medieval warfare

medieval warfare

Imperial Ambition Denied

Frederick Barbarossa, Emperor of the Romans and one of the great rulers of the Middle Ages, was in the midst of a battle that might determine the fate of Northern Italy. Read more

medieval warfare

Monfort’s Last Stand

The narrow barge drifted slowly along the Thames River on a muggy summer day in July 1258. Read more

medieval warfare

Medieval Bombards at the Siege of Constantinople.

The Ottoman army’s bombards played a key role in its successful conquest of Constantinople during the epic siege of 1453. In the 15th century the great powers of medieval Europe paid talented gunsmiths to build massive bombards to batter walls and shorten the length of sieges. Read more

medieval warfare

Crusader Triumph at Arsuf

The advance of long ranks of scimitar-wielding Nubian and robed Bedouin archers on foot signaled a dramatic change in Ayyubid Muslim tactics against the Frankish army marching south along the Palestinian coast from Acre towards Jaffa. Read more

medieval warfare

Butchered at the Battle of Flodden

Highlander bowmen fired arrows that hissed through the air as they led the advance against the English as skirmisher sat the battle of Flodden. Read more

medieval warfare

Uniform: Knight Templar 1240

The Poor Knights of Christ and the Temple of Solomon, also known as the Order of the Temple, was the first religious military order of the Latin Church. Read more

medieval warfare

The Great Viking Siege of Paris

Well before the great Viking siege of Paris, more than 300 islands dotted the length of the Seine River, reduced over the centuries by human impact and natural changes to slightly more than 100. Read more

medieval warfare

War of Sieges

In the summer of 1216 a large French army appeared just outside the gates of Dover Castle, a magnificent fortress on the southeast coast of England. Read more

medieval warfare

Russian Disaster at the Kalkha River

A tumultuous discussion raged in the hall of Mstislav III “The Old” Romanovich, the Grand Prince of Kiev, in March 1223. Read more

medieval warfare

Matthias Corvinus

Encased in mail and armor, the soldiers of the Kingdom of Hungary’s Black Army stood rigidly at attention on a warm summer day in late August 1487 at Wiener Neustadt in Lower Austria. Read more

medieval warfare

The Battle of Varna: “Let Us Fight with Bravery”

During the mid-14th century, a new theater of the crusades erupted, this time on the doorstep of Christian Europe. Read more

medieval warfare

The final battle of the Latin Crusades was a bloody siege that resulted in the downfall of the last crusader-held territories.

During the spring 1291 an enormous Muslim host moved against Acre along the Mediterranean coast. At the time it was Christendom’s last foothold in the Holy Land, a region fought over for centuries during

the religious wars known as the Crusades. Read more

medieval warfare

Alexander Nevsky’s Glorious Victory

The mass of heavily armored crusader knights swept across the frozen surface of Lake Peipus toward the Novgorodian troops that waited anxiously on the eastern shore. Read more

medieval warfare

Russia’s Time of Troubles

The Varangians founded a number of fortified towns in Slavic Russia in the 9th century that would become seats of Eastern Christian principalities. Read more

medieval warfare

Charlemagne: Warlord of the Franks

On Christmas morning, 800 ad, a tall, powerfully built man walked up the steps of Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome. Read more

medieval warfare

Blood on the Cross

The garrison soldiers of Beziers gazed down from the ramparts at the Crusader army setting up camp outside their high-walled city on July 21, 1209. Read more

medieval warfare

Death by Longbow at Crecy

At the age of 50, John of Bohemia was already old for a warrior and completely blind. He not only was the Count of Luxembourg and King of Bohemia, but also claimant to the thrones of Poland and Hungary. Read more

medieval warfare

The Wars of the Roses: The Weapons That Defined the English Civil Wars

The men of Bridport on the coast of southwestern England kept extra weapons on hand to deal with the raids endemic during the Hundred Years War that preceded the Wars of the Roses. Read more

medieval warfare

Showdown at Grunwald

From his position opposite the left wing of the Teutonic Knights, Lithuanian Grand Duke Vytautas watched closely as the Teutonic Order redressed its lines at mid-morning in the already sweltering summer sun. Read more

medieval warfare

Hungary’s National Hero

Janos Hunyadi, Hungary’s national hero, was one of the great captains in the war between Europe and the Ottoman Turks. Read more