Category Pre-Modern Warfare
[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the author and/or publisher. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own] I expected this book to be somewhat similar to the… Continue Reading →
Many people have heard of Hadrian’s Wall in the UK and same have even heard of the Antonine Wall a little farther north. What many people have never heard of or if they have heard of do not know where… Continue Reading →
Most everybody today has heard some variation on the phrase “Kill them all, let God sort them out’” This phrase gained modern fame during the Vietnam War but it is actually a modern updating of a quote that is over… Continue Reading →
Knights of Jerusalem is not the book you would expect to read about one of the Crusading orders, it is not a list and description of battles the order fought, with blow by blow accounts of the most famous of… Continue Reading →
601 years ago today on 25 October 1415, the original band of brothers met the French army on the field of battle near Agincourt on northern France and gave them such a drubbing that the cheers of that victory have… Continue Reading →
[FULL DISCLOSURE: I received my copy of this book free from the author and/or publisher. I was not paid for this review and the opinion expressed is purely my own] October, 2015 was the 650th anniversary of the French defeat… Continue Reading →
Medieval politics make modern politics look like child’s play. If any act from medieval times highlights this it is the Hattin Campaign of 1187 in which the entire military might of the Christian Kingdom of Jerusalem was destroyed because the… Continue Reading →
The Medieval Fortress: Castles, Forts, And Walled Cities Of The Middle Ages is a good study of the art and methods of fortifications and castles built in Eastern and Western Europe during the Middle Ages from the fall of Rome to… Continue Reading →
Modern historians tend to overlook economic factors when investigating historical motivations. The first Northern Crusade (The Wendish Crusade), as commonly narrated, was a branch of the Second Crusade, undertaken on behalf of St. Bernard de Clairvaux’s furious pulpit outreach to… Continue Reading →
Castles and Fortified Cities of Medieval Europe: An Illustrated History is a very interesting book.  I picked it up because we had a three hour bus ride to get to my son’s football game and my wife was using my Kindle.  I am certainly glad… Continue Reading →
Who would not want to build their own Trebuchet and rain down destruction on various targets in their backyard? I know I did. Luckily, I got a Trebuchet kit from my wife for Christmas. The below video is the result of that and one… Continue Reading →
Anatomy of the Castle by John Gibson is perhaps the best book describing Castles aimed at the general reader that I have ever read.  The author manages to make the somewhat technical and dry language of describing castles and their construction lovely and entertaining. It… Continue Reading →
Little known facts: Today in 1282, the English completed the extinction of the Welsh Royal dynasty when they captured and killed  Llywelyn ap Gruffydd, the last independent Prince of Wales.
I have been pondering why modern Westernized man has such a problem successfully waging war for a few days and had a breakthrough recently. Before we can really get to that, a few brief thoughts are in order. First, what… Continue Reading →