The Medieval Sea - Hardcover

"Lucid and engagingly written, learned and tellingly supported by well-chosen anecdotes ... cannot fail to inform." - Southern History "This is a fine book and deserves a wide readership. .. is far more than a just an excellent and information-packed introduction to the maritime history of medieval Europe. Enlivened with many quotes from contemporary poems and letters, it inspires one to want to find out more." - The Authors Journal Compilation "An accessible and broad overview of medieval maritime activities for the non-specialist but interested reader...Rose does an excellent job." -Wendy R. Childs, International Journal of Maritime History, Vol. 21, 2009

This book surveys how the peoples bordering the Mediterranean, North Sea, English Channel and eastern Atlantic related to the sea in all its aspects between approximately 1000-1500 A.D. How was the sea represented in poems and other writings? What kinds of boats were used and how were they built? How easy was it to navigate on short or long passages? Was seaborne trade crucial to the economy of this area? Did naval warfare loom large in the minds of medieval rulers? What can be said more generally about the lives of those who went to sea or who lived by its shores? These are the major questions which are addressed in this book, which is based on extensive research in both maritime archives and also in secondary literature. It concludes by pointing out how the relatively enclosed maritime world of Western Europe was radically changed by the voyages of the late fifteenth century across the Atlantic to the Caribbean and round Africa to India.