Medieval Polish Armies 966-1500 (Men-at-Arms) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Rather weak publication, but it gives some idea on the matter of Polish medieval armies. The author D. Nicolle tries to cash in by kidnapping yet another area not earlier covered in the Osprey catalogue, though his real expertise lies in Asiatic and Arabic subjects.

Well, Poland is neither...

It is plain that Nicolle in a rather half-heartedly and indiscriminate way has just compiled a batch of non-Polish information on Polish medieval matters without having the proper knowledge or feel for Polish or Slavic issues (which he aptly proved with his disastrous Russian trilogy : Armies of Medieval Russia 750-1250 [MAA 333], Medieval Russian Armies 1250-1500 [MAA 367] and Armies of Ivan the Terrible [MAA 427]). The book's very impressive "selective" bibliography list though - on which Nicolle wastes a good two and half pages of an allready thin 48-paged publication, does indeed boast some author's names and titles in mis-spelled Polish, but after reading this book I'm not sure he actually read them. Nicolle would do better sticking to his Arabic-studies. Now he has kidnapped the Polish subject and made a rather dry and boring book out of it.

What this book lacks most of all is a glossary (like the one in the excellent Osprey publication "Polish Armies 1569-1696", MAA 188) with phonetical pronunciations. The Polish language, and especially in its written form, is no walk in the park for non-Poles. That is nothing new.

But the embarrising transcription errors and inconsistent terminology in this book surpasses most of recent years slips in English publications on Polish matters. The fact that it - allegdly - is co-written with a Polish expert (completly unknown in Poland, mind you - and Poland has NO lack of historical military experts to consult) makes it all the worse.

The terminology and names of persons, places, equipment etc is a disastrous and confusing mishmash of badly spellt Polish or at times phonetically spellt Polish, mixed with some terminology for Polish matters and names in German, Latin and English.

Why on earth Nicolle chooses to use the German language to describe different parts of the Polish battle formation - the "Old Polish Array" - is another sign of ignorance and lack of fingertip feel for the subject.

Inconsistency is another weak point of the book. The Slavic name "Vladislav" is one time spellt in its Polish form "Wladislaw" and at another time in its Latin form "Vladislaus". In the same manner the Polish king Vladislav the Short confusingly is referred to either as Vladislav "the Elbow-high" or "the Short". Both terms are correct in English but for new students of Polish history the usage of both names simultaneously is neither pedagogic nor recommended.

...and who the heck is "Strasy of Odroway and Bialaczow"..? This is so mispellt and mis-transcribed that even a Pole will not find out... Well, actually if one recognizes the coat-of-arms of the above mentioned knight visible on plate F1 one can guess... But that is not what one can expect of a newcomer to the subject.

Nicolle also draws some wrong conclusions. For instance the battle of Plowce was not a Polish victory but rather a draw.

The illustrator Embleton makes some effort but has done much better in the past.

All in all the book is a disappointment. The medieval military history of Poland and Central Europe is so interesting and rich with its mix of West and East. Sadly Nicolle fails miserably to convey this. It's just a dry and rather weak compilation. And so the colourful past of early Poland's military achievements will remain unknown in the West for yet another while... Especially since the confused terminology in this hastily written book obstructs further studies.