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Middle Ages

In European history, the Middle Ages, or Medieval period, lasted from the 5th to the 15th century. It began with the collapse of the Western Roman Empire and merged into the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery. The Middle Ages is the middle period of the three traditional divisions of Western history: Antiquity, Medieval period, and Modern period. The Medieval period is itself subdivided into the Early, the High, and the Late Middle Ages. Depopulation, deurbanisation, invasion, and movement of peoples, which had begun in Late Antiquity, continued in the Early Middle Ages. The barbarian invaders, including various Germanic peoples, formed new kingdoms in what remained of the Western Roman Empire. In the 7th century, North Africa and the Middle East, once part of the Eastern Roman Empire came under the rule of the Caliphate, an Islamic empire, after conquest by Muhammad's successors. Although there were substantial changes in society and political structures, the break with Antiquity was not complete. The still-sizeable Byzantine Empire survived in the east and remained a major power. The empire's law code, the Code of Justinian, was rediscovered in Northern Italy in 1070 and became widely admired later in the Middle Ages. In the West, most kingdoms incorporated the few extant Roman institutions. Monasteries were founded as campaigns to Christianise pagan Europe continued. The Franks, under the Carolingian dynasty, briefly established an empire covering much of Western Europe; the Carolingian Empire during the later 8th and early 9th century, but it later succumbed to the pressures of internal civil wars combined with external invasions—Vikings from the north, Magyars from the east, and Saracens from the south. During the High Middle Ages, which began after AD 1000, the population of Europe increased greatly as technological and agricultural innovations allowed trade to flourish and the Medieval Warm Period climate change allowed crop yields to increase. Manorialism, the organisation of peasants into villages that owed rent and labour services to the nobles, and feudalism, the political structure whereby knights and lower-status nobles owed military service to their overlords in return for the right to rent from lands and manors, were two of the ways society was organised in the High Middle Ages. The Crusades, first preached in 1095, were military attempts by Western European Christians to regain control of the Middle Eastern Holy Land from the Muslims. Kings became the heads of centralised nation states, reducing crime and violence but making the ideal of a unified Christendom more distant. Intellectual life was marked by scholasticism, a philosophy that emphasised joining faith to reason, and by the founding of universities. The theology of Thomas Aquinas, the paintings of Giotto, the poetry of Dante and Chaucer, the travels of Marco Polo, and the architecture of Gothic cathedrals such as Chartres are among the outstanding achievements of this period. The Late Middle Ages was marked by difficulties and calamities including famine, plague, and war, which much diminished the population of Western Europe; between 1347 and 1350, the Black Death killed about a third of Europeans. Controversy, heresy, and schism within the Church paralleled the interstate conflict, civil strife, and peasant revolts that occurred in the kingdoms. Cultural and technological developments transformed European society, concluding the Late Middle Ages and beginning the early modern period.
en.wikipedia.org

 

Medieval Warfare Transformed

Don Nardo

  1. Medieval Warfare Transformed
  2. “Ut, ut, ut!”
  3. “h e Dropping of the Dead”
  4. A Prolii c and Vigorous Builder
  5. Into the History Books
  6. Fighting on Foot
  7. From National Army to Militia
  8. From Militia to Standing Armies
  9. Infantry Armor and Weapons
  10. The Formidable English Longbow
  11. The Widely Feared Swiss
  12. Killers on Horseback
  13. Maintaining Cavalry Traditions
  14. Weapons, Plus a Pivotal Invention
  15. Advances in Cavalry Armor
  16. Heavy Cavalry and Other Arms Systems
  17. Knightly Conceit and Overconi dence
  18. Vanished from the Battleield
  19. Castles Under Siege
  20. Why Sieges Were Important
  21. Built to Maintain Security
  22. Breaching the Walls
  23. A Leap Forward for Defenders
  24. Besiegers’ Lethal Tools
  25. Assaults by Sea
  26. Early Medieval Warships
  27. Late Medieval Warships
  28. Sea Fights Like Land Battles
  29. Medieval Naval Tactics Rendered Obsolete
  30. Firearms Revolutionize War
  31. Chinese Contributions
  32. Early European Gunpowder Experiments
  33. Rudimentary Cannons
  34. An Unprecedented Bombardmen
  35. A Landmark Military Campaign
  36. Guns h at Soldiers Could Carry

 

