Download Medieval Warfare - Trent University

HISTORY DEPARTMENT
TRENT UNIVERSITY
HIST 3550H/4511H
Medieval Warfare
2016 (FA)
Durham
Instructor:
Eduardo Fabbro
Trent Email:
[email protected]
Telephone:
Campus:
Durham
Office Location:
Office Hours:
FRI 1–2pm
Academic Administrative Assistant:
Trisha Gayle Pearce
Email:
[email protected]
Office Location:
Lady Eaton College, S101.3
Telephone:
705 748-1011 (ext 7706)
Course Description:
From invading barbarians casting down the Roman Empire to the gruesome carnages of the Hundred
Years War, from the Viking attacks to the Crusades, the Middle Ages are bound to conjure images of
battles and wars. Medieval Warfare covers a thousand years of warfare, starting with the new tactics of
the Roman army under the last emperors and finishing with the impact of gunpowder. Warfare marked
the lives of people in the Middle Ages, not only of the soldiers, which more and more came from the
aristocracy, but also of the peasant population who often bore the cost of defeat. States had to be
better organized to support larger armies and, very frequently, armies evolved to become states. Going
beyond descriptions of battles and tactics, we will inquire on the social and cultural impacts of warfare,
as well as their political uses and economic consequences. This course invites the student to think
about the connections between warfare, a prevalent military culture and society, the costs and the
consequences of an intensive militarization of society. By the end of this course, the student should be
able to recognize the interactions between warfare and society, and assess the role of warfare in the
foundation of European societies.
Required Texts:
Guy Halsall, Society and Warfare in Early Medieval Europe, New York: Routledge, 2003.
Maurice Keen (ed.), Medieval Warfare: A History, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Course Reader (CR): a selection of sources will be available on the CR (Blackboard)
Recommended Texts:
Kate L. Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 7th ed.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.
http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html
Blackboard: This course will use the Blackboard system: there you will find the syllabus, the
course reader (CR), assignment instructions, and other materials.
Course Format:
Type
Day
Time
Location
Lecture/Seminar
Friday
9:10–12
OSH 107
Learning Outcomes/Objectives/Goals/Expectations: I have developed the course to address
several learning outcomes. By the end of the course a successful student should:
1. Understand the impact of warfare on society, economy, and technology;
2. Have developed critical analytical skills necessary for reading historical sources and
secondary material;
3. Have a good grasp of the most relevant debates on history of warfare;
4. Be able to undertake research and write an essay on an original topic;
Course Evaluation:
Type of Assignment
Weighting
Due Date
Participation
Midterm
Final Paper Proposal
Final Paper
Final Exam
20%
15%
10%
30%
25%
Oct. 14th
Nov. 4th
Nov. 25th
TBD
Participation
Students are expected come to the seminars with all the assigned readings done and ready to discuss
them. Participation will be marked according to the quality of the students’ interventions in the
debate, their grasp of the material, and their contribution to the class. In addition, every class, each
of the readings will be assigned to one student (in some especial cases, two), who will give a short
presentation of the text and bring a few questions for debate. These short presentations will not be
graded, but add up to the overall presentation mark.
N.B.: Seminars should be safe spaces to improve your communication skills and to debate ideas. If,
however, you are especially uncomfortable speaking in public, please contact me and we can figure
out other ways to evaluate your involvement with the course.
Midterm and Final Exams
The midterm exam covers all the material seen so far, and may include identification questions,
short answer questions, and essay questions. The final exam will consist of essay questions
covering material from the entire course.
Final Paper and Final Paper Proposal
The final paper consists of an original research on a topic related to medieval warfare. This project
involves first a proposal and then a research paper. There is a good amount of flexibility on topics,
and you are free to explore questions and subjects of interest even if not directly covered in the
seminar. It is however strongly recommended that you bring your topic to the course instructor
before you commit to an idea: some topics might not fit the scope of the course, while others might
prove unfeasible. Before writing the essay, you will write a proposal sketching the basic outline of
your research in the Final Paper Proposal. The proposal should include: a description of the topic
(what, when, where, who, how), the methodology you intend to use, and the questions you will try
to answer with your paper. Finally, you will put together an annotated bibliography containing both
primary and secondary sources (minimum of 8 sources total). The Final Paper Proposal should be
around 1500–2000 words long (4–6 pages), including the bibliography. In the Final Paper, you
will develop the research sketched in the Proposal (taking to account the feedback you received on
it): the paper should integrate both primary and secondary material, presenting an argument about
an aspect of medieval warfare. The Final Paper should be around 3000–3500 words long (10–15
pages) plus bibliography. You should follow academic conventions regarding style, using proper
formatting, footnotes, and a full bibliography. Chicago Style footnotes are preferred, but you can
use any system as long as you are consistent.
