Aristocratic Fury
"We regarded war as entertainment, but it is a very real profession that wins and loses empires."
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Everyone is fascinated by ancient Roman hypocausts but the medievals still don't credit for developing a superior hypocaust system by using granite stones which could store heat an...
16-17th centuries were more "medieval" than the actual Middle Ages, in terms of negative associations people have with the term medieval. Constant wars, witch hunts, plagues, inqu...
The culture of Marsh Arabs is very interesting. These are people of mysterious origin who inhabit the marshes in southern Iraq and live in traditional reed houses. There used to b...
16th century Anglo-Scottish border was plagued with terrible violence. Bands of border reivers pillaged the land and engaged in feuds with other reiving clans. No one was safe fr...
The Siege of Candia was one of the longest sieges in history. It lasted for 21 years from 1648 to 1669. The Ottomans besieged and ultimately conquered this Venetian stronghold on...
The forgotten leper warriors of the crusades. Knights who suffered from leprosy joined the Order of Saint Lazarus, which was established to take care of lepers, and continue to fi...
Knights Hospitaller were an international military order. The knights came from all over Europe. They were united by common cause and beliefs but spoke different languages which p...
The Romans had quite a bad reputation in the Middle Ages. Dante Alighieri wrote that they spoke the ugliest dialect in Italy and that "this should come as no surprise, for they al...
During Francis Drake's 1585-86 expedition to attack Spanish ports in the New World, his men began suffering from diseases. In response Drake invented a cocktail drink to restore t...
Psychological warfare played a very important part in sieges. In many cases it was all about breaking the enemy's will to fight. Here are three examples of defenders using psycho...
The shield of Conrad of Thuringia, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order from 1239-40! He was a very violent man who burned the city of Fritzlar in 1232 and had the population ma...
On this day 21 May in 996 Otto III was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome. He was only 16 years old and was crowned by his cousin Pope Gregory V whom he himself installed as the p...