familiarisation with medieval europe

[tootee]

I know totally nothing about this period of europe, except maybe there were King Richard the Lion-Heart(ed?) of England who was not an English, Saladdin of Muslim background?, 100 years war which involved christian crusades vs islamic jihad? and nothing else.

Where can I find brief background on the powers of that period, as well as the units and weapons used? Simple reading please, just to get ready for MTW.

Thanks.

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tootee the goldfish,
headmaster of Shogun-Academy (http://shogun-academy.tripod.com)
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[Stephen Hummell]

I don't know where you can find something on medieval europe,and the middle east, maybe something on the internet if your looking for short. MTW will probably have some historical documents like shogun did.
Richard's father was henryII, his father was stephen, his uncle was henryI whose brother was william II whose father was william the conqueror who was norman.Whose ancestors were french and viking. And some of the norman kings married french chicks. So richard was viking, french, maybe english? Correct me if I'm wrong.

[This message has been edited by Stephen Hummell (edited 06-20-2002).]

[This message has been edited by Stephen Hummell (edited 06-20-2002).]

[Darkmoor_Dragon]

Pretty much - except "France" didn't really exist backk then (well not as a nation as we know it now anyway)...

William the COnqueror (and subsequent Kings) alos alterly used their "Saxon/Frankish" lineage connections to tie themselves into the Arthurian sagas to help encourage a sense of "national" "British" identiy during the troubles with France..

FOr a long time the ENglish Kings were considered the Vassals of the French Kings... until eventually the French Kingdom was due to be passed over entirely to the English - until the French (Dauphin?) outlived the Relevant English King by about 2 months or so....

As an indication of how long this emnity survived the Times newspaper in the UK only removed the "French Royal Seal" (As indication that it was published by the approval of the King of England AND France [ie one and the same] in 1937 [need to qualify that date, might have been 1927])

The 100 Years War was that between the ENglish and French over the "angevin" lands in modern france - these were titularly "english" as the old domain of William the Conqueror (and subsequently his sons who fell outside of the English Royal Line [ie younger sons]) - NOrmandy, Aquitane and others (eventually just along the northern coast to the English Channel - they became known as the CInque Portes ( 5 ports)... after loosing everything they eventually only had Calais left (i think it was Calais anyway) and even that eventually fell.

There were something like 5 major "wars" during that 100 years or so not one continuous war though - plus inumerous petty squabbles, border raids, cross channel raids and all sorts.

If you want an interesting semi-historical yarn about the time try reading Bernard Cornwell's "Harlequin" book - its smack bang in the middle period of MTW and a good read (plus you get a good version of Agincourt and numerous other battles)

(off the top of my head so forgive inaccuracies pls)

[Stephen Hummell]

thanks dragon

[Stephen Hummell]

here is a funny story i read in a book. "Towards the end of the eigth century the reeve Beaduheard in Dorchester went to meet what he innocently supposed was a fleet of peacefully inclined Norse trading ships. He directed them to the loyal royal estate and was thanked for his helpfulness by an axe in the face."

[ShadesWolf]

Right m8

As a start take a look at my web site, it will give you a brief run down on things m8
http://www.geocities.com/ihusselbee/crusader/index.htm

[Wavesword]

For the crusades try Stephen Runciman's trilogy of books on the same. Personally my favourite narrative is in Chapter 58 of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire- but the language is rather rich.

[Sir Kuma of The Org]

Sorry got to move this to the history forum. Please continue posting in this topic there. Thanks.

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La vie est un don.

[Tachikaze]

The monarchs of England:

1) were based in France until after Richard Coeur de Lion.

2) did not (or could not) speak English as their main language until Henry VII (1485-1509).

3) all married into German families up until the present (for instance, Victoria was 1/128th nonGerman and the current family changed their dynastic name from Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor in 1917)

This thread should be in Off Topic, unless we have "gone medieval Europe" already.

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Knowing the Tao saves you thousands of dollars in psychiatric bills and credit card debt.