MEDIEVAL CASTLES

Marilyn Stokstad

  1. PREFACE
  2. CHRONOLOGY
  3. ROMANCE OR REALITY?
  4. St. George and the Dragon
  5. Windsor Castle
  6. THE MEDIEVAL SOCIAL ORDER
  7. The Code of Chivalry
  8. Manorialism and the Agricultural Estate
  9. The Place of the Church
  10. The Role of Women
  11. The Rise of the Merchant Class
  12. WHAT IS A CASTLE?
  13. Word Origins
  14. Castle Remains Today
  15. EARLY FORTIFICATIONS AND DEFENSIVE STRUCTURES
  16. Earth and Timber Structures
  17. Motte and Bailey
  18. Stone and Mortar
  19. Hadrian’s Wall
  20. Theodosian Walls
  21. THE ROLE OF THE MEDIEVAL CASTLE
  22. The Castle and Siege Warfare
  23. The Castle as Political and Economic Headquarters
  24. The Castle as Symbol: From Fortress to Palace
  25. THE NORMANS CONQUER ENGLAND
  26. EARLY TIMBER CASTLES
  27. The Motte and Bailey Castle
  28. The Bailey
  29. The Need for Castles
  30. Alas, Wooden Castles Burn
  31. THE FIRST STONE CASTLES
  32. The Castle at Loches
  33. The Castle at Rochester
  34. The White Tower of London
  35. Windsor and Arundel Castles
  36. The Impact of the Crusades
  37. The Burden of Castle Building
  38. EARLY PLANTAGENET CASTLES
  39. Kenilworth and Pembroke Castles
  40. Challenges and Architectural Solutions
  41. The Great Tower Becomes Obsolete
  42. Halls and Chamber Blocks
  43. THE CASTLE AS FORTRESS: THE CASTLE AND SIEGE WARFARE
  44. THE CASTLE IN ACTION: THE DEFENSE
  45. The Walls
  46. The Gate
  47. THE CASTLE IN ACTION: THE ATTACK
  48. Battering Rams
  49. Stone-Throwing Machines
  50. Tunnels
  51. The Siege Tower
  52. Scaling the Walls
  53. Knights
  54. Archers
  55. The Surrender
  56. CHATEAU GAILLARD: RICHARD THE LION HEARTED’S CASTLE AND ITS HORRIBLE END
  57. The Siege of Rochester
  58. NEW DESIGNS: THE TOWERED WALL
  59. Chinon
  60. Angers
  61. THE MILITARY ORDERS
  62. THE CASTLE AS HEADQUARTERS: THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC ROLE OF THE CASTLE
  63. HEADQUARTERS CASTLES
  64. The Louvre
  65. Royal Palace on the Ile de la Cité
  66. THE CASTLE AS SEAT OF GOVERNMENT
  67. Paris
  68. Caernarfon
  69. Harlech
  70. Fourteenth-Century Changes
  71. The Manor House
  72. THE FORTIFIED CITY
  73. Carcassonne
  74. The Bastide of Aigues Mortes
  75. The Citadel
  76. Castle of Saint Antoine
  77. EMERGING COMMERCIAL CENTERS
  78. Castles of the Rhine
  79. Gutenfels
  80. The Village of Kaub and the Pfalz
  81. THE CASTLE AS SYMBOL AND PALACE
  82. SYMBOLIC ARCHITECTURE
  83. The Gatehouse
  84. The Great Hall
  85. Domestic Quarters
  86. The Castle Transformed
  87. Bodiam Castle
  88. SYMBOLIC SETTINGS: WOODS, FORESTS, AND WATER MEADOWS
  89. Leeds Castle
  90. Vincennes
  91. SYMBOLIC CEREMONIES: PUBLIC AND PRIVATE
  92. The Closet
  93. The Pleasure Garden
  94. Tournaments
  95. Heraldry
  96. FROM FORTRESS TO PALACE: THE CASTLE OF KENILWORTH
  97. THE MILITARY AFTERLIFE OF THE CASTLE
  98. Changing Castle Design
  99. Batteries and Bastions
  100. The Emerging Fortress
  101. A FADING SYMBOL OF WEALTH AND AUTHORITY
  102. THE CASTLE BECOMES A PALACE
  103. Chenonceau
  104. Scottish Tower Houses
  105. The Medieval Revival
  106. The Eglinton Tournament
  107. The Romance of the Middle Ages

 

THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF THE BYZANTINE EMPIRE. c. 500–1492

