Category Archives: Articles

Byzantines, Avars and the Introduction of the Trebuchet

Byzantines, Avars and the Introduction of the Trebuchet Stephen McCotter The Queen’s University of Belfast (2003) While there has been much debate over when the traction trebuchet appeared in the west and the extent to which it replaced late-antique torsion … Continue reading

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Standards of Living, Order, and Prestige: Public Facilities in Early Fifteenth-Century Lviv (Lemberg)

Standards of Living, Order, and Prestige: Public Facilities in Early Fifteenth-Century Lviv (Lemberg) Rostyslav Paranko  Medium Aevum Quotidianum: n.42 (2000) This contribution is intended as a case study of urban material culture in the late Middle Ages. The particular aspect to be … Continue reading

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Medieval Frontiers and Fortification: The Pale and its Evolution

Medieval Frontiers and Fortification: The Pale and its Evolution Tadhg O’Keeffe Dublin City and County: From Prehistory to Present (1992) Moreover, the English have now a greater advantage than at the Conquest, for then there were not five piles or … Continue reading

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The Art of War under Chinggis Qahan (Genghis Khan)

The Art of War under Chinggis Qahan (Genghis Khan) Translated by Urgunge Onon The Secret History of the Mongols: The Life and Times of Chinggis Khan, translated by Urgunge Onon (Curzon Press, 2001) In the thirteenth century, all Mongols thought … Continue reading

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The Crusade of the Teutonic Knights against Lithuania Reconsidered

The Crusade of the Teutonic Knights against Lithuania Reconsidered  By Axel Ehlers Crusade and Conversion on the Baltic Frontier 1150–1500, edited by Alan V. Murray (Ashgate, 2001) Between the late thirteenth and early fifteenth centuries ‘another Hundred Years’ War’ raged between … Continue reading

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Urban Castles in Medieval Siena: The Sources and Images of Power

Urban Castles in Medieval Siena: The Sources and Images of Power Edward D. English The Medieval Castle: Romance and Reality, ed. Kathryn Reyerson and Faye Powe (Medieval Studies in Minnesota, 1984) The legal, economic, archeological, political, social, architectural, demographic, institutional, … Continue reading

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‘The Nation which Forgets its Defenders will Itself be Forgotten’: Emperor Maurice and the Persians

‘The Nation which Forgets its Defenders will Itself be Forgotten’: Emperor Maurice and the Persians Stephen McCotter The Queen’s University of Belfast (2003) After World War I, Calvin Coolidge, as part of his acceptance speech for the Republican vice-presidential nomination on … Continue reading

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The Crusading Motivation of the Italian City Republics in the Latin East, c. 1096-1104

The Crusading Motivation of the Italian City Republics in the Latin East, c. 1096-1104 Christopher J. Marshall Rivista di Bizantinistica v.1 (1991) Throughout the 200 years of its existence, the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem was heavily reliant upon the Italian city … Continue reading

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L’assedio di Ficarolo (maggio-giugno 1482) – [The Siege of Ficarolo (May-June 1482)]

L’assedio di Ficarolo (maggio-giugno 1482) – [The Siege of Ficarolo (May-June 1482)] By Sergio Mantovani Tra terra acqua e terra – Storia materiale in Transpadana (2001) Nel giugno 1480 il duca Ercole I d’Este, informando Giovanni Bentivoglio dei tentativi di Venezia e … Continue reading

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Approaches to Conflict on the Anglo-Scottish Borders in the late Fourteenth Century

Approaches to Conflict on the Anglo-Scottish Borders in the late Fourteenth Century Alastair Macdonald Ships, Guns and Bibles in the North Sea and Baltic States c.1350-c.1700 (2000) In the summer of 1380, a flagrant breach of the Anglo-Scottish truce then in … Continue reading

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William Wallace’s Invasion of Northern England in 1297

William Wallace’s Invasion of Northern England in 1297 C.J. McNamee Northern History: v.26 (1990) In the winter of 1297 William Wallace, fresh from his victory over the English at Stirling Bridge, presided over a ferocious and prolonged devastation of northern England. … Continue reading

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The Punishment of Pride: Castilian Reactions to the Battle of Aljubarrota

The Punishment of Pride: Castilian Reactions to the Battle of Aljubarrota Thomas M. Izbicki Medieval Iberia: Essays on the History and Literature of Medieval Spain On August 13, 1385, the fate of Portugal was decided at the battle of Aljubarrota. … Continue reading

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The fortunes of war: the military career of John, second lord Bourchier (d.1400)

