Medieval Warfare Vol II Issue 1: Creating a Viking Empire: The Campaigns of Cnut the Great

Medieval Warfare Vol II Issue 1: Creating a Viking Empire: The Campaigns of Cnut the Great

Medieval Warfare Vol II Issue 1: Creating a Viking Empire: The Campaigns of Cnut the Great

The issue of Medieval Warfare Magazine is split roughly half-and-half between its theme on Cnut and the Vikings and more general articles. We start with a brief history of the Viking campaigns in Britain, Ireland and France. The theme is then directly covered by articles on Cnut's conquest of Norway, his bodyguards and the Danish conquest of England. Articles on warfare in Anglo-Saxon poetry and on the berserker are less directly connected, but still relevant. This is a good selection of topics, covering the main points of Cnut's career but also some less familiar subjects.

Away from the theme there are two articles on late medieval armour, the first looking at the industries that produced it, the second at the agility of a knight in plate armour. The increasing scale of the armour industry was of particular interest to me.

Finally there are two unrelated articles, one on the Battle of Tewkesbury of 1471, the battle that saw Edward IV regain the throne after being temporarily overthrown by his former ally Warwick the Kingmaker and one looking at Hunedoara Castle, the stronghold of John Hunyadi, regent of Hungary. The Tewkesbury article actually looks at the entire campaign, and is a good account of this penultimate phase of the War of the Roses.

Chapters
Chainmail's terror song: Warfare in Anglo-Saxon poetry
Embracing the North Sea: Cnut's conquest of Norway
The housecarls: The bodyguards of Cnut the Great
Going Berserk: The psychology of Berserkers
Mercenaries, warlords and kings: The Danish conquest of England
John Hunyadi's stronghold: The castle of Hunedoara
The industry of defence: A look at the armour industry of the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth century
Victory of York: The Battle of Tewkesbury, 1471
Killing the myth: The slow knight in clumsy armour


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