Category: battle anniversaries

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battle anniversaries life

It’s the 4th of July!

Oliver Cromwells plump. This week saw the 380th anniversary of the battle of Marston Moor. Oliver Cromwell delivered the tactical move that secured victory on the day for Parliament and the Covenanters. Ultimately the King was defeated.

Then it all went wrong as the parliamentarians fell out which led to the first and only British republic. Oliver Cromwell ruthlessly crushed opposition in England, Wales, Ireland and Scotland to become a dictator- a role he saw as the only solution to the continuing chaos.

The glorious revolution followed his death and since then we have had both a monarchy and a parliament. It kind of works.

Today we can vote because many people down the years have fought, suffered and died to preserve that right for us.

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battle anniversaries Military History

Marston Moor 2nd July 1644

380th anniversary of this crucial battle between king and parliament and in this battle the Scot’s Covenanters made the difference.

I added a Yorkshire rose to the Wreaths
Looking north to the royalist lines
Looking south to the parliamentarian and Scot’s position
The memorial is in good condition built in 1939 and repaired in 1973
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battle anniversaries garibaldi wargaming Mid 19th Century Wargaming Military History Vienna Treaty Wars

173 years ago this month

Photo by Rachel Claire on Pexels.com

173 years ago this month events were gathering pace across Italy after the Vienna 1848 uprising. Earlier in the year protests in Lombardy and the Veneto about tobacco taxes with boycotts had set in train popular unrest.

And then the news of an uprising in Vienna itself fuelled the powder keg of rebellion that had built up since the Vienna Treaty of 1815 had ended the Napoleonic era.

In Milan the people revolted and after 5 days Marshall Radetsky withdrew his forces to the east.

Venice declared itself a republic again with the Austrians capitulating while their Italian soldiers simply deserted – many even declining to join the rebels.

And then Piedmont declared war on the Empire and mobilised its army to march on Milan and Lombardy.

Across the Papal States and Southern Italy into Sicily uprisings installed populist governments. Many only lasted just a few weeks or months.

This week 173 years ago the Austrians were bottled up in the “quadrilateral” (bounded by Verona, Legnano, Mantua and Peschiera). They were about to inflict serial defeats on Piedmont and its Italian allies.

An Armistice followed.

Then a year later the Piedmontese and Austrians did battle again at Novara, resulting in a decisive victory for the Austrians and giving them 10 more years of power in the peninsula.

So in 1849 while the Piedmontese were being defeated to the north, Guiseppe Garibaldi was leading the doomed but heroic defence of Rome under its short lived Republic. By summer 1849 Garibaldi was retreating north into the Romagna, with the remnants of his forces, having fought the French and Neapolitans to a standstill despite being massively outnumbered.

Garibaldi was pursued across the spine of Italy tying up 100,000 troops of 4 nations (the spanish joined austria, france and naples to destroy this most wanted rebel).

Fortunately Garibaldi escaped with amazing help from Italians all across the lands he travelled.

He lived to fight another day – it would be 10 years before his chance would come again.

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anglo saxons battle anniversaries

Recovering Athelstan?

937 AD : The battle of Brunanburh – so the Anglo Saxons defeat an alliance including the Scots starting an island supremacy conflict that is arguably still going on!

Karwansaray Publications run a title called Medieval Warfare (MW) and its sister publication Ancient Warfare. They produce excellent image content along with detailed current views on historic subjects written by experts in their field. What more could one want?

In edition MW X.3 they will cover the Battle of Brunanburh fought in 937AD where King Constantine of Scotland was on the losing side but is maybe better known than the victor, King Athelstan – King Alfred the Great’s grandson.

King Alfred was King of Wessex although I suspect many simply view him as a King of the English (or even more incorrectly British, who in his day were really the Welsh). His son Edward the Elder became King of the Anglo Saxons, an upmarket move geographically speaking. It was Edwards’ son Athelstan who as King defeated King Constantine of Scotland at the unknown location of Brunanburh.

For the first time since the Roman occupation a single person could claim to rule the largest island (of the archipelago) called Albion by the ancient Greeks. And he was termed an English and not an Anglo Saxon or Wessex Ruler.

It will be interesting to see if MW X.3 puts Athelstan at the centre of the story. If they don’t and you want Athelstan’s full story then you can get a copy of Paul Hill’s “The Age of Athelstan”. Paul in 208 engaging pages with few photos seeks to correct the classic “english/british” teaching that between the Romans (dressed in classical uniforms of course) climbing on board their boat to sail back to Rome and William gazing down at Harold with an arrow in his eye, there was just Alfred (the only Great English/British king).

I am just pleased that Karwansaray have decided to run an edition covering such an obscure battle.

