This title provides a horrifying account of cruelty and atrocity in the
Middle Ages.Sean McGlynn investigates the reality of medieval warfare. For all the talk
of chivalry, medieval warfare routinely involved acts which we would consider
war crimes. Lands laid waste, civilians slaughtered, prisoners massacred: this
was standard fare justified by tradition and practical military necessity. It
was unbelievably barbaric, but seldom uncontrolled. Such acts of atrocity were
calculated, hideous cruelties inflicted in order to achieve a specific end.
Sean McGlynn examines the battles of Acre and Agincourt, sieges like Beziers,
Lincoln, Jerusalem and Limoges as well as the infamous chevauchees of the
Hundred Years War that devastated great swathes of France. He reveals how these
grisly affairs form the origin of accepted 'rules of war', codes of conduct
that are today being enforced in the International Court of Justice in the
Hague. Written for the popular, not the academic market, this is a 'warts and
all' portrait of war in the middle ages that combines vivid narrative with
explanation and analysis.
