Warfare in the Latin East, 1192-1291

This book offers a detailed examination of warfare in the Latin East from the end of the Third Crusade to the final demise of the Latin Kingdom in 1291. It considers not only the crusades, but also the long periods of truce during which warfare was restricted to raiding expeditions and the many conflicts which took place between the Christians themselves. A study of the organisation of the Latin armies is followed by an examination of the structures and functions of the strong points. There follows a consideration of the different types of armed conflict: battles, raids and sieges. Battles tended to take place during crusade expeditions, because the native Latins were rarely able to raise an army to fight in the open with the Muslims without support from the west. Raiding expeditions are shown to have played an important role in the Muslims' efforts to remove the Latins from the East; and their capture of strong points, particularly in the second half of the thirteenth century, progressively loosened the Latins' grip on the area. In every aspect of military activity, the Latins' shortage of manpower is shown to have had major consequences. The book ends with a brief study of the work of scouts, spies and traitors in the Muslim and Latin armies. Dr. Marshall's book provides a fitting companion to Crusading Warfare, 1097-1193 by R. C. Smail. Like its distinguished predecessor, this new work will appeal to a wide range of medievalists and to all those interested in the conflict engendered by the crusades and in medieval warfare generally.