The Hussite Civil War Explained - Medieval Bohemian History
After the reins of the Hussite army were handed over to yeoman Jan Žižka, internal strife followed. Seeing that the Hussites were weakened, the Germans undertook another crusade. They were firmly defeated by Žižka at the Battle of Deutschbrod, and they were driven out once again. A third crusade was attempted by the papacy, but it resulted in complete failure as well. The Lithuanians and Poles did not wish to attack the Czechs, Germany was having internal conflicts and could not muster up a sufficient force to battle the Hussites, and the king of Denmark left the Czech border to go back to his home. The Germans eventually were forced to seek peace.
The fighting ended after 1434 when the moderate Utraquist faction of the Hussites defeated the radical Taborite faction. The Hussites agreed to submit to the authority of the king of Bohemia and the Roman Catholic Church, and were allowed to practice their somewhat variant rite.
The Hussite community included most of the Czech population of the Kingdom of Bohemia and formed a major spontaneous military power. They defeated five consecutive crusades proclaimed against them by the Pope (1420, 1421, 1422, 1427, 1431), and intervened in the wars of neighboring countries. The Hussite Wars were notable for the extensive use of early hand-held firearms such as hand cannons.
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Sir Bors De Ganis - The Only Surviving Grail Knight - Arthurian Legend
Sir Bors de Ganis
Sir Bors de Ganis was the only knight of the three Grail knights (Bors, Percivale, and Galahad) to survive the Quest for the Holy Grail and return to King Arthur’s court. His fathers name was Bors as well, and he later succeeded his father as King of Gannes/Ganis.
Sir Bors was a chaste knight and had sworn a vow of purity while remaining single, but the daughter of King Brandegoris fell in love with him. While using the aid of a magic ring, she forced Sir Bors into loving her thus breaking his vow. As a result of this union, Bors became the father of Elyan the White, later Emperor of Constantinople.
Sir Bors of Legend
Sir Bors undertook the Quest for the Holy Grail along with Sir Galahad and Sir Percivale. Together, they were three of the most noble and chaste knights, and would come to be known as the Grail Knights. Sir Bors was the only one of the three Grail Knights to return to Britain and ultimately to King Arthur’s Court.
Sir Bors was the cousin of Sir Lancelot du Lac, and he steadfastly supported his cousin against King Arthur during the conflict between the two surrounding the infidelity of Lancelot and Queen Guinevere. After Sir Lancelot’s death, Bors returned to the Holy Land where he died fighting in the Crusades. It has been suggested that, in origin, Bors may have been a character who figures in Welsh legend as Gwri.
#ArthurianLegend #KingArthur #KnightsoftheRoundTable
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A Biography of Rodrigo Diaz De Vivar (The Hero El Cid)
Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar (c. 1043 – 10 July 1099) was a Castilian knight and warlord in medieval Spain. The Moors called him El Cid (Spanish pronunciation: [el̟ˈθið]), which meant the Lord (probably from the original Arabic: السَّيِّد, romanized: al-Sayyid), and the Christians, El Campeador, which is idiomatically translated as "the Master of the Battlefield" in Old Spanish. He was born in Vivar del Cid, a village near the city of Burgos. Díaz de Vivar became well known for his service in the armies of both Christian and Muslim rulers, his exile, and his temporary conquest of Valencia, which became independent for a brief period in the Reconquista. After his death, El Cid became Spain's celebrated national hero and the protagonist of the most significant medieval Spanish epic poem, El Cantar de Mio Cid.
Born a member of the minor nobility, El Cid was brought up at the court of Ferdinand the Great and served Ferdinand's son, Sancho II of León and Castile. He rose to become the commander and royal standard-bearer (armiger regis) of Castile upon Sancho's ascension in 1065. El Cid went on to lead the Castilian military campaigns against Sancho's brothers, Alfonso VI of León and García II of Galicia, as well as in the Muslim kingdoms in al-Andalus. He became renowned for his military prowess in these campaigns, which helped expand the territory of the Crown of Castile at the expense of the Muslims and Sancho's brothers' kingdoms. When conspirators murdered Sancho in 1072, El Cid found himself in a difficult situation. Since Sancho was childless, the throne passed to his brother Alfonso, whom El Cid had helped remove from power. Although El Cid continued to serve the sovereign, he lost his ranking in the new court, which treated him suspiciously and kept him at arm's length. Finally, in 1081, he was exiled.
El Cid found work fighting for the Muslim rulers of Zaragoza, whom he defended from its traditional enemy, Aragon. While in exile, he regained his reputation as a strategist and formidable military leader. He was repeatedly victorious in battle against the Muslim rulers of Lérida and their Christian allies, as well as against a large Christian army under King Sancho Ramírez of Aragon. In 1086, an expeditionary army of North African Almoravids inflicted a severe defeat to Castile, compelling Alfonso to overcome the resentment he harboured against El Cid. The terms for El Cid's return to Christian service must have been attractive enough since El Cid soon found himself fighting for his former lord. Over the next several years, however, El Cid set his sights on the kingdom-city of Valencia, operating more or less independently of Alfonso, while politically supporting the Banu Hud and other Muslim dynasties opposed to the Almoravids. He gradually increased his control over Valencia; the Islamic ruler, Yahya al-Qadir [es], became his tributary in 1092. When the Almoravids instigated an uprising that resulted in the death of Al-Cádir, El Cid responded by laying siege to the city. Valencia finally fell in 1094, and El Cid established an independent principality on the Mediterranean coast of Spain. He ruled over a pluralistic society with the popular support of Christians and Muslims alike.
