This
course
focuses
on
the
perception
and
regulation
of
war and wartime practices
(rather
than on strategy, tactics, and weaponry) in the period 300–1500.
It thus
approaches the material from the standpoint of legal and institutional
history
rather than of military history per se. The first half of the
class
focuses on the Just War (ius ad bellum) tradition in the
medieval
period, examining its sources and classical texts as well as the two
most
relevant medieval historical phenomena, namely the Peace and Truce of
God and
the Crusades. The second half of the course focuses on ius in
bello,
that is the wartime practices that tend not to be discussed by authors
(medieval and modern) concerned with Just War, but that are in fact
better
documented by the medieval narrative sources: prisoners and ransom,
siege
conventions, treatment of non-combatants, safe-conducts, treaties, and
diplomacy. Four case studies will anchor the discussion in the
second
half: Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman warfare (British Isles and Northern
Francia,
9th to 12th centuries); the Third Crusade (Eastern Mediterranean, late
12th
century); the Albigensian Crusade (Southern Francia, early 13th
century); and
the Hundred Years War (British Isles and Francia, 14th and 15th
centuries). The second half of the course will also examine the
ideas and
practices of chivarly. Assigned readings are principally primary
sources
in translation. There are no prerequisites for the course,
although
students without a basic knowledge of the outlines of medieval history
will
want to do some supplementary reading.
Schedule of Assignments
Readings
are
to
be
completed
in
advance
of
class
on
the
assigned
day;
students
should
bring
copies of any primary source readings to class.
A=primary source reading; B=secondary literature reading.
R=Butler Reserves; P=Open Weblink; L=Columbia Library Weblink (CU
access required); C=Courseworks Assignment (login required).
W Jan 19
Introduction
(B: Students with no background in medieval history are advised
to skim a textbook. See note below, under texts.)
M Jan 24
Medieval
History and Medieval
Warfare
B: Maurice Keen, ed., Medieval
Warfare: A History (Oxford, 1999), 13-160 [R]
W Jan 26
Judeo-Christian Sources
A: Exodus
20:13, 21:12-32; Deuteronomy 20:10-20; Romans 12:9-13:10 [C]
B: Thomas M. Bolin, "Warfare," in The Biblical World, ed. John Barton
(London, 2002), 2:33-53 [C]
W Feb 02 Augustine
and the Early
Christian Tradition
A: Arthur F. Holmes, ed., War
and
Christian Ethics (Grand Rapids, 1975), 33-84 (selections from
Athenagoras, Tertullian, Origen, Lactantius, Ambrose, Augustine) [C]
Section
1 Sources
M Feb
07 Aquinas and the High Medieval
Tradition
A: Gratian, Decretum,
C. 23 (selections); Thomas Aquinas, Summa
Theologiae, 3 vols. (New York, 1947-48), I-II
105.3, II-II 40-42, 66.8. 123.5 (pp. 1099-1101, 1359-66, 1481-82, 1710)
[C]
W
Feb 09
Legnano,
Bouvet,
and
Christine
de
Pizan
A: Giovanni da Legnano, Tractatus
de
bello,
de
represaliis,
et
de
duello, trans. Thomas Erskine
Holland (Washington, DC, 1917), cc. 1-79, 122-23, 168-69, Table (pp.
216-77, 307-8, 331-32, 355-74) [C]
R
Feb
10
Source
Selection
for
Exercise
#1
Due
Section 2
Just Cause
M Feb
14 Vitoria,
Gentili, and the New
World
A: Francisco de Vitoria, De
Indis relectio posterior, sive De iure belli Hispanorum in barbaros,
trans.
John
Pawley
Bate
(Washington,
DC,
1917),
pp.
163-87
[C]
B: Anthony Pagden, "Dispossessing the Barbarian: The Language of
Spanish Thomism and the Debate over the Property Rights of the American
Indians," in idem, ed., The
Languages of Political Theory in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge,
1987), 79-98 [repr. Theories of
Empire, 1450-1700, ed. David Armitage (Aldershot, 1998),
159-78] [C]
W
Feb
16 Crusade and
Holy War I
B: Jonathan Riley-Smith, What
Were the Crusades?, 4th ed.
(San Francisco, 2009) [R]
W Mar
30 From
Anglo-Saxon to Anglo-Norman England III
B: Matthew Strickland, "'Slaughter, Slavery, or Ransom? The
Impact of the Conquest on Conduct in Warfare," in England in the Eleventh Century:
Proceedings of the 1990 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. Carola Hicks,
Harlaxton Medieval Studies 2 (Stamford, 1992), 41-60 [C]
Midterm
examination,
on
material
through
3/3,
format
TBA
(15%);
final examination,
comprehensive, format TBA (30%); exercise #1 (20%); exercise #2 (20%);
section (15%).
Productive participation in any discussions during the lecture
period will
be rewarded in the final grade. Students must complete both
examinations and both written
exercises to pass the course.
Written Assignments
Exercise
#1: Due 3 March at 12:00 noon. In consultation with
the
instructor and/or TA, select a medieval source with ample descriptions
of
warfare. You may use the Keen book or the sources posted at deremilitari.org
or the Internet Medieval Sourcebook to find a
source of
interest (you may also find the Online
Medieval Sources Bibliography useful); if you track down
your source
on the web, you must nonetheless get your hands on the complete
phyiscal
book. By Thursday, 10 February, 12:00 noon, send the instructor (ajkosto@columbia.edu)
an
e-mail
identifying
the work and providing a complete and correct
bibliographical citation in Chicago "humanities" style; missing
this deadline will result in a one grade-fraction (+/-) penalty on the
assignment. Write a c. 1,500-word analysis of the source,
discussing some
aspect of warfare.