The fortunes of war: the military career of John, second lord Bourchier (d.1400) Michael Jones Essex Archaeology and History: v.26 (1995) ‘And yet time hath his revolution; there must be a period and an end to all temporal things, finis rerun, an … Continue reading

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Fighting for Land – Fighting for Power: War Aim Making in Renaissance Europe

Fighting for Land – Fighting for Power: War Aim Making in Renaissance Europe Harald Kleinschmidt The Way of the Knight and the Aesthetics of Women (2003) 1. Introduction During the twentieth century, war has mainly been equated it with a … Continue reading

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The Town In Service Of War In The Medieval Crown Of Aragon

The Town In Service Of War In The Medieval Crown Of Aragon Donald Joseph Kagay (Albany State College) De Re Militari (1997) It is the purpose of this paper to explore the role of the town in the medieval Crown … Continue reading

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The Militarisation of Roman Society, 400 – 700

The Militarisation of Roman Society, 400 – 700 Edward James (University of Reading) Military Aspects of Scandinavian Society in a European Perspective AD 1 – 1300  Historians and archaeologists have lavished attention on the new kingdoms established by various barbarian … Continue reading

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The Rouen Riot and Conan’s Leap

The Rouen Riot and Conan’s Leap Warren Hollister Peritia: v. 10 (1996) In the course of the eleventh century, and more commonly in the twelfth, many of the growing towns of Western Europe were disrupted by communal riots. The objective … Continue reading

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The Mongol Siege of Xiangyang and Fan-ch’eng and the Song military

The Mongol Siege of Xiangyang and Fan-ch’eng and the Song military Chris Hanson DeRe Militari (2004) The Siege of Xiangyang and Fan-ch’eng was one of the longest sieges of the medieval world lasting almost 5 years, from 1268 until early … Continue reading

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The Infamous Svjatoslav: Master of Duplicity in War and Peace?

The Infamous Svjatoslav: Master of Duplicity in War and Peace? Walter K. Hanak Peace and War in Byzantium: Essays in Honor of George T. Dennis, S.J. (Washington: The Catholic University of America Press, 1995) Several decades ago Jonathan Shepard elaborated upon the … Continue reading

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The Organisation and Support of an Expeditionary Force: Manpower and Logistics in the Middle Byzantine Period

The Organisation and Support of an Expeditionary Force: Manpower and Logistics in the Middle Byzantine Period John Haldon  Byzantium at War (1997)  It is generally recognised that the maintenance of its armies and the recruitment and equipping of its military expeditions … Continue reading

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Strategies of Defence, Problems of Security: the Garrisons of Constantinople in the Middle Byzantine Period

Strategies of Defence, Problems of Security: the Garrisons of Constantinople in the Middle Byzantine Period John Haldon Constantinople and its Hinterland: Papers from the Twenty-Seventh Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, Oxford, April 1993 (1995) The title I have chosen is intended … Continue reading

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Militia and Malitia: The Bernardine Vision of Chivalry

Militia and Malitia: The Bernardine Vision of Chivalry Areyh Grabois The Second Crusade and the Cistercians: New York (1992) In his treatise, De laude novae militiae,l Bernard of Clairvaux distinguished between the Templars and the entire secular knighthood. The first … Continue reading

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Dover Castle and the Great Siege of 1216

Dover Castle and the Great Siege of 1216 John Goodall Chateau Gaillard XIX: Actes du Colloque International de Graz, 1998 (2000) Commanding the shortest sea crossing between England and the Continent, Dover Castle was a vital strategic and communication lynch-pin … Continue reading

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The Campaign against the Scots in Munster, 1317

The Campaign against the Scots in Munster, 1317 Irish Historical Studies: v. 24 (1984-85) Abstract The document printed below has been preserved, somewhat unexpectedly, among the series of Ministers’ Accounts in the Public Record Office, London. it is the account … Continue reading

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Anna Comnena, the Alexiad and the First Crusade

Anna Comnena, the Alexiad and the First Crusade John France  Reading Medieval Studies: v.10 (1984) Abstract By her own account Anna Comnena began to write the Alexiad shortly after the death of her husband, Nicephoros Bryennios, in 1137. He had … Continue reading

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Charles the Bald and the small free farmers, 862-869

Charles the Bald and the small free farmers, 862-869 Carroll Gillmor Military aspects of Scandinavian society in a European perspective, AD 1-1300, May (1996) In response to the Viking invasions, Charles the Bald in 862 ordered the construction of a … Continue reading

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Oliver of Paderborn and his siege engine at Damietta

