Ottoman - TheHistoryFiles.com

HABSBURG MILITARY MEDIOCRITY – H-WAR

Why was the Habsburg army slower and less brilliant than its European rivals between 1649 and 1918? I am certainly no expert on this topic, having read only very generally on Austrian history, but in the interest of providing a basis of discussion, I’ll posit the following general ideas: 1) The Habsburgs were almost […]

Biography, Ottoman

COUNT JULIUS ANDRÁSSY, THE ELDER (1823–1890)

Hungarian revolutionary, politician, and statesman, who served most of his political career in the House of Habsburg, as prime minister and defense minister of Hungary and later as joint foreign minister During the revolution of 1848–49 he was a member of KOSSUTH’s radical reform party. He was elected to the Hungarian Diet in 1847. As […]

Battle, Ottoman

Battle of Cerignola, (April 21, 1503)

‘‘Gran Capitan’’ Gonzalo di Córdoba Spain’s ‘‘Gran Capitan’’ Gonzalo di Córdoba had been beaten by a Franco-Swiss army at Seminara in 1495. To counter Swiss tactics, at Cerignola he dug a ditch in front of his line. This broke up the cadence of the Swiss pikers, exposing them to murderous Spanish arquebus fire. Once the […]

Battle, Ottoman

Battle of Cerignola, (April 21, 1503)

Battle, Ottoman

Battle of Pavia, (February 23-24, 1525).

Despite improvements in the punching power of missile weapons and the increasing tactical prevalence of pike-and-firearms infantry, knights continued to wear armor. They increased its body coverage and thickness and remodeled it, adding crenelations and deflective surfaces. The full suit of body armor was thus a product of the end of the age of armor, […]

History, Ottoman

MALTA’S HISTORY AND DEFENCE

Matteo Perez D’Aleccio’s painting of the Turkish assault on the Post of Castille (21st August, 1565) Map of Malta by Johan Jacob Muller dated 1743-90 Knights of St. John. Knights of St. John. Malta’s history has been one of occupation by other countries in order to gain an advantage within the Mediterranean for economic and […]

Battle, Ottoman

Battle of Kosovo Polje, (October 16–17, 1448)

Detail from a miniature, showing an Akıncı-leader, defeating a Hungarian chevalier. Four years earlier the Hungarians were badly defeated by the Ottomans at Varna. Their leader, János Hunyadi, gathered a new army 25,000 strong, including knights from Transylvania, hussar cavalry, and Landsknechte infantry. Hunyadi inflicted major casualties on a much larger Ottoman army led by […]

Battle, Ottoman

Mohács

‘Battle of Mohács’ from the Suüleyrnannarne of Arifi transcribed in 1558.To the right, the sultan is backed by a phalanx of tall-hatted janissaries. This was the human barrier against which the Hungarian cavalry dashed itself to pieces. The janissaries’ firepower proved decisive. Between 8 and 28 August 1526, the 70,000-strong Ottoman army made its way […]

History, Ottoman

High Noon of the Serbian Empire

The thirteenth century was a period of steady expansion and consolidation for Serbia and the Nemanjas. The tribal zupans became lords and nobles, while peasants were increasingly reduced to serfdom on the feudal estates. Apart from agriculture the mainstay of the medieval economy was mining. During the reign of Stefan Uros I (1243-76) several new […]

Medieval, Naval History, Ottoman, Piracy, Sail

Navy of Venice

The Venetian Arsenal was the biggest and more efficient shipyard of the Renaissance, and the reason why Venice was capable of standing up to the Turks for three hundred years and seven wars. San Lorenzo (?) galleasse in an illustration by eslovac artist Avor. It is based in a Venetian engraving. It is probably the […]