Customer Reviews

The Hundred Years War: Trial by Battle (The Middle Ages Series, Volume 1)

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Sumption's history of this sordid and bloody conflict will be the defining opus of this era. In this first volume of 600 pages he covers intimately all aspects of the war's first 10 years. He is mostly skilled at both the economic and diplomatic machinations of the conflict, emphasising how armies were fielded and then supported.

His scope is grand and he covers events as far away as Scotland, Flanders, Britany, and the Popes involvement from the Avignon palaces.

His strategic interpretation is superb, without equal. He has an ability to get into the head of participants and show their ultimate motivation in fighting. Why particular courses were decided upon are also fittingly reviewed; why a campaign in Flanders? Why get involved in Britany? How did England ultimately expand and prevail in Aquitaine when their foothold was so tenuous? Why were the French completely unable to exploint a fundamental postion of strength by working with their internal lines of communication? All of these questions are answered in good detail.

There are no real weaknesses in this work but there are a few things that readers should be prepared for:

1) Sumption is not writing a biography of any of the characters and although we understand a lot of their emotions in the heat of dimplomacy and battle, we hear little about the individual idiosyncracies of both Edward III and Philip VI. We learn almost nothing about their respective sons in this volume, which is amazing considering the future role they played.

2) Although this is a story of battle and slaughter, we are largely spared the details of the minutea of battle, who fought whom, the real intricacies of the weapons involved and the fate of those who were turned to bones. Sumption leaves that to other military historians who have written hundreds of pages on individual battles. There are however amazing revalations here about Crecy which deserve to be noted; Sumption notes that the repeat regrouping and charging of the English lines was not characterisitic of a disorganised French attack. As such this contracdicts the traditional version of the French falling over themselves in the battle. In the end the longbow won the battle. No new surpises here.

3) There is little actual focus on how the war effected the peasant. Perhaps because we know so little of them, but Sumption's research is so exhaustive that he purposefully concentrates on the diplomatic, military alliance structures and their respective figures.

This was a major project to get through. I had to admit that times I did wander in my attention span. But the detail in the text is rich and his coverage of the impact of the war in Britany and the northern English Marches against the Scots, is something largely ignored by other historians of this war.

I have already bought volume II and determined read all future volumes as he finishes.... although at this rate it will be a total of at least 10 volumes to get throught this particularly depressing interval in human history.

Trial By Battle is a magnificent achievement. Though daunting to look at, the 600+ page narrative sweeps by with the excitement and suspense of a great novel. Sumption fails to give any real background details (the marriage of a king will be mentioned in passing without so much as a clue as to his wife's name!). We learn nothing of castle construction, arms and armour, architecture, geography, or anything else of the spectacle of life in 14th century Europe. But the step-by-step analysis of the intricacies of medieval politics more than compensates, throwing the reader headlong into the meeting rooms of the royal courts. The narrative, for all its complexity, never ceases to be anything but fascinating. The reader is able to see all the seemingly small and random details, the mistakes and misunderstandings and mistimings, and how they build to create a situation in which all out war is the only option.

Trial by Battle isn't simply the best book I've read about The 100 Years War, but the best I've read about the challenges faced by the medieval politician, and the strategic maneuvering required to achieve an acceptable outcome. Brilliant.

Reading about the Middle Ages is like treading upstream sometimes. Its so easy to get bogged down and lose your path and eventually your interest. A lot of times reading history is exactly like that.

This book is very good at keeping the story of this period on its path and is extremely, even remarkably, readable. I actually managed to get wrapped up in the story (which I've read many times already) the way one does with good novels. The author is obviously very familiar with the primary sources but he quotes from them with care and only when his point is well-made. Otherwise he tells the story in clear, simple language - amazing for any of us who study or write history! And he has a fine sense of when the chroniclers were playing to their audience's prejudices and when they probably were right on point. Its difficult to read about the early period of the wars between England and France without getting mired in the problems the various powers faced -- and continued to toil over every year -- like constant bankruptcy, local rebellion, personality disorders and prejudices, and so forth. The author gives you these things -- the Middle Ages would not be the Middle Ages without them -- but in the right doses to make the fuller picture clear, not lose it in the haze.

