'Agincourt! Agincourt! Know ye not Agincourt?' So began a ballad of around 1600. Since the event itself (25 October 1415), Agincourt has occupied a special place in both English and French consciousness. Some early French writers could not bring themselves to mention it by name, using instead descriptions such as 'the accursed day'. For the English, it was one of the greatest military successes ever, and thus was celebrated and commemorated in many forms over the centuries which followed. In the First World War, there were stories of angelic Agincourt bowmen giving support and inspiration to the British army. Much ink has been spilt on the battle but do we really know Agincourt? Many historical works have relied on one or two well known sources or even on Shakespeare. Not since Harris Nicolas's History of the Battle of Agincourt was published (1827-33) has there been a full attempt to survey the sources. This book brings together, in translation and with commentary, English and French narrative accounts and literary works of the fifteenth century. It also traces the treatment of the battle in sixteenth -century English histories and in the literary output of, amongst others, Shakespeare and Drayton. After examining how later historians interpreted the battle, it concludes with the first full assessment of the extremely rich administrative records which survive for the armies which fought 'upon Saint Crispin's day'.

"Georges Duby in productivity and originality stands at the forefront of active medievalists in France and in the world. The present collection contains 15 of his short articles, most but not all of which appear in English for the first time. . . Of capital interest are his several essays that explore the evolution of nobility, knighthood, the noble family, and the ideals of chivalry across the central Middle Ages. They are both a summary and the point of departure of current research into the medieval aristocracy .... Indispensable."--Choice "[A] valuable collection. The title is exact. But it is no coffee-table account of courtly life eked out with colour photos of an author's subsidized holiday. It is an interlocking series of studies about the structure of families, the nature of knighthood and nobility, changes of attitudes towards kinship, and the influence of new clerical ideas . . . . Duby shows us noble families becoming specifically knightly, acquiring heritable toponymies, clustering round the patrimony, emphasizing the male line and the eldest born save when the female is an heiress, and in the course of time forming a homogeneous noble class whose members by St. Louis's age, whatever else they are, are gentilhommes. Passion is not spent, but canalized against the enemies of Christ. The discrete themes of undergraduate medieval history are in reality one complex whole: land, wives, dynasty war, celibacy, vows, pilgrimage, crusade, nobility."--Times Literary Supplement "Duby's researches in medieval agrarian and social history have established him as one of the leading international authorities in those areas. This volume brings together 15 of his most significant articles. The book represents the best of 'the new history."'--Library Journal

In Battle Royale: Lethal Warriors, we have a matchup of historic magnitude. We took the deadliest warriors from two different time periods and matched them in a battle of weaponry, strength, and grit. Who will come out victorious, samurai or knights? You'll have to read to find out. This series utilizes considerate text written at a higher maturity level with a lower reading level to engage struggling readers. Book includes a table of contents, glossary, index, author biography, sidebars, educational matter, and activities.

During the 16th century, Japan underwent a military revolution, characterized by the deployment of large armies, the introduction of firearms and an eventual shift towards fighting on foot. This study encapsulates these great changes through an exploration of the experience on the ground at three key battles, Uedahara (1548), Mikata ga Hara (1573) and Nagashino (1575), in which two very different types of warrior were pitted against each other. On one side were samurai, the elite aristocratic knights whose status was proclaimed by the possession and use of a horse. On the other side were the foot soldiers known as ashigaru, lower-class warriors who were initially attendants to the samurai but who joined the armies in increasing numbers, attracted by loot and glory. These two types of warrior battled for dominance across the period, changing and adapting their tactics as time went on. In this title, the development of the conflicts between samurai and ashigaru is explored across three key battles, where highly trained elite mounted samurai of the Takeda clan faced ashigaru at very different stages in their development. The profound and irreversible changes that took place as the conflicts progressed are analysed in detail, culminating in the eventual incorporation of the ashigaru as the lowest ranks of the samurai class in within the standing army of Tokugawa Japan.

Bushido: The Soul of Japan written by Inazo Nitobe was one of the first books on samurai ethics that was originally written in English for a Western audience, and has been subsequently translated into many other languages (also Japanese). Nitobe found in Bushido, the Way of the Warrior, the sources of the virtues most admired by his people: rectitude, courage, benevolence, politeness, sincerity, honor, loyalty and self-control, and he uses his deep knowledge of Western culture to draw comparisons with Medieval Chivalry, Philosophy, and Christianity.

In Battle Royale: Lethal Warriors, we have a matchup of historic magnitude. We took the deadliest warriors from two different time periods and matched them in a battle of weaponry, strength, and grit. Who will come out victorious? You'll have to read to find out. This series utilizes considerate text written at a higher maturity level with a lower reading level to engage struggling readers. Books include a table of contents, glossary, index, author biography, sidebars, educational matter, and activities.