The Armour Archive

Hi all,
Some comments i've read in the last few days have inspired me to start doing "real" research that properly documented, organized etc, with the intention of writing a few articles/papers that others could use in the SCA/HR community. My concern is that there are so many books out there that claim to be accurate but that arent, and i don't read or speak anything but English, so looking at primary sources and making up my own mind isn't feasible in a lot of cases. My personal reference library on armor, weapons and warfare in the middle ages and renaissance only has one book in it that im sure is considered to be accurate, so i thought I'd list what i have, see if anyone can tell me which ones i shouldn't trust, and also see if some of you might have some suggestions for me on what other books i should try and acquire.

Arms & Armor of the Medieval Knight, Edge & Paddock, 1988

An Historical Guide to Arms & Armour, Bull, 1991

The Art of War in the Western World, Jones, 1987

Ancient and Medieval Warfare, Spaulding & Nickerson, 1993

Timelines of War, Brownstone & Franck, 1994

The complete guide to the Battlefields of Britain(with ordnance survey maps), Smurthwaite, 1993

I've also got an old copy of the Cambridge medieval history textbook printed in the 50's, and a few other old college level history textbooks, but most are at least 20 years out of date so i dont trust them for much but very basic information.

Hi,

Edge & Paddock is one of the best *readily-available* armor books you will find. Another even more important work is Claude Blair's _European Armor circa 1066 to circa 1700_, B T Batsford LTD, 1958. This great book is sadly out of print, but he spends a lot of space discussing the transition and what it was like, and it's worth searching for.

There aren't many books that truly concentrate on 14th century combat that I have found, however one that I've been using a lot lately is: Kelly Devries' _Infantry Warfare In the Early Fourteenth Century_, The Boydell Press, 1996. Unfortunately, this book stops at Crecy, which is just when the 14th century was getting good. From then on you have to start looking for more general texts that encompass the 14th century, or get more general works about the Hundred Years War.

For a sense of how different classes thought and interacted with a heavy emphasis on war, a *must* read for anyone interested in the period is Barnie, J., War in Medieval Society: _Social Values and the Hundred Years War 1137-99_, London, 1974. I *love* this book, and I periodically go back to re-read it, even though some scholars have told me it's considered a bit dated (but not specifically why; I often take that to mean they jsut don't *like* what it has to say).

Other books and articles to read include:

Contamine, P., _War in the Middle Ages_, tr. Michael Jones, New York, Basil Blackwell Inc, 1989

Barber, R. & Barker, J., _Tournaments_, New York, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989

Boccia, L., & Coelho, E., Colaccio Beccadelli: An Emilian Knight of about 1340, Arms and Armor Annual, Vol. I, 1973, pp. 10-27

Coss, P., _The Knight In Medieval England 1000-1400_, Gloucestershire, Alan Sutton Publishing Ltd., 1993

Dillon, V. & St. John Hope, W., Inventory of the Goods and Chattels Belonging to Thomas, Duke of Gloucester, and Seized at His Castle At Pleshy, Co. Essex, 21 Richard II (1397); With their Values, As Shown In the Escheater's Accounts, The Archeological Journal, Vol. LVI, 1897, pp. 275-308 (This is hard to find, but it's been very useful for helping me understand the possessions a medieval Lord should have.)

Fowler, K., _The Age Of Plantagenet And Valois: The Struggle For Supremacy 1328-1498_, New York, G P Putnam’s Sons, 1967

Gardner, J., _The Life & Times of Chaucer_, New York, Alfred A Knopf, 1977

McLean W. & J. Singman eds., _Daily Life in Chaucer's England_, Greenwood Press, 1995 (A very general work for use in living history about how to develop a 14th-century persona and kit.)

Neillands, R., _The Hundred Years War_, New York, Routledge, 1990 (A very general survey, and not the most scholarly work.)

Ormrod, W., _The Reign of Edward III: Crown and Political Society in England 1327-1377_, New Haven, Yale University Press, 1990 (Dense reading, but it shows that the claims the Ed. III was merely a soldier and not an able king were grossly exaggerated.)

Seward, D., _The Hundred Years War: The English In France 1337-1453_, New York, 1978 (A very general survey, and not the most scholarly work.)

Thordeman, B., _Armour From the Battle of Wisby, 1361_, (2 vol.) Stockholm, 1939

Trapp, Graf Oswald, _The Armoury of the Castle of Churburg_, tr. James Jow Mann, London, Methuan & CO LTD, 1929

Wroe, A., _A Fool and His Money: Life in a Partitioned Town in Fourteenth-Century France_, Hill & Wang, New York, 1995 (A funny little book; interesting, but I'm not sure what I think of it.)

Oh! and you can't forget some version of Froissart's Chronicles!

These are just some of the books in my collection, so of course they are very obviously Anglocentric; there are probably many other works that you should read relating to non-English regions, but these should give you a fair start.

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Hugh Knight
"Welcome to the Church of the Open Field, let us 'prey': Hunt hard, kill swiftly, waste nothing, make no apologies"

Wow! Thanks Rhys, that list is fantastic. Looks like i know what im going to be reading for the next 6 months or so.