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Mar 4 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
Today 4 March is the anniversary of the Battle of the Sit River where the Mongol Hordes of Batu Khan defeated the Rus under Grand Prince Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal in 1238 during Mongol invasion of Rus! Yuri II died a heroic death on the battlefield facing the much larger enemy! Image
A year prior to that in November of 1237, the Grand Prince Yuri II treated the Mongol envoys who demanded his submission with disdain! Friar Julian of Hungary who wrote about this praised Yuri for that, writing down that "Glorious war is better than disgraceful peace"! ImageImage
Friar Julian described the Mongol messengers as "evil bloodsuckers" and writes how a peace with them would be no good because "these godless men with their deceitful peace will cause great dismay to our lands, as they have already done much evil here"! ImageImage
The Mongols invaded from several directions, sacking cities of Ryazan and Vladimir and defeating the army led by Yuri's sons. His wife died in fire during the siege of Vladimir. Finally, Yuri himself died on the battlefield in his one final attempt to stop the Mongol onslaught! ImageImage

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More from @LandsknechtPike

Aristocratic Fury Profile picture
Mar 5
Machiavelli is definitely an interesting character, but his opinions are accepted too uncritically in the modern age and he is in this regard somewhat overrated.

Machiavelli was definitely completely wrong with his negative opinions about the mercenaries and I'll explain why. ImageImage
Machiavelli hated the mercenaries and wanted to recruit some sort of citizen army for which he gave historic examples of Rome and Sparta, claiming that such army would be more loyal and just overall superior to mercenary armies of the time. Image
In his opinion mercenaries were not just disloyal but he even described them as cowardly, undisciplined, useless.

He was wrong on that alone as anyone who studied the legendary medieval mercenaries like Varangians or the Swiss can confirm.

But he was wrong on more than that. ImageImage
Read 25 tweets
Aristocratic Fury Profile picture
Mar 1
Women taking up arms to help defend their cities is nothing new in European history. During medieval and early modern sieges there were many recorded cases of women helping the defenders in combat. Some even became legendary folk heroines.

Here are some examples I encountered.
Women were actually behind one of the most spectacular medieval kills during the Siege of Toulouse in 1218 when the commander of the besiegers Simon de Montfort had his head blasted off by a stone shot from a mangonel operated by the "ladies and girls and women" of Toulouse.
Much of medieval warfare revolved around sieges. Many sieges were long, exhausting and brutal. Often no mercy would be shown to the defeated defenders and many cities were violently plundered and massacred. This often brought true fighting spirit out of people, including women.
Read 21 tweets
Aristocratic Fury Profile picture
Feb 17
The Hessians! The largest contingent of the German mercenaries who fought for the British in the American Revolutionary War! Long vilified by the Americans, the Hessians were highly disciplined and skilled elite troops. How did such a small German state provide so many soldiers?
The Hessians came from the small Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel in the Holy Roman Empire, a small Calvinist state that has suffered heavily in Thirty Years' War where it had fought on the Protestant side. War and extreme militarism would mark the Hessians since then.
During the 18th century it was common for many smaller German states to send their soldiers to foreign powers for money. This was a profitable source of income and as a result many of these states were highly militarized. Hesse-Kassel was the most militarized of them all!
Read 25 tweets
Aristocratic Fury Profile picture
Feb 12
Today 12 February is anniversary of the Battle of the Herrings during the Hundred Years' War in 1429. The French attacked the English supply convoy of around 300 wagons which carried weapons and food, including barrels of herring (type of fish)! The English beat the attackers!
The English had been besieging the city of Orléans and a supply convoy was headed from Paris led by Sir John Fastolf. He commanded a force of around 1000 archers and some light cavalry that escorted around 300 carts and wagons carried to the besiegers at Orléans!
Sir John Fastolf was a brave man and a very capable commander. An experienced veteran who was also a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter! He was entrusted to bring safely to Orléans the convoy which also carried salted fish, "herring and Lenten stuff"!
Read 9 tweets
Aristocratic Fury Profile picture
Feb 11
The main problem the Spanish Army of Flanders had leading up to Rocroi is that because of conflicts and distrust between different commanders, certain units of the army basically functioned as separate armies. It was hard to coordinate and impose a disciplined battle plan.
The tercio tactics were still brilliant defensively but lacked mobility and cooperation with the cavalry offensively. This was even more hindered by the fact that Spanish cavalry was of inferior quality and the lack of central command to coordinate units like at Rocroi.
For example at Rocroi the Spanish commander Melo gave Issembourg's Alsatian cavalry independent role where it was first used in a useless task of guarding the fortress of Rocroi then engaging in a successful yet underutilized counterattack on the French without proper back up.
Read 6 tweets
Aristocratic Fury Profile picture
Feb 10
The Battle of Rocroi, the legendary last stand of the tercios! On 19 May 1643 the Spanish Army of Flanders was decisively defeated by the French near the fortress of Rocroi. During this chaotic and bloody battle, the bravery of Spanish tercios achieved great fame even in defeat!
The battle of Rocroi happened in the context of the Franco-Spanish War which began in 1635 when Catholic France cynically entered the Thirty Years' War as an ally of the Protestant Dutch and Swedish to combat their Habsburg rivals.
Spain had already been in war with the Dutch for decades and this new war with France pushed Spain to the limits as it now had to protect the "Spanish road" through which troops were transported to Flanders. On top of that, revolts broke out in Portugal and Catalonia.
Read 25 tweets

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