Download or read book Mercenaries and Paid Men written by John France and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 428 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why were mercenaries such a commonplace of war in the medieval and early modern periods and why have they traditionally been so poorly regarded? Who were mercenaries, and how were they distinguished from other soldiers? The contributors to this volume attempt to cast light on these questions.
Download or read book Mercenaries in Medieval and Renaissance Europe written by Hunt Janin and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In medieval and Renaissance Europe, mercenaries--professional soldiers who fought for money or other rewards--played violent, colorful, international roles in warfare, but they have received relatively little scholarly attention. In this book a large number of vignettes portray their activities in Western Europe over a period of nearly 900 years, from the Merovingian mercenaries of 752 through the Thirty Years' War, which ended in 1648. Intended as an introduction to the subject and drawing heavily on contemporary first-person accounts, the book creates a vivid but balanced mosaic of the many thousands of mercenaries who were hired to fight for various employers.
Download or read book MERCENARIES AND PAID MEN A102903344 written by J. FRANCE and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Medieval Mercenaries The Great Companies written by Kenneth Fowler and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 2001-02-08 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first book devoted exclusively to the history of 'The Great Companies', an assembly of mercenaries drawn from different European countries who came together to fight in the second half of the 14th century, sometimes in the employ of kings, the pope, princes or city republics, but frequently fighting on their own account.
Download or read book Medieval Mercenaries written by William Urban and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-11-30 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Middle Ages were a turbulent and violent time, when the fate of nations was most often decided on the battlefield, and strength of arms was key to acquiring and maintaining power. Feudal oaths and local militias were more often than not incapable of providing the skilled and disciplined warriors necessary to keep the enemy at bay. It was the mercenary who stepped in to fill the ranks. A mercenary was a professional soldier who took employment with no concern for the morals or cause of the paymaster. But within these confines we discover a surprising array of men, from the lowest-born foot soldier to the wealthiest aristocrat the occasional clergyman, even. What united them all was a willingness, and often the desire, to fight for their supper.In this benchmark work, William Urban explores the vital importance of the mercenary to the medieval power-broker, from the Byzantine Varangian Guard to fifteenth-century soldiers of fortune in the Baltic. Through contemporary chronicles and the most up-to-date scholarship, he presents an in-depth portrait of the mercenary across the Middle Ages.
Download or read book Condottiere 1300 1500 written by David Murphy and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-12-23 with total page 155 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally contracted by wealthy Italian city states to protect their assets during a time of ceaseless warring, many condottieri of the Italian peninsula became famous for their wealth, venality and amorality during the 14th and 15th centuries. Some even came to rule cities themselves. Lavishly illustrated with contemporary depictions and original artwork, this title examines the complex military organization, recruitment, training and weaponry of the Condottieri. With insight into their origins and motivations, the author, Dr David Murphy, brings together the social, political and military history of these powerful and unscrupulous men who managed to influence Italian society and warfare for over two centuries.
Download or read book Mercenaries and War written by National Defense University Press and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-18 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mercenaries are more powerful than experts realize, a grave oversight. Those who assume they are cheap imitations of national armed forces invite disaster because for-profit warriors are a wholly different genus and species of fighter. Private military companies such as the Wagner Group are more like heavily armed multinational corporations than the Marine Corps. Their employees are recruited from different countries, and profitability is everything. Patriotism is unimportant, and sometimes a liability. Unsurprisingly, mercenaries do not fight conventionally, and traditional war strategies used against them may backfire.
Download or read book Knighthood and Society in the High Middle Ages written by David Crouch and published by Leuven University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-30 with total page 332 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In popular imagination few phenomena are as strongly associated with medieval society as knighthood and chivalry. At the same time, and due to a long tradition of differing national perspectives and ideological assumptions, few phenomena have continued to be the object of so much academic debate. In this volume leading scholars explore various aspects of knightly identity, taking into account both commonalities and particularities across Western Europe. Knighthood and Society in the High Middle Ages addresses how, between the eleventh and the early thirteenth centuries, knighthood evolved from a set of skills and a lifestyle that was typical of an emerging elite habitus, into the basis of a consciously expressed and idealised chivalric code of conduct. Chivalry, then, appears in this volume as the result of a process of noble identity formation, in which some five key factors are distinguished: knightly practices, lineage, crusading memories, gender roles, and chivalric didactics.
Download or read book The Modern Mercenary written by Sean McFate and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sean McFate lays bare the opaque world of private military contractors, explaining the economic structure of the industry and showing in detail how firms operate on the ground. As a former paratrooper and private military contractor, McFate provides an unparalleled perspective into the nuts and bolts of the industry, as well as a sobering prognosis for the future of war.
Download or read book Warfare in Late Byzantium 1204 1453 written by Savvas Kyriakidis and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-05-23 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining a wide body of sources this book offers a comprehensive analysis of late Byzantine attitudes to warfare and places late Byzantine military ethos, thought and practice in the wider geographical, cultural and historical context.