El Cid's final years were spent fighting the Almoravid Berbers. He inflicted upon them their first major defeat in 1094, on the plains of Caurte, outside Valencia, and continued opposing them until his death. Although El Cid remained undefeated in Valencia, Diego Rodríguez, his only son and heir, died fighting against the Almoravids in the service of Alfonso in 1097. After El Cid's death in 1099, his wife, Jimena Díaz, succeeded him as ruler of Valencia, but she was eventually forced to surrender the principality to the Almoravids in 1102.
#CrusadesHistory #MedievalHistory #EuropeanHistory
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The Papal Schism Explained (Western Schism)
The Papal Schism or Western Schism was a rift in the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages during which there were two Papacies existing simultaneously, one in Rome and the other in Avignon, France. It began in 1378, the year after Pope Gregory XI brought the Papal Court back to Rome from Avignon, where it had resided for almost 70 years due to hostilities between the Roman Papacy and the Kingdom of France. When Gregory died, the Neapolitan Bartolomeo Prignano was elected Pope with the name Urban VI (1378-1389). He, however, quarrelled with the very College of Cardinals that had elected him. They therefore declared his election void and elected a new, second Pontiff, Pope Clement VII 1378-1404), who re-established the Papal Court in Avignon and was recognized by Scotland, Castile, Aragon, Navarre and Portugal.
Siding with Pope Urban VI in Rome were Italy, Germany, Bohemia, England and Ireland, Flanders, Poland and Hungary.
The Schism continued even after the death of the original rival Popes with the election of Boniface IX in Rome (1389-1404) and Benedict XIII in Avignon (1394-1423). The Popes in Avignon were called Antipopes. At this time European efforts to restore the unity of the Roman Catholic Church were growing. Unfortunately, neither the Council nor the Popes themselves were able to reconcile, as neither side was willing to budge from their demands.
In 1409 the dispute escalated to the point that the Cardinals declared both Popes invalid and elected a third, the Antipope John XXIII (1410-1415). None of the Popes submitted to being dethroned, however. The conflict embroiled the rulers of the various countries involved, among others Sigismund of Luxembourg, who took the side of John XXIII.
The Council of Constance was convened on November 5th, 1414 to resolve the issue. The Council secured the resignations of Antipope John XXIII and the Roman Pope Gregory XII, and in 1417 elected a new Pope, Martin V (1417-1431), based in Rome. This essentially brought an end to the Schism, although there were subsequently two more Antipopes who continued to be supported by a minority, Benedict XIV and Clement VIII, who resigned in 1429, leaving Martin V once again the sole Pontiff.
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Marie "Madame" Curie - First Woman to Ever Win A Nobel Prize
Marie Skłodowska Curie (/ˈkjʊəri/ KEWR-ee; French: [kyʁi]; Polish: [kʲiˈri]), born Maria Salomea Skłodowska (Polish: [ˈmarja salɔˈmɛa skwɔˈdɔfska]; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934), was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. As the first of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes, she was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first and the only woman to win the Nobel Prize twice, and the only person to win the Nobel Prize in two scientific fields. She was the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris in 1906.
She was born in Warsaw, in what was then the Kingdom of Poland, part of the Russian Empire. She studied at Warsaw's clandestine Flying University and began her practical scientific training in Warsaw. In 1891, aged 24, she followed her elder sister Bronisława to study in Paris, where she earned her higher degrees and conducted her subsequent scientific work. In 1895 she married the French physicist Pierre Curie, and she shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with him and with the physicist Henri Becquerel for their pioneering work developing the theory of "radioactivity"—a term she coined. In 1906 Pierre Curie died in a Paris street accident. Marie won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements polonium and radium, using techniques she invented for isolating radioactive isotopes.
Under her direction, the world's first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms by the use of radioactive isotopes. In 1920 she founded the Curie Institute in Paris, and in 1932 the Curie Institute in Warsaw; both remain major centres of medical research. During World War I she developed mobile radiography units to provide X-ray services to field hospitals. While a French citizen, Marie Skłodowska Curie, who used both surnames, never lost her sense of Polish identity. She taught her daughters the Polish language and took them on visits to Poland. She named the first chemical element she discovered polonium, after her native country.
Marie Curie died in 1934, aged 66, at the Sancellemoz sanatorium in Passy (Haute-Savoie), France, of aplastic anaemia from exposure to radiation in the course of her scientific research and in the course of her radiological work at field hospitals during World War I. In addition to her Nobel Prizes, she has received numerous other honours and tributes; in 1995 she became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in Paris' Panthéon, and Poland and France declared 2011 as the Year of Marie Curie during the International Year of Chemistry. She is the subject of numerous biographical works, where she is also known as Madame Curie.
#WomenofHistory #HistoricalWomen #FamousFemales
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Who Were the Seljuk Turks? - Crusades History
Seljuq, also spelled Seljuk, ruling military family of the Oğuz (Ghuzz) Turkic tribes that invaded southwestern Asia in the 11th century and eventually founded an empire that included Mesopotamia, Syria, Palestine, and most of Iran. Their advance marked the beginning of Turkish power in the Middle East.
A brief treatment of the Seljuqs follows. For full treatment, see Anatolia: The Seljuqs of Anatolia.
