Historia Scripta

Few figures of the Middle Ages inspired as much admiration—and fear—as Edward the Black Prince. Born in 1330, he was the eldest son of Edward III and became one of the most famous commanders of the Hundred Years’ War. Although he never became king, his military reputation made him a legend during his own lifetime.

Edward earned lasting fame at the Battle of Crécy, where, at just sixteen years old, he fought alongside his father in a stunning English victory over the French. A decade later, at the Battle of Poitiers, he achieved an even greater triumph by capturing John II of France, an extraordinary feat that shocked medieval Europe. Few commanders in history can claim to have taken a reigning king prisoner on the battlefield.

Contrary to popular belief, the nickname “Black Prince” was not used during Edward’s lifetime. Historians believe it emerged much later, possibly referring to his dark armor or his fearsome reputation among enemies.

Beyond warfare, Edward governed the English-held territory of Aquitaine and was known for his chivalric image, embodying the ideals of knighthood celebrated across medieval Europe. Yet his campaigns were also marked by the harsh realities of medieval warfare, reminding us that the age of chivalry was often brutal beneath its romantic surface.

Despite his fame, Edward never wore the English crown. He died in 1376, one year before his father, leaving the throne to his young son, Richard II.

“The Charge of Scarlett’s 300 or Heavy Brigade at Balaclava, 25 October 1854”

- Stanley Berkeley (c.1890)

The armor of 19-year-old Antonie Fraveau, a French soldier killed at Waterloo in 1815 by a cannonball.

The Battle of Waterloo on June 18, 1815, ended Napoleon’s rule and brought more than 20 years of European warfare to a close. Around 190,000 troops fought in the battle, which lasted just one day but caused massive casualties.

Heavy cavalry still wore metal cuirasses designed to stop swords and lances, yet they were powerless against artillery. A direct cannonball strike could tear through armor, horses, and entire formations.

This battered cuirass is a stark reminder of Napoleonic warfare, where bravery often meant little against devastating firepower.

The battle’s legacy lingered long after the fighting ended. Thousands of human and horse bones were later collected from the battlefield, ground into fertilizer, and spread across European farms—meaning the fallen of Waterloo quite literally helped nourish future harvests.

Source: X/archaeohistories

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; or close the wall up with our English dead!

(William Shakespeare, Henry V, Act III, Scene 1)

The Siege of Harfleur took place from August to September 1415 during King Henry V’s campaign in Normandy in the Hundred Years’ War.

English forces landed at the mouth of the Seine and targeted Harfleur, a strategically important port controlling access to the lower river and the interior of northern France. The siege lasted about five weeks, during which disease, particularly dysentery, severely weakened the English army. Despite resistance, the town surrendered on 22 September 1415.

Following the victory, Henry V marched his depleted army toward Calais, culminating in the Battle of Agincourt in October 1415.

26th President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, photographed in 1898 during the Spanish-American War while he was a Colonel in the “Rough Riders” 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry.

On July 1, 1898, Colonel Theodore Roosevelt led the Rough Riders in the assault on Kettle Hill near Santiago de Cuba during the Spanish–American War. Fighting alongside regular U.S. Army troops, he rode on horseback at the front of the advance, moving between firing positions and urging his men forward under heavy fire.

Believing hesitation would only increase losses, Roosevelt pushed ahead despite confusion and the lack of clear orders. When his horse became caught in barbed wire, he completed the final climb on foot. The Americans captured Kettle Hill and the surrounding San Juan Heights, a key victory that helped secure the campaign around Santiago.

The battle was costly, with about 200 Americans killed and more than 1,000 wounded. Roosevelt later claimed to have shot a Spanish soldier with a revolver recovered from the wreck of the USS Maine.

Napoleon did an immense amount of reading while exiled on St. Helena.

He brought 588 volumes from France, and his captors later sent him another 1,200 books.

Source : X/AthenaeumBookClub

His librarian wrote:

“The Emperor was infinitely fond of reading. The Greek and Roman historians were often in his hands, especially Plutarch. The Lives of Illustrious Men always appeared on the shelves of his campaign libraries. He often read Rollin. Medieval, modern, and particular histories occupied him only casually. The only religious book he had was the Bible. He liked rereading chapters he had heard read in the ruins of ancient Syrian cities. They painted the customs of those countries and the patriarchal life of the desert, a faithful picture of what he had seen with his own eyes.

Every time he read Homer it was with new admiration. No one, in his view, knew what was truly beautiful and great better than this author, so he often reread him from beginning to end. Drama greatly charmed him. Corneille, Racine, and Voltaire were often read aloud. He preferred Corneille, always choosing what was lofty. Sometimes he asked for a comedy he had seen performed, or a poem such as Vert-Vert.

He also enjoyed parts of Voltaire’s Essai sur les moeurs and Dictionnaire Philosophique. Novels helped him relax. Gil Blas, Don Quixote, and a few others were read by him. He sometimes reread novels by de Staël, Genlis, Cottin, and Souza. He strongly disliked Pigault Lebrun and never asked for his books. Military works and accounts of great captains were almost always before him. Polybius, long desired, arrived only in his final days. Scientific works interested him only occasionally.”