Exercise #2: Due 28 April at 12:00 noon.Option 1. Select a second,
different medieval
source; write an analysis of the place in your source of the Just War
principles discussed in the works read in the first half of the
course. Option
2. Compare the treatment of some aspect(s) of the laws of war in at
least
two different sources for the same event or conflict; sources are to be
selected in consultation with the instructor and/or TA. Option
3.
Propose a topic to the instructor for a paper based on analysis of
primary
sources. For any of the options, essays should be c. 1,500 words
in
length. You should, for any of the options, first consult with
the
instructor and/or TA about the topic. You must, for any of the
options,
by Thursday 7 April, 12:00 noon, send the instructor (ajkosto@columbia.edu)
an
e-mail
identifying
the work(s) and the proposed subject of the
analysis, and
providing complete and correct bibliographical citation(s) in Chicago “humanities” style; missing this deadline will result in a one
grade-fraction (+/-)
penalty on the assignment.
Essays
should have clear arguments supported by evidence drawn from primary
sources,
which should be cited properly in Chicago “humanities” style. Any online source that you intend to
cite that is
not directly linked to deremilitari.org or the
Internet Medieval Sourcebook should be approved by the instructor. You
may not
cite Wikipedia. All written work will be assessed on style (and
grammar,
and syntax, and spelling...) as well as content. Exceeding
assigned word
limits will make the instructor grumpy; c. 1,500 words is more-or-less
five
pages double-spaced Times New Roman font with one inch margins (but you
are not
required to use those fonts and margins...that’s why you have the word
count). Thou shalt proofread. Thou shalt not trust thy
spellchecker. Essays should be submitted as .pdf attachments to an
e-mail to ajkosto@columbia.edu by 12:00 noon on the due date. Late essays will
be
penalized one grade fraction (+/-) per 24 hours (e.g., essays handed in
at
12:01 for a 12:00 deadline are one day late, as are essays handed in at
11:59
the following day). We will try to read drafts turned in a week
before
the due date of the paper; the extent to which we can comment on such
drafts
depends on the number of people who take advantage of this offer.
Plagiarism,
or any other instance of academic dishonesty, is grounds for failure of
the
course and exposure to University disciplinary action. I will consider
changing
assignment due dates for reasonable cause, but this must be
arranged two
weeks before the duedate.
The current syllabus will be maintained at
www.columbia.edu/~ajk44/3060/sylls11.html and linked to the class Courseworks page.
E-mail
from the instructor to the class will be sent through the Courseworks
system; students are strongly encouraged to read any course-related
communications and to reply promptly if requested to do so.
Some
readings
are
posted
in
the
Assignments
section
of
the
Courseworks
page.
Additional
functions
of
the
courseworks page may be used as the term
progresses.
Readings and Texts
The
following
texts
are
available
for
purchase
at
Book
Culture
and
are
on
reserve
at
Butler
Library:
Jonathan Riley-Smith, What
Were the Crusades?, 4th ed. (San Francisco: Ignatius,
2009) 978-1586173609 14.95
William Shakespeare, Henry V,
rev. ed.(New York: Signet Classics, 1998)
978-0451526908 4.95
Alfred the Great: Asser's Life
of Alfred and Other Contemporary Sources, trans. Simon Keynes
(Harmondsworth: Penguin Classics, 1984)
978-0140444094 16.00
The Song of the Cathar Wars: A
History of the Albigensian Crusades, trans. Janet Shirley
(Aldershot: Ashgate, 1996) 978-0754603887 29.95
Geoffroi de Charny, A Knight's Own Book
of Chivalry, ed. Richard
Kaeuper and Elspeth Kennedy (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania,
2005)978-0812219098
15.95
optional:
Barbara H. Rosenwein, A Short
History of the Middle Ages, 3rd ed. (Toronto: University of
Toronto, 2009) 9781442601048 44.95
Try to acquire used online (also on reserve at Butler):
Maurice Keen, ed., Medieval
Warfare: A History (Oxford: Oxford University, 1999)
All other readings are available online at an open public site (P), the
Columbia library site (L-login required), or in the courseworks site
(C-login required). For P and L, follow links from the online
syllabus; for C, look under the relevant date in the assignments
section of the courseworks page.
A note on textbooks: If you have not taken a course in medieval
history before, you should probably keep a textbook at hand to help you
out with the basics. In fact, I recommend that you skim through
one as soon as possible at the start of the class. In fact, both
of those piece of advice apply even if you have taken a medieval
history course before. The textbook that I have ordered,
Rosenwein, A Short History,
is among the best out there for all sorts of reasons, but in its third
edition (2009; 399 pp.) it has become too long for its name; the same
is true for the second (2004; 362 pp.). The first edition (2001;
219 pp.), if you can get your hands on it, is in fact skimmable.
So the best thing to do would be to spend an hour in Butler skimming
the first edition and have a fatter textbook available for reference.
Getting in Touch
E-mail is by far the most efficient way to ask questions about
administrative
matters or very specific questions about readings. If you want to chat
about
Augustine, however, just stop by the office.