During the 10th-century migrations of the Turkish peoples from Central Asia and southeast Russia, one group of nomadic tribes, led by a chief named Seljuq, settled in the lower reaches of the Syr Darya (Jaxartes) River and later converted to the Sunni form of Islam. They played a part in the frontier defense forces of the Sāmānids and later of Mahmud of Ghazna. Seljuq’s two grandsons, Chaghri (Chagri) Beg and Toghrïl (Ṭugril) Beg, enlisted Persian support to win realms of their own, Chaghri controlling the greater part of Khorāsān and Toghrïl, at his death in 1063, heading an empire that included western Iran and Mesopotamia.
Under the sultans Alp-Arslan and Malik-Shāh, the Seljuq empire was extended to include all of Iran and Mesopotamia and Syria, including Palestine. In 1071 Alp-Arslan defeated an immense Byzantine army at Manzikert and captured the Byzantine emperor Romanus IV Diogenes. The way was open for Turkmen tribesmen to settle in Asia Minor.
Because of Toghrïl Beg’s victory over the Būyids in Baghdad in 1055, the Seljuqs came to be seen as the restorers of Muslim unity under the Sunni caliphate. While Alp-Arslan and Malik-Shāh expanded the empire to the frontier of Egypt, the Seljuq vizier Niẓām al-Mulk oversaw the empire’s organization during both their reigns. The Seljuq empire, political as well as religious in character, left a strong legacy to Islam. During the Seljuq period a network of madrasahs (Islamic colleges) was founded, capable of giving uniform training to the state’s administrators and religious scholars. Among the many mosques built by the sultans was the Great Mosque of Eṣfahān (the Masjed-e Jāmeʿ). Persian cultural autonomy flourished in the Seljuq empire. Because the Turkish Seljuqs had no Islamic tradition or strong literary heritage of their own, they adopted the cultural language of their Persian instructors in Islam. Literary Persian thus spread to the whole of Iran, and the Arabic language disappeared in that country except in works of religious scholarship.
#CrusadesHistory #MedievalHistory #EuropeanHistory
Turkish Translator İbrahim Gürbüz
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The Hussite Wars or The Bohemian Wars (aka Hussite Revolution)
The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars or the Hussite Revolution, were a series of wars fought between the Christian Hussites and the combined Christian Catholic forces of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, European monarchs loyal to the Catholic Church, as well as various Hussite factions. After initial clashes, the Utraquists changed sides in 1432 to fight alongside Roman Catholics and opposed the Taborites and other Hussite spinoffs. These wars lasted from 1419 to approximately 1434.
The unrest began after pre-Protestant Christian reformer Jan Hus was executed by the Catholic Church in 1415 for heresy. Because the King Wenceslaus IV of Bohemia had plans to be crowned the Holy Roman Emperor, he suppressed the religion of the Hussites, yet it continued to spread.[3] When King Wenceslaus IV died of natural causes a few years later, the tension stemming from the Hussites grew stronger. In Prague and various other parts of Bohemia, the Catholic Germans living there were forced out.
Wenceslaus's brother, Sigismund, who had inherited the throne, was outraged by the spread of Hussitism. He got permission from the pope to launch a crusade against the Hussites. Large numbers of crusaders came from all over Europe to fight. Prague was attacked and then abandoned. However, the Hussites subsequently laid siege to the garrison of crusaders, and took back nearly all of the land they had previously captured, resulting in the crusade being a complete failure.
#KingdomComeDeliverance #KCD #History
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Sir Kay the Tall, King Arthur's Seneschal - Arthurian Legend
Sir Kay
Sir Kay was the son of Sir Ector (Ectorious) and the foster brother of King Arthur. History records Kay (Cai in Welsh) as being a very tall man and a fierce warrior, as shown by his epithet, the Tall. He appears in the Mabinogion tale of “Culhwch and Olwen” as the foremost warrior at the Court of the King Arthur. According to other legends, Sir Kay had mystical powers and was called one of the “Three Enchanter Knights of Britain”.
Later on this was written about Sir Kay:
“Nine nights and nine days his breath lasted under water, nine nights and nine days would he be without sleep. A wound from Cai’s sword no physician might heal. When it pleased him, he would be as tall as the tallest tree in the forest. When the rain was heaviest, whatever he held in his hand would be dry for a handbreadth before and behind, because of the greatness of his heat, and, when his companions were coldest, he would be as fuel for them to light a fire”.
Sir Kay of Legend
At times, Sir Kay was unpredictable and had a cruel and violent temper, but he was Arthur’s guardian and one of his most faithful companions. Sir Kay married Andrivete, daughter of King Cador of Northumberland, and he is credited with two sons (Garanwyn and Gronosis) and a daughter named Kelemon. Some sources say that Sir Kay was a Saxon, but was unlike the heathen Saxons because he was a Christian.
There are different accounts of Sir Kay’s death and throughout Welsh literature it is claimed that he was killed by Gwyddawg who was, in turn, killed by Arthur; but he is also said to have been killed by the Romans or in the war against Mordred.
According to History
Though mentioned in several of the Welsh legends, Sir Kay really plays an important role in the Arthurian legends in Geoffrey of Monmouth’s The History of the Kings of Britain, where he and Sir Bedivere help King Arthur defeat and kill the giant of Mont Saint-Michel. In the works of Geoffrey, Kay is Arthur’s steward and holds that title in many of the later works as well.
