Why am I passionate about this?
I decided to write this book because while there are many works on the Hundred Years War, they tend to dwell on the political and diplomatic, rather than the military aspects. I considered that this period marked a real revolution in military affairs, led by England. It was England that had the world’s only professional army since the collapse of the Roman Empire in the west in the 5th Century, that used technology (the longbow) as a force multiplier, and while moving on horseback did its fighting on foot. It was these three legs of the revolution that allowed tiny English armies to defeat far larger French feudal ones.
Gordon's book list on the Hundred Years' War
Why did Gordon love this book?
Thomas of Walsingham was a monk in the abbey of St Albans, then the equivalent of the National Archives where all official documents were deposited about the war.
Based on the reports, letters, charters, and reports of parliamentary debates that Thomas was able to access, he wrote a history from 1376 until the year that he died, 1422, so the work is an account of the war as it appeared to an educated contemporary.
1 author picked The Chronica Maiora of Thomas Walsingham [1376-1422] as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
Winner of a CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Award
Translated by David Preest with introduction and notes by James G. Clark
Thomas Walsingham's Chronica maiora is one of the most comprehensive and colourful chronicles to survive from medieval England. Walsingham was a monk at St Albans Abbey, a royal monastery and the premier repository of public records, and therefore well placed to observe the political machinations of this period at close hand. Moreover, he knew the monarchs and many of the nobles personally and is able to offer insights into their actions unmatched by any other authority. It is this chronicle,…