Today in AD 1415,

Henry V won possibly the greatest victory ever achieved by the men of England at…

• THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT •

[Thread]🧵 ‘𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐝𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟
𝐀𝐬 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝’

By 1410 the civil war raging in France caused by the infirmity of the mad King Charles led to both sides seeking help from England.

In AD 1413 Henry V was crowned king upon the death of his father and reasserted the claim to the throne of France that stemmed from his ‘most famed of famous ancestors’ Edward III.

It has been alleged that Alexios Komnenos betrayed the Crusaders and sat back while they fought his war for him.

But is that true?

To answer that we must look both at what he did and didn’t do during the First Crusade.

[Thread]🧵 In AD 1095, the Turks had overrun most of Anatolia, Nicea had been lost, Anatolia was in chaos, and Turkic pirates were a serious threat in the Aegean.

Alexios Komnenos, having spent so many years fighting to bring stability back to the empire, had suffered a coup attempt in light of the situation in Anatolia.

He wrote to Pope Urban to request help and the Pope gave his famous speech at Clermont. This initiated what we call the First Crusade.

When the main crusade contingents arrived, most of the leaders swore an oath to Alexios to return imperial territory they captured. The details of this oath are not known and it is likely that neither sides fully understood each other’s approach to such an oath.

Today in AD 1081,

The impetuous young emperor Alexios Komennos rushed to battle the Normans invading the Balkans and suffered a terrible defeat at the hands of Robert Guiscard.

At the Battle of Dyrrhachion!

[Thread]🧵 By the mid-late 11th century the Roman Empire faltered from its medieval peak and was beset on all sides by new threats; Normans in Italy, Pechenegs and Rus on the Balkans, and Seljuk Turks in the east.

The Normans had completed their conquest of southern Italy and had invaded the Balkans in May 1081.

Just a month before, the young General Alexios Komnenos had seized power from his ineffectual predecessor by marching on Constantinople.

After the Norman Conquest, thousands of dispossessed Anglo-Saxons fled for distant shores.

From Ireland to Constantinople and beyond, the English refugees became monarchs, mercenaries and adventurers.

𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐨-𝐒𝐚𝐱𝐨𝐧 𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐚!

[Thread]🧵 • 𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐍 •

In AD 1066 King Edward of England died childless.

The Witan, as was tradition in England, elected Harold Godwinson as King over the young Edgar Ætheling, the cousin of the late King Edward.

But the William of Normandy claimed that Edward promised him the crown and even that Harold Godwinson had sworn him allegiance.

At the same time Harald Hardrada, now king of Norway, also claimed the throne.

Harold Godwinson marched north to destroy the army of Harald before marching back down to Hastings were they were slaughtered at the battle at Hastings in October 1066. Harold, his brothers, and much of the English aristocracy died.

Today in AD 1066:

Harold Godwinson and the noblest men of England put up a valiant last stand against the invading army of William the Conquerer!

The Battle of Hastings heralded the end of Anglo-Saxon England, & the start of the diabolical onslaught of the Normans!

[Thread]🧵 In 1066, King Edward the Confessor was close to death and had not arranged for the succession.

He was so ill that he could not even attend the consecration of his most important building project, Westminster Abbey

The First Crusade was one of the most momentous events in all of history, but also one of the most controversial.

In 1096 Christian armies travelled to the Holy Land to wage war.

But was the First Crusade justified?

[Thread]🧵 • Setting the Scene •

In order to understand the First Crusade we must first understand the world in which the tensions between east and west were created.

In the early 7th century, Muslim armies from Arabia began attacking the Levantine territories of the east Roman Empire. This is known today as the Islamic Conquests.

Throughout the 7th century, the Muslim armies conquered the Levant, Egypt and North Africa, and then into Gothic Spain in the early 8th century.

These maps show the approximate position of the Roman Empire in AD 600 and the result of the Islamic Conquest. (The empire also suffered some territorial losses to other peoples like the Goths and Slavs).

Today in 331 BC:

Alexander the Great defeated Darius III for the second and final time at the Battle of Gaugamela.

The victory resulted in the complete conquest of the entire Achaemenid Empire!

[Thread]🧵 The doom of the great Achaemenid empire was fated by the rise of the mighty Philip of Macedon, who campaigned tirelessly to establish hegemony over the Greek cities and created one of the greatest armies the world has ever seen in the process.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐔𝐍𝐃𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒’ 𝐖𝐀𝐑

The epic struggle between England and France which saw valiant warriors like the Black Prince, Henry V, and Jean the Good fighting in some of the most momentous battles of all time!

