Medieval | War History

The Janissaries – An Elite Ottoman Army Unit Who Became Public Enemy No1

The walls of Vienna trembled on 27th of September, 1529, as strange music echoed close by. The sound of hundreds of drums stopped the heartbeats…

Sappers and Siege engines – Ivan the Terrible Conquers The city of Kazan

Jack Beckett

The army had been in place under the city walls for weeks. Ivan the Fourth, Tsar of all the Russians, accompanied his force in the…

The Many Things the Movie ‘Braveheart’ Got Wrong… And One Thing It Got Right

Andrew Knighton

Mel Gibson’s film Braveheart is both one of the most celebrated and one of the most reviled pieces of historical filmmaking ever. A heart-stirring and…

Different Ways Medieval Crusaders Might Have Thought And Felt About Their Wars

Andrew Knighton

A knight stands on the walls of Jerusalem, staring out at the parched land beyond the city. He is weary from weeks of travel and…

The Death Of A Medieval Grand Master – An Ancient Order of Knights Falls In A Merciless Last Battle

Jack Beckett

For more than two hundred years the might of the Order of Teutonic Knights had been steadily growing. It was forged in 1190, in the…

The One of the Bloodiest Medieval Wars Was Fought Because Of A Bucket

Shahan Russell

In 1325, two armies clashed near what is today the Italian town of Castello di Serravalle in the region of Emilia-Romagna. It was the largest…

The King Comes Back To Claim His Own – Last Battle of the Viking King

Jack Beckett

It was the age of the Great Mongol Khans. It was the age of Byzantium, of the Holy Roman Empire. The wars of the Reconquista…

Arab Women Shame Their Fleeing Men Back Towards the Fight At The Battle of Yarmouk

Most people are familiar with the general history of the Arab expansion after the death of Mohammad. The Arabs didn’t sit idly in Saudi Arabia,…

The Viking Mercenaries of the Byzantine Empire – The Varangian Guard

The Byzantines Hired Viking Mercenaries as Guards The relationship between the Byzantine Emperors and their Varangian Guard was a complex affair. The Byzantines were first…

Massive Towers, Unbreakable Walls, Terrifying Siege Engines – This Was The Hundred Years War

Andrew Knighton

As the sun rises over the battlefield, a column of knights gallops towards the assembled infantry. Banners flutter and arrows hurtle through the air as…

AD 732, Battle of Tours: Charles Martel the ‘Hammer’ Holds The Line Of Battle

Few Empires emerged as quickly as that of the Muslim Caliphates. Bursting out from what is now Saudi Arabia in the mid-7th century, the Islamic…

When A Bloody Medieval War Was Fought Because Of A Bucket Full of Treasure

Shahan Russell

In 1325, two armies clashed near what is today the Italian town of Castello di Serravalle in the region of Emilia-Romagna. It was a huge…