Download or read book Shadow War written by Sean McFate and published by Canelo. This book was released on 2017-01-16 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An electrifying thriller – the first in a blistering series for readers of Brad Thor, Tom Clancy and Daniel Silva. Tom Locke is an elite warrior working for Apollo Outcomes, one of the world’s most successful private contracting firms. Pulled out of a mission in Libya, he is tapped for an unusual and risky assignment: a top secret black op in Ukraine. Given one week to rescue an oligarch’s family and pull off a spectacular assault, he soon realises his mission has repercussions for this imperiled Eastern European nation and the world. What Locke doesn’t know is that the operation comes with a dangerous complication: his enigmatic and ambitious boss, Brad Winters. One misstep could cost Locke – and the region – everything. Written by an army veteran with deep military expertise, Shadow War is an explosive and unputdownable thriller. Praise for Shadow War ‘I was blown away’ Mark Greaney, #1 New York Times bestselling author ‘Ex-mercenary Sean McFate has produced a first novel that's assured, authentic, timely, gritty, and most of all real’ C.J. Box, New York Times Best-selling Author of Badlands and Off the Grid ‘Shadow War has pace like a catapult, sudden and fierce, and it will hit readers straight between the eyes’ Ted Bell, author of Patriot
Download or read book Mercenaries written by Col. Michael Lee Lanning and published by Presidio Press. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SOLDIERS OF $$ Privateers, contract killers, corporate warriors. Contract soldiers go by many names, but they all have one thing in common: They fight for money and plunder rather than liberty, God, or country. Now acclaimed author and war vet Michael Lee Lanning traces the compelling history of these fighting machines–from the “Sea Peoples” who fought for the pharaohs’ greater glory to today’s soldiers for hire from private military companies (PMCs) in Iraq and Afghanistan. What emerges is a fascinating account of the men who fight other people’s wars–the Greeks who built an empire for Alexander the Great, the Nubians who accompanied Hannibal across the Alps, the Irish who became the first to go global in their search for work. Soldiers of fortune have always had the power to change the course of war, and Lanning examines their pivotal roles in individual battles and in the rise and fall of empires. As the employment of contract soldiers spreads in Iraq and America’s War on Terrorism–the U.S. paid $30 billion to PMCs in 2003 alone–Mercenaries offers a valuable inside look at a system that appears embedded in our nation’s future. Includes eight pages of photographs
Download or read book Political Mercenaries written by Lindsay Mark Lewis and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-10-21 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An insider's account of the dirty dealings, backroom donations, and mega-wealthy donors that turned political campaigns into money races—from the notorious political fundraiser
Download or read book Mercenaries A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies written by Alan Axelrod and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2013-12-27 with total page 735 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mercenaries have been active in battle from the beginning of military history and, as private armies and military support firms, they are a major component of warfare today. Security, military advice, training, logistics support, policing, technological expertise, intelligence, transportation—all are outsourced to a greater or lesser degree in the U.S. military. However, privatization is not a uniquely American phenomenon. Countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia and Australia rely on privatization in one form or another. Historically, heads of state, politicians, and other administrators have justified use of mercenaries on the basis of their effectiveness, and cost-savings. These reasons and others continue to serve as rationales for use of private military companies in military strategy. Mercenaries: A Guide to Private Armies and Private Military Companies provides a comprehensive survey and guide to mercenary forces, entrepreneurs, and corporations active on the international military scene today, including a concise history of mercenaries and private armies on land, sea, and in the air. Narrative chapters are amply supplemented by sidebars including biographies of major figures, key statistics, historical and current documents, contracts, and legislation on private armies and outsourced military services. Each chapter includes a bibliography of books, journal articles, and web sites, and a general bibliography concludes the entire work.
Download or read book Journal of Medieval Military History written by Clifford J. Rogers and published by Boydell Press. This book was released on 2012-09-20 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Latest volume in the leading forum for debate on aspects of medieval warfare. The tenth anniversary of the Journal includes pieces by some of the most distinguished scholars of military history, including an analysis of tenth-century Ottonian warfare on the eastern frontier of the Empire by David andBernard Bachrach. As ever, the contributions cover a wide span both chronologically (from an analysis of the careers of Justinian's generals in the sixth century, to a study of intelligence-gathering in the Guelders War at the start of the sixteenth) and geographically (from Michael Prestwich's transcription of excerpts from the Hagnaby chronicle describing Edward I's wars in Wales, to a detailed treatment of the Ottoman-Hungarian campaigns of 1442). Other papers address the battle of Rio Salado (1340); the nature of chivalric warfare as presented in the contemporary biography of "le bon duc" Louis de Bourbon (1337-1410); and the military content of the Lay of the Cid. Contributors: David Alan Parnell, Bernard S. Bachrach, David Bachrach, Francisco García Fitz, Nicolás Agrait, Steven Muhlberger, John J. Jefferson, James P. Ward, Michael Prestwich
Download or read book Big Boy Rules written by Steve Fainaru and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-09 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Pulitzer Prize - winning Washington Post reporter Steve Fainaru comes an unforgettable journey into Iraq's parallel war - a world filled with tens of thousands of armed men roaming Iraq with impunity, doing jobs the military can't or won't do. Fainaru reveals in gritty and shocking detail what drives these men to do the world's most dangerous work.
Download or read book Military Diasporas written by Georg Christ and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2022-11-30 with total page 507 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Military Diasporas proposes a new research approach to analyse the role of foreign military personnel as composite and partly imagined para-ethnic groups. These groups not only buttressed a state or empire’s military might but crucially connected, policed, and administered (parts of) realms as a transcultural and transimperial class while representing the polity’s universal or at least cosmopolitan aspirations at court or on diplomatic and military missions. Case studies of foreign militaries with a focus on their diasporic elements include the Achaemenid Empire, Ptolemaic Egypt, and the Roman Empire in the ancient world. These are followed by chapters on the Sassanid and Islamic occupation of Egypt, Byzantium, the Latin Aegean (Catalan Company) to Iberian Christian noblemen serving North African Islamic rulers, Mamluks and Italian Stradiots, followed by chapters on military diasporas in Hungary, the Teutonic Order including the Sword Brethren, and the Swiss military. The volume thus covers a broad band of military diasporic experiences and highlights aspects of their role in the building of state and empire from Antiquity to the late Middle Ages and from Persia via Egypt to the Baltic. With a broad chronological and geographic range, this volume is the ideal resource for upper-level undergraduates, postgraduates, and scholars interested in the history of war and warfare from Antiquity to the sixteenth century.
