The Siege of Malta

[heydaralon]

This is from History Channel, so it is a bit suspect, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, despite the annoying host. They are rolling burning tires down a hill imitating the fire hoop battle tactics that took place, and showing some recreation of the combat.

Roger Crowley has written quite a bit about this stuff, and his Empires of the Sea discusses the battles for the Mediterranean between Christendom and the Ottomans, ending with Lepanto. He also wrote about the 1453 Siege of Constantinople. These are great history books.

I like this stuff personally, and I was happy that History Channel did an episode instead of one on Cajun Ice Road Truckers. Its an hour long, so you can skip around and watch some of the cooler stuff if you already know the broad strokes.

[GloryofGreece]

This is from History Channel, so it is a bit suspect, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, despite the annoying host. They are rolling burning tires down a hill imitating the fire hoop battle tactics that took place, and showing some recreation of the combat.

Roger Crowley has written quite a bit about this stuff, and his Empires of the Sea discusses the battles for the Mediterranean between Christendom and the Ottomans, ending with Lepanto. He also wrote about the 1453 Siege of Constantinople. These are great history books.

I like this stuff personally, and I was happy that History Channel did an episode instead of one on Cajun Ice Road Truckers. Its an hour long, so you can skip around and watch some of the cooler stuff if you already know the broad strokes.

Are his books good? Do they read well? Which one of the below is the best?1453: The Holy War for Constantinople (2005), Empires of the Sea (2008) and City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Waves (2012) and why??

[GloryofGreece]

Reading this book currently and its good. https://www.amazon.com/Templars-Rise-Sp ... ts+templar

His books on the Peasant Revolt and the Plantagenets are also good reads surprisingly.

[heydaralon]

Reading this book currently and its good. https://www.amazon.com/Templars-Rise-Sp ... ts+templar

His books on the Peasant Revolt and the Plantagenets are also good reads surprisingly.

Oh hell yeah, I listened to his audiobook on war of the roses. I like him too. The Crowley books are written for the layman and they are entertaining as hell. Not very long either. If you are into that era, check them out for sure. Never read the Venice one, just Empire of the Sea and 1453. I like 1453 better personally because that siege discusses how the Eastern Roman Empire finally collapses, but Empires of the Sea ends on a happier ending, depending on whether you are a turk or not. The muslims had been trying to take Constantinople since the Ummayad Caliphate from like 600 years before. Mehmed II was a pretty innovative commander and some of the ways he captured the supposedly unconquerable city are very fascinating to read. This event was a huge morale blow to Christendom and a huge PR victory for the Umma. If you get a chance, look up some of the art depicting that battle. It is pretty awesome. I forget the artist, but there is one painting that shows turkish soldiers and oarsmen assaulting the city*. You see it a lot on the covers of military history books. The other one that is really cool to me shows Mehmed II entering the crumbling walls of Constantinople.


*Okay nevermind, that art is depicting the Siege of Constantinople but it is depicting an earlier one from 1204. This is from the 4th crusade when the crusaders sacked the city, not the Ottoman invasion centuries later. The artist is Jacopo Tintoretto. Look it up, I guarantee you that you have seen this one before.

[heydaralon]

That's it.



This one is pretty awesome too!

[GloryofGreece]

That's it.



This one is pretty awesome too!

That bottom one is cool.

[GloryofGreece]

How badass is it that the Emperor Constantine took off his crown and colors etc. and died fighting the Turks to the last?

[heydaralon]

How badass is it that the Emperor Constantine took off his crown and colors etc. and died fighting the Turks to the last?

Its a great story man, and yeah that guy knew it was over but he didn't go out with a whimper. That was it for the Byzantines, but they put up a hell of a fight!

Steven Runciman also wrote a book about the siege. This guy is a good writer, but his works on the Crusades are very problematic. The simplistic narrative of greedy Christians vs virtuous innocent Muslims was in a large part propagated by him. However, he did like the Byzantine empire quite a bit, and his book on 1453 is short and well written. There is a really cool coffee table book on Medieval Sieges (fully illustrated with battle diagrams and artwork) that discusses the siege as well. Good stuff.

The book is called: Battles of the Medieval World 1000-1500 written by Kelly Devries, and Martin Dougherty. You would enjoy it. It has the battle of Hastings, Nicopolos, some Mongol battles, and a bunch that I had never heard of. You could probably find it cheap used on Amazon or at your library. I am an amateur when it comes to military history knowledge, but I love seeing those battle diagrams and pictures of the weapons.

[GloryofGreece]

How badass is it that the Emperor Constantine took off his crown and colors etc. and died fighting the Turks to the last?

Its a great story man, and yeah that guy knew it was over but he didn't go out with a whimper. That was it for the Byzantines, but they put up a hell of a fight!

Steven Runciman also wrote a book about the siege. This guy is a good writer, but his works on the Crusades are very problematic. The simplistic narrative of greedy Christians vs virtuous innocent Muslims was in a large part propagated by him. However, he did like the Byzantine empire quite a bit, and his book on 1453 is short and well written. There is a really cool coffee table book on Medieval Sieges (fully illustrated with battle diagrams and artwork) that discusses the siege as well. Good stuff.

The book is called: Battles of the Medieval World 1000-1500 written by Kelly Devries, and Martin Dougherty. You would enjoy it. It has the battle of Hastings, Nicopolos, some Mongol battles, and a bunch that I had never heard of. You could probably find it cheap used on Amazon or at your library. I am an amateur when it comes to military history knowledge, but I love seeing those battle diagrams and pictures of the weapons.

Here is a counter point
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DOG_tVDfxI

[heydaralon]

How badass is it that the Emperor Constantine took off his crown and colors etc. and died fighting the Turks to the last?

Its a great story man, and yeah that guy knew it was over but he didn't go out with a whimper. That was it for the Byzantines, but they put up a hell of a fight!

Steven Runciman also wrote a book about the siege. This guy is a good writer, but his works on the Crusades are very problematic. The simplistic narrative of greedy Christians vs virtuous innocent Muslims was in a large part propagated by him. However, he did like the Byzantine empire quite a bit, and his book on 1453 is short and well written. There is a really cool coffee table book on Medieval Sieges (fully illustrated with battle diagrams and artwork) that discusses the siege as well. Good stuff.

The book is called: Battles of the Medieval World 1000-1500 written by Kelly Devries, and Martin Dougherty. You would enjoy it. It has the battle of Hastings, Nicopolos, some Mongol battles, and a bunch that I had never heard of. You could probably find it cheap used on Amazon or at your library. I am an amateur when it comes to military history knowledge, but I love seeing those battle diagrams and pictures of the weapons.

Here is a counter point
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DOG_tVDfxI

Hahah nice. That guy used to have a feud with the late (and Great) leftist academic Tony Judt about European history. Judt hated the shit out of that guy. I used to read their feuding articles.