Oliver of Paderborn and his siege engine at Damietta Dominic Francis Nottingham Medieval Studies: v.37 (1993) In the hot weeks of August 1218, the soldiers of the German and Frisian contingents involved in the Fifth Crusade laboured hard to build an … Continue reading

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A Tale of Three Fortresses: Controversies Surrounding the Turkish Conquest of Smerderevo, of an Unnamed Fortress at the Junction of the Sava and Bosna, and of Bobovac

A Tale of Three Fortresses: Controversies Surrounding the Turkish Conquest of Smerderevo, of an Unnamed Fortress at the Junction of the Sava and Bosna, and of Bobovac John V.A. Fine Peace and War in Byzantium: Essays in Honor of George … Continue reading

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The Siege of Nottingham Castle in 1194

The Siege of Nottingham Castle in 1194 Trevor Foulds Transactions of the Thoroton Society of Nottinghamshire: v.95 (1991) The last years of King Henry II’s reign were troubled by fierce family squabbles between him and his sons, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey and … Continue reading

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Raiding and Warring in Monastic Ireland

Raiding and Warring in Monastic Ireland Liz FitzPatrick History Ireland: Vol.1 (1993) The historiography of Irish monasticism emphasises the glory and piety of this enlightened era, with its myriad of saints espousing high art and learning, and not only moulding this … Continue reading

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The Origin of the Second Crusade

The Origin of the Second Crusade George Ferzoco The Second Crusade and the Cistercians (1992) In seeking to establish the formal origin of the Second Crusade, one finds that in Vetralla on December 1,1145, Pope Eugenius III issued the crusading … Continue reading

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The Battle of Kosovo: Early Reports of Victory and Defeat

The Battle of Kosovo: Early Reports of Victory and Defeat Thomas A. Emmert Kosovo: Legacy of a Medieval Battle In popular interpretation it was defeat at the Battle of Kosovo which brought about the disintegration of the medieval Serbian empire. … Continue reading

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Towns and Defence in Later Medieval Germany

Towns and Defence in Later Medieval Germany David Eltis Nottingham Medieval Studies: v.33 (1989) The future pope Pius II was astonished to discover how militarised a society urban Germany was. As he observed in 1444, ‘not only every noble, but even … Continue reading

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Horses and Crossbows: Two Important Warfare Advantages of the Teutonic Order in Prussia

Horses and Crossbows: Two Important Warfare Advantages of the Teutonic Order in Prussia Sven Ekdahl The Military Orders, Volume 2: Welfare and Warfare (1998) The thirteenth-century conquest of Livonia and Prussia by the Order of the Swordbrothers and its successor, … Continue reading

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Pagan Peverel: An Anglo-Norman Crusader

Pagan Peverel: An Anglo-Norman Crusader Susan Edgington Crusade and Settlement: Papers read at the First Conference of the Society for the Study of the Crusades and the Latin East and presented to R.C. Smail (1985) Thousands of men participated in the … Continue reading

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Looking Back on the Second Crusade: Some Late Twelfth-Century English Perspectives

Looking Back on the Second Crusade: Some Late Twelfth-Century English Perspectives Peter W. Edbury The Second Crusade and the Cistercians It was as long ago as 1953 that Giles Constable published his seminal study, “The Second Crusade as seen by … Continue reading

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The Struggle over control of Kiev in 1235 and 1236

The Struggle over control of Kiev in 1235 and 1236 Martin Dimnik Canadian Slavonic Papers: v.21 (1979) Abstract The years 1235 and 1236 are important in the history or Kievan Rus’ because they witnessed a major reorientation in the status quo between … Continue reading

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Foundations of Venetian Naval Strategy from Pietro II Orseoto to the Battle of Zoncho, 1000-1500

 Foundations of Venetian Naval Strategy from Pietro II Orseoto to the Battle of Zoncho, 1000-1500 John E. Dotson Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies v.32 (2001) For Venetians during the Middle Ages the sea was life. The prosperity, the very existence, … Continue reading

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Bremen Piracy and Scottish Periphery: The North Sea World in the 1440s

Bremen Piracy and Scottish Periphery: The North Sea World in the 1440s David Ditchburn Ships, Guns and Bibles in the North Sea and the Baltic States, c.1350-c.1700 (2000) Bremen and Hamburg were the eyes through which medieval Saxony viewed the North … Continue reading

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Teenagers at War During the Middle Ages

Teenagers at War During the Middle Ages Kelly DeVries (Loyola University, Maryland) The Premodern Teenager: Youth in Society, 1150-1650 (2002) Early in 1212 a young man from western Germany, whose name has come down through history only as Nicholas, became … Continue reading