I have not yet read the sequel but I'm confident it is as well written. I would recommend these volumes to anyone interested in the Middle Ages period in Europe.

I've read the three volumes of this series that Sumption has produced to date. They're long and very involved, but I found myself being pulled in, rather than pushed away. The detail, and even the repetition, as people make the same mistakes over and over again, added up until you get a real sense of the tragedy of this for French society. There's breathtaking adventure, lots of stuff you didn't know before, and the feeling of watching a whole society tortured and torn apart, all its flaws revealed, with no good resolution possible. It's long, but a moving experience.

This is the first book(part 1) of the authors' lengthy study of the hundred Years and covers from the beginnings of the war to a little after Crecy.He starts by comparing the 2 kingdoms of France and England,with France appearing to be 5 or 6 times more populated than England and France with alot more financial resources.French allies are also formidable with the Italian kingdoms including Genoa which had a powerful navy and well equipped army.True,Genoa was a "piracy type" kingdom but with really deep pockets.England at this time had vitually no navy of any consequence and relied on private contracts and war loans for transport.Privateers seemed like the English naval mainstay although Edward III had a few ships which he owned.The author spends alot of time on the English wool industry and its threats of economic embargo to get its way in continental politics. Other books I've read on this "King Cotton" type bullying downplay the English wool industry and point out that the Netherlands areas had previously sought out other alternatives to English wool.With the economies of France and England so unevenly matched how could the English midget overcome the French giant other than a cheap groin shot.As the author points out however,the main English way of financing their war was by "sneaky" taxes that people don't generally notice.The French rulers used fluctuating coin valuations with some taxation.So the author concluded that while the French were more wealthy,the English ruling class were better able to get their hands on the "hard cash"which gave them a big advantage.The "jokers in the deck" that could overcome the odds were the alliances and here is where the author spends time on diplomacy and counter lawsuits of both English and French interests.The English policy is generally,"the enemy of my enemy is my friend".This includes the use of both papacies to legitimate the rival claims.After all noone wants to appear like the "bad guy". A groin shot however is fair in war.The French giant was badly arthritic and that was an awfully "scrappy" midget anyway.
I liked the way the author spent alot of time on the conflict between Scotland and the English because this aspect of the 100 Years War is often either omitted or covered sparsely.It is important because the wars with Scotland gave the English practice and expertise in regard to strategies and combat as well as treacherous politics.The author points out the evolution of longbow tactics used by the English came about as the result of the numerous wars with Scotland.The French were tied to continental warfare practices,the crossbow and cavalry charges and the strategic retreats that can use up an opposing army through attrition more effectively than combat.Also this book gives a good deal of information on the more easterly Germanic speaking territories and their swinging alliances.So far the English to be somewhat the beneficiary of swinging Germanic sympathies,a love/hate relationship which will flower in Germanic speaking English kings and then degenerate to the worst later on.French nationalism is budding at this time and the author mentions that "France for the French"is becoming an issue in itself although still not prominent enough to overcome local infighting and schisms.Then there was the powerful Flemish influence,(the low countries below sea level)ruled by France on paper,but independent in reality and pro-English to the max.
There is a good section of the book devoted to ransoms of captives(knights only worth 100 pounds), which could in some cases make this war not appear as so savagely conducted.After all why fight too hard when you could be ransomed and go home with honors(and spoils).Next year you might be on the winning side since the fortunes of war shift so rapidly during this conflict. Edward the Third vs. Phillip of France is the main billing in book 1. However you can realize that the general population must have suffered immensly from these roving bands of commissioned armies and freebooting mercenaries(as well as outright brigands).I was never able to figure out however if Edward the third really believed he was the King of France or if he was just asserting his realization that England was too vitaly immersed in Continental politics for his kingdoms' lifelines.Was Phillip of France a "milquetoast" or were his avoidance of battles more strategic hopes of attriting the English and their alliances.Still his strategy seems cold at times as the English and numerous bands of roving brigands roam the countryside virtually unopposed.In book 1 of Sumptions study the English seem to be gaining the advantage but with major setbacks.
Book 2 spends alot of time giving account of the private companies and their "private wars" switching sides so often it's hard to keep track.The book spends alot of time on "escalades" by the companies,that is simply taking over a small town by stealth, or if the town had a wall,by the use of ladders and from a read of the book, a bunch of brigands with a few ladders can do more damage than a major seige and cover alot of territory.Armies of today are more PR and politics but back then war is a trade much like a blacksmith,ready for hire to the highest bidder.And what is worse than an unemployed blacksmith or soldier(at least pre-welfare state)!Poitier and Crecy are only a small part of both books.The riots in Paris after Poitier rival any of the French Revolution period.Back then there was no "National Razor" so the mobs had to content themselves with bludgeonings.You can just feel Charles V's ,of France,anger and frustration at the English as he viewed the Paris mobs' handiwork.This book contains graphic medieval type descriptions of executions with lots of revenge slayings.Trial by Fire is an apt name.While in the first book the Low Countries are discussed often in book 2 Spain is the main focus.Charles of Navarre(A spainard)switches sides so often that I couldn't keep track and he actually makes it through book 2,(maybe by increasing his ransom value)? The overland campaigns of the Black Prince are covered well in the book.Remember well,1200 pages for 30 years but as easy to read as a comic book because of the author's human interest type focus.There are alot of histrionic speeches in the book where the speaker later eats his words(maybe a treaty bunched up and waddled as he is forced to chew the paper,cursing and salivating.) Book 2 ends as book 1 began,with the machinations of litigating lawyers,engaged in legal combat. The Hundred Years war comes off in this series as more like a World War with all of Europe involved.

