Despite the hitherto prevailing notions of chivalric nobility and the code of honor, medieval wars were inevitably associated with acts that would today be considered monstrous war crimes. The ruin of villages and cities, the merciless massacre of civilians, the mass extermination of prisoners, disproportionate punishment for minor crimes - these are typical practices and traditions of that bloody time. Through a comprehensive study of battles, sieges and campaigns, as well as short periods of calm, the author reproduces a convincing and shocking picture of a distant, but by no means romantic era.