A Knight in Battle

by Ewart Oakeshott and R. Ewart Oakeshott

An exciting, informative look at the world of medieval warfare. Enter an exhilarating time of change and clashing foes in this highly readable, authoritative exploration of a dangerous aspect of medieval life. Ewart Oakeshott explodes the myth that medieval battles were all similar, pointing instead toward the different and fascinating tactics used in four specific battles covering the 12th to the 16th centuries - at Arsuf, Lincoln, Mauron, and Marignano...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802313221
• ISBN13: 9780802313225
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Dufour Editions
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Par for the Series

What the previous reviewer has missed is that this book is part of a longer series on the subject, a series that includes books specifically dedicated to armor, weapons, horses, and castles. Secondly, Oakeshott isn't interested in presenting the readers with long descriptions so one can come up with some kewl stats and new proficiencies for their D & D game. He is interested in historical fact and placing the medieval knight into this historical context. As he does in the other books of this series, Oakeshott both dispels that annoying romanticism out there that distorts the true merits and shortcomings of these historical people, and gives us insight into those details that other, more general, histories don't provide. Third, Oakeshott does keep to his thesis, and this would have been noticed by the previous reviewer if that reviewer had realized the four battles explained by Oakeshott represent four different and very important developments in medieval combat.In short, this is an excellent book, but it is not an exhaustive reference guide to the medieval knight. It was not intended to be. For a complete picture of Oakeshott's factual fecundity and depth of insight it is critically important to read this book along with the other books in the series.

Quite good

Contrary to what my fellow countryman said here, it's exactly the way they put their shoes on (and many other interesting things, like how they handled their swords, how they rode their horses, what they ate and where they slept) that makes a history and an understanding of the epoch. This book is perhaps not the best, but good enough in the line of "technical-historical" books available about the medieval knight, one of the books intended to show how the things worked, not to retell a story of some specific event.

fun

This was an enjoyable book. It communicates the general gist of militatry development of the era, illustrated by four blow-by-blow accounts of obscure but interesting battles. This is no tome of historical reference data, but a fun bit of historical storytelling.