In the works of French poet Chrétien de Troyes, Sir Kay takes on the characteristics of both the Welsh stories as well as Geoffrey’s writing: known for his brash, fiery demeanor but also somewhat of an arrogant man who boast of his accomplishments and prowess. de Troyes also portrays him as a troublemaker in the kingdom, stirring up strife and antagonizing some of the more noble knights such as Sir Lancelot or Sir Gawain. According to Sir Thomas Malory’s, Sir Kay did not die in the Roman War, but was part of a party sent to try and retrieve Excalibur’s sacred scabbard right before the Final Battle: the Battle of Camlann. Tradition tells us that he was one of the few survivors of the Battle of Camlann, though other stories state that he was never involved in the battle to begin with.
#ArthurianLegend #KingArthur #KnightsoftheRoundTable
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Florence Nightingale - The Founder of Modern Nursing (The Lady With The Lamp)
Florence Nightingale /ˈnaɪtɪŋɡeɪl/, OM, RRC, DStJ (12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during the Crimean War, in which she organised care for wounded soldiers at Constantinople. She gave nursing a favourable reputation and became an icon of Victorian culture, especially in the persona of "The Lady with the Lamp" making rounds of wounded soldiers at night.
Recent commentators have asserted that Nightingale's Crimean War achievements were exaggerated by the media at the time, but critics agree on the importance of her later work in professionalising nursing roles for women. In 1860, she laid the foundation of professional nursing with the establishment of her nursing school at St Thomas' Hospital in London. It was the first secular nursing school in the world, and is now part of King's College London. In recognition of her pioneering work in nursing, the Nightingale Pledge taken by new nurses, and the Florence Nightingale Medal, the highest international distinction a nurse can achieve, were named in her honour, and the annual International Nurses Day is celebrated on her birthday. Her social reforms included improving healthcare for all sections of British society, advocating better hunger relief in India, helping to abolish prostitution laws that were harsh for women, and expanding the acceptable forms of female participation in the workforce.
Nightingale was a prodigious and versatile writer. In her lifetime, much of her published work was concerned with spreading medical knowledge. Some of her tracts were written in simple English so that they could easily be understood by those with poor literary skills. She was also a pioneer in data visualization with the use of infographics, effectively using graphical presentations of statistical data. Much of her writing, including her extensive work on religion and mysticism, has only been published posthumously.
#WomenofHistory #HistoricalWomen #FamousFemales
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The Knightly Military Order of the Holy Sepulchre - Crusades History
The Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (Latin: Ordo Equestris Sancti Sepulcri Hierosolymitani, OESSH), also called Order of the Holy Sepulchre or Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, is a Catholic order of knighthood under the protection of the Holy See. The pope is the sovereign of the order which, with the five other papal equestrian orders and the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, are the only orders of chivalry that are recognized and protected by the Holy See.
The order creates canons as well as knights, with the primary mission to "support the Christian presence in the Holy Land".
The order today is estimated to have some 30,000 knights and dames in 60 lieutenancies around the world. The cardinal grand master has been Fernando Filoni since 2019, and the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem is grand prior. Its headquarters are situated at Palazzo Della Rovere and its official church in Sant'Onofrio al Gianicolo, both in Rome, close to the Vatican City.
The history of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem runs common and parallel to that of the religious Canons Regular of the Holy Sepulchre, the order continuing after the Canons Regular ceased to exist at the end of the 15th century (except for their female counterpart, the Canonesses Regular of the Holy Sepulchre).
The crusades coincided with a renewed concern in Europe for the holy places, with the Church of the Holy Sepulchre as one of the most important places. According to an undocumented tradition, Girolamo Gabrielli of the Italian Gabrielli family, who was the leader of 1000 knights from Gubbio, Umbria, during the First Crusade, was the first crusader to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre after Jerusalem was seized in 1099.
#CrusadesHistory #MedievalHistory #EuropeanHistory
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Who Were The Cumans (KCD Bad Guys) - Kingdom Come Deliverance History
The Cumans, (Kunok in Hungarian), were a Turkic nomadic people who, after the Mongol invasion in 1237, took refuge and moved to Hungary in 1239.
The Hungarian Kings decided to allow the Cumans to live in their territories provided that they would fight in their army. In 1400, King Sigismund of Hungary came to power, deposing his brother Wenceslas IV of Bohemia, and took control of the Cuman Army. His first order was to burn to the ground every single settlement in Bohemia who didn’t accept him as the new ruler. Dozens of villages and cities were destroyed by the Cumans, Silver Skalitz being among them, raided and razed in 1403.
The Cumans first arrived in Czech lands in 1260. Under the leadership of the Hungarian Crown Prince Stephen they fought against Bishop Bruno and the army of the Austrian lords, which they thoroughly vanquished. The Cumans appeared for the second time in the 1270s, when they defeated the army of King Piemysl Otakar and went on to pillage Moravia.
They last invaded the Czech lands under Sigismund of Luxembourg, who could afford no better mercenaries than the Cumans. Estimates speak of several thousand fighters. One of the places that succumbed to their ravages was Silver Skalitz, the birthplace of our game 's hero.
