Today in AD 1381:

The Tower of London was sacked and the Archbishop of Canterbury was beheaded when vicious riots spread over london during…

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐏𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐒’ 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐎𝐋𝐓

Thread] 🧵 In the decades after the Black Death there was an increased feeling that politician discussion and protagonism didn’t only belong to the elites in society, but to everyone.

The lack of a legitimate outlet for non-elite discussion and participation set the scene for a violent showdown.

In AD 1485:

Richard III made his last charge against the Tudor forces at the Battle of Bosworth where he died fighting alone among his enemies!

This is the story of the end of the Plantagenet Dynasty at the dawn of the modern world.

[Thread] 🧵 Richard ruled as king for two years after usurping and disposing of the sons of his older brother, Edward IV.

But the bitterness created among elite English society by the Wars of the Roses ran too deep & many still sought after a Lancastrian king.

In 1192,

Richard the Lionheart was preparing to leave the Holy Land.

Then came a messenger with news that Saladin had attacked Jaffa and that only the citadel remained with the defenders hoping against hope for rescue.

Richard’s response?

‘I will certainly go!’

[Thread]🧵 Richard had arrived in the Holy Land during the Third Crusade in 1191 after conquering Cyprus. Upon arriving he assisted with the capture of Acre before defeating Saladin at Arsuf.

But a year went by and, Richard, the only monarch left on the crusade, realised he would not be able to take Jerusalem nor hold it if he did take it.

News of the treachery of his brother John’s conspiring with the King of France meant that he had to return home.

John Tzimiskes snuck into Constantinople and seized power by decapitating the emperor.

In his six years as emperor, he crushed the Rus, conquered the Bulgars, and submitted the cities of the Muslim East with no one being able to stand in his way!

[Thread]🧵 Iōánnēs ho Tzimiskēs was born in AD 925 in the east Roman Empire to the Kourkouas family.

Several of his relatives, including his uncle Nikephoros Phokas, were important commanders of the near constant border warfare with the Muslim emirates on the eastern border.

Tzimiskes was described as being short, but muscular and handsome.

In AD 1330:

The King of England had been murdered and the realm was ruled by the tyrant Roger Mortimer and his lover, Queen Isabella!

The sidelined young Edward III and a band of loyal comrades launched a daring coup to rid the nation of the dreaded Mortimer!

[Thread]🧵 Edward II was an inept king who mismanaged his military campaigns and failed to distribute favours evenly throughout the nobility of the realm.

His father, the indomitable Edward I had intervened in the Scottish succession crisis and conquered much of the country before being bogged down by rebellions by William Wallace and Robert the Bruce.

Upon his death, the Scots won a stunning victory at Bannockburn against Edward II and his failure to match his father’s military abilities were apparent.

In AD 532,

Constantinople erupted into widespread riots which turned into open rebellion against the Emperor Justinian before being brutally crushed!

Thirty thousand people died in the Nika Riots…

[Thread]🧵 In the early years of his reign, Justinian implemented higher rates of taxation which caused anger among many in Constantinople.

Two of his officials, John the Cappadocian and Tribonian came under intense public hatred due to their implementation of the new rates and because Justinian sought to reduce the size of the civil service which meant that some among the city elites lost their position in government.

Today in AD 721,

Odo of Aquitaine led a thunderous attack on the Muslims besieging Toulouse and dealt a vicious blow to the rampaging forces of Jihad!

[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.

Today in 1191,

Richard the Lionheart arrived in Acre, setting in motions a series of events which led to his legendary clashes with Saladin, and his betrayal and untimely death!

[Thread]🧵 When news came of the defeat of the Kingdom of Jerusalem at Hattin and the subsequent capture of Jerusalem by Saladin, King Richard of England and King Philip Augustus of France took the cross and vowed to journey to the Holy Land.

En route, Richard stopped at Sicily and became involved in the succession crisis there, and then stopped at Cyprus and conquered it after provocation from the rebel governor of Cyprus.

Today in AD 1099,

After setting out on the epic quest to the Holy Land in 1096, the bruised and battered remnants of the First Crusade began the siege of Jerusalem!

This is a timeline of that momentous journey!

[Thread]🧵 ~ Background ~

• AD 1009 - the Fatimids destroy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Jerusalem

• 1030 - Norman Lord Ranulf becomes Count of Aversa in Italy, the beginning of the Norman settlement and conquest of Southern Italy

• 1033 - the 1000 year anniversary of the Passion of Christ increases pilgrimage to Jerusalem hereafter facilitated by improved relations between the Fatimids and east Romans

•East Roman Emperors begin sending armed escorts, including famed Varangian Harald Hardrada, to some pilgrims to Jerusalem.

• 1045 - first large scale Seljuk Turk raids against the east Romans in Anatolia begin

In AD 602,

The Roman army in the Balkans rebelled against the Emperor Maurice, marched on Constantinople, and murdered him & his sons.

This provoked the Persian Shah to declare war on the Romans.

This is a timeline of events of the last ever war between 𝐑𝐨𝐦𝐞 & 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐚!

[Thread]🧵 • 592

Maurice intervenes in the Persian civil war to help Khusrow II to power. Maurice gains territory from the Persians in return.

594

Revolt of Bistam against Khusrow. Bistam establishes power base in the north bordering Armenia

601

The Armenian king Smbat IV Bagratuni crushes the remainder of Bishram’s power base. Khusrow is now free to focus on matters elsewhere

602

• The Roman field army in the Balkans rebels over the order to stay camped over winter, latest of several controversial decisions made by Maurice.

In AD 1349,

Geoffroi de Charny hatched a fiendish plot to bribe his way into Calais and snatch it back from the English!

