Warfare in the Medieval World

Warfare in the Medieval World — Volume 2

Brian Todd Carey, Author
Joshua B. Allfree, Tactical Map Illustrator
John Cairns, Regional Map Illustrator

June 2006, Pen and Sword Books, Ltd.

More than a thousand years of war begins with Justinian's Byzantium and ends with the Thirty Years' War. Carey follows the same four weapon systems while heavy cavalry rises, rules the field and gives way to infantry and gunpowder. This book picks up where Volume 1 left off.

Manzikert, 1071 CE

By the late 1060s the Seljuk Turks were moving into Byzantine Anatolia. Their horse archers wore little armor and fought with the short composite bow, striking from a distance and retreating when charged, sometimes for days. Byzantine doctrine answered them with light infantry bowmen beside the cavalry.

In the summer of 1071 the emperor Romanus IV Diogenes gathered his army at Erzurum to retake Manzikert. The sultan Alp Arslan, at Aleppo, turned his army around and marched for the frontier. Romanus had sent his light infantry to a siege elsewhere.

On 19 August Romanus advanced with his heavy cavalry in a single broad line. The Turkish center fell back before him while the wings showered his flanks with arrows. As evening came, he ordered the army back to camp, and his second line, under Andronicus Ducas, rode off.

And the emperor was left to the Turks.

Warfare in the Medieval World is available in paperback from Pen & Sword.