Ammianus Marcellinus was an army officer of Greek origin who left a history of the wars and conflicts that beset the Roman Empire in the latter half of the fourth century. Although he is more famous for his account of the Battle of Adrianople, where Emperor Valens was defeated and killed, …
This poem, written in French, is thought to be authored by Walter of Exeter, a Franciscan friar. The story details the siege of the Scottish castle of Carlaverock in July 1300 by Edward I. The first portion of the poem gives a long list of heraldic banners and shields carried …
Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur (1483-1530), born prince of Fergana in Transoxiana (modern Uzbekistan and Tajikistan), was scion of the dynasty of Tamerlane, which ruled throughout eastern Iran and Central Asia. By the age of twelve, Babur had become the ruler of Samarkand, but would then lose it amidst the various conflicts …
In the following letter, the Patriarch of Antioch describes events in the Crusader States that took place in 1164. To describe briefly, the King of Jersualem, Amalric I, joined forces with a Kurdish emir, Shirkuh, to besiege the Egyptian city of Bilbais. While Amalric was gone, the ruler of Damascus, …
Boncompagno da Signa (1168?-1240?) was an important Italian scholar who wrote several treatises and other works as he moved around between cities such as Ancona, Bologna and Venice. His account of the siege of Ancona, which he wrote around 1201, is his only work of history. Although he was not …
Ammianus Marcellinus was an army officer of Greek origin who left a history of the wars and conflicts that beset the Roman Empire in the latter half of the fourth century. Although he is more famous for his account of the Battle of Adrianople, where Emperor Valens was defeated and killed, …
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 …
Peter Purton A History of the Early Medieval Siege c.450-1220. Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2009. Pp. xxvii+505. ISBN 978-1-84383-448-9. As the date range in the title implies, this book is only half of the author’s history of medieval siege warfare. There is a second, equally robust, volume devoted to the …