-day way wars were conducted.

The Middle-East chapters were slightly more interesting then all the French stuff, but I really just think the material there is better - bickering Crusaders who can't swim and Assassins and sun-worshiping Armenians and things. The French and the Burgundians are positively reasonable by comparison, as the entire Levant in the 12th century comes off like a giant collection of sociopathically violent frat boys playing murderous pranks on each other.

[KritikKröte · Rating 4 out of 5]

Yuval Noah Harari geht in diesem Buch auf die Rolle von Geheimoperationen im Mittelalter ein.

Das Thema an sich ist nicht nur spannend gewählt, da ein vermeintlich modernes Thema im Mittelalter nachgewiesen, erklärt und an anschaulichen "Geschichten aus der Geschichte" dargestellt wird. Nicht nur thematisch sondern auch stilistisch zwei normalerweise als eher widersprüchliche angesehene Dinge vereinend, schreibt Harari in einer faszinierenden Weise eine Mischung aus, insbesondere der Spannung nach, romangleichender Nacherzählungen und objektiver Fachliteratur. Der erste Teil des Buches ist etwas analytischer und deswegen anstrengender zu lesen, allerdings hält es Harari sehr kompakt und die Freude auf den zweiten Teil, in dem in sechs Beispielen (Belagerung Antiochias, Erster Kreuzzug; Rettung König Balduins, 1123; Ermordung König Konrads, 1192; Übergabe Calais', Beginn Hundertjähriger Krieges; Mühle von Auriol, Italienischer Krieg 1536) Geheimoperationen der Geschichte beschrieben werden, motiviert zum Weiterlesen. Die die hier vom Autor zu vermitteln versuchten Punkte umgebend wird die Geschichte in einer für etablierte Leser sehr angenehmen Weise präsentiert, bzw. "ausgemalt", doch wohl auch für Laien ausreichend umfassend bis eventuell schon umfassend ausreichend erklärt. Die Beispiele sind wirklich super spannend, in hochinteressanten und teilweise weniger bekannten Zeiten angesiedelt und lesen sich generell wie Berichte moderner Geheimoperationen mit mittelalterlichem Flair.

Ein großes Plus sind natürlich zusätzlich die ausgezeichneten Karten und Stammbäume, die bspw. verwendet werden, um die Existenz der Herzöge von Burgund und deren schwierige Beziehung zu ihren königlichen Cousins anschaulich darzustellen.

Am besten gefallen haben mir ganz klar die "Geschichten" von der Hintertüreroberung Antiochias (aufgrund des "Plots" wenn man so will) und die Mordkomplotte Ludwig IX. sowie die Geschehen um Karl den Kühnen (weil das 15 Jhd. einfach toll ist).

Insgesamt ein sehr gutes Buch, das ich in überraschender Kürze las, allerdings nur wirklich empfehlen kann, falls ein echtes Interesse am Mittelalter und/oder Militäroperationen o.ä. vorliegt; dann allerdings auch wärmstens.

TL;DR: Gutes Buch; endlich ein Kompromiss zwischen lesbar & spannend und interessant & tiefergehend.

[Ed Erwin]

While I thought Homo Deus was overrated, it was entertaining. So I thought Harari would be able to make this topic entertaining as well. If you are already interested in military history, this might be for you, but it didn't work for me.

[Makomai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frodo era un SEAL?

