Tactical Defense vs Strategic Offense: How to Win a Battle in the Middle Ages (1000–1500 AD)

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Few things puzzled the soldiers and tacticians of history as much as the question of how to win a battle. Jean de Bueil, a French soldier and admiral who lived in the 15th century, came up with an interesting answer for the Middle Ages: To win a battle, it was essential to stay on the defensive because the army that attacked was always at a disadvantage. Let’s take a closer look at what he meant by this and consider its practical implications for warfare in the Middle Ages. To illustrate, let’s start with an example.

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Bibliography
DeVries, K./ Capponi, N., The Genoese Crossbowmen at Crécy, in: Livingston, M./ DeVries, K. (eds), The Battle of Crécy. A Casebook, Liverpool 2015.
DeVries, K./ Smith, R. D., Medieval Military Technology, Toronto 2012.
Teutsch, Ch., s. v. "Crécy, Battle of" in: Clifford J. Rogers (ed), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Medieval Warfare and Military Technology, 2010.Rogers, Clifford J., War Cruel and Sharp. English Strategy under Edward III, 1327-1360, Woodbridge 2000.
Rogers, Clifford J., The Offensive/Defensive in Medieval Strategy, in: From Crécy to Mohacs: Warfare in the Late Middle Ages (1346-1526), Acta of the XXIInd Colloquium of the International Commission of Military History, Vienna 1996, pp. 158-171.
Strachan, Hew/Herberg-Rothe, Andreas (eds.), Clausewitz in the Twenty-First Century, Oxford 2007.
Sumida, Jon, On Defense as the Stronger Form of War, in: Strachan, Hew/Herberg-Rothe, Andreas (eds.), Clausewitz in the Twenty-First Century, Oxford 2007, pp. 163-181.

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