[Timeline Thread]🧵 • 1326:

- Charles IV of France formally renews Auld Alliance between France and Scotland.

• 1327:

- Death of Edward II of England; accession of Edward III with power held by Roger Mortimer and Queen Isabella (Edward’s mother)

• 1328:

- Death of Charles IV of France; accession of Philippe VI. Charles’ nearest male relative was Edward III of England, his nephew.

Edward III’s claim is asserted by his mother and Mortimer but no action was taken. The claim was considered to have lapsed when Edward paid homage for his French lands.

- England and Scotland sign the treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton (the ‘Shameful Peace’) against the wishes of Edward III.

• 1329:

- Death of Robert I of Scotland (Robert Bruce); accession of David II

• 1330:

- Edward III assumes full control after a coup at Nottingham castle.

• 1332:

- Edward III intervenes in Scotland on behalf of Edward Balliol and the disinherited Scottish nobles.

- Battle of Dupplin Moor (12 August) saw the success of dismounted men-at-arms and longbowmen. 1500 Englishmen defeated a Scottish army estimated to be around 15,000 strong.

Today AD 1066,

The Viking Age ended at the point of Harold Godwinson’s sword when he marched his army of Englishmen 20 miles a day for nine days to annihilate the invasion force of Harald Hardrada.

At the Battle of Stamford Bridge!

[Thread]🧵 Upon the death of King Edward, the Confessor, several opportunistic rulers turned their avaricious gaze upon England, disregarding the fact that it had chosen its own king: Harold Godwinson.

A great warrior, Harold had already invaded Wales & killed king Gruffydd ap Llywelyn.

One such claimant was Harald Hardrada, a man whose storied life is the stuff of legends.

Harald was a great adventurer & warrior who journeyed as far as Mesopotamia while in the service of the Roman Empire, and rising to the rank as Prōtospatharios after fighting in Sicily.

It is said that in AD 965, Nikephoros Phokas wrote to the Fatimid Caliph to boast;

‘𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭 𝐚𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐬’

He had finally destroyed the Jihad bases which plagued the empire for centuries!

[Thread]🧵 In the 7th century invasion from the Muslim caliphate, Slavs, Avars, Lombards, and Bulgars all significantly weakened the empire and put it on the defensive immediately after its stunning victory over the Persians in the 620s.

Toward the end of the 7th century the empire began to strike back at the Muslims under Constantine IV and the early reign of Justinian II but then fell into anarchy over a period of 20 years which saw five different emperors usurp each other.

The final emperor of that period was Leo III ‘the Isaurian’ who defeated the grand Muslim siege of Constantinople in 718 and an invasion force in 741.

From this point the empire slowly began to recover but was still faced with regular raiding and attacks on all of its borders.

In AD 1352,

In the dead of night, an English rogue named John of Doncaster led a band of chosen men to cross the moat and scale the walls of Guînes castle in a daring attempt to seize it.

• The Capture of Guînes! •

[Thread]🧵 The castle at Guînes was strong and well fortified and located just six miles south of Calais which had been taken by the English and successfully defended in 1350 from an attempt of the French knight Geoffroi de Charny to sneak a force in.

It was also used to hold English prisoners of war.

Roger of Mowbray was an English nobleman who lived a life of adventure and warfare!

A veteran of the Anarchy, a rebel against King Henry II, and a crusader who won renowned glory in the Second Crusade and faced down disaster at the Battle of Hattin!

[Thread]🧵 • Origins •

Roger was born in around 1120 to Gundreda de Gournay and Nigel d’Aubigny, a favourite of Henry I who was granted the rich Mowbray lands when they were confiscated after a rebellion.

After his father Nigel died in 1129, Roger became a ward of Henry I before he came into his substantial inheritance, including the lands from which he would take his surname.

He was raised by his mother who endowed him with a great respect for the church.

In AD 988, six thousand Rus warriors entered the service of the Roman Empire and formed one of the most legendary elite units of all time.

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐕𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐆𝐈𝐀𝐍 𝐆𝐔𝐀𝐑𝐃

[Thread]🧵 Foreign troops had served in Roman armies since the days of the republic and some Rus warriors had served since the 9th century AD.

But it wasn’t until the 980s when the young emperor Basil Porphyrogénnetos faced a rebellion by two experienced generals that they came into their own.

Basil was in need of men and agreed an alliance with the Grand Prince of the Rus, Vladimir, which would see 6000 warriors, often described as ‘axe wielding barbarians’ entered Basil’s army in return for the hand of his sister Anna in marriage. This was an unprecedented move on Basil’s part.

