Between 550–600 CE, the Angle and Saxon kingdoms were established on the east and south coasts of England. The Romano-British territories had disappeared or splintered, due to internal fighting and inheritance laws that divided land between all surviving sons. The Germanic people (Angles, Saxons and Jutes) first arrived as mercenaries... More
The English Civil War (1642–46) in turn created a Scottish civil war, in which Royalists, under the 1st Marquis of Montrose, fought the Covenanters. The Covenanters were Scottish Presbyterians, who controlled Parliament and allied themselves with the anti-Royalist English Parliament. After the king’s capture in 1646 he made a secret... More
In the lead-up to the American Revolution of 1776, British troop dispositions were overwhelmingly directed towards an external threat. By the Treaty of Paris in 1763, Britain had gained possession of the Province of Québec and the land east of the Mississippi from France, plus Florida from Spain. It was... More
The British Raj came into being as an aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Britain’s Indian possessions grew out of the trading arrangements of the English East India Company founded in 1600, which became the British East India Company after 1707. The company, with its network of trading stations... More
The motives for the invasion of Ireland by Edward Bruce, younger brother of Robert, the king of the Scots, are tangled. He was either opening up a second front in elder brother Robert’s war with England or attempting to seize his own kingdom. The Scots army disembarked at Larne in... More
The Indians coined the term ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ for the African-American frontier regiments, either for their curls’ resemblance to tousled bison head-fur, or their predilection for buffalo-hide overcoats. Effectively banished from peacetime service east of the Mississippi, they were not immune from bigotry in the West. Custer refused to command black... More
Andrea di Petro della Gondola was born in Padua in 1508. At age 16 he became an apprentice sculptor in Padua, where he specialized in monuments and was enrolled in the guild of the bricklayers and stonemasons. In 1530 he came to the attention of Count Gian Giorgio Trissino, who... More
Having encountered strong defences along much of the Dnieper’s western bank, the relative lack of German troops in the Bukrin loop provided the perfect place for the Soviets to attempt to establish a crossing over which their forces could advance. On 24-25 September a large airborne assault attempted to leapfrog... More
The Fourth Crusade (1202–04) instigated by Pope Innocent III recruited a considerable force of knights, mainly from France and Italy, who were to sail from Venice to Jerusalem. Due to financial difficulties they instead recaptured Hungarian Zara (Zadar) in Croatia for the Venetians and then sailed on to Consantinople, where... More
The Byzantine Empire, based on the territory of the former Eastern Roman Empire, adopted Christianity under its first Emperor Constantine I and reached its greatest territorial extent under Justinian I in the mid 6th century. In 681 CE Bulgar tribes moving into the northeastern Balkans, defeated the Byzantine army, led... More
Greatly fragmented and weakened by the Fourth Crusade of 1204 and its aftermath, the Byzantine Empire shrank considerably during the ensuing century. The Palaiologos dynasty, which reasserted Greek Orthodox control of Constantinople in 1261, concentrated on rebuilding the city and, to assuage the Latins, swore allegiance to Rome, but paid... More
In the 8th century Eastern Christianity, reeling from the Islamic assault and in a crisis of self-confidence, experienced the convulsion known as iconoclasm, which was officially promulgated by Emperor Leo III (717–41). Icons are works of religious art, commonly depicting Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints and angels, which... More