"For the first time, this book presents a comprehensive history of the spoils of war from Old Testament evidence of the Battle of Megiddo through the pre-Napoleonic period. It gives special consideration to the Burgundian Booty of 1476. Using contemporary texts, the author investigates the nature, use, and impact of war plunder, placing the subject in a larger historical perspective to shed new light on established notions about the spoils of war"--