Better still get both the magazine and the book and really immerse yourself in a period usually dominated by the Vikings!

ok far too many axes here so they must be vikings……………
Image source wikimedia commons extract of brunanburh poem referencing Constantine
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Constantine_at_Brunanburh.jpg#/media/File:Constantine_at_Brunanburh.jpg
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battle anniversaries

Two 21st Century decades! Where did they go?

Neil Rennoldson editor successively of Arquesbusier (journal of the pike and shot society) and Hobilar (journal of the lance and longbow society) sometimes used his editorials to review centenaries and anniversaries in a bid to inspire articles written by members.

Looking back through history at the numerous wars and battles fought has two impacts on me. The sheer number of events that occurred and have been recorded and then what a distraction they can be from my current wargame projects.

I will start this post with a reflection. The first two decades of the 21st century have seen multi century anniversaries.

War of the Spanish Succession

Great Northern War

War of the Quadruple Alliance

War of the League of Cambrai

Jacobite Rebellion

The Ottoman Venetian war

Numerous Anglo Norman (1202) Anglo French (1214) wars not to mention Anglo Scottish (1400-1420) Anglo Welsh (1211) wars. Plus the Barons War (1215-1217 – Magna Carta and all that)

Then there have been the Polish Teutonic wars (1409-1411) and the Umayyad wars in Iberia and eastern Mediterranean (700-718).

I should say that my reflections only concern European and Middle Eastern history including those lands bordering the Mediterranean and Black seas during the period 3000BC to the early 1700’s.

Turning to earlier times things seemed a lot quieter although I would single out 400-419 AD as one of immense change for the Western Roman Empire as the Suevi, Alans, Vandals and Visigoths swept across Gaul and Italy sacking Rome in the process and drawing away the last great roman armies of fortress Britain.

I might also mention some of the battles from the medieval and early modern periods like Clontarf 1014, Bouvines 1214, Morgarten 1315, Agincourt 1415, Ravenna 1512, Novara 1513, Flodden 1513, while in the east the Umayyad siege of Constantinople in 717/18.

That’s an impressive list so what do the roaring 20’s promise the historical gamer looking for inspiration, or simply a backdrop to the next wargames project?

War in the “roaring 20’s”

In my preferred periods in question not a lot jumps out prior to 1550BC so here are some that caught my eye since then.

Egyptians conquer the Hyksos 1523-1517

Nubian Campaigns of Thutmose III 1429-1428

First Messenia War with Sparta 740-720BC

Nubian conquest of Egypt 732-721BC

Colchis – Scythian War 725BC

Revolt of Babylon against the Neo Assyrians 626BC

Peloponnesian War 431-404BC

2nd Samian War with Rome 327-304BC

Lamian War with Macedon 323BC

Barcid conquest of Hispania 237-219BC

Greco Bactrian wars of Diodotus II and Euthydemus I 230-220BC

Cloemenean War 229-222BC

Gallic wars with Rome 225- 222BC

Greek Lyttian War 220BC

Rome defeats the pirates of the Balearics 123 – 121BC

Jurgurthen War with Rome 122-105BC

Cantabrian Wars with Rome 29-19BC

Tacfarina Numidia Rebellion from Rome 17-24AD

Constantine versus Licinius 314-324AD

Roman Sassanian Wars 421-422AD

Now for some battle anniversaries coming up this decade

320’s – Chrysopolis

420’s – Aetius and the Visigoths (426) and Franks (428)

520’s – Vezeronce

620’s – Siege of Constantiploe and Nineveh (Byzantine/Sassanid)

720’s – Toulouse and Ravenna

820’s – Ellendun (Mercia/Wessex)

920’s – Battle of the Highlands 926(Bosnia and Bulgaria)

1020’s – Shirimni & Svindux (Byzantine/Georgian) and Lemnos (Byzantine/Rus)

1120’s – Didgori(Tbilisi)(Georgian/SeljukTurks),

1220’s – Lihula, Trebizond, Estonia

1320’s – Boroughbridge, Muldorf, Zuppolino, Cassel

1420’s – Hussite Wars, Arbedo, L’Aquila, Zagonara, Maclodio, Patay, French recovery in the Hundred Years War

1520’s – Belgrade, Bicocca, Frakenhause Peasant War, Pavia, Mohacs, Vienne, Siege of Florence

1620’s – White Mountain and the Thirty Years War, Cossack Raid on Istanbul, Cecora, and Ottoman Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth Wars

1720’s – Russo Swedish Naval War and Russo Persian War

The 1720’s look a bit empty after the numerous wars of the first two decades of the 1700’s. Elsewhere the decisive battles are Pavia, Mohacs, White Mountain and Nineveh.

One stand out battle anniversary for 2020 has to be White Mountain. The 400th anniversary of the battle between the Empire and Bohemia was one of the most significant in the wars that lasted from 1618 until 1648. The only rub is that my pike and shot armies have never got going so I would need a miracle to field the armies by the anniversary day in November.

So plenty to go at if my current interest in Normans and Saxons takes a wrong turn.