Turkish Translator İbrahim Gürbüz
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Sir Ector the Kind, King Arthur's Foster Father - Arthurian Legend
Sir Ector
Sir Ector was a nobleman and knight who was entrusted with Arthur as a young child by Merlin the Magician. Arthur grew up knowing Sir Ector as his father, and Ector remained clueless as to the true identity of the young Arthur. Sir Kay was also the son of Ector, and Kay and Arthur grew up together as brothers. Sir Ector always treated Arthur as his son, and raised him in a respectable manner up until Arthur pulled the sword from the stone and then took his rightful place as King of Britain.
Not to be confused with the half-brother of Sir Lancelot, Sir Ector was also known as a Lord, tradesman, and even a King in some legends and stories.
Sir Ector of Legend
Sir Ector, who is also known as Sir Hector, Antor, or even Ectorius in some legends, is the father of Sir Kay and the adoptive father of King Arthur in the Arthurian legend. Probably the eldest knight of the round table, Sir Ector had an estate in the country as well as properties in London and throughout England.
Sir Ector appears in some of the earliest stories of King Arthur, including the Lancelot-Grail Cycle (Vulgate Cycle) and later on in Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. Later on T.H. White makes reference to Sir Ector, telling readers that his lands lie somewhere in the “Forest Sauvage“.
According to History
Little is truly known about Sir Ector (Sir Hector), though he is mentioned in Malory, the Lancelot-Grail Cycle and other traditions. In the earlier Welsh legends, the father of Sir Kay (Cei) is named Cynyr (Kyner) instead of Ector.
In pop-culture, Ector is a popular figure in Arthurian movies and literature. Ector makes appearances in movies, such as the 1963 Disney animated film The Sword and the Stone and later on in films such as Excalibur and the TV series Camelot. Hollywood has often portrayed Sir Ector as somewhat mis-treating the boy Arthur, and raising him as inferior, though legend would not portray Sir Ector as this sort of character.
#ArthurianLegend #KingArthur #KnightsoftheRoundTable
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Robin Hood Was Not a Socialist Hero
Robin Hood is a legendary heroic outlaw originally depicted in English folklore and subsequently featured in literature and film. According to legend, he was a highly skilled archer and swordsman. In some versions of the legend, he is depicted as being of noble birth, and in modern retellings he is sometimes depicted as having fought in the Crusades before returning to England to find his lands taken by the Sheriff. In the oldest known versions he is instead a member of the yeoman class. Traditionally depicted dressed in Lincoln green, he is said to have robbed from the rich and given to the poor.
Through retellings, additions, and variations, a body of familiar characters associated with Robin Hood has been created. These include his lover, Maid Marian, his band of outlaws, the Merry Men, and his chief opponent, the Sheriff of Nottingham. The Sheriff is often depicted as assisting Prince John in usurping the rightful but absent King Richard, to whom Robin Hood remains loyal. His partisanship of the common people and his hostility to the Sheriff of Nottingham are early recorded features of the legend, but his interest in the rightfulness of the king is not, and neither is his setting in the reign of Richard I. He became a popular folk figure in the Late Middle Ages, and the earliest known ballads featuring him are from the 15th century (1400s).
There have been numerous variations and adaptations of the story over the subsequent years, and the story continues to be widely represented in literature, film, and television. Robin Hood is considered one of the best known tales of English folklore.
The historicity of Robin Hood is not proven and has been debated for centuries. There are numerous references to historical figures with similar names that have been proposed as possible evidence of his existence, some dating back to the late 13th century. At least eight plausible origins to the story have been mooted by historians and folklorists, including suggestions that "Robin Hood" was a stock alias used by or in reference to bandits.
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Queen Victoria of England - The Moral Leader of the Victorian Era
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. Known as the Victorian era, her reign of 63 years and seven months was longer than that of any of her predecessors. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire. In 1876, Parliament voted her the additional title of Empress of India.
Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn (the fourth son of King George III), and Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. After both the Duke and his father died in 1820, she was raised under close supervision by her mother and her comptroller, John Conroy. She inherited the throne aged 18 after her father's three elder brothers died without surviving legitimate issue. Though a constitutional monarch, privately, Victoria attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments; publicly, she became a national icon who was identified with strict standards of personal morality.
Victoria married her first cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha in 1840. Their children married into royal and noble families across the continent, earning Victoria the sobriquet "the grandmother of Europe" and spreading haemophilia in European royalty. After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism in the United Kingdom temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration. She died on the Isle of Wight in 1901. The last British monarch of the House of Hanover, she was succeeded by her son Edward VII of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.
#WomenofHistory #HistoricalWomen #FamousFemales
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The First Crusade (1096-1099) Explained - Crusades History
The First Crusade (1096–1099) was the first of a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The initial objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Islamic rule. These campaigns were subsequently given the name crusades. The earliest initiative for the First Crusade began in 1095 when the Byzantine Emperor, Alexios I Komnenos, requested military support from the Council of Piacenza in the Byzantine Empire's conflict with the Seljuk-led Turks. This was followed later in the year by the Council of Clermont, during which Pope Urban II supported the Byzantine request for military assistance and also urged faithful Christians to undertake an armed pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
This call was met with an enthusiastic popular response across all social classes in western Europe. Mobs of predominantly poor Christians numbering in the thousands, led by Peter the Hermit, a French priest, were the first to respond. What has become known as the People's Crusade passed through Germany and indulged in wide-ranging anti-Jewish activities and massacres. On leaving Byzantine-controlled territory in Anatolia, they were annihilated in a Turkish ambush at the Battle of Civetot in October 1096.
