A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century

THE BEST ACCOUNT OF SIXTEENTH-CENTURY WARFARE BY THE AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF THE PENINSULAR WAR

This is an unrivalled account of sixteenth-century warfare, in which Sir Charles Oman traces the dramatic, far-reaching changes in the military strategy, tactics and organization of the period.

Showing how warfare developed, he covers the Great Wars of 1949-1559; military events in Tudor England, including Henry VIII’s continental wars; the French Wars of Religion, 1562-98; the Dutch revolt and war of independence, 1568-1603; and the Turkish offensive against Christendom, from 1520 until the Peace of Sitva Torok in 1606.

The battles, sieges and campaigns that Oman examines in detail clarify military development across the century, such as Ravenna (1512), the first battle won by dominance in artillery; Pavia (1525), a ‘victory by surprise’; Pinkie (1547), where an old-fashioned infantry army proved helpless against the combination of all arms; and Arques (1589), exemplifying the defence of a defile by very inferior number.

Contemporary maps illustrate many of the actions, and add to the value of this brilliant and lucid history of the art of war.

Sir Charles Oman was one of Britain’s foremost historians and a gifted writer. His books, noted for being both scholarly and accessible, include the two-volume History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages, the seven-volume A History of the Peninsular War and others.