Little did he know that King Edward III was wise to his plan and rushed across the sea to ‘prepare a crafty welcome for the French’…

[Thread]🧵 In the 1340s, Edward III, king of England, had destroyed the French fleet at Sluys, invaded France, defeated the French at Crécy, and captured Calais in a gruelling year-long siege ending in 1347.

The French were reeling from these defeats and the kings of both France and England were short on funding for continued warfare.

The Truce of Calais was agreed in 1347 and renewed in 1348, 1349, and 1350.

One of the greatest knights who ever lived served five kings, defeated hundreds of knights at tournament, and saved England from French invasion at the age of 70!

This is the epic life of…

𝐒𝐈𝐑 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐌 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐒𝐇𝐀𝐋!

[Thread]🧵 William Marshal was born during the civil war between King Stephen and the Empress Matilda.

His father John Marshal was a supporter of Matilda and when he covered her retreat from Winchester he took refuge in Wherwell Abbey. Stephen’s men burned the building and melted led dripped from the roof and burned out one of his eyes.

When William Marshal was just a boy Stephen held him outside his father’s castle as a hostage and threatened to kill him if John didn’t surrender. John Marshall replied that he still had the ability to make more sons and refused to yield.

Luckily for young William, Stephen was not a particularly cruel man and took him back inside his tent.

Richard the Lionheart famously had no legitimate son and was succeeded by the bad King John.

But he did have one illegitimate son: 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐩 𝐅𝐢𝐭𝐳𝐑𝐨𝐲!

The royal bastard who leapt into the annals of history to avenge his father!

[Thread]🧵 Lamentably, little is known of the only known child of the mighty King Richard the Lionheart.

Philip is thought to have been born in the 1180s, before Richard was king, to a mother whose name has not survived.

In the 1180s Richard had become embroiled in the turmoil among his family.

This was encouraged by the kings of France, ever concerned with the power of King Henry of England who was also the Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine and the count of Anjou.

Richard was just as powerful as Henry and he married his son Philip to the heiress Amelie de Cognac, giving him the status and land he lacked.

Today in AD 1453:

The dying embers of the Roman Empire were snuffed out forever.

Just after midnight the Turkish assault on Constantinople began and Ottoman troops poured over the battered walls of the once great city! After recovering the city 57 years after the shattering of the empire by the Fourth Crusade, the Palaiologoi emperors tried to restore as much of the beleaguered empire as they could.

Over time the Ottoman Turks grew out of Anatolia, slowly encroaching into Roman lands.

One of the greatest warrior kings the world has ever seen; undefeated in battle and a terror to his enemies from Aquitaine to Acre, he spent his life fighting for God, and his rights.

This is the epic life of…

𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐃 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.

In AD 1096 the boldest warriors of western Christendom set out to the Holy Land to fight for the relief of eastern Christendom.

That epic journey set in motion two hundred years of crusading warfare!

This is a timeline of those momentous events.

[Thread]🧵 • 1009
Fatimids destroy the Church of the Holy Sepulchre Jerusalem

• 1027
East Roman-Fatimid Treaty. Church of Holy Sepulchre is rebuilt.

• 1030 - Norman Lord Ranulf becomes Count of Aversa in Italy, the beginning of the Norman settlement and conquest of Southern Italy

• 1033 - the 1000 year anniversary of the Passion of Christ increases pilgrimage to Jerusalem hereafter facilitated by improved relations between the Fatimids and east Romans

•East Roman Emperors begin sending armed escorts, including famed Varangian Harald Hardrada, to some pilgrims to Jerusalem.

• 1045 - first large scale Seljuk Turk raids against the east Romans in Anatolia begin

Æthelfrith, the mighty king of Bernicia ruled for 23 years and ‘ravaged the Britons more than all the great men of the English!’

Victor in war against the Gaels, and the Britons, and the Angles!

[Thread] 🧵 Æthelfrith, son of Æthelric, son of Ida, became king of the Angles of Bernicia in AD 593!

In AD 641:

An 11 year old boy was crowned Emperor of the Romans amid the calamitous tide of Islamic conquest.

This is a thread on the epic life of Constans II and the perilous struggle to hold together the Roman Empire!

[Thread]🧵 Born between the blissful victory of Heraclius over the Persians and the disaster that followed Yarmouk that saw Heraclius pull back the Roman army behind the Taurus mountains to assume a temporary defensive position.

𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐀𝐠𝐨

A Rus fleet set out in a ill-fated expedition to Constantinople intent on enlisting in the Varangian Guard but through their own obstinacy led to a disastrous showdown…

At the Battle of Lemnos!

[Thread]🧵 In the 48th Year of the Reign of Basil II
AD 1024:

A Rus fleet set out for Constantinople led by a man named only Chrysocheir by Skylitzes, a relative of the deceased Grand Prince of Kiev.

In AD 1415,

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

𝐁𝐀𝐓𝐓𝐋𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐀𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐂𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐓

[Thread]🧵 In AD 1413 Henry V as crowned king and reasserted the claim to the throne of France that stemmed from his great great grandfather Edward III.

Negotiations had failed by 1415 and Henry was resolved to invade France and won the backing of Parliament.

In AD 732,

A rampaging army of the Islamic Caliphate was descending on Tours after destroying the the forces of Odo of Aquitaine.

They were unaware that Charles Martel and his army were racing towards them!

[Thread]🧵 In AD 711 a Muslim force had invaded Hispania from North Africa and defeated the Gothic king Roderic at Guadalete.

From there they captured most of Hispania, pushing refugees and defeated warriors north and many took refuge in mountainous region of Asturias and supported the Hispano-Roman leader, Pelagius of Asturias.

Pelagius was defiant and refused to submit and pay taxes to the Muslims and defeated the Muslims at the battle of Covadonga in AD 722.