War at Sea in the Middle Ages
“What, indeed, is more merciless than a naval battle, where men perish in water and flame!”
– Flavius Vegetius Renatus,
, 5th Century AD
That maritime warfare has been poorly covered in the literature on medieval warfare is beyond doubt. Similarly, there is little question that the medieval era has been inadequately addressed in the literature on naval warfare. In this series of articles, we will nevertheless attempt to bring the phenomenon of medieval maritime warfare to light, drawing on the relatively sparse literature that does exist to paint a picture of naval warfighting during the period from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476 to the onset of the Protestant Reformation in 1513. In so doing, we will not only investigate the changing character of medieval maritime warfare, but also explore some of the more consequential naval engagements of that era. A secondary goal will be to highlight some of the more recent historical dis