Pp.1 17.Introduction

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BATTLESOFTHEMEDIEVALWORLD

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First published in 2006 by Amber Books LtdBradley's Close74-77 White Lion StreetLondon NI 9PFUnited Kingdomwww.amberbooks.co.ukReprinted in 2007, 2008Copyright Amber Books Ltd 2006ISBN 978-1-905704-92-7All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means,electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, withoutprior permission in writing from the copyright holder.Project Editor: Michael SpillingDesign: Jerry WilliamsIllustrations: JB IllustrationsPicture Reseach: Terry ForshawAll map and linework illustrations Amber Books Ltd.Printed in United Arab Emirates


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CONTENTSINTRODUCTION Kelly De Vries 6HASTINGS, 1066 Kelly De Vries 18LEGNANO, 1176 Kelly De Vries 30HATTIN, 1187 lain Dickie 40ARSUF, 1191 Martin Dougherty 50CHATEAU GAILLARD, 1203-04 Martin Dougherty 60CONSTANTINOPLE, 1203-04 Phyllis G. Jestice 70BOUVINES, 1214 Kelly De Vries 80LEIGNITZ, 1241 lain Dickie 90PEIPUS, 1242 lain Dickie 98MALTA, 1283 Phyllis G. Jestice 108BANNOCKBURN, 1314 Martin Dougherty 116SLUYS, 1340 Phyllis G. Jestice 126

/CRECY, 1346 Martin Dougherty 136NAJERA, 1367 lain Dickie 148NICOPOLIS, 1396 Kelly DeVries 158TANNENBERG, 1410 Christer Jorgensen 168AGINCOURT, 1415 Martin Dougherty 176VITKOv, 1420 lain Dickie 188CONSTANTINOPLE, 1453 Christer Jorgensen 198BRUNKEBERG, 1471 Christer Jorgensen 208BIBLIOGRAPHY 216INDEX 218


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BATTLES OF THE MEDIEVAL WORLD

taken back to Scandinavia for enormousprofits. However, at the end of the tenthcentury, perhaps due to the drying-up of theIslamic silver market, Viking raids againstarted to take place, especially againstEngland. From 991 on, a succession ofScandinavian leaders attacked England, andin 1014 one of them, Svein F orkbeard,conquered it and ruled for a short time asking, being succeeded by his son, Cnut. AnEnglish king, Edward the Confessor,regained the throne in 1042, but it was notuntil later invasions in 1066 and 1085 wereturned back that the Viking threat toEurope finally ended.

In 911 the Carolingian King Charles theSimple gave the Viking chieftain Rollo theterritory surrounding the lower Seine Riveras a means of keeping further Viking attacksfrom entering his kingdom through thoselands. Within a relatively short time, theseVikings who settled in what had becomeknown as Normandy adopted the Frenchlanguage and religion, and they began tointermarry with the local peasantry andnobility. Soon the dukes of Normandy, as

Typical Viking warriors fought without body armour

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Rollo's descendants became known, weredoing homage to the French king andfighting with him in his battles, obligated itseems by a similar code to that of the king'sother nobles. But these new religious,linguistic and familial ties seem never tohave removed their military instincts northeir desire for further conquests. All of thiscame to a head in the second half of tlleeleventh century when two successfulNorman invasions took place. Th e first was

Conditions on a Viking longboat were cramped andcrowded. Nearly every man would operate an om; anskilled pilots would take turns at the steering oar andconning the ship from the bows.

undertaken by a Norman adventureRobert Guiscard, and his brothers againSicily and southern Italy. Th e second wcarried out by Duke William, known at thtime as 'the Bastard' because of hillegitimate birth and later as 'thConqueror' for his invasion of England.

It was this second invasion that is thmore famous, undoubtedly because Williathe Conqueror was able to fight a decisivbattle against the English king, at Hastingin 1066. There had of course been manbattles fought earlier in the Middle Ageand many had proven quite consequentialthe history that had followed: for examplat Adrianople in 378, at Chalons in 451, Poitiers in 732, at Edington in 878, andthe Dyle in 891. But sources for thebattles are scarce and almost always on

sided. This is certainly not the cawith the Battle of Hastings,

for many other battles thfollowed. What thHastings sources describis a battle of uncommolength, but one in whicWilliam's forc

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prevailed, killing Harold, his brothers, andmany of their soldiers. Although therewould still be some limited resistance, withthis victory William won England.THE CRUSADESWithin 50 years of Wllliam's victory atHastings a new struggle began, one thatwould characterize history for the rest ofthe Middle Ages: the Crusades. In themiddle of the eleventh century a militarilypowerful, united Muslim group, known asthe Seljuk Turks, came south into theMiddle East from an area that is todayAfghanistan. In 1071, at the Battle ofManzikert, the Seljuk Turks defeated a largeByzantine army and advanced throughoutAsia Minor until they stood on the veryedge of the Bosporus. In response to thisgrave setback the Byzantine Emperor,Alexius I Comnenus, made an appeal to theRoman pope, Urban I1, that he summon anarmy from the Western kingdoms to aid theByzantines in regaillll1g their lostterritories. Th e First Crusade was launched.

