Today is the anniversary Battle of Torvioll which happened on 29 June 1444 where the renowned athlete of Christ George Kastrioti "Skanderbeg", defeated the Mohammedan Ottoman army for Christendom! It was the first battle in his 25 year long fight against the Ottomans!
Skanderbeg had served the Ottomans before 1443 where he got his nickname but became disillusioned and switched side during the battle of Nish where the crusaders won against the Ottomans. He retreated from the battle with his 300 loyal Albanian horsemen to the city of Kroja.
At Kroja, Skanderbeg announced that he was a Christian again and took action against the Islamization that had been occurring around Kroja (or Kruja, Krujë in Albanian). Those who refused to accept Christianity, including the Ottoman officials he had seized, were impaled!
Skanderberg's actions started inspired people to revolt elsewhere and his goal was to unite all the Albanian chiefs into a league to resist the Turks. In march 1444 he formed the mighty League of Lezhë in the Venetian town of Alessio (Lezhë), consisting of Albanian aristocracy.
Skanderbeg received considerable support and was made the head of the league, and from then on signed himself as the Dominus Albaniae, the powerful leader of the rebellion of this remote land that would challenge the Ottomans!
Skanderbeg would embark on an illustrious journey of glorious battles and skirmishes against his powerful and numerically superior enemy, the Ottomans. The battle of Torvioll would be his first challenge, as the Ottomans responded to Skanderbeg's new might with a full invasion!
Torvioll showed the military genius of Skanderbeg as he planned several moves ahead. He only had 15000 men to face the 40000 strong Ottoman army, and planned an ambush, while positioning part of his army on the bottom of the hill to lure the Ottomans to attack it!
The Ottomans fell into the trap and attacked Skanderbeg's forces and would soon found themselves attacked from all sides by the units that Skanderbeg had hidden in the forests nearby. The defeat of Ottomans was devastating as they were overwhelmed from all sides and routed!
Many Ottomans were killed, supposedly around 10000-20000 dead. The sultan's trusted commander Ali Pasha himself was almost killed. He fled with his elite personal battalion to report of the humiliating loss to the Sultan!
Skanderbeg was very calm after the victory. Despite the success against all odds and the spoils his army took, he realized that this was only a start to a long war against the mighty Ottomans. Over the next decades he and his league would continue to fight and to triumph!
Skanderbeg's triumphs would give him much praise and respect all over Europe! Pope Calixtus III declared him an Athleta Christi, the Athlete of Christ, a very ancient title dedicated to Christian soldiers who were martyrs in ancient Rome, and that was also used by crusaders!
(My main source was John Fine, The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, 1994.)
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During 16th century sieges, mines and counter-mines were dug.
It was not uncommon that brutal subterranean fighting would take place in the mines!
It's incredible that such mines are still preserved today at St Andrews Castle in Scotland where a siege took place in 1546. 🧵
The well-preserved 16th century siege mines at St Andrews Castle reveal the hard work that was done by both the besiegers and the defenders to dig these tunnels.
During sieges, a lot depended on such subterranean battles.
Such tactics had already been in place for a long time in various medieval and early modern sieges all over Europe.
The besiegers dug tunnels trying to undermine enemy towers or sections of the wall, paving the way for the infantry to storm the city or fortification.
It's wild how Denmark had colonies in India for more than 200 years from 1620 to 1869.
Fort Dansborg, built in 1620, still stands today in the Bay of Bengal.
They had forts, factories, trading posts. But they eventually sold their possessions to British Empire.
The Danish presence in India was of little significance to the major European powers as they presented neither a military nor a mercantile threat so they let them carve out their own niche.
A map of Danish trade routes in the region.
The operation was initially conducted by Danish East India Company.
But the early years of the Danish adventure in India in 1620s were horrible. Almost two-thirds of all the trading vessels dispatched from Denmark were lost.
English explorer John Smith, famous for his involvement in establishing the Jamestown colony in America in 1607.
His coat of arms featured the heads of three Ottoman soldiers whom he beheaded in duels while serving as a mercenary in Transylvania during the Long Turkish War.
John Smith is known today for his role in managing the colony of Jamestown in Virginia, the first permanent English settlement in North America, and his connection with a Powhatan woman called Pocahontas.
But John Smith was also a powerful warrior and mercenary prior to that.
Born in England, he set off to sea in 1596 at age 16 after his father died to become a mercenary, fighting for the French against the Spanish.
He was looking for what he called "brave adventures".
After a truce was made in 1598, he joined a French pirate crew in Mediterranean.
Many Irishmen served the Habsburgs over centuries and distinguished themselves.
Over 100 Irishmen were field marshals, generals, or admirals in the Austrian Army!
Some of the illustrious Irish warriors serving the Habsburg emperors. 🧵
In 1853 there was an assassination attempt on emperor Franz Joseph in Vienna by a Hungarian nationalist.
But the emperor's life was saved by Count Maximilian Karl Lamoral O'Donnell who cut the assassin down with a sabre.
O'Donnell was a descendant of Irish nobility!
Maximilian ancestors -the powerful O'Donnell clan- left Ireland during the Flight of the Earls in 1607, when Irish earls and their followers left Ireland in the aftermath of their defeat against the English Crown in the Nine Years' War in 1603.
Many inns appeared in medieval Europe, offering foods, drinks and a place to socialize, as well as lodging for travelers, helping transportation logistics.
In this thread I will present some of the old medieval inns that survived to this day, from various European countries!🧵
The George Inn. Norton St Philip in Somerset, England 🏴.
Built in 14th century and completed in 15th century, this is a proper medieval inn.
Being an innkeeper was a respected social position. In medieval England, innkeepers were generally wealthy and held influence in towns!
Stiftskeller St. Peter. St Peter's Abbey in Salzburg, Austria 🇦🇹.
Often mentioned as the oldest inn in Central Europe, for it was first mentioned in 803 in a letter to Charlemagne.
It operated as part of the monastery to give food to pilgrims. Now a prestigious restaurant.
This is the Mercedes-Benz W125 Rekordwagen made in 1937.
I was always fascinated with this car.
It's crazy how in 1938 this car recorded a speed of 432.7 km/h (268.9 mph). This remained the fastest ever officially timed speed on a public road until broken in 2017.
The record was set by German driver Rudolf Caracciola who drove this car on the Reichs-Autobahn A5 between Frankfurt and Darmstadt on 28 January 1938.
This reflected the obsession with breaking records and showcasing industrial prowess of nations at the time.
The onlookers who observed the spectacle of a car racing at astonishing 432.7 km/h past them also noted the brutal boom of the side spewing exhaust stacks as the silver car hurtled past.
It must have been an incredible spectacle to witness!