The Long Sword (66 page)
My greatest thanks still have to go, first and foremost, to Richard Kaeuper of the University of Rochester. The finest professor I ever had – the most passionate, the most clear, the most brilliant – Dr. Kaeuper’s works on chivalry and the role of violence in society makes him, I think, the preeminent medievalist working today, and I have been lucky to be able to get his opinions and the wealth of his knowledge on many subjects great and small. Where I have gone astray, the fault is all mine. This book I must add the works of Professor Steven Muhlberger on chivalry and the minutae of the joust and tournament, as well as the ethics of chivalry themselves. Several hours of conversations with Steve have not only been delightful but helped me with some of the themes of this book.
Not far behind these two, I need to thank Guy Windsor, who introduced me to the Armizare of Fiore di Liberi and profoundly informed my notions of what late-Medieval warfare was like among the skilled. Guy runs a school in Finland and I recommend his books and his research and offer my thanks. I’d also like to thank the other two masters with whom I’ve studied and trained this last year – Sean Hayes of the ‘Northwest Fencing Academy’ and Greg Mele of the ‘Chicago Swordplay Guild’. To these three modern masters this book is dedicated. I’d also like to thank all the people with whom I train and spar – the
Compagnia
mentioned below. Reenacting the Middle Ages has many faces, and immersion in that world may not ever be a perfectly authentic experience – but inasmuch as I have gotten ‘right’ the clothes, the armour, the food or the weapons – it is due to all my reenacting friends, including Tasha Kelly (of Cote Simple, a superb web resource) Chris Verwijmeren, master archer, and Leo Todeschini and JT Palikko and Jiri Klipac and Peter Fuller, master craftsmen. I cannot imagine writing these books without all the help I have received on material culture, and I’m going to add more craftspeople – all worth looking up – Francesca Baldassari and Davide Giuriussini of Italy, and Karl Robinson of England.
Throughout the writing of this series, I have used (and will continue to use), as my standard reference to names, dates, and events, the works of Jonathan Sumption, whose books are, I think, the best un-biased summation of the causes, events, and consequences of the war. I’ve never met him, but I’d like to offer him my thanks by suggesting that anyone who wants to follow the real events should buy Sumption’s books!
In this volume, which leaves the 100 Years War for Italy and the Holy Land (is Egypt part of the Holy Land? Medieval men thought it was) I have turned, for Italy, to the works of William Caffero for inspiration, and I cannot recommend them too highly. And for the taking of Alexandria, I have used many sources. There is an ‘almost’ eyewitness account in Medieval French, by Guillaume Machaut, the first well-known musical genius of the Western world and really, one of the most interesting men of the era. I have used it, both as a source and as a source of understanding prejudice and the sheer alienness of the enterprise. But I also read translations of the Arab Egyptian accounts, and I made the best I could of the many and conflicting sources. Those who think of Alexandria solely as a terrible massacre should also temper that view with the knowledge that anti-clerical, anti-papal factions later used it as a vehicle to attack the idea of crusade. The Egyptians were not unarmed. There was a good deal of fighting. Beyond that, and the stupefying horror of the sack – there’s not much hard fact. I did my best.
As Dick Kaueper once suggested in a seminar, there would have been no Middle Ages as we know them without two things – the horse and Christianity. I owe my horsemanship skills largely to two people – Ridgely and Georgine Davis of Pennsylvania, both of whom are endlessly patient with teaching and with horseflesh in getting me to understand even the basics of mounted combat. And for my understanding of the church, I’d like to first thank all the theologians I know – I’m virtually surrounded by people with degrees in theology – and second, the work of F. C. Copleston, whose work ‘A History of Medieval Philosophy’ was essential to my writing and understanding the period – as essential, in fact, as the writings of Chaucer and Boccaccio.
My sister-in-law, Nancy Watt, provided early comments, criticism, and copy-editing while I worked my way through the historical problems – and she worked her way through lung cancer. I value her commitment extremely. As this is her favorite of my series, I’ve done my best for her. I’m pleased to say that after two years, she is still alive and reading – and working.
And finally, I’d like to thank my friends who support my odd passions and my wife and child, who are tolerant, mocking, justly puzzled, delighted, and gracious by turns as I drag them from battlefield to castle and as we sew like fiends for a tournament in Italy.
This year, we formed the ‘Compagnia della Rosa nel Sole’ and we now have 70 members to recreate a Company like John Hawkwood’s fighting in Italy in the late 14
th
century. Our company has given me (already) an immense amount of material and I thank every member.
William Gold is, I think, my favorite character. I hope you like him. He has a long way to go.
Christian Cameron
Toronto, 2014
The Ill-Made Knight
The Tyrant Series
Tyrant
Tyrant: Storm of Arrows
Tyrant: Funeral Games
Tyrant: King of the Bosporus
Tyrant: Destroyer of Cities
Tyrant: Force of Kings
The Killer of Men Series
Killer of Men
Marathon
Poseidon’s Spear
The Great King
Tom Swan and the Head of St George
Part One: Castillon
Part Two: Venice
Part Three: Constantinople
Part Four: Rome
Part Five: Rhodes
Part Six: Chios
Other Novels
Washington and Caesar
Alexander: God of War
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First published in Great Britain in 201
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by Orion Books
This eBook first published in 201
4
by Orion Books
Copyright © Christian Cameron 201
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