Medieval Military Technology

by Kelly DeVries

DeVries' book covers arms, the introduction of armor, gunpowder, the use of fortifications, and naval weaponry, and does so while showing how medieval military technology is connected in broader ways to medieval society.

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

340 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Kelly DeVries (born December 23, 1956) is an American historian specializing in the warfare of the Middle Ages. He is often featured as an expert commentator on television documentaries. He is professor of history at Loyola University Maryland and Honorary Historical Consultant at the Royal Armouries, UK.

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 Stars

I picked this up based on a recommendation from Michael Livingston, author of The Shards of Heaven trilogy and a professor at the Citadel. My purpose reading the book was to research the weapons, armor, and fortifications of the medieval period. If I'm going to write fantasy books with swords and castles and all that fun stuff, I might as well have SOME idea what I'm talking about. The book did a good job providing an overview of the various weapons used as well as how their use developed. While I was less interested in this aspect of the book, it also provided a thorough overview of the various political and social factors that led to many of the shifts in the weapons used.

A good, accessible book for those interested in the subject.

[Jason Butler]

A very well written historical book. The author provides lots of references and discusses both sides of facts for which historians are not in agreement.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This concise and clearly-written work is an excellent introduction to the weapons of the Middle Ages, although one should take into account that the "Middle Ages" here are applied almost entirely to Western Europe. The various sections cover edged-weapons, armor, gear for war horses (including an interesting essay on the role of the stirrup in the rise of western feudalism), artillery (both with and without gunpowder), castles and fortifications, and medieval warships. My only complaint is that such a technical work should have more and better illustrations. But, all in all, a worthy addition to the library of any Medieval warfare enthusiast.

[Olga · Rating 5 out of 5]

Читала второе издание, дополненное.
Прекрасная книга для тех, кто хочет знать о средневековом военном деле, но не знает, откуда начать. В этой книге рассказано обо всём: о защитных сооружениях и осадных машинах, об оружии и доспехах, о кораблях и порохе. Книга разбита по тематическим главам, в которых эволюция каждого из изучаемых предметов прослеживается от эпохи римлян и варварских вторжений до конца Средних Веков, но при этом сохраняется связь между главами: авторы постоянно напоминают, например, как связана эволюция укреплений с внедрением огнестрельного оружия. Иллюстраций немного, но они подобраны хорошо, в том числе подробная схема рыцарского доспеха и планы замков.
Стратегия как таковая не обсуждается, но авторы приводят немало примеров из сражений прошлого - будь то взятие Константинополя турками или походы викингов, что добавляет книге живости и интереса. Появляется даже желание читать, внезапно, о тех же викингах, но ещё и о крестовых походах, о контактах с Ближним Востоком, об итальянских негоциантах в Средиземноморье…

Интересно рассуждение о тяжёлой кавалерии как о возможном ключе к чуть ли не всему феодальному обществу (спойлер: скорее всего, не ко всему), и, конечно же, о влиянии нововведений вроде огнестрельного оружия на ведение войны. Запоминаются замечания вроде того, как церковь запрещала арбалеты в войнах между христианами (но не против иноверцев), а знать недовольна была введением ружей и пушек, поскольку пули-дуры лишали их привилегии быть взятыми в плен и выкупленными живыми и невредимыми (но, несмотря ни на что, никто не запрещал себе использование пороха).

В общем и целом, читать обязательно!

[Nick · Rating 2 out of 5]

as a reprint of a 1992 book, medieval military technology is hampered by its age and some glaring omissions.

First off the book omits central and eastern Europe, with exception of the Hungarians, in the form of their early raiding strikes into western Europe, nothing is said about the east of Europe. This I feel is but yet again a proof of a lingering west European Bias when talking about such things as medieval Europe, medieval meaning western and in particular north western Europe. A boyar fought and armored differently then a knight, what paths did fortification go through in eastern Europe where there were no Roman remains? The role of horse archers in the steppe? This is one of these things where I feel a title really needs to be up front on what it is covering, specify that this book is limited to western Europe. One could be even more annoying and say “well medieval is not really limited to Europe so what about Africa, Americas and Asia?” But here’s the thing, the book is not limited to the medieval period.

My second issue with this book is that every chapter is given an introductory segment most often going back the antiquity but even way way beyond that such as ancient Egypt, Jericho and the late stone age. These introductions are obviously meant to show the medieval segment to be part of a longer trend but more often then not they feel incredible superficial and rushed. Skipping over huge periods of time, essentializing hundreds of years of historical events to a few snib bits and in particular comments on the fall of Rome, a topic so fraught with nuance and complexity, is reduced to what constitutes as little more then one liners or flat out errors. For example page 5 a distinction is made between the roman Cavalry and the infantry with the former being manned by non Italians as compared to the Infantry. Now for the republic and early Empire that was true but they describe it as the “late roman cavalry” thus insisting that such a distinction existed until the late empire while Italiens in the legions had been replaced by Illyrians, Gallics and Germanic recruits for at least a century. One could say that this is nitpicking but it happened enough for me to get annoyed by it, in particular because it is not necessary. We don’t need a story of the spear going back to the stone age, if you must start somewhere, start at the 6th century from a point of view of a society transformed by the age rather then this old fashioned ‘barbarians ruined the world narrative and then everything went to the primitive’ narrative.

