Meeting of friends in a Breton Forest. Illustrations from a prose version of the Romance of Tristan, illustrated by the Master of Bedford, from the library of the Duc de Berry,...
Naval battle off La Rochelle, 1372; With renewal of war in 1369, French took initiative; during early 1370's, much of Aquitaine recovered, naval raids were mounted on south of England, and threat of invasion was very...
1)Battle of Najera, 1367, and 2)Caputre of Charles of Blois, 1347 Prince Edward of England's famous victory here enabled him to restore Peter the Cruel to Castilean throne; the incident underscores involvement of French...
The hauberk, made entirely of steel links, was an essential part of a knight's equipment during the Hundred Years War. Since each link had to be attached by hand, a small army of craftsmen such as this one must have been needed to meet the total...
. After a solemn coronation, ending with ritual unction, the King, followed by 12 peers, mounted a tribune, especially erected inside the cathedral, and took his seat on the throne. He then received the kiss of his peers, beginning with Archbishop...
Siege of Vienna, 1683
Threat of Europe by Turkish expansion ended with the raising of the second Siege of Vienna in 1683, seen here in somewhat idealized form in a painting by Frans Geffels. Behind its ring of bastions Vienna resists a...
Ottoman Conquests
Conquest was a necessity for Ottoman sultans, to keep their originally nomadic subjects supplied with loot and land. When directed against the West this had the added merit of being a Holy War. In 1526 an army of Janissaries...
Prince Rupert of the Rhine
Rupert, son of Frederick of Bohemia and Charles I's nephew, had learnt cavalry tactics and the more brutal methods of continental warfare in the 30 Years War. He became the king's General of Horse and fought at...
30 Years War
A detail from painting by Philips Wouwerman; he spares us horrors which Callot records with such terrible realism, but he does convey some sense of the frenzy of a conflict that had degenerated into a weary and hopeless slaughter. ...
Victory at Lepanto, 1571
The victory at Lepanto, 1571, was the most spectacular Christian success in the long struggle with the Turks for supremacy at sea. In this schematic drawing each fleet is shown led by its flagship--Christians on the left...
The Twelve Years' Truce/Count-Duke of Olivares
Count-Duke of Olivares, favorite and first minister of Ph IV, virtually ruled Spain for 22 years. He was a better statesman than Lerma, but he involved the country in fruitless struggles abroad, in...
12 Years' Truce signed with the United Province in 1609 came to an end in 1621. War began again, this time as part of the larger European struggle. Ambrosio de Spinola, a rich Genoese who had risen to fame in 1604 with capture of Ostend, laid...
In S. Francesco, Revaenna, the Tomb of Ostasio da Polenta, lord of that city .between 1390 and his death in 1396, showing him in the pious habit of a Franciscan friar.
The first of the Sforzas: Muzio Attendolo took the name of Sforz (""force"") when he became a mercenary captain. From Vita di Muzio Attendolo Sforza by Antonio Minuti, 1491. This miniature by a follower of Giampietrino Birago.
Urs Graf, Two Mercenaries, Whore, and Death
From Moxey’s discussion of “Mercenary Warriors and the ‘Rod of God’,” pp. 72-83, in which he begins by examining Erhard Schon, A Column of Mercenaries, then develops his interpretation...