Studio interessante, per quanto molto settoriale (le "operazioni speciali" ante-litteram). Per Operazioni Speciali si intende "un'attivta' militare operativa circoscritta nello spazio e nel tempo, gestita da un'unita' di piccole dimensioni, eppure capace di produrre risultati strategici o politici di gran lunga superiori alle risorse investite". Per carita', nulla da obiettare quanto alla definizione, estremamente rigorosa. Ma applicarla al medioevo mi sembra un po' "stiracchiato": sarebbe come dire che la Compagnia dell'Anello era un'unita' paragonabile ai berretti verdi... Paragonare le Spec Ops quali le conosciamo ora alle battaglie ai tempi della cavalleria mi sembra operazione azzardata. Nondimeno, l'Autore e' uno storico con una formazione ineccepibile, per cui gli episodi riportati come esempi (al di la' della questione se possano essere ritenuti vere e proprie operazioni speciali in senso moderno) sono trattati in maniera esemplare, con un inquadramento storico rigoroso, che va ben al di la' di quanto normalmente si sforzino gli storici militari, generalmente troppo assorbiti dalle battaglie e poco attenti al contesto generale. La parte introduttiva e' eccellente, anche se il fatto che l'Autore e' israeliano lo porta ad accentuare forse un po' troppo le operazioni speciali con obiettivo le singole persone (uccisioni, rapimenti e salvataggi). Gli esempi citati inducono a rafforzare piu' la perplessita' che il convincimento: si tratta di operazioni che ben poco possono essere paragonate alle Spec ops moderne. Nondimeno, l'ottimo approfondimento storico salva abbondantemente il libro. Le "operazioni speciali" trattate sono: la conquista di Antiochia da parte dei crociati nel 1098, la liberazione di Baldovino da Khartpert nel 1123, l'assassinio di Re Corrado a Tiro nel 1192 (in realta' prima dell'incoronazione, quindi non era ancora Re), la fallita riconquista di Calais da parte dei francesi nel 1350, vari episodi nel confronto tra Valois di Francia e Valois di Borgogna tra il 1407 ed il 1483 e la distruzione del mulino di Auriol nel 1536 (che contribui' a fermare l'avanzata di Carlo V in Francia).

[Adam McPhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harari's thesis is that special operations in the medieval world consisted of kidnapping, rescuing hostages, assassination, seizing infrastructure via stealth or trickery and the outright destruction of infrastructure, and striking at important symbols. While such 'underhanded' methods were always tried and often critical in warfare, they were never developed into a system because they had a tendency to upset the order of things, especially assassination.

The six case studies are very detailed and the final chapter - on Blaise Montluc's destruction of the mill of Aurial - particularly stands out for its vivid retelling of a little-known sortie that changed the course of a war.

[Hugh Wright · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Yuval Noah Harari and I like medieval history so I figured this would be right up my street. Really interesting book, I think each of the case studies could have been spun out into their own fictionalised account. This left me wanting to learn so much more, particularly about crusader kingdoms. Some of the drama in the events described is fascinating and I guess it’s a shame that this period of history is normally quite tough to break into. Often so much time goes into looking at structural themes like the pope vs the king or the king vs the nobles and you lose the plot. Not so with this - personality driven case studies with a brief explainer of who’s who and what’s going on in the region of the world where the assassination takes place and then straight into the story of what happened on the day - very readable! To underline this I was surprised to hear of so many autobiographical accounts surviving from the time let alone ones specific to subterfuge. It was refreshing that not everything was reliant on some proto-nationalist monks misremembering of the time and a lot of it was from the people who committed the acts. My point is a great author can bring even hard topics to life and that really happens here.

[Bill Leach · Rating 4 out of 5]

A study of the use of special operations during the Medieval period, with some detailed stories that make for fascinating reading.

A special operation is a compact operation conducted by a small force at a specific target that achieves significant strategic or political results disproportional to the resources invested in it. Fortified towns and castles were important as hubs of communication, transport and supply. Special operations against these could have an impact similar to that of a victory of a major field battle - more wars decided by sieges than battles. While operations to capture fortified places were frequent operations to destroy infrastructure were rare. Prior to explosives, destruction of fortified places required large bodies of men working over significant periods of time, which was rarely feasible. Military supplies came from thousands of small shops making their destruction unfeasible.

Political, military, and religious leaders were the other major target of special operations, for such leaders were often the sole thing that held together not only the enemy army but the entire war effort. Major conflicts of the era were to a large extent conflicts over dynastic rights of inheritance. Since war depended to such an extent on the person of its leaders, a successful attack on the enemy leader could in some cases secure complete victory in a war without the need for battles. Because assassination and abduction would invite returned action and lead to the weakening of the dominant political culture as a whole, it became a dishonourable way to fight. The cultural taboo on assassinations and abductions meant that even when such operations were successful, they could still be costly in terms of prestige. The author points out the taboo has continued - even during the Cold War the leaders avoided assassination of their fellow leaders. Further in 1976, U.S. President Ford outlawed employees of the U.S. government from conspiring political assassinations, an order upheld by every subsequent U.S. president. (It is interesting that in recent years, the U.S. has returned to the use of assassination.)