By the beginning of 1097 the army ofthe First Crusade, probably numberingbetween 50,000 and 80,000, had reachedConstantinople. Th e march across AsiaMinor brought numerous difficulties.Although it began with a victory over theTurks outside the walls of Nicaea, it soonbecame apparent that the Crusaders hadmade a gross misjudgement regarding thedistance of the march and their ability tolive off the land. There was almostperpetual famine and lack of water. Many ofthe more prominent nobles gave up andreturned home. But most kept on marching,and every time they encountered a Muslimforce they defeated it, which brought themgreat confidence in their endeavour despiteits hardships .

Finally, early in 1098 they reached thefirst large Muslim city, Antioch. Antiochwas a strongly built walled city with a largecitadel towering above it. But despite theCrusaders being weakened by starvation,they did not falter and, after gaining accessto the city by bribery, and buoyed byreligious visions and signs, they sallied outof the city and defeated a much larger andextremely surprised Muslim force. A yearlater, the Crusaders, by then possibly

numbering no more than 10,000-20,000,had reached their primary target, Jerusalem,which held out until 15 July 1099 when amajor assault of the walls using siege towersand catapults finally enabled the Christiansto capture it.SALADINAfter the fall of Jerusalem the Crusadersbegan to extend their control over thevarious lands and cities that they hadcaptured. Then in 1144 the Crusader cityand kingdom of Edessa fell to a new SeljukTurkish army, under the leadership of ayoung general named Nur ad-Din .Although Nur ad-Din would direct hisarmy around the remaining Crusaderkingdoms towards Egypt, the Crusaders hadno means of knowing that this was his plan,and they immediately put out a call for aSecond Crusade to travel to the Holy Land.But this turned out to be one of the worstcampaigns in military history. Arguing

11'" L l ' . . .VUV \ . . . . .1

Charlemagne and his knights leaving Aix-la-Chaon pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. This pidates from the twelfth century and so the details acontemporary to tbe artist.

against the plans of the resident Crusadon 24 June 1148 the leaders of the recearrived force in Jerusalem decidedadvance on Damascus, a town whose leopposed Nur ad-Din. Their attack fand the Second Crusade was over.

Nur ad-Din began to extend his pin the region. Damascus, weakened byCrusaders' attack, fell in 1154, and Efell in 1168. Nur ad-Din died in 1174he was succeeded by an even gregeneral, Saladin. Saladin was a remarkman. Fervent in jihad zeal, while at the stime patient and chivalrous, whensucceeded to Nur ad-Din's thronecontrolled all of the territory surrounthe Crusader kingdoms. His attack on t


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Th e Third Crusade failed to accomplishalmost everything it set out to do, althoughit included the best and brightest that thewarrior class of Europe could provide. ButJerusalem could no t be in Muslim hands,and before another decade had passed, anew pope, Innocent rn, had called a FourthCrusade. The Fourth Crusade was doomedfrom the start. Although again a large armyassembled, it never seemed to matter whattheir goals were, for they were destined noteven to reach the Holy Land. Trying toarrange passage by sea from the Venetians,they were first compelled by them to attacka Hungarian city, Zara, which despite beingChristian threatened the Adriatic tradingmonopolies of Venice.

Then they proceeded to Constantinoplewhere in both 1203 and 1204 they werecompelled to besiege that city because it hadrecently signed a trading pact with theGenoese, Italian rivals to the Venetians. Inthe end, the Crusaders took the Byzantinecapital by storm. Th e Latin Kingdom ofConstantinople, which they establishedthere, lasted until 1261 when an attack fromthe exiled Byzantine Emperor, Michael VIIIPalaeologus, acting in concert with theGenoese, restored tile capital city to the restof the Byzantine Empire.

Muslim cavalry from the invasion of Spain in theeighth century through to the Battle of Nicopolis in1396 were generally less heavily armoured than theirChristian countelparts and relied mo n on skirmishingthan the fltll fronta l charge.

Descendants of he ancientcataphracti, heavy Byzantinecavalrymen of c.ll 00 had tbe definingcharacte1-istic tbat they, and theil' horses,we n completely covered by armour.From contemporary artistic w01ks it canbe determined tbat these suits probablyconsisted of scale armour for the torso, acbain covering for the face, metal or bardenedleather bands for lower an n and leg protection,{f helmet and a small shield.

With the embarrassment of the FourthCrusade, all remaining Crusading fervourseems to have left European warriors. Th efew thirteenth-century Crusades werealmost all embarrassments to theirparticipants. That is not to say, however,

that those who strove to fight in the HLand during that century were not earin their endeavours, such as the Crusawho went with Andrew IT, the KingHungary, and Leopold VI, the DukeAustria, in 1217-19, or with EmpFrederick IT in 1227 or 1228, or with LIX in 1248-50 and 1254. However, tCrusades were almost always poplanned and even more poorly executedthe end of the thirteenth century


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Pp.1 17.Introduction

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