Week-by-week schedule:
Week 1 (Sept. 9) Introduction to the Course
Readings: Halsall, ch. 1. & 2. (pp.1–38)
Week 2 (Sept. 16) Thinking about Warfare
Readings: Helen Nicholson, Medieval Warfare, ch. 1 (pp. 13–38); Harry H. Turney-High,
Primitive War, ch. 2 (pp. 21–38); CR W(eek)2
Week 3 (Sept. 23) The Later Roman Empire
Readings: Hugh Elton, Warfare in Roman Europe, 350–425, Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1996, ch. 3–5 (pp. 89–154); CR W3
Week 4 (Sept. 30) The Barbarian Kingdoms
Readings: Halsall ch. 3. (pp. 40–70); Walter Goffart, “Conspicuously Absent: Martial Heroism in
the Histories of Gregory of Tours and its Likes.” in The World of Gregory of Tours, edited by
Kathleen Mitchell and Ian Wood. Leiden: Brill, 2002, pp.365–94. CR W4
Week 5 (Oct. 7) Carolingians and Vikings
Readings: Halsall, ch. 4 (pp. 71–110); Keen, Ch. 3 (pp.36–58); CR W5
Week 6 (Oct. 14) Campaigning and Combat
Readings: Halsall, ch. 7 & 9 (pp. 134–162; 177–214); CR W6
Week 7 (Oct. 21) New Technologies (1): Stirrups?
Readings: Lynn White, “Stirrup, Mounted Shock Combat, Feudalism and Chivalry” in Medieval
Technology and Social Change, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962, pp. 1–38; Bernard
Bachrach, “Charles Martel, Mounted Shock Combat, the Stirrup and Feudalism” in Studies in
Medieval and Renaissance History 7 (1970): 49–75.
Break (Oct. 28)
Week 8 (Nov. 4) ‘Just War’ and ‘Holy War’
Readings: Keen, Chp 5 (pp. 89–112); Frederick Russel, The Just War in the Middle Ages, ch. 3
(pp.55–85) CR W8
Week 9 (Nov. 11) Chivalry and Knighthood
Readings: J. Gillingham, “Conquering the Barbarians: War and Chivalry in twelfth-century
Britain and Ireland,” in Law and Government in Medieval England and Normandy, ed. G. Garnett
and J. Hudson, 31–55; Matthew Strickland, Provoking or Avoiding Battle? Challenge, Duel, and
Single Combat in Warfare of the High Middle Ages’ in Armies, Chivalry and Warfare in Medieval
Britain and France, 317–43; CR W9
Week 10 (Nov. 18) The Hundred Years War
Readings: Keen, ch.7 (136–162); John Stone, “Technology, Society, and the Infantry Revolution
of the Fourteenth Century” in The Journal of Military History 68.2 (April 2004); CR W10
Week 11 (Nov. 25) New Technologies (2): Sieges
Readings: Halsall, ch.10 (pp. 215–27); Keen, Ch. 8 (pp. 163–85); CR W11
Week 12 (Dec. 2) New Technologies (3): Gunpowder
Readings: Keen, ch. 13 (pp. 273–92); CR W12
Department and/or Course Policies:
Late penalty: late assignments will receive a penalty of 5 percent per calendar day starting at
11:59pm of the due date.
Extension: if the deadline might prove problematic, you may ask for an extension at least a week
before the deadline. Applications should include a short statement of reason, as well as any work
produced so far.
Format: Assignments should be formatted in 12 point double-spaced with 1-inch margins for the
main text (10 points single-spaced footnotes). For length, refer to the recommended length in word
count. All material must be submitted through SafeAssign (see below)
University Policies
Academic Integrity:
Academic dishonesty, which includes plagiarism and cheating, is an extremely serious academic
offence and carries penalties varying from failure on an assignment to expulsion from the
University. Definitions, penalties, and procedures for dealing with plagiarism and cheating are set
out in Trent University’s Academic Integrity Policy. You have a responsibility to educate yourself –
unfamiliarity with the policy is not an excuse. You are strongly encouraged to visit Trent’s
Academic Integrity website to learn more: www.trentu.ca/academicintegrity.
Access to Instruction:
It is Trent University's intent to create an inclusive learning environment. If a student has a
disability and documentation from a regulated health care practitioner and feels that he/she
may need accommodations to succeed in a course, the student should contact the Student
Accessibility Services Office (SAS) at the respective campus as soon as possible.
Safe Assignment:
Assignments must be submitted electronically to the SafeAssign drop box in Blackboard. SafeAssign utilizes
plagiarism-checking software. Further information about SafeAssign will be provided on the class
LearningSystem/Blackboard site.
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