In what has become known as the Princes' Crusade, members of the high nobility and their followers embarked in late summer 1096 and arrived at Constantinople between November and April the following year. This was a large feudal host led by notable Western European princes: southern French forces under Raymond of Toulouse and Adhemar of Le Puy; men from Upper and Lower Lorraine led by Godfrey of Bouillon and his brother Baldwin of Boulogne; Italo-Norman forces led by Bohemond of Taranto and his nephew Tancred; as well as various contingents consisting of northern French and Flemish forces under Robert II of Normandy, Stephen of Blois, Hugh of Vermandois, and Count Robert of Flanders. In total and including non-combatants, the army is estimated to have numbered as many as 100,000.
The crusaders marched into Anatolia. While the Seljuk Sultan of Rûm, Kilij Arslan, was away resolving a dispute, a Frankish siege and Byzantine naval assault captured Nicea in June 1097. In marching through Anatolia, the crusaders suffered starvation, thirst, and disease before encountering the Turkish lightly armoured mounted archers at the Battle of Dorylaeum. Baldwin left with a small force to establish the County of Edessa, the first Crusader state, and Antioch was captured in June 1098. Jerusalem was reached in June 1099 and the city was taken by assault from 7 June to 15 July 1099, during which its defenders were massacred. A counterattack was repulsed at the Battle of Ascalon. After this the majority of the crusaders returned home.
Four Crusader states were established in the Near East: the County of Edessa, the Principality of Antioch, the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and the County of Tripoli. The crusader presence remained in the region in some form until the city of Acre fell in 1291, leading to the rapid loss of all remaining territory in the Levant. There were no further substantive attempts to recover the Holy Land after this.
#CrusadesHistory #MedievalHistory #EuropeanHistory
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The Battle of Nicopolis (King Sigismund's Failure) - Kingdom Come Deliverance History
The battle of Nicopolis took place on 25/9/1396 between the Hungarian King Sigismund and the Turks, led by Sultan Bayezid. Sigismund's army was made up of soldiers from France, Burgundy, Germany, England, Italy, Bohemia, Poland, and other countries. In all it was 10 to 15 thousand strong. The Ottomans, who at the end of the 14th century controlled the entirety of the Balkans, numbered almost 20 thousand.
The experienced Turkish combatants routed the Christian knights completely, largely because the Russian and French knights disobeyed orders, attacked the Turkish vanguard under the misconception it was the main force and were subsequently crushed. Those who didn't die on the battlefield were brutally put to death, reportedly up to 3,000 men. The wealthiest were taken prisoner and saved only by paying a ransom, which they paid over decades. When the news of the defeat reached Paris, no one believed it, and those who had initially spread the news were put to death by drowning for spreading malicious lies.
The Ottoman victory was a triumph of Islam over Christendom. The Turkish army represented a real threat to European countries, especially Hungary.
#KingdomComeDeliverance #KCD #History
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Sir Bedivere the One Handed - Arthur's Steadfast Marshal - Arthurian Legend
Sir Bedivere
A truly deep and fervent supporter of King Arthur from the very start, Sir Bedivere never wained from that support. Bedivere was also one of the first knights to join the fellowship of the Round Table, and was by King Arthur’s side at his death/transport to the Isle of Avalon. Sir Bedivere also helped King Arthur fight the Giant of Mont St. Michel and later was made Duke of Neustria.
Sir Bedivere lost one of his hands in battle and spent the rest of his life fighting with only one hand. He had a son called Amren and a daughter named Eneuavc.
Sir Bedivere of Legend
Sir Bedivere was present at the Last Battle, that fateful Battle of Camlan between the forces of King Arthur and the evil forces of his nephew, Sir Mordred. Bedivere and Arthur alone survived the battle, and the King gave him the command to throw Excalibur back into the Lake. After lying twice to King Arthur, Bedivere finally tossed the precious sword out into the Lake, and the hand of the Lady of the Lake came up out of the water and retrieved the sword to its watery home.
Derived from the Welsh name Bedwyr, Bedivere was named after his grandfather, who was also known as Bedivere and founded the city of Bayeux. Years after the Final Battle, Sir Bedivere was killed fighting in the Roman Campaign.
According to History
It is believed that Bedivere originated from the Welsh tradition. Known in the early works as Bedwyr Bedrydant (“Bedwyr of the Perfect Sinews”), Bedivere was known as a handsome, strong knight who was fiercely loyal and strong in faith and courage. Bedivere’s father is mentioned as Pedrawd, and his children as Amhren and Eneuawg, who are both members of King Arthur’s court.
Bedwyr/Bedivere is a prominent character in the tale of Culhwch and Olwen, in which he appears as the head of King Arthur’s court with his friend Cei. He is described as the handsomest man in the world (except for King Arthur and Drych fab Cibddar) and uses a magic lance. In Geoffrey’s History of the Kings of Britain, Bedivere is one of Arthur’s most loyal allies and maintains that loyalty his entire life. Later on he helps King Arthur and Sir Kay fight the Giant of Mont Saint-Michel and then joins Arthur in his war against Emperor Lucius of Rome.
#ArthurianLegend #KingArthur #KnightsoftheRoundTable
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Medieval Warrior 9th Century "Viking" Sword Testing And Review
9th Century Full Tang Viking Sword. 39" Overall Length. Brass Nut & Pommel with antique finish. 31" Oil Tempered, High Carbon Steel Blade. Razor Sharp. Wooden Scabbard with Brass Trimmings. Fully Functional & Battle Ready.
