Sir Charles Oman was one of Britain's finest historians, and his magnificent A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages has become a classic of military history. Admired both for its readability and for, its great scholarship, its scope is exhaustive on the history of the art of war as warfare was refined, changed and developed throughout Europe over the centuries. Sir Charles Oman's original publication under this title was published in 1885, after which he developed and expanded the subject twice, culminating in the 1924 work from which this new edition is taken. Like it, it is published in two volumes. This volume (1278-1485AD) takes the development of the history of warfare from the point where the supremacy of the cavalry was threatened by the emergence of the longbow at the end of the thirteenth century, to the close of the Wars of the Roses, when cavalry tactics were being revived and the importance of the firearm was growing. This magnificent study, renowned both for its readability and its scholarship, is divided into sections dealing with the characteristic strategy, tactics and military organisation of a period and illustrated by detailed accounts of typical battles and campaigns. Oman also includes a section on the early development of aspects of warfare that became so important during the later middle ages: the slow growth of the importance of armour, fortifications and the building of castles in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and the companion that came in its wake - siegecraft. He traces the rise of the longbow in England, Scotland and Wales from the late thirteenth to 1333, and its use in France and Spain up to the end of the fourteenth century, including Crecy and the use of gunpowder and cannon in the wars of the 14th & 15th Century.