Monographie

Deception in medieval warfare : trickery and cunning in the central Middle Ages / James Titterton

Type de contenu
  • Texte
Type de médiation
  • sans médiation
Type de support
  • Volume
Titre(s)
  • Deception in medieval warfare : trickery and cunning in the central Middle Ages / James Titterton
Auteur(s)
Publication
  • Woodbridge Rochester (N.Y.) : The Boydell Press
Date de copyright
  • C 2022
Description matérielle
  • 1 volume (XIV-268 pages) : cartes, couverture illustrée en couleurs ; 24 cm
Collection
  • Warfare in History 1358-779X
ISBN
  • 978-1-78327-678-3
  • 1-78327-678-9
  • 978-1-83765-131-3
EAN
  • 9781837651313
Appartient à la collection
  • Warfare in history 1358-779X
Classification décimale Dewey
  • 940.1
  • 355.410 902
Note sur les bibliographies et les index
  • Bibliographie pages [245]-263. Notes bibliographiques. Index
Résumé ou extrait
  • Deception and trickery are a universal feature of warfare, from the Trojan horse to the inflatable tanks of the Second World War. The wars of the Central Middle Ages (c. 1000-1320) were no exception. This book looks at the various tricks reported in medieval chronicles, from the Normans feigning flight at the battle of Hastings (1066) to draw the English off Senlac Hill, to the Turks who infiltrated the Frankish camp at the Field of Blood (1119) disguised as bird sellers, to the Scottish camp followers descending on the field of Bannockburn (1314) waving laundry as banners to mimic a division of soldiers. This study also considers what contemporary society thought about deception on the battlefield : was it a legitimate way to fight ? Was cunning considered an admirable quality in a warrior ? Were the culturally and religious "other" thought to be more deceitful in war than Western Europeans ? Through a detailed analysis of vocabulary and narrative devices, this book reveals a society with a profound moral ambivalence towards military deception, in which authors were able to celebrate a warrior's cunning while simultaneously condemning their enemies for similar acts of deceit. It also includes an appendix cataloguing over four hundred incidents of military deception as recorded in contemporary chronicle narratives.
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