In this video, i analyze a 9th century battle ready reproduction sword manufactured by Medieval Warrior. This sword is advertised as Battle ready, with a full tang, and high carbon steel blade. It comes sharp, and it also comes with a wood core scabbard and belt.
Honest review and opinions, accompanied by a few short cutting tests.
Buy it Here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B078878SJP?pf_rd_r=9PGB3W0F80X33SY8R8QN&pf_rd_p=5ae2c7f8-e0c6-4f35-9071-dc3240e894a8&pd_rd_r=f346caab-cc2d-4a79-a813-344d54323fcf&pd_rd_w=Z2OjI&pd_rd_wg=C2UtE&ref_=pd_gw_unk
This video is not sponsored in any way, and it contains only my honest opinions regarding this item.
#SwordReview
#SwordTesting
#MedievalWeapons
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A Critical Analysis of Helm's Deep as a Fortress - Lord of The Rings
Helm's Deep, the fortress of Rohan, which was featured in the most epic battle scene yet made during the Lord of the Rings The Two Towers, is designed terribly. It is a great example of doing everything, or very close to everything wrong.
From a strategic and historical point of view, this fortress makes multiple mistakes that prevent it from being formidable in any way. Honestly, with all of these flaws, Saruman didn't need to use fire to induce stone to bring down the walls. They practically go down on their own.
In today's video, i will break down all of these major weaknesses, and explain why i believe that this fortress is so poorly designed. This analysis is based entirely on the depiction and use of this fortress as shown in The Peter Jackson film, The Two Towers. Many of the points i make during this video are not accurate in regards to the depiction of this fortress in the books.
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Sacagawea, The True Story - The Lemhi Shoshone Guide of the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Sacagawea (/səˌkɑːɡəˈwiːə/; also Sakakawea or Sacajawea; May c. 1788 – December 20, 1812 or April 9, 1884) was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who, at age 16, met and helped the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectives by exploring the Louisiana Territory. Sacagawea traveled with the expedition thousands of miles from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean, helping to establish cultural contacts with Native American populations and contributing to the expedition's knowledge of natural history in different regions.
Sacagawea was an important member of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The National American Woman Suffrage Association of the early 20th century adopted her as a symbol of women's worth and independence, erecting several statues and plaques in her memory, and doing much to recount her accomplishments.
#WomenofHistory #HistoricalWomen #FamousFemales
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The Decline and Fall of the Knights Templar - Crusades History
The Templars were closely tied to the Crusades; when the Holy Land was lost, support for the order faded. Rumours about the Templars' secret initiation ceremony created distrust, and King Philip IV of France – deeply in debt to the order – took advantage of this distrust to destroy them and erase his debt. In 1307, he had many of the order's members in France arrested, tortured into giving false confessions, and burned at the stake. Pope Clement V disbanded the order in 1312 under pressure from King Philip. The abrupt reduction in power of a significant group in European society gave rise to speculation, legend, and legacy through the ages.
The Military Order of Christ consider itself the successors of the former Knights Templar as it was reconstituted in Portugal after the Templars were abolished on 22 March 1312. The Order of Christ was founded in 1319, with the protection of the Portuguese king, Denis, who refused to pursue and persecute the former knights as had occurred in most of the other sovereign states under the political influence of the Catholic Church. Denis of Portugal revived the Templars of Tomar as the Order of Christ, largely for their aid during the Reconquista and in the reconstruction of Portugal after the wars. Denis negotiated with Clement's successor, John XXII, for recognition of the new order and its right to inherit the Templar assets and property. This was granted in a papal bull, Ad ea ex quibus, on 14 March 1319.
#CrusadesHistory #MedievalHistory #EuropeanHistory
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Who Was Jan Hus and Why Was His Death So Important - Kingdom Come Deliverance History
c. 1370 — 6.7.1415
Jan (John) Hus was a priest and thinker and one of the most important Czech religious reformers and preachers. His works, inspired by the theological writings of John Wycliffe, played a key role in underpinning the essence of the Reformation.
As of 1398' he worked and disseminated his teachings at Prague University, but as early as 1403 German professors there labelled him a heretic. Six years later, up to twenty thousand doctors, masters and students were forced to leave Prague University as a result of theological disputes.From 1402, Hus preached at the Bethlehem Chapel in Prague, where all sermons were delivered not in Latin, but in Czech. This place became the centre of the reformation in Bohemia.Because of his controversial relationship with the Church and opinions on Catholic ethics, Hus was persecuted and finally convicted of heresy by the Council of Constance, for which he was burnt at the stake. The followers of the reformist idea rallied together after the events at Constance, leading to the beginning of the Hussite Wars (1420-1434).
#KingdomComeDeliverance #KCD #History
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Sir Gaheris the Quiet of the Castle Perilous - Arthurian Legend
Sir Gaheris
The brother of Agravaine, Gawain, and Gareth, Sir Gaheris was the son of King Lot of Orkney and his wife Morgause, sister of King Arthur. Before being knighted he was squire to his elder brother Gawain. Sir Gaheris married Lady Lynette on the same day his youngest brother Gareth married her sister, Dame Lionesse of the Castle Perilous.
