Medieval Military Medicine

Medieval Military Medicine written by Brian Burfield and published by Pen & Sword Books - £20.00 - Hardback - Pages 224

Soldiers of the Middle Ages faced razor-sharp swords and axes that could slice through flesh with gruesome ease, while spears and arrows were made to puncture both armour and the wearer, and even more sinister means of causing harm produced burns and crush injuries. These casualties of war during the 500-year period between the ninth and thirteenth centuries in Northern and Western Europe are the focus of Brian Burfield’s study, but they represent just a portion of the story – disease, disability, disfigurement, damaged minds all played their roles in this awful reality.

Surgical methods are described in the book, as are the fixes for fractured skulls, broken bones and damaged teeth. Disfiguring scars and disabling injuries are examined alongside the contemporary attitudes towards them. Also investigated are illnesses like dysentery and St Anthony’s Fire, plus infected wounds which were often more deadly than the weapons of the age. A final chapter on the psychological trauma caused by war is included and contains a significant focus on the world of the Vikings.

Brian Burfield’s account features many individual cases, extracting their stories of wounds, sickness and death from chronicles, miracle collections, surgeries, government records and other documents. The prose, poetry and literature of the period are also of great value in bringing these cases to life, as is the evidence provided by modern archaeological and historical scholarship.

There are some books via their covers and descriptions that I just love to get my head into because they are so interesting or intriguing. So I was really looking forward to this, in military terms who doesn’t want to read about limbs being hacked off, stomachs run through and all the other types of injuries incurred on the battlefield. The book is a little gruesome in some places but it’s not too bad, this is what happens when your fighting in a medieval battle. What is quite impressive is the hard work and amount of research put into the book by the author Brian Burfield, he has written an excellent book that’s a good clear and easy to understand book. The book also goes over the number of effects of these injuries which were numerously described, the book goes into treatments, diseases and results. Yet again we read about my favourite, the good old leeches too. The notes and bibliography are great in this book and certainly a bonus. I would certainly recommend this book and can see it appealing to a wide audience.