Medieval

G.V. Orange describes how, towards the end of the fifteenth century, Portuguese navigators rounded the Cape of Good Hope.

Elizabeth Linscott describes how English churches and cathedrals, from the twelfth to the seventeenth centuries, abound in memorial effigies to the distinguished dead.

A.D. Lacy describes how, under the leadership of Pierre d’Aubusson, the Knights Hospitallers at Rhodes withstood a ferocious attack by the Turks.

Bryan Waites describes how, both in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic, the medieval powers of Europe found that the oared galley was a very effective weapon of war.

Alan Rogers tells the story of a plot to capture and kill the Lancastrian sovereign and restore his dethroned cousin, Richard II.

Margaret Wade Labarge describes how, in 1247, having resolved to set out on a crusade, the pious King of France organized a new body of officials to help him put the affairs of his realm in order by investigating any complaints against himself or those who served him.

J.L. Kirby describes an episode in the long struggle of the English Kings to keep their fiefs as Dukes of Aquitaine.

Tzykanion, or polo, formed part of the ritual of life at the court of the Emperors in Constantinople. Expertise on horseback, writes Anthony Bryer, was one of the requirements of Imperial dignity.

E.R. Chamberlin recounts the Babylonian captivity, as Petrarch described it, which lasted in Avignon for seventy-four years.

On August 26th, 1071, Byzantine army was defeated by the Seljuk Turks, and Anatolia was forever lost to Christendom.