Lastly I feel like the book tends to slide towards the descriptive and rambling off examples rather then really going into the technology part of their three word title. A lot is made of how quick and how easy particular kinds of walls and forts could be built but I would have loved a sort of archetype process; in year one you would see this, in year two this, they would use this to built this etc. I find that much more interesting then just looking at the end results, even considering how impressive such places such Krak de Chevalier are. In that same vein I feel like more drawings would have been helpful to really visualize what is described in the text.

I do feel that what it brings, it brings really well meaning west European military history and if for example your doing work or study on a period say the 13th century north of France, it would be a great help to read up on that time period's military tech as collected in this volume. To me what was the best chapter was the one on artillery, siege engines and gunpowder weapons. Although even here I feel a bit more time should have been spent on the "how they did it" aspect it still was quite insightful.

Halass what pushes me to a two star review is a line in the conclusions " wars became even crueler then before, what had once been somewhat regulated by chivalry and the laws of war, now deteriorated into a ruthlessness that was once ascribed to Huns or vikings or Mongols, soldiers who, as they had come from the fringes of civilization, simply did not understand how wars should be fought"....... Wtf.....I'm sorry but what kind of 19th century talk is that? they did not understand how wars should be fought? what does that even mean? The laws of war? if you delve into what the crusaders did in Constantinople, Jerusalem and what the baltic crusades did to the Russians, Lithuanians and Poles.... I find very little chivalry in those wars. What is the difference between a norman knight conducting a raid from horseback, building his motte and a viking raiding with a boat and then building a fort for the winter? I find making one the moral superior to the other to be a laughable attempt that we really should move away from. Likewise assuming the Mongols and the huns and Hungarians for that matter were some bloodthirsty mindless rabble was outdated even in the nineties when this was first published.

I was going for a three star review but I am long done with going easy on this kind of writing, I think noone should be accepting this kind of lazy writing anymore.

[Brian Wilkerson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Medieval Military Technology is another one of the college books that I kept. I find it a useful resource for novel writing.

Interestingly, it is more than just Europe's medieval period. Each section, be it Armor, Weapons, Fortifications, or Warships, goes all the way back to pre-history. Then it goes through the classical periods in Egypt, Greece and Rome. Presumably, this is for contrast. How these things change and how they stay the same is one of the book's themes. I am grateful for this addition.

Because of it there is more useful information here for elements that appear in the Medieval Fantasy genre. Every kind of martial weapon from the period has a little section devoted to it; construction, use, artistic representation etc.. The evolution of fortifications is particularly interesting to me: motte and bailey style military forts to tower keeps to castle complexes and then to fortified residences. The book's scope goes all the way to defenses against gun powder cannons.

There are also many illustrations to go with the written descriptions of whatever piece of technology the author is writing about. It is helpful to visualize and understand.

In regards to historian debate, there is a mixture here. Some sections, such as the one about mounted shock combat and the stirrup are just DeVries consolidating all the theories and the criticism of those theories up to the time of the book's publication. There is little, that I can see, of the author's personal view on the subject. In other sections, like the effectiveness of the Roman fortifications during the 4th century barbarian invasions, Devries is quite insistent that the walls, ditches etc. did exactly what they were supposed to do and that the "barbarians" who settled within them afterward knew perfectly well how to build their own but only maintained the already excellently built and positioned Roman walls.

This will indeed be a useful resource going forwards.

Trickster Eric Novels gives "Medieval Military Technology" an A+

[Lyra Meurer · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good introduction to the subject of medieval warfare. I especially found myself sweeping through the parts on arms and armor. The segments on castles and warships (surprisingly) were a little drier. The focus on where the concepts of various weapons, armors, and defenses came from and where they went was appreciated. The authors also readily discuss the logic of various advancements, insights which I found useful.

My only complaints are that a glossary would've been helpful, because sometimes terms were introduced without much explanation, and more pictures would've been instructive. Maybe it's just me, but mere descriptions of what clinker-built means, for example, never quite do the trick.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a well organized, comprehensive introduction to the topic. Important scholarly debates and influential arguments were covered. The writing was fairly engaging and unpretentious. The latter half of the book contained multiple typos; however, though annoying, they weren't enough to detract from the quality of the information being summarized.

[Mark]

COCC U810 .D47 2012

[Eric Pecile · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic overview of medieval military arms, armor, fortifications and warships that not only describes the technologies themselves but the tactics surrounding them.