East Roman royal brides were sought after from monarchs all over Europe and a purple born princess had been refused to even the Holy Roman Emperor in recent years.

Today in AD 533,

Belisarius dealt a savage blow to the Vandal Kingdom of Africa when he crushed their army at…

The battle of Ad Decimum!

[Thread] 🧵 In the early 6th century the Vandal Kingdom of Africa was ruled by Hilderic who enjoyed excellent relations with the Roman Empire.

So much so that he was willing to appoint an Chalcedonian bishop in Carthage, a move which enraged the Arian nobles of his kingdom.

In AD 1081,

With the Normans and Turks savaging the Empire, the young general Alexios Komnenos stood at the crossroads of history!

And then he marched on Constantinople.

[Thread]🧵 By the mid-late 11th century the Empire of the Romans had begun to falter from the incredibly strong position it occupied by the death of Basil II.

Several new threats appeared across its borders including Normans who had conquered Southern Italy, Turks who had poured into Anatolia and defeated the Romans at Manzikert, in addition to Pecheneg attacks on the empire’s northern borders.

In 361 BC,

A Gallic army invaded Rome and before the battle, an enormous Gaul came forth and said:

‘Let the bravest man that Rome possesses come out and fight me, so we may decide which people is the superior in war!’

Titus Manlius stepped forward.

[Thread]🧵 The early history of Rome is shrouded by time and legend, but Livy wrote that in 361 BC, just 29 years after the Gauls sacked Rome:

‘The Gauls formed their camp by the Salarian road, three miles from the City at the bridge across the Anio.’

Today in AD 1157,

Richard the Lionheart was born!

He was one of greatest warrior kings of the Middle Ages. Witness to his strength were the rulers of England, France, and Egypt, all of whom buckled under the indomitable might the Lionheart.

[Thread]🧵 Born in 1157 in Oxford, Richard was the son of the powerful king Henry II and his equally formidable queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine.

Tall and handsome was Richard, and in 1170 his father divided his territories giving Richard Aquitaine and making his older brother Henry co-king. Prince Henry was known as ‘the young king’ from then on.

In 1172, aged just 14, Richard was Duke of Aquitaine and Count of Poitou.

Today in AD 1191,

Richard the Lionheart won one of the greatest crusader victories when in the face of a much larger Saracen army he achieved a stunning victory at…

• The Battle of Arsuf •

[Thread] After arriving in the Holy Land and assisting with the capture of Acre, Richard then marched to take the port of Jaffa before taking Jerusalem. Avoiding the mistakes of Hattin, Richard marched his army only in the morning coolness and at a slow pace with regular rest stops, supplied by a fleet along the coast.

Saladin sent men to harass the march with arrows but Richard and his men ‘exercised wonderful self-control’.

Richard would have to march his army through a large wooded area and that is where Saladin planned his attack, hoping to bait the vanguard into charging so far from the main host as to separate it and destroy them both individually with his much larger army.

Crusading is often thought of as a mostly French and German affair, but from the start there was a lesser known tradition of English crusaders!

This is the tale of the Englishmen who took the cross and journeyed to the Holy Land to fight for God and Jerusalem!

[Thread]🧵 The First Crusade was called in AD 1095 as a result of the total collapse of order in Anatolia that followed the deaths of two powerful Turkic rulers and the danger that represented to Christians living in the east and Christian pilgrims travelling to Jerusalem.

After the runaway success of the First Crusade, the Kingdom of Jerusalem was established and made up of Jerusalem and several other cities that were captured in the Levant.

As the Muslim powers in the region began to attack and reconquer territory from the Christians, more crusades were launched to defend the borders of the Christian realm and retake what had been lost!

Duels and single combats are usually associated with the Middle Ages, but many times did the boldest warriors of the ancient world step forward to face each other in single combat.

This is a thread of some the most thrilling and legendary duels of Antiquity!

[Thread]🧵 • Legendary duels •

Two legendary duels have captivated all who have heard of them ever since their stories were told.

The epic battle between Achilles vs Hector where mighty Achielles bested valiant Hector was told over and over antiquity and repeated through to the present day.

In the 8th century the fate of the world hung in the balance when a series of defeats tested the might of the Umayyad Caliphate.

From Spain to China the diabolical onslaught of Jihad was halted and pushed back!

[Thread]🧵 • Jihad •

After the death of Muhammad, his followers invaded the Roman Empire and Persia.

Both empires suffered devastating defeats at the battles of Yarmouk and al-Qadisiyyah, respectively.

The Muslims captured the Levant from the Romans and Iraq from the Persians before effectively destroying the remnants of the Persian army at Nahavand in 642.