Sieges Of The Middle Ages

Today the castle is only too often a romantic ruin; but in the Middle Ages it was an important military and administrative centre, essentially utilitarian in its design and in the purposes it served. Inevitably, the castle played a leading role in medieval history and the wealth of material is so great that Mr Warner has limited his study to English sieges undertaken in the period from the Norman Conquest to the end of the Wars of the Roses, a field that includes many dramatic actions fought in the continental dominions of the English Crown. Mr Warner is equally concerned with the evolution of siege warfare and with the narrative of events that centred on sieges. The skills of the architect, engineer and miner are as important to his theme as the courage of the troops and their commanders. And the results of those sieges - for example Wallingford, Chateau Gaillard, Bedford and Rouen - often decided far more than the campaign of which they were the climax. Mr Warner has drawn extensively on contemporary accounts of these sieges, verifying them by inspection of the sites where traces of the siege-works are sometimes still visible. His stirring narrative will be of interest to the general reader as well as to the student of medieval warfare.

Philip Warner (1914-2000) enlisted in the Royal Corps of Signals after graduating from St Catharine's, Cambridge in 1939. He fought in Malaya and spent 1,100 days 'as a guest of the Emperor' in Changi and on the Railway of Death, an experience he never discussed. He was a legendary figure to generations of cadets during his thirty years as a Senior Lecturer at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst. Yet he will arguably be best remembered for his contribution of more than 2,000 obituaries of prominent army figures to The Daily Telegraph. In addition he wrote fifty-four books on all aspects of military history, ranging from castles and battlefields in Britain, to biographies of prominent military figures (such as Kitchener: The Man Behind the Legend; Field Marshall Earl Haig; Horrocks: The General who Led from the Front and Auchinleck: The Lonely Soldier) to major histories of the S.A.S., the Special Boat Services and the Royal Corps of Signals."