King Arthur: A Military History is one of the best analyses of Arthurian Britain to be published in a long time. Michael Holmes begins with a rather scientific approach to the subject: Roman Gaul and Roman Britain were nearly identical, but greatly different by the beginning of the Middle Ages. Narrowing the divergent influences to the interim Dark Ages, he then uses Gaul as a sort of "control group" to detect Arthur's presence and impact on English and British history. He then undertakes to outline Arthur's career, which I think he has done very well, including offering one of the best, most scholarly analyses of Mordred's role in history that I have ever read. Excellent book!