Considers developments including the use of gunpowder, the invention of firearms and iron balls. After reviewing the establishment of a European infantry, this work discusses the transformation of loose confederations of knights into cavalry, the organization of fighting mercenaries, and the changing of mercenary bands into standing armies.

From the eighth century through the Middle Ages feudalism determined the nature of European warfare. Medieval Warfare begins in the time of Charlemagne, who maintained a military system of freemen and of vassals bound to him in service for lands granted in fief. These pages are crowded with re-creations of famous events like the Battle of Hastings and movements like the Crusades; with the brightest flowers of knighthood, and with the mercenary grandeur of Byzantium.