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Charles the Bold in Italy 1467-1477: Politics and Personnel (Liverpool University Press - Liverpool Historical Studies)
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Product Description
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #1442230 in Books
- Published on: 2005-05-30
- Number of items: 1
- Binding: Hardcover
- 432 pages
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Richard Walsh taught history at the University of Leeds, where he edited the International Medieval Bibliography. Currently, he works for the British Broadcasting Corporation.
Customer Reviews
Indespensible work
Dr. Richard Walsh's monumental work is an absolutely vital addition to the library of any student of the Court of Valois Burgundy, and any student of the last Valois Duke of Burgundy, Charles the Bold.
The book covers the Italian influence in Charles the Bolds court, as well as the major diplomats and the Italian exiles and adventurers, who helped shape the ultimate form of the Burgundian army of the Ordinances, and of course explores the political course of Burgundy in the Italian peninsula, offering evidence for a more effective diplomatic strategy than has generally been acknowledged or recognized by previous scholarship.
The only critique I can add as a student of the Companies of the Ordinances of Charles the Bold, is a slight confusion as to the Italian condottiere captains tenure (sometimes brief, as the captains of companies were appointed or dismissed on an annual basis, and sometimes more often as necessity dictated) as captains of ordinance companies that existed prior to the Italian captains entering Burgundian service. Many of these existed both before and after the Italian captains tenures,which confuses the nature of the ethnic origins of the personnel of some companies with the Italian lances brought into Burgundian service in 1473. The author does address this in one example, but insufficiently in my understanding of the subject.
For a scholarly work, the book is eminently readable. If a student of Valois Burgundy could only have four authors works as the basic foundation of a library on the subject, they would include Walsh's book, alongside of Vaughn's four volumes, John Foster Kirk's Charles the Bold, and Blockman and Preveniers.
A must read for any student of the subject.
