Ninon Dubourg is an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow based at the University of Cologne. She studies physical and mental disability, as well as old age, among lay and clerical individuals in late medieval Europe.Christophe Masson is a Permanent Researcher for the Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS) in Belgium. His work addresses the social, cultural, institutional, and technical dimensions of late medieval warfare.

Depending on how you approach this splendid volume, it either pushes the frontiers of premodern war studies deeper into the social history of medicine, brings the young field of disability studies into dialogue with military history, or both. Whatever the path may be, it is worth following in full. Through a series of workshops that lasted nearly two years, Ninon Dubourg and Christophe Masson have curated nine essays across history, archaeology and literature that develop rich case studies, mainly from across northwestern Europe between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. One advantage of the volume’s geographical and chronological focus is that the context and qualities of most sources under investigation are either familiar or can be handled succinctly. This creates sufficient room for contributors to reflect on medical terminology, discuss their methodology and examine the nexus of disability and war largely outside combat situations and include many non-(ex)combatants. It also provides a wider berth than usual to treating mental and emotional trauma in the aftermath of (and in one case the preamble to) war.[...]Commenting on each contribution falls beyond the scope of this review except to note that they are, to a chapter, compelling, well written and in active conversation with one another. The entire volume, moreover, is expertly copy-edited, illustrated and graphically designed, making it an even greater pleasure to read, cover-to-cover.

• List of IllustrationsPrefaceIntroduction. "Disability and War: Becoming, Surviving, Managing" by Ninon Dubourg and Christophe MassonChapter 1. "The Recidivists: Healed Cranial Trauma from Conflicts in the Late Medieval Period" by Christopher J. KnüselChapter 2. "Disability and Trauma in Battle in the Medieval Icelandic Sagas" by Yoav TiroshChapter 3. "Hungry for Love: Disabling the Knightly Body and Mind through Starvation in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur" by Kristina HildebrandChapter 4. "A Vulnerable Military Masculinity: Soldiers and Disability in Late Medieval Pardon Letters (France, England, and the Low Countries)" by Quentin VerreyckenChapter 5. "Traumatic Repercussions: Warfare and Disability in the French Countryside" by Aleksandra PfauChapter 6. "Investigating the Lifecycle of the Medieval English Soldier: Disability, Mental Trauma, and Medicine in Connection with War in Late Medieval English Records" by Wendy J. TurnerChapter 7. “'What pain I suffered at that time, anyone can well imagine...': Experiences of War, Injury, and Pain in Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Germany and Switzerland" by Bianca FrohneChapter 8. "Mechanism/Organism: The Premodern Iron Hand as Conceptual Interface" by John GagnéChapter 9. "After Combat: War Wounds, Soldiers’ Benefits, and Dynastic Policies in the Burgundian–Habsburg Armies (1363–1506)" by Michael DepreterSelect BibliographyIndex