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Battle Of Visby
The Battle of Visby was fought in 1361 near the town of Visby on the island of Gotland, between the forces of the Danish king and the Gutnish country yeomen. The Danish force was victorious. Background On 22July 1361, King Valdemar IV of Denmark (''Valdemar Atterdag'') sent an army ashore on Gotland's west coast. The Gutes of Gotland paid taxes to and was a semi-independent part of Sweden under King Magnus IV of Sweden, though the population of Visby was diverse and included people of Ruthenian descent, Danes, and Germans. In 1280 the city of Visby had joined the Hanseatic League along with Riga, Lübeck, Tallinn, and other large population centers from northern Europe, further separating Visby from the Gutnish countryside. Antagonism between the city dwellers and the Gutnish country yeomen heightened; the latter were defeated in battle in 1288, despite the aid of knights from Estonia. Forces The Danish force was led by Valdemar IV of Denmark, and composed of Danish and German s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chain Mail
Mail (sometimes spelled maille and, since the 18th century, colloquially referred to as chain mail, chainmail or chain-mail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common military use between the 3rd century BC and the 16th century AD in Europe, while it continued to be used militarily in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East as late as the 18th century. Even today it is still in use in industries such as Butcher, butchery and as protection against the powerful bites of creatures such as sharks. A coat of this armour is often called a hauberk or sometimes a byrnie. History The earliest examples of surviving mail were found in the Carpathian Basin at a burial in Horný Jatov, Slovakia dated in the 3rd century BC, and in a chieftain's burial located in Ciumești, Romania. Its invention is commonly credited to the Celts, [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yeoman
Yeoman is a noun originally referring either to one who owns and cultivates land or to the middle ranks of Serfdom, servants in an Peerage of England, English royal or noble household. The term was first documented in Kingdom of England, mid-14th-century England. The 14th century witnessed the rise of the yeoman English longbow, longbow Archery, archers during the Hundred Years' War, and the yeoman outlaws celebrated in the Robin Hood ballads. Yeomen joined the English Navy during the Hundred Years' War as Sailor, seamen and archers. In the early 15th century, yeoman was the rank of chivalry between Page (servant), page and squire. By the late 17th century, yeoman became a rank in the Royal Navy for the common seamen who were in charge of ship's stores, such as foodstuffs, gunpowder, and sails. References to the emerging social stratum of wealthy land-owning commoners began to appear after 1429. In that year, the Parliament of England re-organized the House of Commons of Englan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Mästerby
A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force commitment. An engagement with only limited commitment between the forces and without decisive results is sometimes called a skirmish. The word "battle" can also be used infrequently to refer to an entire operational campaign, although this usage greatly diverges from its conventional or customary meaning. Generally, the word "battle" is used for such campaigns if referring to a protracted combat encounter in which either one or both of the combatants had the same methods, resources, and strategic objectives throughout the encounter. Some prominent examples of this would be the Battle of the Atlantic, Battle of Britain, and the Battle of France, all in World War II. Wars and military campaigns are guided by military strategy, whereas battl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Visby Wall
Visby () is an urban area in Sweden and the seat of Gotland Municipality in Gotland County on the island of Gotland with 24,330 inhabitants . Visby is also the episcopal see for the Diocese of Visby. The Hanseatic city of Visby is arguably the best-preserved medieval city in Scandinavia, and, since 1995, it has been on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list. Among the most notable historical remains are the long town wall that encircles the town center, and a number of church ruins. The decline as a Hanseatic city in the Late Middle Ages was the cause for many stone houses being preserved in their original medieval style. Visby is a popular vacation destination for Scandinavians during the summer and receives thousands of tourists every year. It is by far the most populous Swedish locality outside the Swedish mainland. The Gotland University is in Visby, and since 1July 2013, it is a department of Uppsala University under the name Uppsala University–Campus Gotland. Visby is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mace (bludgeon)
A mace is a blunt weapon, a type of Club (weapon), club or virge that uses a heavy head on the end of a handle to deliver powerful Strike (attack), strikes. A mace typically consists of a strong, heavy, wooden or metal shaft, often reinforced with metal, featuring a head made of stone, bone, copper, bronze, iron, or steel. The head of a mace can be shaped with flanges or knobs to increase the pressure of an impact by focusing the force on a small point. They would bind on metal instead of sliding around it, allowing them to deliver more force to an armored opponent than a traditional mace. This effect increased the potential for the mace to injure an armored opponent through weak spots in the armor, and even damage plate armor by denting it, potentially binding overlapping plates and impeding the wearer's range of motion. Medieval historian and re-enactor Todd Todeschini (AKA Todd Cutler) demonstrated this effect with period accurate equipment in a series of tests on video. Mac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
War Hammer
