## Intro [00:00] hi everyone welcome back to the history 20 podcast hope you're all doing well um another episode today and today we're discussing the top 10 greatest medieval battles so there wasn't particularly uh criteria that each battle had to fit for this i basically thought of 10 of history's most sort of iconic battles significant battles important battles good results whether it's the underdogs whether it's unexpected and the mainly battles that changed history for one reason or another and i'm not necessarily going to talk about the intricacies of the battles how many people there were who fought on the left flank who went through the middle it was in the vanguard etc but it is an overview sort of of these battles and i'd like to know your opinions if i've missed out any important ones or if you think there's one on the list that shouldn't be there let me know in the comments section below and let me know why you think that just just be interesting some feedback to be honest so basically the medieval period which is sometimes referred to as the middle ages is the period of time that spans just over a thousand years from round about 300 a.d or ce whatever you prefer to say to the 1500 so during this period the world was obviously transformed completely can't transform massively and some of the most famous battles in history took place in this era and some of them range from i've tried to get a good range from the beginning to the late medieval period and like i said it's not it's not usually one factor which determines a medieval battle because obviously the type of warfare evolved over the centuries so this podcast is simply an attempt to describe not to describe the warfare but like i said to explain the results and what they meant for the medieval world so without further ado let's start at number one the sack of rome and that's what i'll say actually as well before we get into it properly ## THE SACK OF ROME 24 AUGUST 410 [01:55] is that i'm going chronologically it's not like what i think is the most important to the least important or whatever i'm just working my way through chronologically so the sack of rome on the 24th of august 4 10. so i'm starting here because a common misconception in the middle ages or the medieval period is that it was all knights and shining armor chivalry ladies and gentlemen etc part of it was which is the period known as the high middle ages which spans from around 100 to 1300 but the reality is is that the early medieval period set the precedent for the high middle ages and one of the most famous medieval battles is the sack of rome by alaric and his visigoths in 410 so for some time the roman empire had been heading towards collapse and events during the third century crisis which i mentioned in one of our previous videos which i'll link above and in the comments section below they'd been partially rectified by the emperor diocletian in 284 but they still stung the roman population almost 200 years later some of these economic reforms and social reforms and a disgruntled populace was obviously there for the taking when heavily armed enemies were standing outside the very walls of rome but this wasn't the first time that barbarians had run sack rome in the early medieval period it just happened to be third time lucky when alaric arrived so after besieging the city for a number of weeks the visigoths devised a plan whereby they would offer the romans in the city some of their slaves out of a mark of respect for withstanding a siege for so long and obviously the romans fell for this and they opened up the solarian gate and visigoths poured into the city and alaric and his visigoths besieged rome for three whole days and the murdered aristocrats the burned buildings the looted anything they could get the hands on and then the left so in the space of three days the ancient city of rome which hadn't been sacked for over 800 years has been completely ruined like i mentioned within the space of three days and to make matters worse the romans viewed the visigoths as barbarians or savages and themselves as superior which made it even more humiliating obviously so the reason that this battle makes the list is because of the impact that it had not just on rome itself but on roman thinking they had been completely obliterated by an army of savages they realized that they were not immortal and that their city was in fact penetrable and indeed the future of the western roman empire would only last for just over another century and a half whereas the visigoths obviously they'd played their part in ensuring its quick demise after the sack of rome which is why that particular sack of rome makes this list now we're first folding about 600 years now for our second battle which is one ## THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS 14 OCTOBER 1066 [04:33] that i'm sure all my british listeners will have will have heard of in the form probably of an advert on tv about 10 years ago for hastings insurance and it is in fact the battle of hastings which took place on the 14th of october 1066. now this next battle is as i mentioned one that almost everybody has heard of regardless so it marked the end of saxon rule in england in the beginning of norman rule and the battle was so significant because the royal family in england can actually be traced back just about over a thousand years to the battle of hastens where we've had an almost uninterrupted uh lineage from 1066 where the norman dynasty were the victors and their descendants were to rule england in one form or another for over 1 000 years so the battle itself actually took place on the south coast of england south east coast in a town called hastings obviously and the english king at the time who was harold the second had actually just finished fighting a viking king harold hardrada up in york and he obviously heard of this inversion where the french leader a guy called william of normandy was coming over so he marched down his troops down the country at an extraordinary speed to meet with williams forces and harold's troops at this point obviously were exhausted from the demand in march after days of fighting over 300 miles away and obviously they're already disadvantaged because of this now williams forces obviously took advantage of this won