A Decisive Battle? Richard the Lionheart vs Saladin at Arsuf
While Arsuf was a tactical and operational success, it was far from “decisive” – or even very significant – on the strategic level.
The Black Death and the Great Transition
How did the Yersinia pestis pandemic that ravaged Europe between 1347 and 1351, and then returned five times before the end of the century, spark the transition from the feudal Middle Ages to capitalist modernity?
The Battle of Sluys: Naval Warfare in the Hundred Years’ War
As England was essentially an island nation, King Edward III was quick to realize the need for sea power if have was to conduct a cross-channel campaign to press his claim the French throne.
Oda Nobunaga and the Gunpowder Revolution in Japan
As in Europe, the military revolution in Japan was triggered by a technical innovation – the development of gunpowder weapons such as muskets and cannon.
The War of Saint Sabas and the naval battle in Acre’s harbor
The rapidly growing maritime power of these two republics placed them on a collision course.
The Siege of Constantinople, 717-718 AD – The Use of Naval Power
The Byzantine Empire’s skilled use of naval power can be seen during the Umayyad attempt to capture Constantinople in 717-718.
War at Sea in the Middle Ages
In this series of articles, we will nevertheless attempt to bring the phenomenon of medieval maritime warfare to light, drawing on the relatively sparse literature that does exist to paint a picture of naval warfighting during the period from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in AD 476 to the onset of the Protestant Reformation in 1513.
Medieval ideas of Utopia
If medieval people could design their own utopian political and economic system, what would it look like?
Justinian’s Plague and the Birth of the Medieval World
The Plague of Justinian, named after the Roman emperor who reigned from AD 527-65, arrived in Constantinople in AD 542, almost a year after the disease first made its appearance in the empire’s outer provinces
Sword of God: The story of Khalid Ibn Al-Walid
Khalid is widely regarded as the military leader responsible for the world-changing expansion of Islam beyond its initial home in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century. His story is fascinating.
Robin Hood – The Man, The Myth, and The History – Part 4: Will the Real Robin Please Stand Up?
Was Robin Hood a real historical figure? Here are four figures that might have been the basis of the legend.
Robin Hood – The Man, The Myth, and The History – Part 3: The Men of the Longbow
Familiarity with 14th-15th century English military archery is crucial to understanding the Robin Hood mythology and the historicity of the outlaw himself.
Robin Hood – The Man, The Myth, and The History – Part 2: The Outlaws of Medieval England
14th century English outlaw was vastly more violent and cruel than the myths would have us believe
Robin Hood – The Man, The Myth, and The History – Part 1: Of Tales and Legends
This series will seek to delve into the history behind the legends and to investigate the critical questions that they raise: who was the real Robin Hood?
The Hundred Years War Revisited: The End of the Beginning
The end of the Hundred Years’ War came about due to successful political and military reforms effectively implemented by Charles VII, and a series of devastating blunders and mismanagement by his counterpart Henry V.
The Hundred Years War Revisited: Avenging Angel
“I am sent from God, the King of Heaven, to chase you out of all France, body for body.”
The Hundred Years’ War Revisited: Band of Brothers
Despite decades of reversals experienced in the waning years of Edward III and throughout the reign of his turbulent grandson, Richard II, England’s role in the Hundred Years War was by no means finished.
The Hundred Years’ War Revisited: English Blunders in the 14th century
So how was it that after this seemingly total victory could England let the initiative slip through its fingers?
The Hundred Years’ War Revisited: The Medieval ‘World War’
How the Hundred Years’ War became a kind of world war involving nearly every major power in Latin Christendom.
The Hundred Years War Revisited: The ‘Caroline War’, 1369-1389
This phase is distinctive in that it saw the scope of the conflict between England and France become truly international – some of its most notable battles were fought far from the home territories of the two belligerents in places as far north as Scotland and Flanders and as far south as Castile and Portugal.
The Hundred Years’ War and the English soldier
Starting in the 1340s, English soldiers – both men-at-arms and their lethal archer companions – began to make their presence felt across all of Western Europe.
‘War, Cruel and Sharp’: England’s Grand Strategy during the Hundred Years’ War
Edward developed a grand strategy for his war against France: use highly disciplined, compact forces to penetrate deep into French territory in chevauchées for the purpose, not of occupying territory, but of wreaking extensive economic, social, and psychological havoc on the French, with the ultimate goal of fatally undermining France’s war effort.
Medieval Geopolitics: The English Military Revolution
Edward III would embark on an ambitious programme of military transformation that would ultimately give rise to a revolutionary new “English way of war.”
Medieval Geopolitics: The Hundred Years’ War: A Tale of Two Crowns
Ultimately, the war was caused by the confluence of a series of events – deeply rooted in medieval concepts of statehood and sovereignty that seem alien at first to modern observers – that eventually formed into a cascade that swept both belligerents (as well as the rest of Europe) out of the medieval era and towards their early modern national destinies.