Focus on Arms and Armor: Medieval Military Crossbow Archery

Focus on Arms and Armor: Medieval Military Crossbow Archery Ranged warfare in Western Civilization was influenced by a form of mechanical archery using crossbows beginning in the classical era and continuing through the medieval period and into the early modern era. First invented in China and dating back to the Zhou Dynasty’s (1046-256 BCE) Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, the military crossbow saw wide usage in Chinese armies as a potent infantry and chariot-borne missile weapon.…

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Focus on Tactics : Byzantium versus Persia at the Battle of Dara, 530 CE 

In 530 CE Byzantium won a major strategic victory over the Sassanian Persians at the battle of Dara ((present-day Mardin Province, Republic of Türkiye). The battle was a major victory for the Byzantine Empire (337-1453 CE) under the command of General Belisarius, showcasing his military genius and boosting the morale of the Byzantine forces along the Eastern Frontier. Our understanding of the engagement comes from the Greek chronicler Procopius of Caesarea (c.500-565), who served as a Byzantine…

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Focus on Military Organization: Early Medieval Byzantine Army Structures (c. 500-c.1000 CE)

  Focus on Military Organization: Early Medieval Byzantine Army Structures (c. 500-c.1000 CE) The high point of Byzantine power and territorial expansion took place in the sixth century during the reign of Emperor Justinian (r.527-565 CE), often referred to as “the Great.”  Described by his chroniclers as “the emperor who never sleeps,” Justinian was a vigorous, intelligent and ambitious ruler who was determined to reestablish the Roman Empire throughout the Mediterranean basin, ordering…

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Focus on Fortification: Crusader Castles in the Levant

Castle construction was an important force multiplier in medieval warfare, where a small well-provisioned garrison behind well-constructed walls could hold out against a numerically larger siege force for weeks or even months until a relieving army arrived or the siege broke due to aggravating factors like battlefield attrition, disease, or the end of annual feudal obligations or campaigning contracts. During Europe’s Age of Crusades in the Latin East (1099-1291 CE) urban fortifications,…

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Focus on the Literature of War: “Byzantine Military Manuals”

Byzantine military manuals, known in medieval Greek as Strategika or Taktika, date back to the early medieval era, however, they build upon lessons learned in the military arts and sciences of the classical world dating back to the Hellenic Greece (c.500-338 BCE) when Western warfare was going through great changes.  Greek and then Roman military theorists continued to build on these early military principles, with Byzantine authors inheriting their work when the Eastern Roman Empire…

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Focus on Tactics: “The One-Eyed General and the Development of Wagenburg Tactics”  

During the Hussite Crusades (1420-1434) the brilliant Czech general Jan Žižka (“the One-Eyed”, 1360-1424) introduced an innovative tactic to late medieval warfare, the Wagenburg, that witnessed horse-drawn war wagons moving on campaign in columns, then quickly forming up in a defensive wagon laager to create a mobile fortress to protect their troops. Wagenburg tactics showcased tried-and-true and new technologies side-by-side in a combined-arms synthesis, with Hussite soldiers using the…

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Focus on Cavalry: “’Rise of the Magnus Equus: Medieval Horse Breeding and Procurement”

The most identifiable symbol of warfare in the European Middle Ages (c.500-c.1500 CE) is that of the mounted knight, and the foundation of that medieval heavy cavalry was the warhorse itself. The horse had to be a warrior in its own right, capable of entering the chaos of battle at a charge without panicking at the sounds and smells of warfare.  It needed to be strong enough to carry a fully armored man into the fray and fierce enough to take an aggressive part in the battle. Such horses were…

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Focus on Espionage: “The Rise and Fall of the Nizari Ismaili Assassins” 

The infamous Nizari Ismaili Assassins were a Shia religious sect created by a missionary named Hassan as-Sabbah (c.1034-1134) in the late eleventh century. With religious origins dating to the time of the prophet Muhammad (c.570-632), the sect of Ismailism grew in influence during the Fatimid Caliphate in Egypt (909-1171), with the Nizari sect eventually splitting off in the late eleventh century and as-Sabbah setting up a training facility at Alamut Castle in the heart of the rugged Alborz…

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Focus on Cavalry: “Masters of Mounted Warfare: The Seljuk Turks”

Before the Mongols struck out across most of Asia as the premier mounted warriors of their day, the Seljuk Turks carved an impressive empire stretching from their homeland in Central Asia, across Persia and Mesopotamia to the Levant and finally Anatolia (modern day Türkiye). The Seljuk Turks were a nomadic people from Central Asia who had converted to Sunni Islam. After defeating their Turkish rivals Ghaznavids for control of Khorasan at the battle of Dandanaqan in 1040, the Seljuks moved…

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Focus on the “Art” of War: “The Bayeux Tapestry as Military Art and Primary Source”

Located today at the Musée de la Tapisserie de Bayeux in Normandy, France, the Bayeux Tapestry was commissioned in 1077 by Bishop Odo of Bayeux to commemorate William of Normandy’s victory at the battle of Hastings in 1066, an event usually referred to as the Norman Conquest of England. The entire year of 1066 is illustrated in fifty panels or scenes and is a propaganda piece portraying William’s rightful claim to the throne of England, Harold Godwinson as an oath-breaker and usurper, and the…

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