Edited by JONATHAN SHEPARD

  1. PREFACE
  2. Notes on using this volume
  3. APPROACHING BYZANTIUM
  4. Inside out: emperors, outsiders and roman orthodox identity
  5. When did byzantium end – or begin?
  6. The age of Justinian: flexibility and fixed points in time of uncertainty
  7. The course of events: Byzantium between shocks and rebounds
  8. Taking stock: the economy, religious missions, border regions and significant others
  9. Embers of empire
  10. Church history
  11. Visual media
  12. Literature
  13. Army and administration
  14. Law and justice
  15. Society: gender and eunuchs
  16. Society: dissidence and outsiders
  17. Outsiders within
  18. Undercurrents of byzantium
  19. Sourcebooks
  20. Art and visual media
  21. Laws, typika and saints’ lives
  22. Sermons and orations
  23. Historical writing in and out of court
  24. letters, poems and lampoons
  25. Accounts of the christian empire and its precursors; other ‘chronicles’
  26. Non-‘roman’ accounts and didactic texts
  27. Encyclopaedias and lexicons
  28. Military and other instructive manuals
  29. Short-cuts to byzantium
  30. An empire of cities
  31. Religious divisions and our sources for the sixth century
  32. The rise of justinian and the question of his ‘grand design’
  33. Justinian’s drive against pagans and quest for christian unity
  34. Enemies of justinian and other blows
  35. Justinian’s heirs cope with his legacy
  36. Fin de si `ecle: faith, city and empire
  37. Romans and sasanians
  38. Royal legitimation
  39. Sasanian shahs and the zoroastrian priests
  40. Shahs and nobles
  41. Taxation and military organisation
  42. Introduction
  43. Christian armenia between persia and byzantium
  44. The armenian church as rallying-point and relations with the imperial church
  45. Relations with the syrians, justinian and his successors
  46. Conclusion
  47. Introduction: the question of sources
  48. The arabs in late antiquity
  49. Arabian religious traditions
  50. Economic life in arabia
  51. Imperium and imperial politics
  52. Mecca, muhammad and the rise of islam
  53. The continuing unity of the post-roman world
  54. The successor states in the west
  55. The vandal war
  56. The gothic war: early successes
  57. The gothic war: the resistance of totila
  58. Constantinople and the west in the mid-sixth century
  59. The three chapters
  60. Western antagonism to the empire
  61. Byzantine military difficulties in the west
  62. East and west: continuing links and growing divisions
  63. Introduction
  64. Events: persians defeated, arabs triumphant, churchmen at odds
  65. Administrative change
  66. Civil administration
  67. Military administration
  68. Legal administration
  69. Religion and the church
  70. An impenetrably dark age?
  71. Earthquake, plague and continuous warfare
  72. Depopulation and ruralisation
  73. The armed forces
  74. Taxation and the provinces
  75. Central administration and imperial ideology
  76. Culture, purification and the drive against idolatry
  77. Revitalising the church of constantinople
  78. From the second council of nicaea (787) to the synodikon of orthodoxy (843)
  79. Introduction
  80. Court politics 842–867
  81. External affairs 850–886
  82. Court politics 867–886
  83. Conclusion
  84. Introduction
  85. State-sponsored missions in the age of justinian
  86. The lull in mission work
  87. The mid-ninth-century upswing
  88. Missions to the alans, hungarians and rus
  89. Introduction
  90. Political and confessional flux (591–661)
  91. Armenia resurgent, byzantium expectant (850–1045)
  92. Conclusion
  93. Introduction
  94. The parameters of conflict
  95. Mu‘awiya versus constans i i : byzantium under pressure
  96. Byzantine responses to the sustained muslim offensives: the role of senior strat ¯egoi
  97. The era of ‘abd al-malik: muslim consolidation and renewed offensive
  98. Leo i i i , constantine v and faltering muslim offensives
  99. The abbasids’ building of baghdad and sponsorship of jihad
  100. Al-Ma’mun and al-Mu‘tasim
  101. The easing of jihad: diplomatic and cultural contacts between byzantium and the muslim world
  102. Introduction
  103. Early medieval byzantium: the ‘new rome’ transformed
  104. Byzantine–western trade?
  105. Underlying ideas and realities
  106. Rome as a ‘Byzantine province’
  107. Lombard perils
  108. The coming of the Franks and the crowning of Charlemagne
  109. Carolingians in Italy, papal ambitions in the Balkans and Byzantium’s resurgence
  110. Cultural interaction between byzantium and the west
  111. Conclusions
  112. Byzantine italy in 680
  113. The last decades of byzantine rule
  114. 751 and its consequences
  115. Rome and its duchy
  116. The exarchate and the pentapolis
