Suggestions for Further Reading. The Grail Quest A note from the author: I am not offering a comprehensive reading list for the mediaeval period, but rather suggesting some books that I found useful when I was writing Harlequin(The Archer's Tale). I'll add others as we go along, but if anyone has suggestions of good books about the period then please let us know and I will check them out and post them here.
This is a narrative history at its best - an account of the Hundred Years War in two big volumes of which this is the first. I have a lot of books on medieval history and a number of original sources for the campaigns of Edward III, but when I was writing Harlequin (a.k.a. The Archer's Tale ) this was the book that lay open beside the keyboard.
Everything you ever wanted to know about the medieval archer, and probably a lot more besides. This book, written by an enthusiast, covers a long period - from the Norman conquest right up to the Wars of the Roses - and it's full of good stuff.
This is a collection of essays by twelve leading scholars. They survey a long period and pinpoint the technical advances that changed the face of battle.
This is a slim paperback, just 64 pages, but like all the Osprey military series it is full of good material. Anyone wanting to know more about the longbow and why it was such an effective weapon could do no better than start with this book.
Book Title:
ARMIES AND WARFARE IN THE MIDDLE AGES, The English Experience
The best book I know on medieval warfare. Very detailed, full of information and liable to surprise people who believe war in the middle ages was either a mindless contest of thugs or a bloodless clash of chivalrous dilettantes.
