The Art of War in the Middle Ages - A. D. 378-1515 #248495

The complicated nature of the subject being taken into con sideration, it is evident that a complete sketch of the social and political history of any period would be necessary to account fully for the state of the 'art of War' at the time. That art has existed, in a rudimentary form, ever Since the day on which two bodies of men first met in anger to settle a dispute by the arbitrament of force. At some epochs, however, military and social history have been far more closely bound up than at others. In the present century wars are but episodes in a people's existence: there have, however, been times when the whole national organization was founded on the supposition of a normal state of strife. In such cases the history of the race and of its 'art of war' are one and the same. To detail the constitution of Sparta, or of Ancient Germany, is to give little more than a list of military institutions. Conversely, to speak of the characteristics of their military science involves the mention of many of their political institutions.