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The Use of Gunpowder Weaponry by and Against Joan of Arc During the Hundred Years War

The Use of Gunpowder Weaponry by and Against Joan of Arc During the Hundred Years War Kelly DeVries (Loyola University) War and Society: v.14 (1996) Abstract This article explores the possibility of a link between Joan of Arc and the … Continue reading

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Contemporary Views of Edward III’s failure at the Siege of Tournai

Contemporary Views of Edward III’s failure at the Siege of Tournai Kelly DeVries Nottingham Medieval Studies: v.39 (1995) The naval battle of Sluys, the first major conflict of the Hundred years War, was fought on 24 June 1340. By the … Continue reading

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God, leadership, Flemings and Archery: Contemporary Perspectives of Victory and Defeat at the Battle of Sluys 1340

God, leadership, Flemings and Archery: Contemporary Perspectives of Victory and Defeat at the Battle of Sluys 1340 Kelly DeVries American Neptune: v.55 (1995) Most historians of the Hundred Years War see the battle of Sluys, fought on June 24, 1340, … Continue reading

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Byzantine Heavy Artillery: The Helepolis

Byzantine Heavy Artillery: The Helepolis George T. Dennis Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies: v.39 (1998) Abstract The military manual (Strategikon) attributed to the emperor Maurice stipulated that the infantry contingents should be followed by a train of wagons, some of which … Continue reading

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The Byzantines at Battle

The Byzantines at Battle George T. Dennis Byzantium at War (1997) Although the Byzantines were constantly under attack or under threat of attack, they regarded warfare as the least desirable method of defending themselves. Leo VI prefaced his Tactical Constitutions … Continue reading

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A Reassessment of Some Medieval and Modern Perceptions of the Counter-Crusade

A Reassessment of Some Medieval and Modern Perceptions of the Counter-Crusade By Hadia Dajani-Shakeel The Jihad and its Times: Dedicated to Andrew Stefan Ehrenkreutz, edited by Hadia Dajani-Shakeel and Ronald A. Messier (1991) In an article entitled, “The Use by Muslim … Continue reading

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The Nationality of Men-at-Arms serving in English Armies in Normandy and the pays de conquete, 1415-1450: A Preliminary Survey

The Nationality of Men-at-Arms serving in English Armies in Normandy and the pays de conquete, 1415-1450: A Preliminary Survey Anne Curry (University of Reading) Reading Medieval Studies: 18 (1992) This article is based on a computer assisted study of muster … Continue reading

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Sex and the Soldier in Lancastrian Normandy, 1415 – 1450

Sex and the Soldier in Lancastrian Normandy, 1415 – 1450 Anne Curry (University of Reading) Reading Medieval Studies: v.14 (1988) When the US House Committee on Military Affairs discussed in 1941 the formulation of an Act to prohibit prostitution within … Continue reading

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The Frankish Tribute Payments to the Vikings and their Consequences

The Frankish Tribute Payments to the Vikings and their Consequences Simon Coupland Francia: v.26 n.1 (1999) “They ransom with tributes what they should defend with arms, and the kingdom of the Christians is laid waste.”2 “Ransom and tribute have now not … Continue reading

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Carolingian Arms and Armor in the Ninth Century

Carolingian Arms and Armor in the Ninth Century Simon Coupland Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies: v.21 (1990) This study seeks to ascertain the nature of the armament carried by the Carolingian army in the ninth century by examining the written, … Continue reading

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Warfare and Firearms in Fifteenth Century Morocco, 1400-1492

Warfare and Firearms in Fifteenth Century Morocco, 1400-1492 Weston F. Cook Jr. War and Society: v.11 (1993) Warfare in history is back in vogue again with special interest in the period 1350-1750. Much of this renewal arises from debate over … Continue reading

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Antiochus Strategos’ Account of the Sack of Jerusalem in AD 614

Antiochus Strategos’ Account of the Sack of Jerusalem in AD 614 English Historical Review: v.25 (1910) Abstract In the ninth volume of his Texts and Studies and Armenogruzinian Philology (Tekstwe i Razweskaniyah po Armyano-Gruzinskoe Philologi) Professor N. Marr, of the … Continue reading

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La musique militaire dans le fonstionnement des armees: l’example francais (v.1300-v.1550)

La musique militaire dans le fonstionnement des armees: l’example francais (v.1300-v.1550) Philippe Contamine From Crecy to Mohacs: Warfare in the Late Middle Ages (1997) Abstract Mon propos s’adresse à <<tous ceux qui prennent plaisir a lire et escorter les faits … Continue reading

