On Saturday the Feast of St. Peter’s Chains (August 1st), there came a messenger from Sir Walter de Langestone, Bishop of Coventre and Lychfeld, and Treasurer to our Lord the King of England, bringing a letter from the said Bishop to the Mayor, and Alderman, and Barons, of London, in …
An H-Net review from H-Soz-u-Kult, in German, has just been posted: Christopher Allmand. The De Re Militari of Vegetius: The Reception, Transmission and Legacy of a Roman Text in the Middle Ages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011. 450 S. ISBN 978-1-107-00027-8. — reviewed by The original review is in German, but you can …
After the fall of Acre in 1291, Crusader forces had no remaining outposts in the Holy Land. The various Military Orders and other Crusaders began to make plans for a return almost immediately. In the following text, the Provincial Council of Canterbury met in February 1292, and came out with …
Dino Compagni was a prominent silk merchant and an active member of the Florentine government until 1301. His chronicle, which deals mostly with the internal turmoil of Florence, contains an account of a battle between Arezzo and Florence in 1289. Chapter VII – Preparations for war on both sides, 1289 …
A multi-book essay review by Sean McGlynn has appeared in the European Review of History/Revue europeenne d’histoire 20.1 (2013): 153-159. For those who have institutional access, you should be able to link to it here. The books reviewed en masse are Medieval Warfare 1000–1300, ed. John France (Ashgate 2010) Medieval Warfare 1300–1450, ed. Kelly DeVries …
The Mongol armies were thought to be unstoppable after they were able to overcome the defences of both Baghdad and Damascus. In 1260 Hulagu sent envoys to Saif ad-Din Qutuz in Cairo demanding his surrender; Quduz responded by killing the envoys and displaying their heads on the gates of the …
Translated by William Watson. From: Canadian/American Slavic Studies 35 (2001). 1. al-Kāmil fi ‘t-Ta’rīkh, viii, 412-415 “The Rūs Seizure of the Town of Barda’a” (332 A.H./943-944 A.D.) In this year (332) armed bands of Rūs went by sea (the Caspian) to the region of Adharbayjān, going from the sea up the Kūr …
The conquest of Baghdad was not the end of the Mongol invasion of the Middle East. The following section relates Hulagu’s invasion of modern-day Syria, where he captured the city of Aleppo and gained the surrender of Damascus. Hulagu Khan goes to Syria and conquers Aleppo and the realm of …
James I, King of Aragon (1208-76), king of Aragón and count of Barcelona (1213-76), was nicknamed the Conquerer because of his many wars and conquests, which included the capture of the Balearic Islands (1229-35) and Valencia (1238) form the Moors, and through his aid to Castile in their attempt recover …
The History of George Akropolites is one of main sources for the Byzantine world in the 13th century. George Akropolites (c.1217-1282) was an important civil servant of the Byzantine emperors of Nicaea, and was involved in many of the important political events between 1244 and his death in 1282. He is …