Crusades
The Princes on the March
Hugh’s army was one of the first of the better-organized princely forces to depart, probably leaving France sometime near Urban II’s proposed date of August 15, 1096. Eschewing the roads through Hungary, the army aimed instead for Bari in southeastern Italy, intending to sail from there to Durazzo (DurrĂ«s, in modern Albania). As Hugh’s followers set about putting their moral…
Most Recent
Toulouse – Sieges
An old Roman fort, the Château de Narbonne, was the citadel of Toulouse, but the demolitions of 1215–16 removed it from the circuit of the walls, and it served as headquarters of the Albigensian Crusade in the great siege of 1217–18. Toulouse, in southern France, was another great city which…
Granada 1491
June–December 1491 Forces Engaged Castillian: Unknown. Commander: King Ferdinand. Moorish: Unknown. Commander: King Muhammed XI (Abu Abdullah, Boabdil). Importance Ferdinand’s successful siege brought to an end Moorish control over Spain, ending a conflict that had lasted almost 700 years. Historical Setting The Iberian Peninsula has long been the site of…
The Legacy Of The Crusades In The Middle East
ISIL militants in Iraq YPG Kurdish fighters in the village of Al Jalabiyya, located in the northern Syrian province of Al Raqqa. It is commonly said that memories in the Middle East are long, that although the crusades may have been forgotten in the West, they are still vividly remembered…
War In The Fourteenth Century
battle of Courtrai The fourteenth century opened with a series of wars of succession and of territorial aggrandizement. In Scandinavia, the worst situation was in Sweden, where King Birger II (1290–1318) executed two princeling rivals to his throne, thus propelling the kingdom into a civil war that lasted almost throughout…
THE FOURTH CRUSADEÂ DETOUR
Crusaders arriving at the land and sea walls of Constantinople, from a Venetian manuscript (ca. 1330) if La Conquete de Constantinople by Geoffrey of Villehardouin, who took part in the Fourth Crusade. When the Venetian force’s entry into the city was pushed back by the imperial bodyguard, they set fire…
VENICE AND THEÂ PAPACY
A Venetian fleet. They are the only surviving artistic representations of the Fourth Crusade from the Middle Ages. The crusade is depicted in the mosaics from a decidedly Venetian point of view closely following the story told by the Venetian Martino da Canal in the 13th century. The excommunication of…