Both Sir Gaheris and Sir Gareth were killed in the fight that broke out when Sir Lancelot rescued Queen Guinevere from burning at the stake, though both were killed by accident as Sir Lancelot did not recognize either of them in the crowd of knights and people. Because of the deaths of Sir Gaheris and Gareth, their elder brother Sir Gawain was deeply bitter at Lancelot for the rest of his life.
Like his other brothers, Sir Gaheris first visited King Arthur’s Court when his mother, Morgause, his mother, first arrived after the Battle of Bedegraine. Gaheris served as his older brother, Gawain’s page for a time, and traveled by his side to the court for the knighting of Gawain and the marriage of King Arthur and Lady Guinevere. Sir Gaheris would often act as Sir Gawain’s conscience, and he helped cool his temper when Gawain was tempted to challenge Pellinore. Praising him for his skills in his combat with Allardin of the Isles, Gaheris also admonished Gawain when he failed to show mercy and caused the death of the Lady of Ablamar of the Marsh.
Throughout Gawain’s early adventures, Sir Gaheris was his steadfast companion and friend. There were two knights named Gaheris and both were Knights of the Round Table. This Sir Gaheris is most well-known for being the brother of Gawain, Gareth, and Agravain.
Chrétien de Troyes is the first to write about Sir Gaheris in his work Perceval, the Story of the Grail. Several of Sir Gaheris’s adventures are also written about and highlighted in the Lancelot-Grail (Vulgate Cycle) as well.
It is possible that Sir Gaheris and Sir Gareth were the same character in origin, and both are written about by Mallory and then T.H. White in The Once and Future King. White refers to Sir Gaheris as being a bit dumb or dim-witted. In addition to that, only one brother is ever named for Gwalchmai ap Gwyar, the character from Welsh mythology traditionally identified with Gawain. This character (Gwalchafed) is a likely source for Gaheris and Gareth, if Gawain was indeed derived from Gwalchmai.
#ArthurianLegend #KingArthur #KnightsoftheRoundTable
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Weird Obscure Historical Events That Actually Happened - Bizarre History
The Anglo-Zanzibar War was a military conflict fought between the United Kingdom and the Zanzibar Sultanate on 27 August 1896. The conflict lasted between 38 and 45 minutes, marking it as the shortest recorded war in history. The immediate cause of the war was the death of the pro-British Sultan Hamad bin Thuwaini on 25 August 1896 and the subsequent succession of Sultan Khalid bin Barghash. The British authorities preferred Hamud bin Muhammed, who was more favourable to British interests, as sultan. In accordance with a treaty signed in 1886, a condition for accession to the sultanate was that the candidate obtain the permission of the British consul, and Khalid had not fulfilled this requirement. The British considered this a casus belli and sent an ultimatum to Khalid demanding that he order his forces to stand down and leave the palace. In response, Khalid called up his palace guard and barricaded himself inside the palace.
On 21 August 1986, a limnic eruption at Lake Nyos in northwestern Cameroon killed 1,746 people and 3,500 livestock. The eruption triggered the sudden release of about 100,000–300,000 tons (1.6 million tons, according to some sources) of carbon dioxide (CO2). The gas cloud initially rose at nearly 100 kilometres per hour (62 mph) and then, being heavier than air, descended onto nearby villages, displacing all the air and suffocating people and livestock within 25 kilometres (16 mi) of the lake. A degassing system has since been installed at the lake, with the aim of reducing the concentration of CO2 in the waters and therefore the risk of further eruptions.
In 1907, class friction in France was coming to a boil. In defiance of the strict rules being placed on them from their employers and high-class Parisians, men across Paris were walking off the job, determined not to be humiliated any longer. A great strike had begun, and the working class men who embodied it weren’t going to go back to work until they got what they deserved – moustaches.
#BizarreHistory #StrangeHistory #WeirdHistory
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Mary Stuart I, Queen of Scots - The Actual Story of Her Reign
Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, reigned over Scotland from 14 December 1542 to 24 July 1567.
Mary, the only surviving legitimate child of King James V of Scotland, was six days old when her father died and she acceded to the throne. She spent most of her childhood in France while Scotland was ruled by regents, and in 1558, she married the Dauphin of France, Francis. Mary was queen consort of France from his accession in 1559 until his death in December 1560. Widowed, Mary returned to Scotland, arriving in Leith on 19 August 1561. Four years later, she married her half-cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and in June 1566 they had a son, James.
In February 1567, Darnley's residence was destroyed by an explosion, and he was found murdered in the garden. James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, was generally believed to have orchestrated Darnley's death, but he was acquitted of the charge in April 1567, and the following month he married Mary. Following an uprising against the couple, Mary was imprisoned in Loch Leven Castle. On 24 July 1567, she was forced to abdicate in favor of her one-year-old son. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne, she fled southward seeking the protection of her first cousin once removed, Queen Elizabeth I of England.
Mary had once claimed Elizabeth's throne as her own and was considered the legitimate sovereign of England by many English Catholics, including participants in a rebellion known as the Rising of the North. Perceiving Mary as a threat, Elizabeth had her confined in various castles and manor houses in the interior of England. After eighteen and a half years in custody, Mary was found guilty of plotting to assassinate Elizabeth in 1586, and was beheaded the following year at Fotheringhay Castle. Mary's life, marriages, lineage, alleged involvement in plots against Elizabeth, and subsequent execution established her as a divisive and highly romanticised character in British and European history, and she has been the subject of artistic and cultural depictions for centuries.
#WomenofHistory #HistoricalWomen #FamousFemales
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