The medieval city under siege
By: edited by Ivy A. Corfis and Michael Wolfe.
Contributors: Corfis, Ivy A.; Wolfe, Michael.
Publisher: Boydell Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK; Rochester, NY, USA
Language: eng
Number of pages: 292
Subjects: Military history, Medieval; Cities and towns, Medieval -- Europe; Europe -- History, Military
Description: Warfare in Europe in the middle ages underwent a marked change of emphasis as urban life expanded. The concentration of wealth represented by a city was a valuable objective; success, even if less immediate, was more easily confirmed by subsequent administrative arrangements; and logistically, the static nature of a siege was infinitely preferable to the uncertainties of campaign. As the incidence of sieges increased, so pitched battles declined.

The studies in this book, intended for specialists as well as general readers, offer some of the very best new scholarship on medieval military history. They follow the history of siege warfare, exploring the urban milieu within which it developed, and the evolution of siege technology up to the advent of gunpowder weaponry.

The logistics of specific sieges, not only in medieval Europe, but also in the Crusader kingdoms in the Near East and the Byzantine Empire, are carefully delineated (including the range of options available in defensive actions), resulting in a valuable comparative perspective.

Evidence drawn from archaeology, literature, engineering, architecture and cliometrics brings to life the realities of a siege campaign - and, in its practical details, sheds light on the perennially challenging question of the relationship of medieval military strategy with that of Classical Antiquity and the Renaissance.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: New perspectives on medieval siege warfare / Michael Wolfe; title: Life on the cutting edge : the besieged town on the Luso-Hispanic frontier in the twelfth century / James F. Powers; title: The medieval German city under siege / Michael Toch; title: Siege warfare and the bonnes villes of France during the Hundred Years War / Michael Wolfe; title: Town defences in the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem / Denys Pringle; title: Byzantine siege warfare in theory and practice / Eric McGeer; title: Artillery in late antiquity : prelude to the Middle Ages / Paul E. Chevedden; title: Siege warfare in medieval Hispanic epic and romance / Michael Harney; title: The slings and arrows of outrageous love in the Roman de la rose / Heather Arden; title: Chivalry under siege in Ricardian romance / Winthrop Wetherbee; title: The gunpowder weaponry on siege warfare in the Hundred Years War / Kelly DeVries; title: Siegecraft in late fifteenth-century Italy / Michael Mallett; title: The changing face of siege warfare : technology and tactics in transition / Bert S. Hall.