The Viking Mercenaries of the Byzantine Empire – The Varangian Guard
The Byzantines Hired Viking Mercenaries as Guards The relationship between the Byzantine Emperors and their Varangian Guard was a complex affair. The Byzantines were first…
Battles Of Military History: When Fighting Spirit Overcame The Odds
Battles can be lost for a hundred different reasons. Poor numbers, unwise strategy, inferior weapons, the list goes on. But just occasionally, a fighting force…
Battle of the Crater: Disastrous Battle for the Union in the American Civil War
Colonel Delavan Bates waited 27 years to receive his Medal of Honor. He was awarded the prestigious accolade in 1891 for “gallantry in action where…
Napoleon’s Return From Exile, Rallying an Army With His Words Alone
The ranks opened suddenly, and a figure stepped into view. He was taller than many of his enemies described him. Taller and leaner, the angles of…
The Battle of Arsuf – To Win the Day, One Man Must Defy His Own King
Beneath the relentless beating of the midday sun, under a seemingly endless rain of arrows, The Grand Master’s patience had all but run out. Garnier…
Four Men and One Woman – Five Mighty Leaders Whose Wars United Medieval England
In the late ninth century, England was not a united country. Viking raiders from Denmark controlled the north and east. Norwegian and Irish raids left…
The Battle of Morgarten – Against All The Odds, One Small Army Changed the Course of European Military History
The supremacy of heavy cavalry and mounted knights on the battlefield came to an end one cold November morning in 1315, and it began with…
The Four Kinds of Men Who Made Up Napoleon Bonaparte’s Great Conquering Army
The awesome power of the Napoleonic Empire was built on the blood and courage of millions of soldiers. Though Napoleon is remembered as an icon…
Groundbreaking Innovations of the Civil War
You often hear about how the Civil War brought submarines, iron-clad ships, or the telegraph into play, but that’s not exactly true. While they are…
The Janissaries – An Elite Ottoman Army Unit Who Became Public Enemy No1
The walls of Vienna trembled on 27th of September, 1529, as strange music echoed close by. The sound of hundreds of drums stopped the heartbeats…
Sappers and Siege engines – Ivan the Terrible Conquers The city of Kazan
The army had been in place under the city walls for weeks. Ivan the Fourth, Tsar of all the Russians, accompanied his force in the…
The Many Things the Movie ‘Braveheart’ Got Wrong… And One Thing It Got Right
Mel Gibson’s film Braveheart is both one of the most celebrated and one of the most reviled pieces of historical filmmaking ever. A heart-stirring and…