The definitive guide to siege warfare during the Crusades. The set piece battles of the crusades may have been well-recounted by historians but not the significance of the many sieges. – Very Highly Recommended.
NAME: Siege Warfare During The Crusades FILE: R3092 AUTHOR: Michael S Fulton PUBLISHER: Pen & Sword BINDING: hard back PRICE: £30.00 GENRE: Non Fiction SUBJECT: The Crusades, Medieval warfare, soldiers, armies, engineers, fortifications, castles, fortified towns and cities, mining, besieging, artillery, starvation, disease, treachery, counter strike, water supplies
ISBN: 1-52671-865-0
PAGES: 344 IMAGE: B3092.jpg BUYNOW: tinyurl.com/v2qaeah DESCRIPTION: The definitive guide to siege warfare during the Crusades. The set piece battles of the crusades may have been well-recounted by historians but not the significance of the many sieges. – Very Highly Recommended. The Crusades were largely a conflict between Franks and Muslims but they also drew in crusaders from across the Christian countries. During the conflict, there were a number of set piece battles between the Muslims and the Crusaders. Some of these were large and have captured the attention of historians. Strangely, the many sieges have received very little coverage. This is surprising because the conflict was dictated by the fortified towns and fixed defences. Much of the Crusaders' efforts were expended in building chains of Crusaders Forts and the taking of fortified towns. The Middle Ages saw the castle rising to the ultimate symbol of the military age. Villages and towns were defended settlements that usually included a fort or castle as the seat of government, prison, and military defence. Where a village might have just a moat or simple fence to keep out predatory animals and raiders, towns featured sophisticated stone walls with towers and artillery in addition to one or more castles within the walls. Combatants looked for a quick victory and this could be best achieved by tempting the enemy out from his defences to meet in set-piece battle. As a war of movement, it could involve two armies following each other and fighting at points along their progress. If an army could be routed, or key commanders captured, the conflict could be short lived with a clear winner. Where this did not prove possible, one or both sides would fall back on an armed progress, besieging castles and towns until the enemy was forced to surrender. A siege was a bloody no-holds barred fight. The defenders hoped to entice the besieger into frontal assaults where the defences were designed to cause the maximum casualty rate, but a wise besieger would camp out of weapon range, encircling the fixed defences, turning the defence into a trap and starving the enemy out. During the siege, siege artillery would attempt to cause maximum damage and injury inside the defences, engineers would attempt to undermine the walls, even infected corpses were fired over the walls to reduce the enemy by contagions. By the time of the crusades, the art of siege warfare had not greatly changed since before the time of the Romans. The author has provided an insightful analysis of siege warfare, lavishly illustrated by maps, sketches and full colour images.