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Welcome to Clash of Steel!
Featured battle : Arroyo dos Molinos
Part of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
Date : 28 October 1811
Wellington got intelligence that a division of d'Erlon's corps was isolated on the north bank of the Tagus. He sent Hill's Division, made up to 10,000 men with Spanish and Portugese troops, to attack them. After a gruelling march through mountains in appalling weather Hill surprised the French and returned with 1,300 prisoners and 3 guns.
Featured image :
English Civil War Foote
A pikeman and a musketeer from the 17th century. The pikeman in this picture actually holds a halberd, which would have been particularly effective against mounted opponents. He is also armed with a mortuary sword hanging to his left, and is protected by a pikeman's back and breast armour with a pot morion helmet. The musketeer in the left of the picture shows the much lighter arms of this branch. His only protection is his buff coat and his weapons. He carries the match-lock musket of the time, with a rapier for close combat and the powder charges and priming flask can clearly be seen. The event was an archelogical open day on The Mount, York, where evidence of a Civil War battery or sconce had been found prior to building work.
Gallery updated : 2021-04-01 18:52:49
Featured review :
The Castle in the Wars of the Roses
Dan Spencer
Forget for a moment the focus on castles and here we have a good overview of the whole of the thirty years Wars of the Roses. Now add in the focus on castles, an oft neglected element in the strife, and you have a very good book. Of course there is a great deal about the military aspects of castle control but ,as this book explains, there was so much more to ‘The Castle’. Not least was the prestige of owning or being in charge of a castle as this was most probably given by royal patronage. Naturally, given a change of king, new people were given the spoils which included the castle and all that went with it. The post Conquest notion of regional power base continued to hold sway both as military and civil realms and area control meant income. Disputes occurred often hiding personal enmities within the context of a civil war even to the extent of fuelling the conflict.
One thing which has always intrigued me which is reinforced by the information in this book is the tiny size of the garrison in many very large castles. For example huge Caernarfon had about twenty men, Carisbrooke had ten men-at-arms and ten archers, and Harlech about twenty four men for most of the period.
In addition to the general text there is a set of rather good photographs and four maps but, unfortunately do not have a scale on any of them. Only a selection of the castles mentioned in the text are on the maps and it would have been interesting to have a map showing every castle almost as a density and distribution diagram. The concluding chapter and the three appendices, people, sieges, and garrisons are superb. An extensive bibliography rounds off the book.
In summary thoroughly researched and well written. We highly recommend this well-known story brought to life in a most readable form with a new twist.
Pen & Sword Military, 2020
Reviewed : 2021-01-28 14:05:32
