ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to address both the misuse and the neglect of crucial source materials that shed light on the scale and complexity of warfare in pre-Crusade Europe. The dangers of reading a selective group of sources, particularly narrative sources, as plain text are demonstrated all too frequently in the work of specialists in the military history of the European Middle Ages. Fundamental misconceptions and misrepresentations, often dating back to sociological and political assumptions of the nineteenth century, remain dominant features of scholarly discussions among numerous military historians, and through them to the broader treatments of medieval history. The study of medieval military history lags far behind that of the classical world, despite the immensely greater volume of all types of source materials. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
