The Battlefields of England

England's battlefields bear witness to dramatic turning-points in the country's history. At Hastings, Bosworth Field, Flodden and Naseby, to name but a few, the battles fought were to have an enormous effect on English life. This excellent book (containing Burne's famous The Battlefields of England and More Battlefields of England published together in one volume for the first time) makes it possible for readers to follow the course of 39 notable battles from A.D. 51 to 1685, as if they were there on the battlefields themselves.As well as tracing the course of the battles, Burne provides an informed and intelligent military commentary. Contemporary chronicles were often unreliable, usually written not by the actual participants, who tended to be illiterate, but by scribes who had no knowledge of the conditions of warfare and no maps to refer to. Burne sorts through the confusion caused by these records, establishing the military probability of the actions they describe, and examining the possible alternatives. His explanations are clear and logical, and make sense of the contradictory or unlikely contemporary accounts.