A masterpiece. BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE.
War and the state in the Anglo-Norman period was, for the late J.O. Prestwich, a lifetime's study. This book pulls together his ideas on the way that war was conducted, both by land and sea, and the ways in which it affected government and the economy. Prestwich was particularly concerned with the ways in which armed forces were raised, maintained, supplied, disciplined and transported, and the studies printed here, based on his Ford Lectures, consider the relations between war and diplomacy, propaganda and morale, military intelligence, and economic warfare. The discussion ranges widely over such issues as the purpose of Domesday Book, the English contribution to the Lisbon crusade, and the antecedents of Magna Carta. Appendices focus on feudalism and its influence and the composition of Anglo-Norman armies.
J.O. PRESTWICH was Fellow and Tutor in Modern History at Queen's College, Oxford.