About the book: 2024 / Kings from the Capetian dynasty are too often presented as bad commanders and mediocre strategists. And yet they all fought wars, from Egypt to Tunisia, from Flanders to Catalonia. They were all knights and all led their troops. They all finally changed the functioning and structure of their armies. Whether in terms of recruitment, the place of chivalry, the nature of the battle or the fate of the combatants, the art of war changed in the 12th and 14th centuries. And the consequences of this were far-reaching for France: the growth of administration, the development of taxation, the rallying of the nobility around the king... Thus, the great Capetians turned the war into a tool for expanding their power in the kingdom and hegemony in Europe. Combining accounts of campaigns and reflections on attitudes to war from Louis IX to Philip IV the Fair, Xavier Hélary offers an innovative and unparalleled approach to medieval warfare.