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Originally warriors mounted on horseback, knights became associated
with the concept of chivalry as it was popularised in medieval
European literature. Knights were expected to fight bravely and
honourably and be loyal to their lord until death if necessary.
Later chivalry came to encompass activities such as tournaments and
hunting, and virtues including justice, charity and faith. The
Crusades were instrumental in the development of the code of
chivalry, and some crusading orders of knighthood, such as the
Knights Templar, have become legend. Boys would begin their
knightly training at the age of seven, learning to hunt and
studying academic studies before becoming assistants to older
knights, training in combat and learning how to care for a knight's
essentials: arms, armour, and horses. After fourteen years of
training, and when considered master of all the skills of
knighthood, a squire was eligible to be knighted. In peacetime
knights would take part in tournaments. Tournaments were a major
spectator sport, but also an important way for knights to practice
their skills - knights were often injured and sometimes killed in
melees. Knights figured large in medieval warfare and literature.
In the 15th century knights became obsolete due to advances in
warfare, but the title of 'knight' has survived as an honorary
title granted for services to a monarch or country, and knights
remain a strong concept in popular culture. This short history will
cover the rise and decline of the medieval knights, including the
extensive training, specific arms and armour, tournaments and the
important concept of chivalry.
The Second World War (1939-45) was not greeted with the same lavish
outpouring of patriotic fervour that had attended August 1914. Any
rags of glory had long since been drowned in the mud of Flanders.
The Great War had been heralded as 'the war to end all wars';
veterans were promised 'a land fit for heroes'. Both of these vain
boasts soon began to sound hollow as depression, unemployment,
poverty and a rash of new wars followed. The sons and daughters of
those who had embarked upon their own patriotic Calvary did so
again in an altogether more sombre spirit. One significant
difference between the two conflicts is that, whilst both were
industrial wars, the Second World War was far nearer the concept of
total war. The growth of strategic air power, in its infancy in
1918, had by 1939 become a reality. In this war, even more
widespread and terrible than the last, there were to be no
civilians. Death sought new victims everywhere; British citizens
were now in the front line, there was to be no respite, no hiding
place. This is the poetry and prose of those who were there,
ordinary people caught in the terrible maelstrom of mass conflict
on a scale hitherto unimagined; this is their testimony.
The Great War 1914 1918 was dubbed the 'war to end all wars' and
introduced the full flowering of industrial warfare to the world.
The huge enthusiasm which had greeted the outbreak of hostilities
in August 1914 soon gave way to a grim resignation and, as the
Western Front became a long, agonising battle of dire attrition,
revulsion. Never before had Britain's sons and daughters poured out
their lifeblood in such prolonged and seemingly incessant
slaughter. The conflict produced a large corpus of war poetry,
though focus to date has rested with the 'big' names Brooke,
Sassoon, Graves, Owen, Rosenberg and Blunden et al - with their
descent from youthful enthusiasm to black cynicism held as a mirror
of the nation's journey. Their fame is richly merited, but there
are others that, until now, you would not expect to find in any
Great War anthology. This is 'Tommy' verse, mainly written by other
ranks and not, as is generally the case with the more famous war
poets, by officers. It is, much of it, doggerel, loaded with
lavatorial humour. Much of the earlier material is as patriotic and
sentimental as the times, jingoistic and occasionally mawkish.
However, the majority of the poems in this collection have never
appeared in print before; they have been unearthed in archives,
private collections and papers. Their authors had few pretences,
did not see themselves as poets, nor were writing for fame and
posterity. Nonetheless, these lost voices of the Great War have a
raw immediacy, and an instant connection that the reader will find
compelling.
On 3 September 1650 Oliver Cromwell won a decisive victory over the
Scottish Covenanters at the Battle of Dunbar - a victory that is
often regarded as his finest hour - but the aftermath, the forced
march of 5,000 prisoners from the battlefield to Durham, was one of
the cruellest episodes in his career. The march took them seven
days, without food and with little water, no medical care, the
property of a ruthless regime determined to eradicate any
possibility of further threat. Those who survived long enough to
reach Durham found no refuge, only pestilence and despair.
Exhausted, starving and dreadfully weakened, perhaps as many as
1,700 died from typhus and dysentery. Those who survived were
condemned to hard labour and enforced exile in conditions of
virtual slavery in a harsh new world across the Atlantic.
