England and Scotland at War, c.1296-c.1513, by Andy King and David Simpkin, editors

Leiden/Boston: E. J. Brill, 2012. Pp. xiv, 410. Tables, notes, index. $220.00 . ISBN: 9004229825.

Anglo-Scottish warfare, the history behind the legends.

In England and Scotland at War the editors, who have previously worked together on The Soldier Experience in the Fourteenth Century and The Soldier in Later Medieval England have gathered fifteen essays by notable scholars of the Anglo-Scottish wars that cover the period from Stirling Bridge (1297) to Flodden Field (1513).  They open, however, rather cleverly, with an essay titled “The Anglo-Scottish Conflict ‘in Romance and Rhyme’,” to remind us of the mythic elements in the historiography and historical memory of these events. 

The essays that follow cover distinct battles and campaigns (e.g. “John de Warenne, Guardian of Scotland, and the Battle of Stirling Bridge”, “Triumph and Disaster”), the nature of the armies and warfare at various times (“A Military Revolution in the North?”, “The Kings’ Sergeants-at-Arms and the War in Scotland”, “Highland Scots and Anglo-Scottish Warfare”), Scots mercenary service in English ranks (“A Good Chance for the Scots?”), and much more, including regional government administration (“Locality and Allegiance”, “The Scottish March Wardenships”), occupation policies (“‘To be Annexed Forever to the English Crown’”), and even revenue management (“National War and Dynastic Politics”).  Several of the essays make innovative use of graphic and tabular presentation of material, but some maps would have been useful. 

A volume in the Brill series “History of Warfare,” England and Scotland at War will prove very useful to those seriously interested in late medieval and early modern warfare.

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