Catholic Church

The Battle of Lepanto: “The Best Day’s Work in Centuries”

By William J. McPeak

For Europe, there was great news from Malta in August 1565. The Ottoman Turks had lifted their siege and made for home. Read more

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Weapons of the Middle Ages: the Medieval Catapult

By Robert Heege

It was the spring of 1097 and the Turks guarding the walls of Nicaea were in a confident mood. Read more

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Defeat of the Spanish Armada

By Eric Niderost

On Friday, July 29, 1588, a group of English gentlemen decided to play a friendly game of bowls after a hearty midday meal. Read more

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Baptism or Death: The Wendish Crusade, 1147-1185

By Kirk Freeman

By the middle of the 12th century, much of western Europe had settled into a tenuous, often interrupted peace, and many modern nation-states had begun to emerge. Read more

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Trampled Banners: The Battle of Nördlingen (1634)

By William E. Welsh

From within the walled city of Nördlingen in the Upper Palatinate, a lone rocket arced slowly skyward on the night of September 3, 1634. Read more

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Like Apples Fallen In Autumn: The Battle of Shrewsbury

By Al Hemingway

By the middle of July 1403, a series of seemingly inevitable events had led two armies to a field near the small and hitherto unheralded village of Shrewsbury in Shropshire, approximately 150 miles northwest of London. Read more

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Unholy Sabbath in Flanders

By William E. Welsh

With his one good eye, French King Philip II looked east down the straight line of an old Roman road in the disputed county of Flanders on Sunday, July 27, 1214. Read more

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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

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Canadians in Spain: The Mackenzie-Papineau Battalion

By Jerome Baldwin

After years of social upheaval, political unrest, and violence, Spain erupted into all-out civil war on July 18, 1936, when General Francisco Franco led a junta of right-wing army officers in a revolt against the democratically elected government of the Spanish Republic. Read more

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Joan of Arc’s Loire Campaign: The English Tide Recedes

By William Welsh

None of those present at the war council held on July 18, 1429, at Beaugency in central France seemed to object to the peculiar sight of an armor-clad young woman advising some of the greatest military captains of the age on how to proceed with the campaign to crown the Dauphin Charles king of France. Read more

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A Company K in the Pacific: From Guadalcanal to Peleliu

By Jason Abady

In April 1942, a group of young Marines, having recently graduated from Officers Candidate School, arrived at New River, North Carolina, a sprawling tent city that stretched over a vast area and would eventually become known as Camp Lejeune. Read more

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German Military’s Emissary for Peace

By Jon Diamond

Many accounts have been written about the peace mission flight of Deputy Führer Rudolf Hess and his parachute landing in a farm field in Scotland in May 1941 to discuss with the Duke of Hamilton a proposal to end hostilities. Read more

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Protestant Heroes of 1622

By Louis Ciotola

As the year 1622 dawned over Germany, things appeared bleak for the refugee “Winter King” of Bohemia, Elector Palatine Frederick V. Read more

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The “White Devil” Robert Rogers and the St. Francis Raid

By Eric Niderost

On the evening of September 13, 1759, Major Robert Rogers and 220 hand-picked rangers climbed into 17 whaleboats and rowed across the placid waters of Lake Champlain. Read more

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No Quarter at Drogheda

By Al Hemingway

On the morning of September 2, 1649, peering over the immense 20-foot-high wall that surrounded the Irish city of Drogheda, English Royalist general Sir Arthur Aston did not like what he saw. Read more

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Battling Bishops of Christendom

By William J. McPeak

Bishops in battle? It’s not as unlikely as it sounds. At the Battle of Hastings in 1066, Norman Duke William, soon to be dubbed William the Conqueror, held his heavy cavalry in check until the most advantageous moment to charge the right flank of King Harold’s Saxons. Read more

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King Billy at the Boyne River

By Eric Niderost

On March 12, 1689, James II, recently deposed king of England, landed in Ireland in a last-ditch attempt to regain his throne. Read more

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The Lucky Lit. Wit Daniel Defoe

By Roy Morris Jr.

When the Duke of Monmouth began his doomed, quixotic march across southern England in the summer of 1685, one of the few volunteers to join him from royal-dominated London was a 24-year-old hosiery merchant and trader named Daniel Defoe. Read more