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In Little Need of Divine Intervention: Takesaki Suenaga’s Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan

In Little Need of Divine Intervention: Takesaki Suenaga’s Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan Translated by Thomas D. Conlan This volume, published the East Asian Program at Cornell University, presents a fundamental revision of the thirteenth-century Mongol invasions of … Continue reading

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Black Camels and Blazing Bolts: The Bolt-Projecting Trebuchet in the Mamluk Army

Black Camels and Blazing Bolts: The Bolt-Projecting Trebuchet in the Mamluk Army By Paul E. Chevedden Mamluk Studies Review, Vol. 8:1 (2004) The Mamluks pioneered the use of gunpowder ordnance, but their principal piece of heavy artillery was “the crushing, … Continue reading

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Machiavelli’s Art of War: A Reconsideration

Machiavelli’s Art of War: A Reconsideration Marcia L. Colish Renaissance Quarterly: v.51 (1998) Among  Niccolo Machiavelli’s works, the Art of War (published 1521) has received comparatively little scholarly attention. Students of Renaissance literature, finding its theme otiose, content themselves with … Continue reading

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The Romagna campaign of 1494: a significant military encounter

The Romagna campaign of 1494: a significant military encounter Cecil H. Clough The French Descent into Renaissance Italy 1494-95: Antecedents and Effects (1995) In Baldassare Castiglione’s The Book of the Courtier (the second draft transcribed 1520-21, as in the final version), it … Continue reading

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Military Intelligence in Arabo-Byzantine Naval Warfare

Military Intelligence in Arabo-Byzantine Naval Warfare Vassilios, Christides To empolemo Byzantino – Byzantium at War:(Athens: Institute for Byzantine Studies, 1997) Abstract During the long Arab-Byzantine struggle for supremacy in the Mediterranean Sea from the Seventh to the fourteenth century an … Continue reading

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The Trebuchet

The Trebuchet Paul E. Chevedden, Les Eigenbrod, Vernard Foley and Werner Soedel Scientific American (July 1995) Abstract Centuries before the development of e›ective cannons, huge artillery pieces were demolishing castle walls with projectiles the weight of an upright piano. The … Continue reading

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Warrior Neighbours: Alfonso el Sabio and Crusader Valencia: an Archival Case Study in His International Relations

Warrior Neighbours: Alfonso el Sabio and Crusader Valencia: an Archival Case Study in His International Relations Viator: Medieval and Renaissance Studies v.21 (1990) Abstract The thirteenth century was a turning point in the physical evolution of western European countries. As … Continue reading

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Italy and the companies of adventure in the fourteenth century

Italy and the companies of adventure in the fourteenth century William Caferro The Historian: Vol.58 (1996) Abstract A multitude of villains of various nations associated in arms by the greed to appropriate the fruits of labor of innocent and unarmed … Continue reading

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Warfare and Society in the Carolingian Ostmark

Warfare and Society in the Carolingian Ostmark Charles R. Bowlus Austrian History Yearbook: v.14 (1978) Abstract 1. Introductory Remarks The relationship between military and social organization has long been a topic of major concern and debate among scholars specializing in … Continue reading

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Analysis of Crowland’s Section on the Usurpation of Richard III

Analysis of Crowland’s Section on the Usurpation of Richard III Edgar de Blieck Crowland Chronicle (2003) Abstract Lord Hastings, who seemed to serve these dukes in every way and to have deserved favour of them, bursting with joy over this … Continue reading

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The Courage of the Normans: A Contemporary Study of Battle Rhetoric

The Courage of the Normans: A Contemporary Study of Battle Rhetoric John R. Bliese Nottingham Medieval Studies: v.35 (1991) Abstract The Normans thought of themselves as a distinct ‘race’ or ‘nation’, a separate people different from other peoples. The belief … Continue reading

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A Norman-Italian Adventurer in the East: Richard of Salerno, 1097-1112

A Norman-Italian Adventurer in the East: Richard of Salerno, 1097-1112 George T. Beech Anglo-Norman Studies: v.15 (1993) Abstract The adventures, hardships, and disappointments awaiting the Europeans who went on the crusades have long been well known; indeed enough information has … Continue reading

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A Forgotten Crusade: Alfonso VII of Leon-Castile and the Campaign for Jaen (1148)

A Forgotten Crusade: Alfonso VII of Leon-Castile and the Campaign for Jaen (1148) Simon Barton Historical Research: v.73 (2000) Abstract Between 114-7 and 1149 the rulers of the realms of Christian Iberia conducted a series of victorious campaigns against the … Continue reading

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