a decisive victory with harold ii being allegedly killed by an arrow that was shot into his eye which is an image which is depicted in the famous bio tapestry and william of normandy took over england and he was then known as crowned as william the first of england on christmas day 1066 and today's usually better known by his epinem william the conqueror so that was again obviously a significant battle to put on this list because it changed british history forever so number three we go forward about 30 years from that ## THE BATTLE OF ANTIOCH 28 JUNE 1098 [06:32] one and we go to the battle of antioch on the 28th of june 1098. now antioch was part of the conflict known as the first crusade over in the middle east where the christian european forces rallied together after pope urban the second's famous council at clermont in 1095 to aid their byzantine brothers in the east against muslim forces so after winning victories at nisar and doraleom the crusaders reached antioch and their goal was to take jerusalem which they're eventually successful in to an extent but obviously more about that if i do an episode on the crusades um so why is the victory antioch then being included in this list rather than the victory jerusalem so for a start antioch was where it was situated geographically was key for the crusaders it's located in present-day antakia which is where it takes its name from antioch in turkey were present there turkey east of the orontes river which meant that supplies could be shipped from europe supplies being food drink water troops whatever and through the river systems of greece and turkey to reach the crusaders so in addition to this the battle of antioch was actually the culmination of what became known as the siege of antioch which was an eight month long siege of the city which lasted from october 1097 to june 1098. so unlike an attacking battle this one's actually defending so the christians had to defend antioch or all their attempts to reach jerusalem over the previous three years the holy land would have been in vain so eventually six divisions of the starving christian troops emerged from the gates of antioch and the muslim leader a guy called kabor ordered an immediate attack but boermann of toronto who was one of the crusader leaders he'd planned for this and the seventh division of christian soldiers managed to hold off the attack so the christians allegedly saw visions of saint george which boosted their morale and eventually the muslim troops retreated and they scattered in numerous different directions and the crusaders kept all their precious city of antioch which was a key part in the history of the crusades so now we go forward about 90 years from ## THE BATTLE OF HATTIN 4 JULY 1187 [08:33] there in another battle of the crusades but this isn't in the first crusade and it's not a christian victory it's in the second crusade and it's called the battle of hattin and it took place on the 4th of july 1187. so why does this make this list well it wasn't a victory in the fair of the crusaders but the second crew said was a disaster for the crusaders themselves but was a victory for the muslim troops so the troops were faced with one of the islamic world's most formidable military leaders a guy called al-nasiya salah al-din yusuf ibn ayab who is better known as saladin now saladin's muslim troops have positioned themselves very carefully and in an arc shape around hattin which you'll see on the map on your screen now which cut off the water supply from lake tiberius which is today known as the sea of galilee this not only ensured that muslim troops could stay hydrated for as long as necessary but it dehydrated the crusaders because they didn't have a water supply i was in the bacon like israeli mediterranean summer that's not what you want so the muslims surrounded the crusaders overnight and kept them awake by chanting prayers and beating drums and they also set fire to the dry grasser on the crusader camp which made the throats even drier so on the morning of july the 4th the crusader army were blinded by smoke from the muslim fires which gave the muslim army perfect excuse to open fire with their archers under cover so they were thoroughly demoralized and disoriented the crusaders just broke formation and made for the springs of hattin but due to dehydration and their injuries the vast majority of them were simply picked off by muslim soldiers and killed so saladin had taken back muslim lands and effectively ended the second crusade which is why this goes down as one of history's greatest medieval battles number five on our list is just a few ## THE BATTLE OF BOUVINES 27 JULY 1214 [10:19] years after this in 1214 it's called the battle of bouvine on the 27th of july 12 14. i've actually discussed this in the plantagenets mini-series i think it was in episode 2 with king john so again i'll uh i'll link that above and you can check that out if you'd like as well so in 1212 king philip ii of france had planned to cross the english channel and take england for himself and this had scared king john enough to realize how vulnerable he was with less than 30 miles of water between the two feuding kingdoms so as a response john made peace with the church he'd been effectively placed on the suspension by pope innocent iii and 1208 because of his constant arguing with the church but this came at a cost because he promised to surrender his kingdom to the pope as well as pay an annual sum of a thousand marks to innocent and his successes in perpetuity now a 14th century chronicler guy called henry knight and actually noted that john had turned himself from a free man into a slave because of this so as a result john had no option but to go to war and his forces along with those of the holy roman empire under otto the fourth met at bouveen and france and the allied army of 9 000 outnumbered phillips army by 2000 because he had 7000 troops so john was actually at an advantage nevertheless though the french army destroyed john's forces and completely destroyed any hopes of john regan and his territory back and this is a hugely significant medieval battle for a number of reasons so firstly it signified the early collapse of the plantagenet empire so all of the territory that had been won under john's father henry ii was now