Ancient and Medieval Wars
Wars of the ancient and medieval world, from Marathon to the Crusades, the Mongol campaigns and the Hundred Years' War, followed through public records.
- Alexander at Gaugamela: What Set the Macedonian Army ApartWhy Alexander and the Persian king Darius III fought at Gaugamela in 331 BC, how the battle unfolded and what it left behind, what made the Macedonian army of long pikes and cavalry different, and why the ancient numbers disagree, traced through translations of the ancient sources and scholarly notes.
- The Battle of Agincourt: Arguments About Mud and NumbersOn 25 October 1415, Henry V's English army beat a French army on the road to Calais. This article follows the Battle of Agincourt through Monstrelet's chronicle, the Royal Armouries and research at the University of Southampton: longbows and plate armour, mud and crowded ground, numbers that run from 150,000 down to 12,000, prisoners, and Shakespeare.
- The Battle of Hastings, 1066: The Day England Changed HandsOn 14 October 1066, King Harold of England and Duke William of Normandy fought all day near Hastings. This article follows the battle through the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the Bayeux Museum and English Heritage, from the fight over the crown to the shield wall and the knights, the numbers that differ by source, the abbey and Domesday Book.
- The Battle of Marathon: The Day Athens Held Off PersiaHow Athenian and Plataean troops beat a Persian expedition on the plain of Marathon in 490 BC, traced through Herodotus, an online exhibition of the Greek Ministry of Culture and an open Yale lecture: why it happened, how it unfolded, what it left behind, and why the numbers and dates differ by source.
- The Battle of Red Cliffs: History Versus the Romance of the Three KingdomsFollow the winter 208 battle on the Yangzi, where the allied forces of Sun Quan and Liu Bei turned back Cao Cao, as the official history Sanguo zhi and Pei Songzhi's commentary tell it, then look at the ships and fire of the time and set the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms beside the records.
- Byzantium and Greek Fire: A Weapon That Stayed a SecretA look at the Byzantine 'liquid fire' used at sea, through old texts such as De Administrando Imperio and the Alexiad and through museum and scholarly accounts: where it was used, why it is called a 'secret weapon', and what is still unknown.
- Crécy and the Longbow: The Real Story Behind Bows Beating KnightsThe Battle of Crécy on 26 August 1346, told through Froissart's chronicle, the Royal Armouries and recent scholarship: how the longbow and crossbow differed, what else shaped the result, and the numbers and battlefield site that are still argued.
- Crusader Castles and Military Orders: Krak des Chevaliers and the TemplarsAfter Jerusalem fell in 1099, the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Order took vows like monks and fought like knights. This article follows how they began, what they left in castles such as Krak des Chevaliers and in their written rules, and how the three orders went separate ways after 1291, using translated sources and UNESCO records.
- The Fall of Constantinople, 1453: Great Guns Against Thousand-Year WallsIn the spring of 1453, an Ottoman army surrounded Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire. This article follows the walls and the harbor chain, the great guns, the ships dragged over a hill, the last assault on May 29 and its aftermath through three records: Sphrantzes and Barbaro inside the city, and Kritovoulos, a Greek official who served the Ottomans.
- The First Crusade: Why European Armies Marched to JerusalemFrom the speech at Clermont in 1095 to the fall of Jerusalem in 1099: why the First Crusade began, which road it took and what it left behind, traced through the chronicles of men who went on it, the record of the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene and the record of the Rhineland Jewish communities.
- The Fourth Crusade: The Expedition That Took Constantinople InsteadWhy a crusade that set out for Egypt ended up attacking the Christian city of Zara and then Constantinople, the Byzantine capital: the Venice contract and its debt, a Byzantine prince's promises, the assaults of 1203 and 1204, the sack and the Latin Empire, told by setting the participants' chronicles, a Byzantine historian and the pope's letters side by side.
- The Goguryeo-Sui Wars and Salsu: Reading the Million-Man RecordA walk through the wars between Goguryeo and the Sui dynasty from 598 to 614, and the battle at the Salsu River in 612, using entries from the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture. It looks at where figures like 1.13 million, 1.3 million, 305,000 and 2,700 come from, what they count, and how fortresses, siege engines and supply shaped the war.