A war hammer (French: ''martel-de-fer'', "iron hammer") is a weapon that was used by both infantry, foot soldiers and cavalry. It is a very old weapon and gave its name, owing to its constant use, to Judas Maccabeus, Judah Maccabee, a 2nd-century BC Jewish rebel, and to Charles Martel, one of the rulers of France. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the war hammer became an elaborately decorated and handsome weapon. The war hammer was a popular weapon in the late Middle Ages, medieval period. It became somewhat of a necessity in combat when armor became so strong that swords and axes were no longer able to pierce and ricocheted upon impact. The war hammer could inflict significant damage on the enemy through their heavy impact without the need to pierce the armor. Design A war hammer consists of a handle and a head. The length of the handle may vary, the longest being roughly equivalent to that of a halberd (five to six feet or 1.5 to 1.8 meters), and the shortest about the same as t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poleaxe
The poleaxe (also poleax, pollaxe and other similar spellings) is a European polearm that was used by medieval infantry. Etymology Most etymological authorities consider the ''poll''- prefix historically unrelated to "pole", instead meaning "head". However, some etymologists, including Eric Partridge, believe that the word is derived from "pole". The construction of the poleaxe The poleaxe design arose from the need to breach the plate armour of men at arms during the 14th and 15th centuries. Generally, the form consisted of a wooden haft some long, mounted with a steel head. It seems most schools of combat suggested a haft length comparable to the height of the wielder, but in some cases hafts appear to have been created up to in length. The design of the head varied greatly with a variety of interchangeable parts and rivets. Generally, the head bore an axe head or hammer head mounted on ash or other hard-wood shafts from 4–6 ft in length, with a spike, hamm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pike (weapon)
A pike is a long thrusting spear formerly used in European warfare from the Late Middle Ages and most of the early modern warfare, early modern period, and wielded by infantry, foot soldiers deployed in pike square formation, until it was largely replaced by bayonet-equipped muskets. The pike was particularly well known as the primary weapon of Spanish tercios, Swiss mercenary, German Landsknecht units and French sans-culottes. A similar weapon, the sarissa, had been used in classical antiquity, antiquity by Alexander the Great's Ancient Macedonians, Macedonian phalanx infantry. Design The pike was a long weapon, varying considerably in size, from long. Generally, a spear becomes a pike when it is too long to be wielded with one hand in combat. It was approximately in weight, with the 16th-century military writer John Smith (High Sheriff of Kent), Sir John Smythe recommending lighter rather than heavier pikes. It had a wooden shaft with an iron or steel spearhead affixed. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Billhook
A billhook or bill hook is a versatile cutting tool used widely in agriculture and forestry for cutting woody material such as shrubs, small trees and branches. It is distinct from the sickle. It was commonly used in Europe with an important variety of traditional local patterns. Elsewhere, it was also developed locally such as in the Indian subcontinent, or introduced regionally as in the Americas, South Africa, and Oceania by European settlers. Design The blade is usually made from a medium-carbon steel in varying weights and lengths, but typically long. Blades are straight near the handle but have an increasingly strong curve towards the end. The blade is generally sharpened only on the inside of the curve, but double-edged billhooks, or "broom hooks", also have a straight secondary edge on the back. The blade is fixed to a wooden handle, in Europe usually made from Fraxinus excelsior, ash due to its strength and ability to deal with repeated impact. Handles are mostly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spear
A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with Fire hardening, fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as bone, flint, obsidian, copper, bronze, iron, or steel. The most common design for hunting and/or warfare, since modern times has incorporated a metal spearhead shaped like a triangle, lozenge (shape), diamond, or Glossary of leaf morphology, leaf. The heads of fishing spears usually feature multiple sharp Tine (structural), points, with or without barbs. Spears can be divided into two broad categories: those designed for thrusting as a melee weapon (including weapons such as lances and Pike (weapon), pikes) and those designed for throwing as a ranged weapon (usually referred to as javelins). The spear has been used throughout human history as a weapon for hunting and/or fishing and for warfare. Along with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heater Shield
The heater shield or heater-shaped shield is a form of Middle Ages, European medieval shield, developing from the early medieval kite shield in the late 12th century in response to the declining importance of the shield in combat thanks to improvements in leg armour. The term is a neologism, created by Antiquarian, Victorian antiquarians due to the shape's resemblance to a clothes iron. Examples are depicted in the Great Seal, great seal of Richard I of England, Richard I and John, King of England. Details Smaller than the kite shield, it was more manageable and could be used either mounted or on foot.''Medieval Swordsmanship'', p. 102 From the 15th century, it evolved into highly specialized jousting shields, often containing a ''bouche'', a notch or "mouth" for the lance to pass through. As plate armour began to cover more and more of the body, the shield grew correspondingly smaller. By the mid 14th century it was hardly seen outside of tournaments. Heater shields were ty ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
