Værket er opdelt i 7 afsnit omhandlende den militære geografi under de store krige i perioden 1494-1559 samt strategi og taktik. Afsnit to omhandler de store slag under de Italienske krige med en vurdering af den taktiske betydning. Afsnit III omhandler perioden 1527-59, afsnit IV den Engelske militærhistorie under Tudors, afsnit V religionskrigene i Frankrig i perioden 1562-98. Bog VI beskæftiger sig med Holland og den Hollanske uafhængighedskrig 1568-1609 og endelig handler afsnit VII om det Tyrkiske angreb på kristendommen i perioden 1520-1606.

In the beginning of the time period concerned, we are still in the Middle Ages – Flodden Field or Novara might almost have been fought in the fifteenth century. At the end a formal battle like Nieuport might almost have been fought in the Thirty Years War. This volume is the result of an attempt to sum up the fundamental alterations in the Art of War between 1494 and 1600, and is intended to serve as an outline of military theory and practice between those dates.

A history of the evolution of military technology among knights in Renaissance Europe from the fifteenth century to the seventeenth century. The Art of Renaissance Warfare tells the story of the knight during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries—from the great victories of Edward III and the Black Prince to the fall of Richard III on Bosworth Field. During this period, new technology on the battlefield posed deadly challenges for the mounted warrior; but they also stimulated change, and the knight moved with the times. Having survived the longbow devastation at Crécy, Poitiers and Agincourt, he emerged triumphant, his armor lighter and more effective, and his military skills indispensable. This was the great age of the orders of chivalry and the freemasonry of arms that bound together comrades and adversaries in a tight international military caste. Men such as Bertrand du Guesclin and Sir John Chandos loom large in the pages of this book—bold leaders and brave warriors, imbued with these traditions of chivalry and knighthood. How their heroic endeavors and the knightly code of conduct could be reconciled with the indiscriminate carnage of the “chevauchee” and the depredations of the “free companies” is one of the principal themes of this informative and entertaining book.