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A century of warfare and disease in Europe

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For an author to attempt to tackle the best part of a century in one tome is a hugely ambitious endeavour. But to weave one’s way through the bloodsoaked carnage of the 14th century is another challenge entirely. Barbara Tuchman, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, stands up to the task in this gripping book.

Told largely through the eyes of Enguerrand de Coucy VII, a French nobleman blessed with a cool-headedness often lacking in so many of his contemporaries, this is a story of possibly the most forlorn century in human history.

A 634-page-long book may sound like a summit too high for some readers, but Tuchman somehow manages to frame a vast wealth of information around a fastpaced adventure of knights, plague, honour and treachery.

After superbly setting the scene and introducing her central protagonist, Tuchman goes on to assess the hostility that raged between King Edward III’S England and the kingdom of France he so coveted. While the anticipated use of swords is detailed, it’s the introduction of the longbow (that could stand at almost two metres) and, albeit subtly, the first use of a gun in European warfare, that immediately demand attention.

Tuchman then plunges straight into the devastation of the Black Death, explaining how it originated in China in 1346 before claiming almost 24 million lives across

Asia. Europe then suffered the same fate, with Genoese ships first bringing the lethal plague to harbours in Sicily in 1347.

It would go on to ravage Europe on and off until 1353, killing, according to some sources, a third of the world. Its success was largely due to the fact that the disease came in two forms; one caused pus and bloodfilled buboes (boils) and was spread by contact, while the other brought on a fever and a bout of coughing up blood, which helped it to spread via respiratory infection.

With one catastrophe behind it, Europe was soon engulfed by the Hundred Years’ War, of which the Battle of Poitiers in September 1356 was a critical event. Despite being woefully outnumbered, a courageous English contingent managed to soundly defeat the forces of King Jean II of France and, having cut through his desperate guard, capture the king himself.

Between numerous such accounts of war, Tuchman delves into the strategic marriage between de Coucy and Isabella of England, daughter of King Edward III, in 1365, an arrangement that saw the Frenchman granted the title 1st earl of Bedford. But any periods of tranquillity are few and far between in this book.

As if fading alongside de Coucy, Europe’s power began to wane, compounded by the incursion of the burgeoning Ottoman Empire. Unfortunately for the nobleman, he was witness to a key moment in his continent’s decline, fighting as part of a Crusader army that was crushed at the Battle of Nicopolis on 25 September 1396. De Coucy would die shortly after, possibly from wound incurred in the fight.

This book is nothing short of breathtaking and stands as a testimony to Tuchman’s enduring gift for storytelling. Quite simply, it contains every element that an account of Medieval Europe should. It cannot be recommended enough.

Author Barbara Tuchman Publisher Penguin Random House Price £13 Released Out now

“This is a story of possibly the most forlorn century in human history”