Bare-headed, French King John II leads a swirling melee at the climax of the Battle of Poitiers in this 1830 painting by Eugene Delacroix.

King Philip IV

Death at the Hawthorn Hedge: Poitiers, 1356

By William E. Welsh

­The Black Death that ravaged England and France for a half-dozen years in the mid-14th century served merely as a brief intermission between the first and second acts of the painfully protracted struggle known as the Hundred Years’ War. Read more

Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne, Vicomte de Turenne, directs royalist troops at the Battle of the Dunes.

King Philip IV

Decision at the Battle of the Dunes

By Roy Morris Jr.

The cold North Sea surf washed over the boots of the advancing English infantry of Oliver Cromwell’s New Model Army as they tromped through the drifting sand dunes across the beach at Dunkirk on the morning of June 14, 1658. Read more

King Philip IV

Edward Longshanks & William Wallace at Falkirk

By John Walker

After the disastrous Battle of Dunbar in April 1296, the Scottish revolt against England stalled for more than a year until a rebel force led by Andrew de Moray and William Wallace rekindled the flames of rebellion with a stunning victory over the English at Stirling Bridge. Read more

King Philip IV

Spanish Disaster at Rocroi

By William Welsh

Five hundred Spanish musketeers filed into the dim forest on the southern edge of a wooded plain south of the border fort at Rocroi, France, at dusk on May 18, 1643. Read more