Christopher GravettEnglish Medieval Knight 1200–1300 (Warrior, 48)

This is how the English Knights looked in the period of time just prior to the Hundred Years War (1337 through 1453 C.E. [during the Common Era]). This is actually the first book in a three-part series of books on the English Medieval Knight. The period of time covered by this first book is from 1200 C.E. until 1300 C.E. The second book in the series covers the time between 1300 C.E. and 1400 C.E. The date of 1300 seems quite arbitrary since it falls in the middle of the First Scottish War of Independence (1297 C.E.-1314 C.E.)However, this book is a great historical book which reveals the Knights at a particular time in history. With the entire collection of the three books in this set, I am able to study the improvement of the technology of Knights and knighthood over the years leading up to the Hundred Years War.Historians tend to view the Hundred Years War as a turning point which started the downfall of the knight as an effective instrument of war. Thus, most of the last two volumes in this series cover the time following the crucial turning point in military technology at the Battle of Crecy on August 26, 1346, when the long bow became the recognized as the major new weapon of war in place of the heavy Knight. Thus, the last two books deal largely with desperate attempts to improve the knight as a weapon war after the realization of the shortcomings of the knight exposed at the Battle of Crecy.

Whether an amateur armor medieval enthusiast or a doctor of history, this tome is invaluable.

Concise informative book.

good book, i bought the English knights from 1200-1500 and if you read them in order you can actually see the changes that went on with armor, and weapons. i highly recommend.

The pictures in this book clearly illustrate the era of the 13th century knight. I love the art work and the detailed reading.

I love history in general and frequently read books on the eras that interest me. Medieval history is an era I hadn't read up on much before, therefore I have only basic knowledge of medieval life and knights and bought this book to remedy that.Unfortunately, I disliked this book from the very first page. In my opinion, the introduction was off topic. In the following section, I encountered terms that described people close to the knight in status or employ (from what I could gather) that were unknown to me. I looked them up in the glossary only to realize the only words in the glossary are pieces of armour and equipment.I found the book hard to read. Not only because of the many medieval terms; the paragraphs seemed to go nowhere and some of the sentences had no apparent connection to the following ones. I asked myself 'when is the author going to explain what knights are?' and 'what is the author trying to say?' so often I gave up reading the book.That aside, I'm sure this book could be enjoyed by a person who has already read significantly on the matter of knights and the 13th century. The only downside they would probably find with this book is the poor quality of the pictures. They are all in black and white, save a small section of illustrations in the middle of the book, and often too overexposed to see the detail the footnote is pointing out.

Osprey books are invaluable for a good start when researching a new wargames project.

I enjoyed this book a lot Ospreys rarely disappoint me, and if this is a period you are interested in then I urge you to read it.

Very informative and useful in putting together a 1250 knights harness, the shopping trips will never be the same }:)

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