Cromwell's Convicts describes their ordeal in detail and, by using
archaeological evidence, brings the story right up to date. John
Sadler and Rosie Serdiville describe the battle at Dunbar, but
their main focus is on the lethal week-long march of the captives
that followed. They make extensive use of archive material, retrace
the route taken by the prisoners and describe the recent
archaeological excavations in Durham which have identified some of
the victims and given us a graphic reminder of their fate.
Alexander was perhaps the greatest conquering general in history.
In just over a generation, his northern Greek state of Macedon rose
to control the whole of the vast Persian Empire. It was the legacy
of his father, Philip, that launched Alexander on a spectacular
career of conquest that planted Hellenic culture across most of
Asia. In a dozen years Alexander took the whole of Asia Minor and
Egypt, destroyed the once mighty Persian Empire, and pushed his
army eastwards as far as the Indus. No-one in history has equalled
his achievement. Julius Caesar, contemplating his hero's statue, is
said to have wept because by contrast he had accomplished so
little. Much of Alexander's success can be traced to the Macedonian
phalanx, a close-ordered battle formation of sarissa-wielding
infantry that proved itself a war-winning weapon. The army
Alexander inherited from his father was the most powerful in
Greece, highly disciplined, trained and loyal only to the king.
United in a single purpose, they fought as one. Alexander
recognized this and is quoted as saying, "Remember upon the conduct
of each depends the fate of all." Cavalry was also of crucial
importance in the Macedonian army, as the driving force to attack
the flanks of the enemy in battle. A talented commander, able to
anticipate how his opponent would think, Alexander understood how
to commit his forces to devastating effect, and was never defeated
in battle. He also developed a corps of engineers that utilised
catapults and siege towers against enemy fortifications. Alexander
led from the front, fighting with his men, eating with them,
refusing water when there was not enough, and his men would quite
literally follow him to the ends of the (known) world, and none of
his successors was able to hold together the empire he had forged.
Although he died an early death his fame and glory persist to this
day. This concise history gives an overview of Alexander's life
from a military standpoint, from his early military exploits to the
creation of his empire and the legacy left after his premature
death.
The Battle of Flodden in 1513 was the largest battle ever to take
place between England and Scotland. James IV himself led an army of
30,000 men over the border into England, ostensibly in revenge for
the murder of a Scotsman, but in reality to assist their ally the
French by diverting the forces of Henry VIII. Yet the Scots were
hampered by old-fashioned weapons and tactics, whereas the English
deployed more accurate artillery and their vaunted longbowmen. When
King James IV was killed while leading a charge, and many of their
officers died, the Scots were left in disarray and the English
victory was decisive. As the first new history of the battle in a
decade, this authoritative and eye-opening account marks the 500th
anniversary and brings our knowledge of the conflict up to date.
Expert knowledge and detailed maps look at the key events, the 1135
campaign and the minor battles of Millfield and Norham, and a full
profile of the respective forces and deployments, and convey the
battle's course concisely and clearly. A key read for those
interested in military history or the period in general.
In the autumn of 1644 was fought one of the most sustained and
desperate sieges of the First Civil War when Scottish Covenanter
forces under the Earl of Leven finally stormed Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
the King's greatest bastion in the north-east and the key to his
power there. The city had been resolutely defended throughout the
year by the Marquis of Newcastle, who had defied both the
Covenanters and Northern Parliamentarians. Newcastle had held sway
in the north-east since the outbreak of the war in 1642. He had
defeated the Fairfaxes at Adwalton Moor and secured the City of
Newcastle as the major coal exporter and port of entry for vital
Royalist munitions and supply. Without this the north was lost, if
anything Newcastle was more important, in strategic terms, than
York and it was the City's fall in October which marked the final
demise of Royalist domination of the north. The book tells the
story of the people who fought there, what motivated them, and who
led them there. It is also an account of what happened on the day,
a minute-by-minute chronicle of Newcastle's bloodiest battle. The
account draws heavily on contemporary source material, some of
which has not received a full airing in the past. The siege is
celebrated by the motto under the city coat of arms. It reads
Fortiter Defendit Triumphans, which means "She bravely and
triumphantly defends."
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