Vikings, Saints, and Pilgrimage

This chapter gives an account of the emergence of pilgrimage in Norway and its intersections with medieval warfare, trade, and travel. Coastal Norway was the main travel and access route before modern travel. Viking raiders encountered Christianity in the British Isles, and Christian communities spread first along the coast. Eventually, baptismal covenants came to replace the increasingly brittle bonds of Viking raiders to their leaders and a different form of social contract, as well as a different faith, is introduced. St. Olav plays a central role in this shift toward greater political and religious unity, though his own overreach eventually resulted in his death, though not in the defeat of the project of unification under one Christian law and crown. The cult around his relics begins shortly after and renders Nidaros/Trondheim a central location in the sacred geography of Norway. During the Reformation, however, pilgrimage and the cult of saints became widely repressed in Norway, and shrines are either destroyed or relics moved to unknown locations.

‘A large population, famous for their military qualities’: Londoners at war, c. 1000–1200

The scholarship of high medieval warfare tends not to emphasize the contribution made by urban communities, regarding cities as the passive objects of military campaigning. This article shows that the inhabitants of medieval London, however, had emerged as an organized military community from an early date, and were regarded by contemporaries as unusually disciplined, effective, fighters.

Thoughts on the Role of Cavalry in Medieval Warfare

This article explores the role of cavalry in medieval warfare starting with it’s origins in the Carolingian age, examining how cavalry was used as a strategic asset within the context of the period on at an operational level, as well as the tactics they were likely to have employed. Due to my interest in both medieval warhorses and mounted combat research into the context and use of medieval cavalry was a natural by-product. Using primary resources such as first-hand accounts and period artwork as well as secondary literature, the article summarizes the findings of my research. Most historians, despite the recognition that field-battles were not the heart and soul of medieval warfare, still judge medieval cavalry by their performance within them. My findings show a much greater concentration on small unit actions, both in armament and organization, with cavalry centred on chevauchées on raiding and subduing castles in swift commando type take and hold missions. The diversity of mounted forces are also examined in the context of the lance and the integration of mounted crossbowmen and bowmen for combined arms tactics.

Guerra en el valle del Ebro en la segunda mitad del siglo XI: geoestrategia y control militar de los recursos económicos en el noreste peninsular

Resumen: La guerra en los albores de la Plena Edad Media hispana alcanzó dimensiones holísticas, pues estaba presente de modo ubicuo en todas sus estructuras sociales y políticas. Durante la segunda mitad del siglo xi, los príncipes cristianos del valle del Ebro iniciarán la conquista del llano, poniendo en marcha estrategias militares de diversa naturaleza no solo contra el Islam, sino entre ellos mismos. Este artículo analiza uno de los aspectos fundamentales para comprender la guerra en ese periodo: la geoestrategia. Y desde una doble perspectiva: la geografía militar y el control de los recursos económicos como base de las acciones militares. Palabras clave: guerra medieval, reconquista, geoestrategia, historia militar, valle del Ebro, siglo xi. Abstract: The war in the beginnings of the Hispanic Middle Ages reached holistic dimensions, because it was ubiquitously present in all its social and political structures. During the second half of the 11th century, the Christian sovereigns of the Ebro valley will begin the conquest of the plain, starting military strategies of various kinds not only against Islam, but among themselves. This article analyzes one of the fundamental aspects to understand the war in that period: geostrategy. With a double perspective: military geography and the control of economic resources as the basis of military actions. Key words: medieval warfare, reconquest, geoestrategy, military history, Ebro valley, 11th century.