The symbolic effect of special operations was very important. Relics were considered important war trophies, examples including the Venetian theft of the body of St. Mark the Evangelist, the capture of the oil used by the French to anoint their kings, and the capture of the Scottish Stone of Scone.

Six chapters tell the stories of specific operations in detail, the characters and events providing interesting insight into the life and times of medieval Europe.
- Under the leadership of Bohemond de Hautville, the Crusaders were able to take the seemingly impregnable castle of Antioch, by bribing the warden of the Two Sisters Tower to let them in.
- The Frankish King Baldwin was liberated from his imprisonment in the mountain castle Khartpert by a small group of Armenians, only to find themselves surrounded by Nizari forces led by Balak. Before the castle fell, Balak was killed by an arrow and a deal was arranged whereby the Franks kept the castle.
- The killing of Frankish King Conrad by members of the Nizari sect, the Order of Assassins, includes interesting detail on the training of the assassins and the need for leaders to be visible making them easier targets.
- The taking of the English held city of Calais by the French Geoffroi de Charny through bribery of the knight responsible for the Milk Gate.
- The many exploits of the Valois of Burgundy, involving an amazing number of nobles and their operations.
- The destruction of the Auriol mill, well into Provence which was occupied by the army of Charles V, was carried out by Blaise de
Monluc with only 120 men. The mill was important as the army's food supply and Charles V eventually had to withdraw.

The author notes that special operations in the age of chivalry are a particularly difficult subject for sound historical research - it is very hard to separate fact from fiction.

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

Special operations have enjoyed a privileged place in the media and in popular culture. Particularly after the First World War destroyed much of the aura of regular combat - replacing heroic images of gleaming bayonets and brave charges with tragic images of mud, blood and barbed wire - the culture of war increasingly looked for glamour and heroism in the field of special operations.

Despite their problematic place within chivalric culture, special operations were a central part of war in the age of chivalry.
Whereas regular combat only occasionally involved the use of what chivalry considered ‘foul play,’ special operations almost always necessitated it. They consequently tended to stretch the conventions of war to their limits.

Charny (in his Livre de chevalerie) warns his readers against men

who some consider to be wise but they put all their intelligence and concentrated effort into such cunning schemes that their great subtlety sometimes turns them aside from reaching a true, loyal, and sensible conclusion so that these subtle people are out of step in all undertakings.

[Tristan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an Israeli doctoral thesis written up in book form, a much better effort than my own thesis. This sympathetic element aside, the author got me “on side” when describing the importance of special operations in western culture and media, referring specifically to The Lord of the Rings as describing a covert special operation to destroy a weapon of mass destruction! The man has style.

Further, he explained the strategic use of medieval castles better in a few paragraphs than others manage in a whole book. His study of the Nizari sect, the original Assassins, and their interaction with the Crusaders draws fascinating parallels with today’s extremist Islamic terrorism and the Western response to it. Nothing much has changed!

Finally, he demonstrates the need to command infrastructure with the tale of the destruction of a mill that by itself defeated an army: starving and unable to mill flour to make bread, an army of 60,000 men was defeated without a battle and with losses in excess of 8,000 to dysentery. Fascinating stuff.

[Endre Fodstad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy on the detail, but I find Harari could have dug more outside his 15th century speciality field.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.

[Iván Ferreira · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bueno, ojalá tuviera más historias. Me encantó el detalle que puso el autor en estas y que el tema apenas debe haber sido tocado antes,

[S. D. Howarth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somewhat unimpressed with the book compared to other historical works I’ve read recently. Comes across with the feel of a postgrad throwing several essays together from a pet subject. With the lack of standing armies and ad-hoc alliances and polyglot forces, the contemporary term seems slightly inaccurate, but full credit for giving it a go and presenting some interesting snippets of history in one volume.

I liked the idea, but the modern take on the subject feels too modern and I find the style of writing somewhat jarring and stale. The mish-mash of historical figures come across slightly odd, as though their reference is from another text book, or a translation into English. Hence the jarring comment as I found it stilted at times.

There’s some interesting individuals but they don’t always get brought to life, the one at the end being the exception.

More critically there are a number of significant historical events that would be highly pertinent, and there is no mention of any of them.

Did William I use a hit squad to take out Harold of Wessex and guarantee his succession to the crown of England? There’s enough evidence to hint at something occurred beyond the arrow in the eye.

