Start here
Medieval Battles and Sieges: What Changed Each Time
How medieval battles get picked as turning points, why chroniclers inflate them, and what nine famous fights and sieges actually changed, and what they did not.
Empires and Wars
Famous Battles and Sieges
Individual clashes beyond Hastings and Agincourt and what each changed.
The Battle of Bouvines
How the 1214 battle near Tournai pitted the French king against an alliance backing the English king and the emperor, and why it reshaped politics in France and England.
The Battle of Crecy
How a smaller English army, with dismounted knights and longbow archers, beat repeated French charges in 1346, and what historians say the victory did and did not prove.
The Battle of Grunwald
How a Polish-Lithuanian army defeated the Teutonic Order in July 1410, why the Order kept most of its land afterward, and how later nations remembered the battle.
The Battle of Hattin and the Loss of Jerusalem
How Saladin destroyed the crusader field army at Hattin in July 1187, how Jerusalem surrendered that October, and how the shock led to the Third Crusade.
The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa
How the Christian kings of Iberia defeated the Almohad caliph in 1212, what the battle changed for Muslim Spain, and why the real conquests came later.
The Battle of Manzikert
How the Byzantine emperor was defeated and captured by the Seljuk sultan in 1071, and why historians now debate how much the battle really changed Anatolia.
The Battle of Poitiers
How the Black Prince's small army captured the French king in 1356, what the huge ransom and political crisis meant for France, and how the war changed course.
The Battle of Stamford Bridge
How Harold Godwinson beat the Norwegian king Harald Hardrada in Yorkshire in September 1066, days before William of Normandy landed, and why that mattered.
The Siege of Acre
How the crusaders besieged Acre from 1189 to 1191 while Saladin's army besieged them in turn, and how the port became the main base of the surviving kingdom.
Related topics
More in empires and wars
Rome and the Carolingians How the Roman west gave way to new kingdoms and how Charlemagne empire later broke apart. The Byzantine Empire The eastern Roman state, its power, its legacy and its end at Constantinople. The Crusades Causes, campaigns and consequences of the crusading movement. The Crusader States The Latin lordships founded in the East and the fall of Jerusalem. Templars and Hospitallers The great military and charitable orders of the crusading world. The Hundred Years War The long English and French conflict and the Black Prince. Realms and Empires The Holy Roman Empire, the Ottomans and the dynastic wars of England. Era Overviews Broad looks at the medieval period and its themes of change. Ottomans and Iberia The early Ottomans, the fall of Constantinople and the Reconquista. Norman Conquests The Norman takeover of England and the later push into Ireland. City-States Self-governing medieval cities, from Italian republics to royal Paris. Rise of the Kingdoms How England, France, Burgundy and the Holy Roman Empire took shape. The Vikings Norse raiders, traders and settlers and their impact on Europe and England.