medieval warfare
In 1242, Russian Prince Alexander Nevsky faced the armored might of the Teutonic knights. Generals Alexander Suvorov and Peter Kotlyarevski were Napoleon’s contemporaries, while General Mikhail Skobelev exemplified the panache of the Victorian Era. Read more
medieval warfare
In November 1177, Saladin launched his first significant military campaign against a crusader state. With 26,000 men, siege engines, a huge baggage train, and his own personal force of elite Mamluk bodyguards, Saladin marched his Ayyubid army across the Sinai Desert from Egypt into southern Palestine. Read more
medieval warfare
In the early evening of September 12, 1683, the citizens of Vienna watched from the ramparts of their beleaguered city as 3,500 winged horsemen poured down the slopes of the Kahlenberg Heights and into the heart of the besieging Turkish army. Read more
medieval warfare
On March 14, 1590, King Henry IV of France achieved his greatest military victory on the field of Ivry. Read more
medieval warfare
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
The narrow barge drifted slowly along the Thames River on a muggy summer day in July 1258. Read more
medieval warfare
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
During the mid-14th century, a new theater of the crusades erupted, this time on the doorstep of Christian Europe. Read more
medieval warfare
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
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
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
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
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
