Mercenaries and Paid Men ─ The Mercenary Identity in the Middle Ages

Medieval lords had vassals who owed them military service; the problem was that for most of them it was temporary, for at best a few months at a time. For more protracted conflict, the lords hired mercenaries; and all warring cultures did so: Merovingian, Viking, Norman, Lithuanian, Spanish and Hungarian. The Sultans of Egypt and the kings of Jerusalem made use of them, and the cost of these men brought down governments. France (medieval history, Swansea University, UK) has edited the proceedings of a 2005 conference on mercenaries, which convened to further understanding about these men--who they were and how they fit in to medieval society. There are papers by some of the more respected names in the field. Coverage includes the hiring of soldiers from late antiquity to the seventeenth century, and how they were used and paid for. This is an excellent addition to the history of medieval warfare. Annotation c2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

John France, BA.PhD. (Nottingham) is Professor of Medieval History at Swansea University. He has published extensively on medieval military history, especially on the crusades. His Victory in the East is the military history of the First Crusade.