ABSTRACT
Warfare shaped government and society during the Middle Ages, and in no other period was logistics more basic to military operations or did supply emerge more clearly as a weapon of war in itself. Considering this importance, it comes as some surprise that lack a general study of medieval logistics to compare with those focused on the ancient world, modern Europe, or US forces. Any consideration of warfare in the Middle Ages must take into account the evolution of government authority during that epoch. Of course any examination of a period covering more than a millennium is bound to uncover considerable variety. The military history of the Middle Ages is thus a matter of controversy on the most basic level, and some new synthesis seems in the future. Whatever that synthesis might be, it must take account of the fact that not only was logistics basic to warfare in the Middle Ages, but questions of supply shaped society itself.
