Barbarians, marauders, and infidels : the ways of medieval warfare / Antonio Santosuosso.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 323-332) and index.

Pt. 1. The barbarian kingdoms. 1. Attila is dead : the early barbarian kingdoms -- 2. A double pestilence : Ostrogoths and Byzantines in Italy -- 3. The arrival of the Longobards -- 4. The Franks and the emergence of France -- Pt. 2. The Muslim empire. 5. God, his prophet, and war : the origins -- 6. The conquest of the Fertile Crescent : Muslims in Syria and Iraq -- 7. The Muslim strike into North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula -- Pt. 3. New invaders and the expansion of the west, 800-1300. 8. Armor, weapons, and soldiers -- 9. Protecting the borders against the new enemies : Vikings and Magyars -- 10. The Norman Conquest of England -- 11. The war against walls -- 12. The way of the masters : men on horseback -- 13. The way of the commoners : soldiers on foot -- 14. The Crusades, or God at war -- Pt. 4. The end of the Middle Ages, 1300-1453. 15. The Hundred Years War : a matter of contradictions and resilience -- 16. The Maid of Orléans and women at war -- 17. "Waging war gives me bread-- peace destroys me" -- 18. New weapons, new men, new ideas.

[This book] examines the motives and terrors of war during the Middle Ages, the rise and fall of ethnic and religious groups, and the actions of good and evil military leaders ... Historical figures and major campaigns such as Charlemagne, the Magyars, and the Crusades are presented not as icons but as a living part of their times, with all their achievements and human failures. [The author] asserts that war, for most of the Middle Ages, was carried out for God, personal gain, and honor.-Dust jacket