  117. Venice and istria
  118. The duchy of naples
  119. The duchies of calabria and otranto
  120. Sicily
  121. Conclusion
  122. Introduction
  123. The byzantine economy: late antiquity to 1204
  124. The late antique inheritance
  125. The ‘dark age’
  126. The coming of the Latins
  127. Interpreting the evidence: doubts and disagreements
  128. Late antiquity: ‘crisis? what crisis?’
  129. A dark age?
  130. 1204: a balance sheet
  131. Introduction: coexistence with the caliphate
  132. Imperial ideals, borderland realities
  133. Palace intrigues and coups
  134. Romanos lekapenos: regime, achievements and exile
  135. Erudition, education, prayer
  136. Law and property
  137. Nikephoros i i phokas, john i tzimiskes and victories in the east
  138. Basil i i versus rebel generals
  139. Basil i i ’s bulgarian wars
  140. Basil victorious – and magnanimous to outsiders
  141. Basil’s ‘expansionism’: its political rationale and its costs
  142. Byzantine links with the western christians, 900–950
  143. Byzantium and otto i
  144. Otto i i i , rome and byzantium
  145. Introduction: muslims, byzantines and lombards
  146. The byzantine hold on calabria and apulia
  147. Churches and monasteries in calabria and apulia, and byzantine administration
  148. The principalities of capua-benevento and salerno
  149. Amalfi, naples, gaeta: matters of trade
  150. The break-up of capua-benevento and the general fragmentation of authority in the south
  151. The eleventh-century question
  152. Political instability after basil i i ’s reign
  153. The reign of constantine ix monomachos
  154. The schism with rome
  155. The patriarch and the philosopher: eleventh-century cultural vitality
  156. Constantine x, romanos iv and the turkish challenge
  157. Alexios i komnenos’ military defeats and political skills
  158. Alexios’ piety and pragmatism
  159. Reform of the coinage and taxation
  160. The first crusade
  161. Bohemond’s expedition of 1107–1108
  162. Alexios i komnenos’ achievements and failure
  163. John i i komnenos (1118–1143)
  164. Manuel i komnenos (1143–1180)
  165. The legacy and successors of manuel i : 1180–1204
  166. Byzantium and the west
  167. Constantinople and the provinces
  168. The komnenian family system: bonds and flaws
  169. Byzantium’s north-western approaches in the reign of basil i i and his successors
  170. Wealth, migrations of nomads and disarray on the lower danube
  171. Slav malcontents, armed heretics and pechenegs
  172. The western balkans: the norman challenge, and venetian and hungarian alliances
  173. Normans, hungarians, serbs and germans: manuel komnenos’ balancing act
  174. After manuel: serb secession, vlach and bulgarian uprisings
  175. Conclusion: the waning of imperial power in the balkans
  176. RAIDERS AND NEIGHBOURS: THE TURKS (1040–1304)
  177. The turks’ first appearance
  178. The seljuq invasion
  179. The battle of manzikert (1071)
  180. The loss of asia minor, 1071–1081
  181. Alexios I Komnenos
  182. The byzantine reconquest Alexios I Komnenos
  183. Two ‘wings’: the strategy of John II Komnenos
  184. The turks (1040–1304) 713 Manuel I Komnenos and the Turks: triumph, co-existence and tribulation
  185. Byzantine–seljuq relations 1176–1232: the ties of ruling families
  186. The coming of the mongols
  187. The new old enemy
  188. Conclusion
  189. Introduction
  190. Aftermath of the sack of constantinople
  191. The rise of nicaea
  192. Negotiations on church union
  193. The achievements of a byzantine government in exile
  194. The empire restored and the reign of michael vii
  195. Introduction: fragmented romania
  196. The course of events
  197. The latin empire’s main components
  198. Latin settlement in romania: law, institutions and socie
  199. Latin settlement in romania : economic growth
  200. ‘Greek matters’
  201. Introduction
  202. The bulgarian empire revived
  203. The rise of the nemanjids of serbia
  204. The albanian hornets’ nest
  205. Ivan i i asen of bulgaria
  206. The struggle for mastery in epiros, albania and macedonia
  207. Introduction
  208. Successes and conflicts (1282–1341) Political affairs
  209. The realities of government
  210. Social groups and social relations
  211. The peasantry and country life
  212. Town life and trade
  213. Social tensions, civil wars
  214. Cultural life
  215. Conclusion
  216. Michel balard
  217. The phases of western expansion
  218. Routes, products and conjuncture
  219. Chronology and definition
  220. Thessaloniki and its archbishops
  221. The morea, the council of florence and plethon
  222. Mehmed i i and gennadios i i scholarios
  223. Roman orthodox bonds after 1453: the pontos and amiroutzes; mount athos and mara
  224. GLOSSARY (INCLUDING SOME PROPER NAMES)