The Middle Ages in Europe, a time of poor sanitation and brutal men terrifying local communities into submission; where the rule of law may have been as tenuous as the mortality people might expect to achieve. The Middle Ages in Europe is as near as one might get to the post apocalyptic nightmare depicted in the movie Mad Max 2 the Road Warrior where decisions are terrible and give very short shrift to our political correct world of today. This is the world Jonathan Sumption evokes in his Trial by Battle. It's a time of shortages of food and resources, the golden age of the plentiful thirteenth century is drawing to a close and the economy of Europe is coming under strain. Thrust into this crisis are the rulers of the lands of those times. Principally the Kings of England and France. But theres a host of other lesser nobles, of Dukes, Earls and Counts in north west Europe effected and effecting the politics of the times. In this book, Mr. Sumption gives a crash course in the organisation of the various kingdoms, principalities, counties and dukedoms as they become involved in the story of the Hundred Years War. Its not necessary to know in depth about the running of a kingdom though it might help to have a little background knowledge. The pace of the book carries this history at a good rate of knots. My only criticism is while Mr Sumption produces a suitable statistic here and there to back up the picture he paints in words, there can be a lack of colour, the description of an event or cultural or technological details, is lacking in places. This left me at a loss for an image to anchor my understanding (after all I am a product of an age addicted to visualisation), That said it is only a small detraction from a really interesting work. The battle descriptions are spot on and the developments in between give the theme a sense of continuity. This volume brings the history from the origins of the war to ten years into its execution. You'll have to buy the next volume (which I did) to find out what happens but Trial by Battle is good in itself if you like the at times bizarrely mystical and nonsensical Middle Ages and at times utterly no nonsense people of those hard times

the title says trial by battle but never once does any battle ever rate more then one or two sentences. this book is very slow. If you are looking for the total history of this conflict and era including the armour,weapons and battles hence the title the hundred years war trial by battle, this is not the book for you.