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Armies and Politics in the Early Medieval West (Collected Studies Series)
Armies and Politics in the Early Medieval West - Collected Studies Series Author:Bernard S. Bachrach In these articles Professor Bachrach starts by looking at aspects of the "barbarian" occupation of the land of the Roman Empire, from Britain to the Alan settlements in southern Gaul. His particular interest, however, is in political and, above all, in the military structures that grew out of the Early Middle Ages. He has sought to demonstrate t... more »hat there was a fundamental continuity in military organization and tactics from the Merovingian through the Carolingian period. As he shows, there is no reason to connect to the origins of "feudalism" with Charles Martel's wish to create a force of cavalry, and it is a fallacy that he grasped the potential of the stirrup for enabling mounted shock combat. On the contrary, its use in the West progressed only slowly, and it had nothing to do with the origins or growth of feudalism.« less