The Art of War in the Middle Ages

Sir Charles William Chadwick Oman, KBE (1860 – 1946) was a British military historian of the early 20th century. His reconstructions of medieval battles from the fragmentary and distorted accounts left by chroniclers were pioneering. His style is an appealing mixture of astute analysis and dramatic narrative. He was born in Muzaffarpur district, India, the son of a British planter, and was educated at Oxford University. In 1881 he was elected to a Prize Fellowship at All Souls College, where he would remain for the rest of his career. He was elected the Chichele Professor of modern history at Oxford in 1905, serving as President of the Royal Historical Society (1917–1921), the Numismatic Society and the Royal Archaeological Institute. Oman was a Conservative member of Parliament for the University of Oxford constituency from 1919 to 1935, and was knighted in 1920. This work, published in 1885, is a perceptive study of the battle tactics that prevailed during the Middle Ages in the later Roman empire, the Byzantine empire, the Swiss confederation, Spain, England, France and Bohemia.