Customer Reviews

The Hundred Years War, Volume 2: Trial by Fire (The Middle Ages Series)

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Sumption continues the same excellence in Trial by Fire that was started in Trial by Battle - an integrative and authoritative look at the Hundred Years War. As opposed to other histories if this period, his approach is detailed and authoritative - no greater praise can be made of a piece of historical work covering an "event" of such scope and length. My only disappointment is the delay in release of future volumes.

I would not recommend this book to individuals who are looking for general history or discussions of battles. On the other hand, for those with interest in the 13th to 15th century, it is highly recommended.

Sumption's bulky, detailed study of the Hundred Years War and its antecedents is a model for modern narrative history. His research is truly extraordinary, his writing clear, his story compelling, and his judgment almost always sound (if rather pessimistic). He is better on politics, administration, and finance than on strictly military topics, however; in my opinion he fundamentally misunderstands the battle-seeking nature of English strategy in this period (cf. my article in the 1994 _Transactions of the Royal Historical Society_, or my forthcoming monograph, _War Cruel and Sharp_), and his battle narratives, while as good as any others yet published, are open to dispute.

This is not a review. I simply wish to point out that you have Volume II of Jonathan Sumption's (probably excellent to judge by the previous volume) book on the 100 Years' War on one of your pages, but the review below it is not of that book at all, but of Volume I. I hope this is helpful.

A truly outstanding series on the players, economics, politics and strategy (or lack thereof) of the Hundred Years War. To describe it as definitive is perhaps insufficient praise.

According to correspondence with the UK publisher, Faber & Faber, the demands of the author's day job as a QC (lawyer) will likely mean a 2-3 year delay before volume three (I write this in July 2005). It will almost certainly be worth the wait though.

'Trial by Fire' is the second volume in Jonathan Sumption's truly monumental history of the Hundred Years War. It tells the story from 1347 to 1369 (when the French re-started the war, after nine years of intermittent peace). The author was a don in Oxford, then a leading Queen's Counsel at the English Bar. He has now been made a judge of the Supreme Court, a post which it is believed he will take up once the Abramovich trial in London has finished. He is well used to digesting large amounts of information and summarising them in cogent form; and it shows.

As he told us in the Preface to the first volume, Sumption's objective is to write grand narrative, based primarily on documentary rather than chronicle sources: he considers the chronicles `episodic, prejudiced, inaccurate and late'. He also aims to eschew analysis, as well as the scholarly debates which so often sidetrack historians. The second volume is as enjoyable as the first. Read it.

Stephen Cooper

The book is everything it promises, with one exception - it is volume two of the series. Mr Sumption is an extraordinary advocate, historian and writer, but he wrote volume one before this one.