lost secondly it ended the anglo-french war of 12 13-14 and thirdly it changed the course of english history forever realising how weakened he actually was johns barrens forced him into signing the magna carta which is a legal document which still holds precedent in english law over 800 years later you can check out more about the magna carta in my video about king john which as i mentioned it'll be linked above or it'll be linked in the comments below ## THE BATTLE OF BANNOCKBURN 24 JUNE 1314 [12:22] so moving on to number six the battle of bannockburn on the 24th of june 1314 so we're 100 years ahead of bouvin now still under plantagenet rule so we're now in the reign of king john's great grandson edward ii and it's another one of history's greatest battles the battle of bonnet burn so bannockbone was part of the anglo-scottish wars which stretched from the late 13th to mid 14th centuries and again i've mentioned this in the plantations mini series go and check that out if you like so the scottish king robert the first better known as robert the bruce had reclaimed both roxboro castle and edinburgh castle in early 1314 which essentially invited the english to war in scotland so the resulting confrontation was the battle of bannockburn which was one of the most catastrophic defeats in english history it was a disaster before the battle had even begun because the earls the english earls of gloucester and hereford argued over who should lead the vanguard and edward ii actually accused the earl of gloucester of being a coward which isn't ideal in the hours before a battle so enraged by the king's comments gloucester charged forward to meet the scottish forces and he was killed the scottish army then forced the english back into the bannockburn stream and trapped them in between the banks the english forces just lost formation and broke ranks completely and to rub salt into the english wounds it's estimated that bruce's scottish force is only numbered 6 000 compared to edward's army of 20 000 so such a huge military disaster tainted edward ii's reputation as king particularly given that his father edward the first known as the hammer of the scots was so successful against the scots and to make mata's worse posthumously for edward ii his son edward iii was also successful against the scots on numerous occasions which just tarnishes edward the second's reputation even more and funnily enough it's edward iii who we turn to next but will not turn into ## THE BATTLE OF SLUYS 24 JUNE 1340 [14:14] one of his anglo-scottish victories return to the battle of sluis and sluice in the 24th of june 1340 so exactly 26 years after bannockburn but we're now in france so so far all the battles that we've discussed have been land based but this is different it's a naval battle and it's part of the hundred years war which lasted from 1337 to 1453 and it was one of edward iii's most notable victories and a huge victory for england so with king philip the sixth of france having his attention set on the north sea in early 1340 edward iii knew he had to defend his kingdom however the odds were instead in phillips favor because by june he'd amassed a fleet of 213 ships while edward mustered about 150 so edward's english forces met phillips french forces at the bay of sluice in flanders and the french fleet was defending the bear while edward's advanced towards them but philip had made sure that his ships would change to get chained together so as to make an impenetrable barrier against the english forces however after about four hours of combat the english ships broke through the first line of the french defense and then the french capitulated and edward captured all but 23 of the french ships and estimates of between 16 000 and 18 000 french seamen and soldiers lost their lives including all of phillips admirals so it was a huge loss for france and it turned the 100 years war in favor of england so that's again why this belongs on this list so we move to number eight we're going a ## THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT 25 OCTOBER 1415 [15:44] few years ahead still in the hundred years war though to a battle that most english people will have heard of and probably most french people as well and that is of course the battle of agincourt on the 25th of october 14 15. so under the lancastrian king henry v english forces emerged victorious not just one of the greatest medieval battles of all time but one of history's greatest underdog stories so after a few decades of relative peace in the hundred years war because of the black death um an economic crisis since then england and france had resumed negotiations but they soon turned sour so as a result england began to re-arm and re-prepare for war this time under edward iii's great-grandson henry v so in the ensuing campaigns english numbers have been decimated by disease and they tried to withdraw from english-held color but they found our route blocked by french forces at agincourt despite their severe numerical disadvantage which was around seven thousand england so english soldiers to about 25 000 french soldiers henry v had no other option but to fight his way out so the french force is led by a normal man called charles dalbruy who was chuck because king charles vi of france was severely mentally ill and incapable of leading an army while henry v commanded the english army so the english longbows which had shown such prominence in the early battles of the hundred years war under edward iii in conflict such as cressie and puerto once again proved their superiority especially in the boggy marshy ground of agincourt because the weather conditions were terrible we're told i wasn't there obviously now the english forces rooted the french and they lost about 600 men compared to 6 000 french who were killed and 2 000 who were captured and mostly executed and the reason that ajinko belongs on this list is because it turned 100 years war back in the favor of england and it also proved that the longbow despite being used for almost a century was still the superior weapon of the day and it also cemented king henry v's reputation as one of england's greatest ever kings if you look at the greatest kings of england list henry v is always on there he's up there with edward the first edward the third and henry