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Aristocratic Fury Profile picture
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5 Aug, 4 tweets, 3 min read
In the middle ages, there existed special spears for hunting bears. Germans called it Bärenspieß ("bear spear"), the Russians rogatina. Imagine how much skill and bravery it took to challenge these wild beasts with spears! I guess it was also a more fair contest for bears!
@KwiBer What do you think? Should we ban hunting bears with ranged weapons? Bear population has to be controlled by hunters, but maybe make it a more even contest? I think this would also revitalize the youth, bring back danger...
@Peter_Nimitz Interesting stuff from an article I found on Russians hunting bears with rogatina spears. Are you familiar with this?
rbth.com/history/333665…
Does anyone remember the movie Edge with Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins? They are in Alaska and need to kill a bear with some sort of stake. Very entertaining movie!

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Aristocratic Fury Profile picture
6 Aug
People like to mention the harsh training of Spartans or Romans, but medieval knights trained just as hard. We know this from descriptions of the likes of Jean II Le Maingre "Boucicaut" (1366-1421), French knight and true warrior of chivalry. His training regime (thread):
Much of his training consisted of running, wielding battle-axes and hammers in full armor to build resistance and endurance. He would also train to leap fully armed onto his horse's back. He became so used to armor that he "could do a somersault fully armed but for his bascinet."
His biography states he trained himself that he could leap fully armed onto his courser, without putting his foot in a stirrup and that he could leap up from the ground onto the shoulders of a tall man mounted on a large horse, simply by grabbing the man's sleeve in one hand.
Read 10 tweets
Aristocratic Fury Profile picture
3 Aug
In terms of importance, these battles get a little bit overrated compared to other victories over Mohammedans. Toulouse 721 arguably more important than Tours. Norman conquest of Sicily. Navas de Tolosa 1212 crucial for Spain. Vienna 1529 just as important as 1683. Zenta 1699.
I'm talking here importance in terms of long term consequences for Europe, not the size and scope of the battles. Lepanto was a big battle but it only stopped Ottoman will to expand into Western Mediterranean, it did not crush their power as they rebuilt their fleet soon.
Tours 732 is a bit overrated compared to Toulouse in European memory because it was won by Carolingian Franks (important dynasty) and Toulouse by forgotten Odo of Aquitaine. Moorish sources considered Toulouse the bigger defeat. The latter also had effects on Spanish reconquest.
Read 4 tweets
Aristocratic Fury Profile picture
3 Aug
Many modern Catholics talk about the battle of Lepanto yet hardly ever mention John of Austria, the great heroic leader who won it. I wouldn't be surprised if they ignore John because they don't want you to know about old Catholic warrior ideals he embodied. My thoughts..(thread)
Modern Catholics push for domestication of men under rhetoric of "family values", and John of Austria was the opposite of that. Illegitimate child who had many illegitimate children himself, never married. But he was undoubtedly very religious and pious God-fearing Catholic man!
The idea that Catholic social values revolve around family life is very modern, in the middle ages and renaissance it was a religion of warrior men whose place in life was away from home, on dangerous tournaments, on the open seas, on battlefields, looking for danger and heroism!
Read 21 tweets
Aristocratic Fury Profile picture
22 Jul
Today 22 July is the anniversary of the final battle of the 1456 siege of Belgrade where John Hunyadi and his crusader Christian force defeated the Mohammedan Ottomans and stopped the Ottoman expansion into Europe for decades. One of the last real crusades in Europe!
Ottoman sultan Mehmed II the Conquerer conquered Constantinople in 1453. He was determined to continue his expansion north further into the Balkans, targeting Serbian Despotate and Kingdom of Hungary. Mehmed's ambitions signaled the beginning of a new phase of Ottoman expansion.
Kingdom of Hungary had fought with the Ottomans already, where one general in particular, John Hunyadi, made his name fighting the Turks all over the Balkans, achieving many notable victories and gaining fame all over Christendom. A veteran warrior, he was ready for another war.
Read 20 tweets
Aristocratic Fury Profile picture
21 Jul
Battle of the Sesia River in 1524 was another defeat of the French in the Italian War of 1521-26, defeated by Imperial forces. During this battle, they also lost one of the finest French knights Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard, who fell on the battlefield, shot by an arquebus.
Despite their crushing defeat at Bicocca in 1522, the French king Francis I managed to send another big army to Italy in late 1523 led by Guillaume Gouffier, Lord of Bonnivet. Francis gained money for this new army by seizing properties of Charles III, Duke of Bourbon.
Charles of Bourbon was angered by this and abandoned the French king Francis, switching sides and entering emperor Charles V's service instead. Meanwhile a huge French army under Bonnivet, numbering around 35000 men including Swiss mercenaries marched into Italy to conquer Milan.
Read 13 tweets
Aristocratic Fury Profile picture
21 Jul
Battle of Bicocca was another crucial and bloody battle in the Italian Wars, fought on 27 April 1522. Imperial-Spanish forces crushed the French and their Swiss mercenaries, in a battle that marked yet another important step in the evolution of the pike and shot warfare. Image
The Italian wars began in 1494 and in the next three decades they were fought with only brief interruptions. The War of the League of Cambrai (1508-1516) was particularly bloody, with practically all the European superpowers at the time joining coalitions against each other. Image
In 1516 peace was made that ended the War of the League of Cambrai and pretty much returned things to the 1508 status quo ante bellum. However like it was common in the Italian Wars, peace would not last long as tensions among the European superpowers increased again soon. Image
Read 24 tweets

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