News update 11 July 2014
This is our news and ‘fun facts’ update of Friday 11 July 2014. It has been a hectic several months here at Medieval Warfare. Our MW special has taken up a lot of our time, and we have been working hard an updating our magazines and our website and webshop. Luckily for us, most of these new projects are either finished or nearing completion. Soon, we should have a bit more time on our hands to prepare ourselves for a new year. This includes, amongst others a new poll for the themes of Volume V, as well as putting together the right authors for our 2015 Special (the topic of which we will keep to ourselves for the moment, though it would not be very hard to guess what it is). Hopefully, we’ll finally have plenty of time to increase our web updates in the upcoming months.
This Tuesday, my home town, the historic city of Nijmegen, will be the scene of the 98th International Four Days Marches Nijmegen (or ‘Nijmeegse Vierdaagse’ in Dutch), the largest marching event in the world, and the center of one of the largest festivals in Europe (For more information, see: www.4daagse.nl/en/). In the next few days, we will work around the clock to finish our next issue of Medieval Warfare, MW IV-4 (The Burgundian Wars) on time, after which we will take a short break to attend the festivities (as a visitor, not a participant). We will be be back soon after.
For now, I’d like to share this illustration of Graham Turner, showing Walter von Geroldseck, bishop of Strasbourg, as well as several other German units of the period 1000-1300. It’s an image of one of his projects for Osprey, but don’t let that put you off. Interested in more information on medieval fighting bishops? Then make sure you purchase Medieval Warfare III-2. The cover might not be as great as Turner’s work, but the theme’s articles, focusing on such military-minded men of the cloth, are certainly worth reading. The image comes from Graham Turner’s Facebook page.
Moreover, this weekend starts the 2014 Tewkesbury festival, which celebrates the 543rd anniversary of the Battle of Tewkesbury. The battle was a crushing victory of Edward IV against the Lancastrians under Henry VI, who died not long after the battle. It would herald in a short-lived period of peace during the War of the Roses, lasting until 1483, when Edward IV died and fighting began once more. Interested in the details of the battle? Then read David Santiuste’s battle-article in Medieval Warfare II-1.
More interesting updates for the next few days:
- In 1302, on 11 July, an army of a coalition of Flemish cities, focusing mostly on lightly armed infantry wielding the famous ‘goedendag’-weapons, manage to defeat a Royal French army sent against them to crush their rebellion. The Battle of the Golden Spurs was one of the first battles which saw cleverly placed infantry succeed against those mounted and armoured warriors who had dominated the European battlefield for centuries. Read all about the battle and the rise of infantry in the Late Middle Ages in Medieval Warfare II-3.
- Tuesday 15 July marks the 774 anniversary of the Battle of the Neva, fought between Alexander Nevsky’s Novgorodian army and a coalition led by the Swedes. The sources are not clear about the battle, and some scholars even suggest that it might not have taken place at all. If you are interested in the topic, our recent issue IV-1 focuses on the wars of Alexander Nevsky, including, of course, the famous Battle of the Ice, immortalized by Eisenstein’s 1938 movie. Moreover, David Balfour discusses the movie itself in one of our web articles.
