In a few days, Medieval Warfare IV-5 will return from the printers. Its theme covers Richard I in the Mediterranean, highlighting the English king's exploits and successes in Sicily, Cyprus, and during his campaigns of the Third Crusade.
As always, the issue starts with an introduction, in this case written by our new contributor Luke Foddy. The articles that follow offer insight in the various stages of Richard's journey. Gabriele Esposito talks about Richard's first stop, Sicily, where he becomes involved in a power struggle. Stephen Bennett explains how, once Richard was once again on his way east, his fleet became scattered in a storm, with some vessels stranded on the island of Cyprus. The next stop was Acre, where a siege by Christian forces was getting nowhere. Richard's charismatic leadership, and an influx of fresh and experienced troops, would bring about a Christian victory. This was not accomplished without considerable problems, however, as described by Sean McGlynn. Afterwards, Richard proceeded to win a major victory at the Battle of Arsuf, and later at the port of Jaffa, both discussed by Sidney Dean. Aside from these chronological articles, the issue also contains a theme-related The Source article, written by Gregory Liebau, which discusses the effectiveness of crusader equipment and tactics from the perspective of Muslim sources. Moreover, in this issue's The Castle section, Gareth Williams highlights some of Cyprus' major castles, several of which were taken by Richard and his army.
While the theme-related articles take up most of the issue, we still found some room for some other content. The first of these articles is written by Sean Manning, and looks at the use of animals as incendiary devices. Graham Ashford once again shares his expertise in blacksmithing, this time, explaining the difficulties of making a 14th century arm harness. Last but not least, Brian Burfield has studied one of warfare's invisible effects; the wounded mind. In this fascinating article, he provides an overview of several possible mental illnesses and their symptoms in the medieval period. As always, you can find a complete summary of every article on our website.
Medieval Warfare IV-5 is definitely another issue you won't want to miss! It will be sent out to subscribers around 1st October. There's also still time to pre-order your copy of this issue for only €5.95 EUR (instead of €7.50 EUR) plus P&P, and receive it at the same time as Medieval Warfare subscribers. Or, why not subscribe yourself to get the very best deal and receive all our new issues automatically?