“I do not find anything difficult which I can’t achieve by virtue with Julius Caesar”. (The sentence is in Latin and not in Italian, so the translation is not perfect.) On the pole that Julius Caesar is holding you can see the acronym “MVSN”, that stands for “Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale”, a paramilitary group organized by fascists in 1923.

At the beginning of spring 327 BC, Alexander marched against the Sogdian Rock (located in what is now Tajikistan), where many Sogdians had taken refuge, including the wife and daughters of Oxyartes the Bactrian. Oxyartes believed the fortress was impregnable and had sent his family there after revolting against Alexander.

The rock was steep on all sides, heavily provisioned, and covered in deep snow, which made climbing difficult for the Greeks but gave the defenders plenty of water. Still, Alexander decided to attack.

When the barbarians arrogantly told him to find “winged soldiers” to capture the rock, Alexander was provoked. He announced to his soldiers rich rewards: twelve talents for the first man to reach the top, decreasing prizes for the rest, down to 300 darics for the last.

About 300 experienced climbers gathered. Using iron pegs and strong linen ropes, they scaled the steepest, unguarded face at night. Thirty men fell to their deaths in the snow. The rest reached the summit at dawn and signaled with white cloths to the Macedonian camp.

Alexander sent a herald to shout that “winged men” had seized the heights.

Terrified by the sight, the Sogdians surrendered immediately. Among the captives were Oxyartes’ wife and daughters, including his beautiful virgin daughter Roxane, said to be the loveliest woman in Asia after Darius’ wife.

Alexander fell in love with Roxane at first sight but treated her with honor and married her. Similarly, he had shown great self-control by leaving Darius’ even more beautiful wife untouched.

- Arrian, Anabasis of Alexander, Book IV

On this day in 1943, a thousand starving Japanese soldiers launched a final banzai charge on Attu, a frozen and remote island in the Aleutians and the only North American territory occupied by Japan during World War II.

The island had already become a nightmare battlefield. For 19 days, American and Japanese forces fought in some of the harshest conditions of the Pacific War: freezing rain, deep mud, relentless fog, and terrain that swallowed men, weapons, and supplies. Visibility was often near zero, and the cold alone caused as many casualties as combat.

The Japanese garrison, originally nearly 2,900 men, had been cut off completely. With no resupply, no evacuation, and no hope of reinforcement, they were reduced to starvation and exhaustion. By the final days, only around 800 combat-effective troops remained.

Their commander, Colonel Yasuyo Yamasaki, gathered what was left of his force for a final assault. Wounded soldiers were included among those who could still move. Weapons were improvised from bayonets, broken poles, and whatever could be used in close combat. The attack was prepared in silence during the night of May 28.

Before dawn, the Japanese force surged out of the fog at approximately 3:30 AM, striking directly into American positions. The attack initially broke through the front line and penetrated deep into rear areas, creating chaos across artillery positions, support units, and medical areas.

Fighting collapsed into close-range combat across the battlefield. Rear-echelon troops, engineers, cooks, military police, and wounded soldiers were forced into direct combat as the Japanese assault reached its deepest point.

By the time the attack was contained, the Japanese force had been destroyed almost entirely. Of nearly 2,900 defenders on the island, only 28 were taken prisoner. The rest were killed in combat or died by su***de in the final collapse of resistance.The U.S. suffered 549 killed and 1,148 wounded in combat, along with more than 2,000 additional casualties caused by frostbite, exposure, disease ect

The Battle of Attu remains one of the most intense, isolated, and least remembered battles of the Pacific War.

A French chevalier banneret (a mounted knight carrying a banner) prays before his departure for the Second Crusade. Date: 1146.

“..The route chosen by Conrad was considerably shorter, but arid (the so-called Salt Desert, crossed again by the Greek Army in 1921) and, as was tragically proven, teeming with Turkomans.

The march proceeded smoothly up to Dorylaeum, still within Greek territory at that point. “We… hastened to set out for Iconium under the guidance of men who knew the road. … Ten days of the journey were accomplished and the same amount remained to be traversed; food for the whole host had almost given out, but especially for the horses. At the same time the Turks did not cease to attack and slaughter the crowd of foot-soldiers who were unable to follow the army. … By the advice of our princes and barons, we led the army back from that desert land to the sea…”.

But a day after passing Dorylaeum, on 25/26 October, the Germans came under terrible attacks in alternating waves, both from the regular Seljuk army and from masses of Turkomans under the cunning Emir Balak — unsurprising, since in the valleys of the Thymbris and Bathys rivers beyond Dorylaeum, with lush meadows and abundant water, lay the largest concentration of Turkomans in western Asia Minor (Roche, 2006, pp 85–98….”

“..The Germans retreated for three days under fire from all sides by the Turks, suffering heavy losses. After 28 October, the retreat turned into a rout, as the ever-present Turkomans “struck like demons,” even within Greek territory — since the frontier in the Dorylaeum area had always been problematic throughout the 12th century.

Conrad himself fought superbly, but was struck by two arrows ; “Conrad himself was twice wounded by the arrows of the Turks; … it is averred that this army … was reduced to 7,000. … Conrad at once resolved to fall back, with the poor remains of his army, upon his allies.” Now wounded, reached Nicaea on 1 November 1147 with the remnants of his army. The very same day that 25,000 Frenchmen under King Louis VII arrived in the city, a month behind him..”