Guns and Men in Medieval Europe, 1200-1500 (review)

This is a fascinating collection of eighteen essays covering fifteen years of Kelly DeVries's prolific output. The intent is to prove the thesis "of human determinism in warfare—against that of technological determinism" (p. xi). It brings together a substantial body of publications in one accessible volume, useful both to those pursuing their own research and, especially, to undergraduates, who will find this collection a striking counterpoint to the notion that technologically advanced weaponry heralds inevitable victory and shapes the world accordingly.

An effective synthesis of intellectual history, military history, and the history of technology, the book is divided into three sections: "Men," "Guns," and "Methodology." The first of these sections takes us from the 1346-47 siege of Calais to the battle of Nicopolis, from declarations of war to perceptions of victory and defeat, from Joan of Arc as a leader of men to Edward III stalled before the walls of Tournai. The emphasis is on those human factors that contemporaries and historians have identified as shaping military outcomes—for instance, belief in divine favor, generalship, morale, hunger, and treachery.

In the second section, DeVries concentrates on the influence of gunpowder weapons on the conduct of war. Again, within this broad theme, he demonstrates an impressive scope: an interrogation of a fifteenth-century reference to shipboard artillery sits easily alongside a discussion of the role of cannon in state formation. A second engaging essay on Joan of Arc argues that, besides being a spiritual condottiere who offered her followers salvation rather than material booty, she was also a practical-minded soldier, with an aptitude for artillery warfare.

DeVries is interested not only in the role of gunpowder weapons in war, whether in siege works or on the battlefield, but also in the evolving technology involved in manufacturing cannon and gunpowder. And his interest in the consequences of the proliferation of such weapons goes beyond purely military outcomes. He includes a study of the French surgeon Ambroise Paré and his treatment of gunshot wounds, noting that Paré's supposedly innovative nontraumatic treatment of such injuries actually resembled earlier practices from the fourteenth and fifteenth century.

The final section comprises a single essay, which discusses the definition of "effectiveness" in relation to premodern military technology, with particular reference to the "invincible" English longbow and the alleged "military revolution" in early modern Europe. DeVries's introduction clearly establishes the historiographical context of his research. Noting the influence of the military revolution thesis, with its emphasis on technology as a determinant of victory, DeVries places his own work in opposition to that of Michael Roberts, Geoffrey Parker, and those who have expanded or modified their original ideas, such as Clifford Rogers. Lively, forthright, sometimes provocative, DeVries is undoubtedly a key contributor to the debate on the conduct of war in late medieval and early modern Europe.

Reviewers of DeVries's earlier book, Medieval Military Technology (1992), sometimes commented that he was weakest when dealing with the early middle ages. Here, with the exception of a brief but informative digression on the decline of the chariot in late-Bronze Age warfare, he concentrates on the later medieval and early modern periods, where he demonstrates an impressive mastery of his sources. A particular strength is the use of the quoted word and it is wholly appropriate (given the intention to prioritize human rather than technological factors) that we hear so much of the rich vocabulary of soldiers, scholars, chroniclers, and bards within these pages.

DeVries suggests that the field of medieval military technology is complementary and attendant to the study of medieval military history generally. It is this belief that justifies his wide-ranging approach and gives this collection of essays their coherence. Notwithstanding the different focus and subject matter addressed in the three sections, the whole is illuminating and thought-provoking. This volume belongs in the library of every university...