- The Goguryeo-Tang War and Ansi FortressWhy the Goguryeo-Tang War of 644 to 668 began, how the Tang emperor Taizong's campaign of 645 stalled in front of Ansi Fortress, and how Goguryeo fell in the years after, traced through an annotated Samguk Sagi and Korean studies encyclopedia entries. Later stories, such as the name Yang Manchun, are set apart from the record.
- Goryeo Against the Mongols: The Move to Ganghwa and Thirty Years of WarA walk through the Mongol invasions of Goryeo, from the first attack in 1231 to the peace of 1259 and the end of the Sambyeolcho rising in 1273, using entries from the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture and records of the Korea Heritage Service. It covers why the court moved to Ganghwa Island and the divided views on that move, the fights at Guju, Cheoinseong and Chungju, the people sent into mountain fortresses and islands, and the Tripitaka woodblocks.
- The Hundred Years' War at a Glance: What Happened Over 116 YearsA one-page timeline of the war England and France fought from 1337 to 1453: the quarrel over a crown and land, three phases split by truces, longbows, crossbows and cannon, contract armies and a standing army, numbers that differ by source, and what the war left behind, drawn from British and French public institutions.
- Joan of Arc and the Siege of Orléans: The Turn of 1429In October 1428 an English army closed around Orléans, and on 8 May 1429 the siege was lifted. This article follows a France with two kings, an English commander wounded at the Tourelles, Joan of Arc from Domrémy, a siege of cannon and arrows, numbers that differ by source, the coronation at Reims, the trial at Rouen and the later retrial, using British and French public institutions and the trial record.
- Medieval Siege Warfare: The Long Contest of Trebuchets and WallsHow crew-pulled stone throwers became counterweight trebuchets and then gave way to gunpowder cannons, and how castle walls changed alongside them, traced through a journal article, national museums, and UNESCO records.
- The Mongol Conquests: An Empire Built on Horses and Relay StationsFrom Chinggis Khan's rise in 1206 to the end of Yuan rule in China in 1368: why the Mongol conquests began, how they unfolded, what horses, units of ten and relay stations did, the long war with Goryeo, and the two ways the conquests are remembered, traced through public records.
- The Mongol Invasions of Japan: What the Records Say About the "Kamikaze"In 1274 and 1281, Yuan and Goryeo forces crossed the sea to Kyushu twice, and twice they turned back. This article sets the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs and Fukuoka City, notes on the Mongol invasion scrolls, and work by American university historians side by side to see how the story of the "divine wind" looks in the records.
- The Peloponnesian War: Twenty-Seven Years of Athens Against SpartaAthens relied on the sea and money, Sparta on hoplites and land. This article follows their 27-year war from 431 BC through its causes, its course, the two sides' strengths, the plague, the Sicilian expedition and the surrender terms, using Thucydides and a Yale open course.
- The Punic Wars and Cannae: Hannibal's Encirclement and Rome's RecoveryA walk through the three Punic Wars between Rome and Carthage (264–146 BC): how a smaller army surrounded a larger one at Cannae, why the casualty figures differ between sources, and how a badly beaten Rome recovered, based on Polybius, Livy and university scholarship.
- The Roman Legion: The Organization and Roads Behind an EmpireThe Republican legion built from citizens sorted by property and age, the recruiting of Marius and the rewards of Augustus, and frontier walls and roads such as the Via Appia, traced through Polybius, Sallust, Augustus, Tacitus and UNESCO World Heritage records.
- Saladin and the Third Crusade: From Hattin to ArsufFollow Saladin's victory over the army of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at Hattin in 1187 and the Third Crusade (1189–1192) that the kings of Western Europe launched in reply, through the siege of Acre, the march to Arsuf and the truce of 1192, and see where crusader chronicles and Muslim accounts tell the same events differently.
- The Teutoburg Forest: Why Rome's Border Stopped at the RhineHow three Roman legions under Varus were destroyed in the forests of Germania in AD 9, how the four days unfolded, how Rome then settled on the Rhine as its frontier, and why the location at Kalkriese is still debated, based on Roman sources and UNESCO, museum and scholarly material.
- The Wars of the Roses: The Fight for England's CrownFrom a street fight at St Albans in 1455 to Bosworth in 1485 and Stoke in 1487: why the houses of Lancaster and York fought over the English crown, how the throne changed hands, why the Towton figures differ, and what the Bosworth battlefield survey dug up, based on The National Archives (UK) and university sources.