Dark Ages

The rise of the Carolingians or the decline of the Merovingians?

Dark Ages Medieval 2 Min Read

Click and read the PDF by Emily Wilson The transference of power from the Merovingians to the Carolingians in France is one of the most confusing periods of early medieval history. In coming to a conclusion about whether this transference was due more the decline of the Merovingians, or more to the rise of the Carolingians, there are many considerations,…

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Dark Ages 28 Min Read

RAIDING AND EARLY MEDIEVAL WARFARE I

Danevirke: construction phases With all the evidence measured, examined and weighed, it is now time to put raiding into the narrative of early medieval warfare, where we now know it belongs. Many saints’ lives, chronicles and histories contain references to ‘battles’, but this is possibly because decisive set-piece actions were…

Dark Ages 28 Min Read

RAIDING AND EARLY MEDIEVAL WARFARE II

How a Dyke could Counter Raiding In 1959, Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Burne published a paper arguing that Offa’s Dyke was more likely to be a military structure than an agreed frontier as Fox had suggested. Burne suggested that the reason why there were English settlements west of the dyke was that…

British Dark Ages 28 Min Read

The Anglo-Saxons: Hostages, Oaths, Treaties and Treachery I

Bargains made and broken involving the exchange of hostages and the swearing of oaths were such an important part of Anglo-Saxon warfare that scarcely an event was recorded without such an accompaniment. It is the glue that held the model of the political world together. By looking at the nature…

British Dark Ages 27 Min Read

The Anglo-Saxons: Hostages, Oaths, Treaties and Treachery II

Battle of Stamford Bridge, 1066. The English army under King Harold Godwinson fights off an invading Norwegian force led by King Harald Hardrada. On Edmund’s death in 946, he was succeeded by another brother Eadred (946–56), who in the first year of his reign conquered Northumbria and was granted oaths…

Dark Ages Viking 13 Min Read

Dark Age Warfare

655 Battle of Winwaed: Penda of Mercia was defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria. Although the battle was said to be the most important between the early northern and southern divisions of the Anglo-Saxons in Britain, few details are available. Significantly, the battle marked the effective demise of Anglo-Saxon paganism. Battle…

Ancient Warfare Dark Ages 20 Min Read

Ostrogoths

Visigoths and Ostrogoths fight each other on the Catalaunian fields. Ostrogoths Siege of Rome AD 537 A barbarian people whose name means “Goths of the rising sun,” or “Goths glorified by the rising sun,” or simply “East Goths,” the Ostrogoths played an important role in the history of the later…

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RAIDING AND EARLY MEDIEVAL WARFARE I

Danevirke: construction phases With all the evidence measured, examined and weighed, it is now time…

Dark Age Warfare

655 Battle of Winwaed: Penda of Mercia was defeated by Oswiu of Northumbria. Although the…

Cataphracti

The Frankish caballarii or protoknights had been modeled directly on the klibanarioi of the Byzantine…

Dark Age Weaponry

Dark Age weaponry is the subject of several books currently in print. The subject has…