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If you are looking for medieval news and other information related to the Middle Ages, please check out the News for Medievalists Blog, which is part of Medievalists.net

Two new items added to our website

We added to the De Re site two interesting pieces. First, Jason Price has generously allowed us to republish his MA thesis: An Analysis of the Strategy and Tactics of Alexious I Komenos. Secondly, Chris Hanson submitted his article, The Mongol Siege of Xiangyang and Fan-ch’eng and the Song military, which we have made available too.

Edwin Mellen Press wants to publish your books!

Fellow De Re member Dana Cushing has sent us this letter, looking for authors who might be interested in working with Edwin Mellen Press (EMP). Here it is:

Dear colleagues:

I hope that De Re Militari members will consider publishing with EMP. Knowing the excellent quality of work produced by DRM members, many of whom are leaders in our field, I would be to offer to you a provisional contract (pending an editorial review meeting). A proposal form is attached hereto.

As a medieval military historian myself, I think EMP is ideally suited to publishing our kind of work because EMP publishes all finalized MSS with full apparatus critici – full notes and bibliographies, foreign languages, tables, charts, plus color capability for maps, medieval manuscript reproduction, and other supporting research – within six months.

Most importantly, you do not have to “write down” your work for non-specialists and EMP never requests any kind of author payment – unlike most college presses.

I would be happy to offer myself personally as a point of contact for members or their students who wish to publish, and professionally as an editor. If anyone wishes to meet with me personally, I shall attend the Society for Military History conference in Frederick, MD and the International Medieval Congresses at Kalamazoo and Leeds later on this year.

Please visit our website (www.mellenpress.com) or contact me if you have any questions about the Press or making a proposal, and please let me know if you would like some information to show to your department chair or thesis supervisor about EMP.

Y/s,

Dr. Dana Cushing
Associate Editor
The Edwin Mellen Press
716-754-2219 (direct)

Two new books on the Crusades

Christopher Tyerman - God's War: A New History of the Crusades
Belknap Press, 2006
ISBN 0-674-02387-0

At over a thousand pages, this is a thick book that deals mostly with the crusades in the Latin East.

Nikolas Jaspert, The Crusades
Routledge, 2006
ISBN: 0-415-35967-8

Translation by Phyllis G. Jestice. Less than 200 pages, so not as comprehensive as Tyerman's book. Gives a small overview of many topics. Seems useful to me, but I haven't read much of it yet.

More new articles

BACHRACH, David S.
Making peace and war in the “city state” of Worms, 1235-1273
German History: The Journal of the German History Society
24:4, (2006), 505-525

MARVIN, Laurence W.
The massacre at Béziers July 22, 1209: a revisionist look
Heresy and the Persecuting Society in the Middle Ages: Essays on the Work of R.I. Moore. Ed. Michael FRASSETTO. Leiden: Brill. (2006), 195-225

MARÍN-GUZMÁN, Roberto
Political turmoil in al-Andalus in the time of the Amīr 'Abd Allah (888-912): study of the revolt of Daysūm Ibn Isḥaq, lord of Murcia and Lorca and the role of 'Umar ibn Ḥafṣūn
The Muslim World
96:1, (2006), 145-174

More new articles

BACHRACH, David S.
Making peace and war in the “city state” of Worms, 1235-1273
German History: The Journal of the German History Society
24:4, (2006), 505-525

MARVIN, Laurence W.
The massacre at Béziers July 22, 1209: a revisionist look
Heresy and the Persecuting Society in the Middle Ages: Essays on the Work of R.I. Moore. Ed. Michael FRASSETTO. Leiden: Brill. (2006), 195-225

MARÍN-GUZMÁN, Roberto
Political turmoil in al-Andalus in the time of the Amīr 'Abd Allah (888-912): study of the revolt of Daysūm Ibn Isḥaq, lord of Murcia and Lorca and the role of 'Umar ibn Ḥafṣūn
The Muslim World
96:1, (2006), 145-174

Recent articles from The Journal of Military History

The Defense of the Crown of Aragon during the War of the Two Pedros (1356-1366)
Donald J Kagay.
The Journal of Military History. 71.1 (2007)

Abstract - This article focuses on the general strategy of defense developed by the Aragonese king Pere III during the War of the Two Pedros (1356-66) between the Crown of Aragon and Castile, headed by Pedro I "the Cruel." After eight years of fiscal creativity and defensive luck, Pere retained most of his territory but had lost some sovereignty to his parliaments. He then went on the offensive but never effectively defeated Pedro; this was achieved by his ally Enrique de Trastámara, Pedro's stepbrother. What the war did accomplish, however, was the establishment of administrative and military forces that would ultimately lead toward a Spanish statehood in the fifteenth century.

