Earth Legions Series by David Weber, David Drake, Mark L. Van Name, S.M. Stirling, Eric Flint

The guilds of star-travelling merchants had strict rules to prevent their technology from falling into the hands of the natives of planets they were exploiting: military operations had to be carried out with weaponry no more complex than swords and bows. That was no handicap to the merchant princes, who came to Earth for soldiers and returned to the stars with the best the planet had to offer: the legionaries of the Roman Empire!

A collection of novellas by some of today's most acclaimed science fiction writers--including David Drake, David Weber, Eric Flint, S. M. Stirling, and Mark L. Van Name--chronicles the exploits and adventures of guilds of star-traveling merchants and their not-so-obedient human slaves and mercenaries.

This novel is expanded from a shorter version published in David Drake's Foreign Legions. Captured by a technologically advanced alien race, a group of medieval English knights gains power and experience as savage interstellar mercenaries, all the while planning for the day when they will rise up and reclaim the freedom that is their destiny.