Böcker av Jonathan Davies

The medieval English longbow has been the subject of considerable debate. The English Longbow - Investigating a Myth will draw out the arguments concerning it and produce a balanced and convincing summary. The book opens with a detailed description of the weapon system - the bow, arrow, and arrowheads. The origin of the longbow has been much discussed and the Shortbow-Longbow conundrum is examined in depth. The longbow's capabilities and effectiveness are evaluated using recent research allied to contemporary accounts. The part the bow played in the 'Infantry Revolution' and the longbow's relationship with the crossbow are covered.The longbow could only be employed in war if the monarch could mobilise the resources needed to manufacture it and if English society could provide the strong-backed archers able to use it. These issues are investigated, including a consideration of the legal and societal framework needed.The English Longbow - Investigating a Myth is an honest appraisal of the longbow. It is not a book of battles but one that describes how the bow was used, sometimes successfully and sometimes not. It provides a comprehensive and balanced assessment of what was and remains the weapon that made Britain.

Explores the historic sieges of Rhodes in 1480 and 1522 and encompasses tales of heroism and strategic shifts in military history.The Sieges of Rhodes 1480 and 1522 provides accounts of the two epic sieges when the Knight Hospitallers of the Order of St John faced the might of the Ottoman Empire. Photographs and maps included in the book illustrate what a nearly impossible task the Ottomans faced in both sieges. The two sieges illustrate the changes in warfare in the 40 years between them and the revolution in artillery that was taking place during this period. The Sieges of Rhodes contains grand tales of the greatest heroes and the worst of villains, stories of ingenuity, bravery, cruelty and cowardice, tales which echoed across Christendom.When Grand Master Phillipe Villiers de l`Isle-Adam and the few surviving knights and brothers of the Order of St John departed from the port of Rhodes on 1 January 1523, the long history of the Crusades ended.The Order of St John had protected the Latin States for almost 200 years until forced to leave after the fall of Acre in 1291. Unlike the Templars, they survived the disgrace of defeat and re-established themselves on the island of Rhodes. Here they remained a militant presence, always a challenge to the power of Islam and hopeful of reclaiming the Holy Land. The rise of Ottoman power in the mid-fifteenth century led to two great sieges, the first in 1480 during the reign of the Sultan Mehmed II and the second in 1522 by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent.Both sieges were epic in their character and scale and added to the fame and prestige of the Hospitallers, and on both occasions the Grand Masters provided inspiration for the garrisons and for Christendom. The sieges occurred at a critical period in Europe's political, religious and military history. In 1480, Christendom was united, and both the means of attack and the forms of defense were fundamentally late-medieval in nature - both sides even built trebuchets, which had been thought long obsolete. In 1522, Europe was deeply divided, and the weapons and fortifications had dramatically changed. This book considers the medieval fortifications and their transformation in the intervening years, according to the most up-to-date ideas. It also outlines the artillery revolution that occurred over the same period, with the massive, clumsy, but still powerful, stone-throwing bombards giving way to narrow-bore, cast bronze pieces firing iron projectiles at much higher velocities with significantly greater effect.The sieges are also of great technical interest to military historians because of the extensive use of pyrotechnics and mining. Fire was an especially horrible addition to the Hospitallers' arsenal, and the book summarizes the flame weapons that were available and how they were used. The mining and countermining that took place in the second siege was an epic in its own right. Recent groundbreaking research has highlighted why the war underground was so extensive and became the most effective Ottoman strategy.The soldiers that faced each other were utterly unlike one another in arms, armor and tactics, although similar in their disparate religious devotion. What effect did this have on the outcome? The Ottoman army, especially the Janissaries, were the terror of the East and the West, yet they met their match on both occasions. How was it that a vastly numerically inferior force managed to fight their enemy to a standstill? This can only be understood by studying the sieges in detail, which is possible because of the excellent first-hand accounts produced soon after the events themselves. The reader can, therefore, experience the sieges through the words of those who fought in them. The extraordinary survival of Hospitaller armor from Rhodes and the superb collections of Ottoman and Mameluke armor and weapons help illustrate the contrast between these warrior cultures.

This volume completes the study of Tudor warfare. It provides a detailed description and analysis of the campaigns and battles of Elizabeth's reign together with their political and diplomatic background. It also explains how her armies were raised, equipped, supported and commanded.

Between 1494-1628 guns and their carriages underwent such a major transformation that they would remain virtually unchanged for over three centuries. This book is a practical and comprehensive guide to the development and manufacture as well as the use of artillery, drawing heavily on primary sources as well as the recent reconstructions.

This book deals with the diplomacy, campaigns and battles of the period as well as the life of the Tudor soldier his recruitment, weapons, tactics and logistical support.

The first illustration of a cannon in Europe can be dated quite precisely to 1326. This book explores the development of gunpowder, the earliest appearance of cast-bronze cannon in Western Europe, followed by the design and development of the wrought-iron cannon. The wrought-iron hoop-and-stave method of barrel construction was a system that came to dominate medieval artillery design both large and small until the end of the 15th century, and saw the cannon used not only as a prestige weapon, but start to be used as a practical and terrifying weapon on the medieval battlefield. In 1453, the Ottomans'' conquest of Constantinople, with their extensive artillery, marked the triumph of medieval firepower.The book will focus on the technology and tactics of early European artillery on both sea and land, and assess its impact on medieval warfare.