Did Richard I loose Chateau Gaillard with a guy crawling through the privvy?

Did John I loose Rochester and ultimately the country by having the castle snatched off his steward? There’s more men involved than Ironclad suggests, but strange a strategic objective by a small force with dynastic consequences is missed.

It’s a short book, once you leave the reading lists behind and would certainly benefit from a look at nautical events as mentioned. The means the Vikings employed to cross europe (picking their ships up / trading posts) and the harassment of muslim forces by the crusaders with the same portage type tactics, would round the contents significantly.

Readable but enough of a missed opportunity to be irritating as a reader, as my individual opinion.

[Laurie · Rating 2 out of 5]

After reading the authors two masterworks, Sapiens and Homo Deus, I thought I would give this a try - I am a bit of a history buff, and this sounded fascinating. However it was a bit of a slog; it seems written more for academia than for casual reading. While it does have some interesting events, its pedantic tone and relentless torrent of names and dates never really get to an entertaining through line, and becomes more of a chore than a pleasure. If you are seriously interested in the subject, this book is for you; if you are a casual reader who, like me, took great joy in other works by the author and think this may scratch that itch -don't bother.

[Lorenzo Emilio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Narración lúdica; Un tratamiento interesante y novedoso del periodo comprendido entre 1200-1500. Abre nuevos senderos para la investigación de estas así llamadas operaciones especiales (obtener resultados significativos con escasos recursos) en otros continentes y épocas.
Bibliografía bien documentada al final de cada capítulo y notas marginales que acompañan el texto lo que posibilita seguir adentrándose en algunos episodios históricos y su contexto.

[Antonio Vena · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gran bel libro sulle operazioni da commandos ma nel medioevo.
Interessante poi scoprire davvero Harari e il realismo su guerra, violenza, narrazioni aggreganti che si rintracciano durante la lettura.

[Thorsten Hoffmann · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ich hatte mir bei dem Autor etwas mehr erwartet. War aber eher mittelmäßig. Ein paar historische Einblicke, um das Thema Special Operation zu beleuchten, ein bisschen Grundlage zu dem Thema. Ich hab mich ziemlich durchgekämpft.

[Andreos H · Rating 3 out of 5]

Der Inhalt des Buches hätte mit der Hälfte oder auch 1/3 der Seitenanzahl auch gut erzählt werden können. Dennoch, ein paar der Storys sind echte Highlights der Geschichte, von denen man kaum glauben würde, dass sie tatsächlich (filmreif) so stattgefunden haben.

[Beatriz Carrillo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing book!

[Jonas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ein insgesamt interessantes und informatives Buch, dass eine unbedachte Taktik gut betrachtet.

[Renan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un anecdotario interesante, pero se queda muy lejos de los demás libros

[Carsten Betz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trockene wissenschaftliche Ausarbeitung die herrlichen Witz vermissen lässt. Super spannend Thematik und dir drei Hauptkapitel sind mich etwas spannend. Schade.

[Arturo Barrera · Rating 4 out of 5]

El mejor alimento para el cine desde siempre han sido las operaciones especiales en tiempos de guerra, conflictos políticos, etc. Gran investigación del autor

[José Alejandro Vázquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Como siempre Harari destaca por su forma de narrar los eventos y eso hace entretenido su recuento de las operaciones especiales de esta época.

[Rowan Benda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catch me in Antioch converting to Christianity and betraying my city for a man I just met and then taking his name because I love him.

[Pedro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Siendo esta mi primera lectura del autor, ha sido una grata sorpresa descubrir la claridad, rigurosidad y eficiencia de la obra.
Yuval Noah Harari logra traer un concepto tan arraigado en el pensamiento de la guerra moderna como es el de "operaciones especiales" al de la cotidianidad bélica del medioevo, tarea ambiciosa y compleja. De todas formas, el escepticismo inicial es rápidamente dejado de lado gracias a una elaborada profundización en las categorías teóricas utilizadas.
A pesar de algunos errores demasiado precisos, el título logra su cometido inicial: un libro que pueda ser leído tanto por el aficionado como por el académico.

[Jeffrey Fredrick]

A very fun read and very informative. Makes the compelling case that siege warfare of the time wasn't as much about breaching walls as breaching trust. Rescues, kidnappings, assassinations... all the makings of a modern spy film.