The Battle of the Golden Spurs (Courtrai, 11 July 1302)

A classic of military history, enduring as the indispensable study of the battle and the foundation of all subsequent scholarship. This is battle history done at its best. Verbruggen has a talent for reconstructing not simply the course of events from contradictory testimonies, but something of what the experience may have been like for the participants. A model for the writing of a battle account... what distinguishes this book is the way in which Verbruggen married his knowledge of the sources to his understanding of the terrain.