The Training of an Inner Asian Nomad Army in the Pre-Modern Period
Timothy May
The Journal of Military History 70.3 (2006)

Abstract - Often the armies that emerged from the steppes of Inner Asia are viewed as throngs of horse-archers who overwhelmed their opponents through sheer ferocity or superior numbers. The typical observation about their military ability is that as nomads they were natural warriors inured since birth to riding and archery in the harsh climate of the steppe. While this view has an element of truth, the armies were actually better trained than is generally assumed. This article examines the training of Inner Asian armies. Although it focuses on the Mongols, it also explores the antecedents and evolution of training techniques across Inner Asia.

Kalamazoo 2007

The schedule for the 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, taking place May 10–13, 2007, is now available. Click here to read the entire schedule. The De Re Militari sessions begin on Friday, and continue all day Saturday.

Session 318: De Re Militari Annual Session: A Roundtable

The roundtable discussion will include John France, Kelly DeVries, Richard Abels and Timothy Feist.

Where: Valley III, 302
When: Friday, May 11, 3:30

Session 402: Medieval Military Technology and Artefacts

The German Slat Shield: Just Another Piece of Military Equipment or the Billboard of Badness? Shield Symbolism in the Dark Ages, by Vincent Farone

Come and See: The Evolutionary Arms and Armor of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, by Sara Louise Howells

Iberian Crossbows, by J. Patrick Hughes

Cultural Activities of the Teutonic Knights’ Military Order: The Sculptures of Schreinmadonnen, by Irene Gonzalez Hernando

Where: Fetzer 1055
When: Saturday, May 12, 10:00 am

Session 488: Warfare in the Earlier Middle Ages

The Historical Context of Annales Bertiniani” on Resistance to the Vikings between the Seine and the Loire, by Carroll Gillmor

Louis VII’s Military Career in the West, by John D. Hosler

Helgastaðir, 1220: A Battle of No Significance?, by Oren Falk

Where: Bernhard 157
When: Saturday, May 12, 1:30 pm

Session 532: Warfare in the Later Middle Ages

How to Invade Iraq: the Mongol Way, by Peter Michael Konieczny

“A Voyage, or Rather an Expedition to Portugal:” Edmund of Langley’s Navy and His Journey to Iberia, 1381, by Douglas L. Biggs

Non-Noble Deeds of Arms in the Late Middle Ages, by Steven Muhlberger

Where: Schneider 1145
When: Saturday, May 12, 3:30 pm

The De Re Militari Business Meeting will be at 12:00, Saturday May 12, at Bernhard 157. Those attending the congress might also be interested in a few other sessions, including:

Session 579: The Far-Ranging Effects of Medieval War: Captains, Crusaders and Aristocratic Families

Session 571: Reading between the Threads: New Research on the Bayeux Tapestry

Sessions 409, 463, 529: Cruades I, II, III

Sessions 263, 323: The Trial of the Templars I, II

Session 13: Gender and Sexuality in the Context of the Crusades

Session 40: The Vikings in Late Anglo-Saxon England

Session 61: The Nine-Hundredth Annivesary of Bohemund's Crusade of 1107

Session 162: Medieval Western Martial Arts: Pedagogy and Practice: A Demonstration

Journal of the Oxford University History Society

Just some information on a new online publication:

Journal of the Oxford University History Society - a bi-annual online peer-reviewed scholarly journal run by postgraduate students under the aegis of the Oxford University History Society. Its aims are: to establish scholarly links in the varied community of historians at the University of Oxford; to serve as a discussion forum for the international community of postgraduate students and scholars; and to provide a medium for contact between advanced postgraduate students and established academics.

Some articles of interest:

Multi-Use Management of the Medieval Anglo-Norman Forest, by Dolores Wilson

Interview with Dr Maria João Branco, Fellow in Medieval History at the Open University in Lisbon and Visiting Research Fellow at St John’s College, Oxford, from 2001 to 2003.

Institutionalisation and Vita Religiosa. New Approaches towards the History of the Medieval Religious Orders, by Anne Müller

If you are looking for medieval news...

Go to my other blog, News for Medievalists, which you can find at http://medievalnews.blogspot.com/ It is going to be part of a new website that I am creating and will go live in early 2007.