viii and it's largely because of agincourse that's why that belongs on this list now number nine we're still in the 15th ## THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE 29 MAY 1453 [18:00] century we go to 1453 which is a date that might ring true to some people and we go to the fall of constantinople on the 29th of may 1453 so it's the tragic story of the fall of constantino i suppose it's tragic whichever side you're on really but um the fall of constantinople which signaled the final collapse of the roman empire and it's actually sometimes known as a conquest of istanbul in turkish which is you'll understand a minute when i explain that but it's the culmination of a 53 day siege of the city which at the time was the capital of the byzantine empire so the byzantine empire had been formed under the roman emperor constantine the first in 330 and established as a state in its own right in 395 and it survived as the eastern roman empire after the collapse of the western roman empire in the 6th century so due to centuries of conflict between the eastern and western orthodox churches the byzantines were effectively left on their own to defend their city after they'd predicted there was going to be an assault from the ottomans now unfortunately this story isn't one of underdogs the ottoman army which is commanded by the 21 year old sultan mehmed ii who became known as mehmed the conqueror numbered almost 200 000 while the byzantines had just over 10 000 so it was always going to be an ottoman victory i'm not going to bore you with the details of the siege because pretty sure you can guess the ottomans absolutely obliterated them so the byzantines were led by emperor constantine the eleventh pelagic palais law just poli lord just something like that i don't know you tell me if i pronounced that wrong so i'm pretty sure i have and as i mentioned they were completely destroyed by mehmed's forces and mehmed made constantinople a new capital of the ottoman empire it was renamed istanbul after his victory and it not only ended the byzantine empire but the roman empire which could be traced back to 27 bce which ended a 1500 year rule of the roman empire now this is one of the most significant battles of all time not just a key medieval battle because it enabled the ottomans to pursue further into europe and they gained much more territory in the balkans and they still exhibit a muslim influence to this day particularly in countries such as albania and bosnia and herzegovina which have uh high muslim populations and furthermore it led to a change in warfare so sieges are often held up against turrets which were firing huge boulders at the thick uh castle walls but with the onset of gunpowder the castle has crumbled and changed military tactics forever and finally the fall of constantinople is such a key event in medieval history that it's sometimes referred to as the end of the middle ages and the ushering in of the early modern period however some historians could myself disagree instead to prefer to turn to 1492 where the final battle on this list ends ## THE FALL OF GRANADA 2 JANUARY 1492 [20:44] so number 10 the fall of granada 2nd of january 1492. so the whole year 1492 is often used to describe the change from the medieval period to the early modern period that's largely due to christopher columbus's inverted commas discovery of the americas however i think the fall of grenada is just as important in european history so muslims had ruled the iberian peninsula in various areas since the conquest of al-andalu since 7-eleven so thus the fall of granada which was the muslims last stand in iberia ended 781 years of muslim rule in the peninsula which was never to return again in any great form like it had done then now the granada war had been going on since 1482 with various conflicts and battles but they all eventually culminated in the fall of granada in 1492. so the grenadine defenders were also plagued with internal conflicts and disagreements while the christian forces remained unified and united under the monarchs ferdinand ii of aragon and isabella the first of castile who are two monarchs who are some of spanish history's most revered and respected rulers of all time so by unifying their kingdoms they defeated their mutual enemy now eventually after realizing there was nowhere else to turn to muhammad the 12th who was also known as bob deal surrendered the magnificent alhambra palace to the christian forces who moved in and allegedly bob deal's mother was so disappointed when he wept as he handed the keys to the alhambra over that she said you do well my son to cry like a woman for what you couldn't defend like a man now that's pretty damning quote in itself and shows again the values of the 15th century are quite different to ours today which might not come as a surprise but anyway however just because granada was now in christian hands it didn't end all conflict if anything it prevented the religious co-existence which had survived for centuries so all of the jews were forced to convert christianity or face exile and the same applied for the muslims but even those who did convert were known as crypto jews or crypto muslims and they weren't respected enough respected as much as the traditional christians that had come from spain and the iberian peninsula and this is another thing which led to the spanish inquisition which i'm not going to discuss today but that's if you want to hear about that let me know in the comments below and i'll see what i can do so even so the fall of granada is definitely one of history's most significant medieval battles because of how it affected the iberian peninsula to this day so evidence of the muslim influence is still very much present in the wonderful alhambra palace today with the decor and the traditional muslim um architecture in there you can still see that in there today um but it's also clear in spain's highly catholic population today that islam has well and truly left the iberian peninsula forever i think but history will only tell and that is it for this episode so i hope you enjoyed it let me know if there's anything i missed out like comment and subscribe you subscribe share this this would be excellent and i will see you at the next video thanks for tuning in see you next time