Comments on: Don’t They Know It’s The End Of The World?

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 09:01:00 +0000

#11 this is true! The Powp had excommunicated him, and the Emperor said “dude sorry, can you de-excommunicate me”, and the Powp said, tell you what, why don’t we have a special meeting with all your rivals for Imperial power there, and they can petition me about whether you should be de-excommunicated or not. And the Emperor thought, oh shit, and decided to meet the Powp before he could get to this meeting, which involved going to Canossa in the alps and kneeling in the snow for 3 days before the Powp would see him.

By: CarsmileSteve

CarsmileSteve — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:26:25 +0000

bayeux tap: stirrups and horses’ w!llies!!!

also cracking picture to illustrate, lovely playmobil…

By: DV

DV — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 00:34:07 +0000

Is the Canosa incident the one where the Powp made the Emperor stand barefoot in the snow waiting to be forgiven for something?

By: a logged-out pˆnk s lord whatnot

a logged-out pˆnk s lord whatnot — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:26:03 +0000

this has reminded me of my posts about time commanders: olaf the flashy! i think time commanders did "stamford bridge" not "hastings" where is my lovely aryk nusbacher?

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:54:46 +0000

The abandoning the battle plan thing was smart tactics on Wm’s part I think – a mock cavalry retreat to encourage the Saxons to break their lines.

By: a logged-out pˆnk s lord whatnot

a logged-out pˆnk s lord whatnot — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:50:19 +0000

well the book i know best about it is a gloss on the bayeux tapestry, which is totally pro-norman propaganda, so rather stresses how william won because he was better equipped — “technological determinism” is the fancy term — and yes, i think there were all sorts of factors, certainly the huge long fast march can’t have helped

but superior cavalry was part of the mix, and stuff like that skews into “good luck”

mainly i like it because the tapestry artists are terribly careful to draw in the stirrups all the time!

By: AndyPandy

AndyPandy — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:43:35 +0000

wasn’t Harolds defeat a mixture of his having just fought and won a battle in Yorkshire(Stamford Bridge)then with no let up made his way down to the Battle of Hastings, and sheer bad luck – plus at one point his troops thinking they’d almost won and abandoing their battle plan too early?

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:49:18 +0000

They’re unrelated, so it depends if you want to know about the middle ages or the Persian Wars more!

By: Ned R.

Ned R. — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 13:44:27 +0000

Should give this a read here — loved Rubicon but I missed Persian Fire so maybe that first?

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:49:02 +0000

It’s a pretty crucial element of videogames though!

The book I’m reading about the fall of the Roman Empire is good on technological advantage re. the Huns, whose success over all other nomads is put down to greater bad-assness by the sources but seems just to have been a matter of building bows asymmetrically, to give a crucial extra 25m or so range on horseback.

By: a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît

a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:42:23 +0000

throwing (ie javelins) i think — but yes, essentially lances and stirrups came in together

the whole “oh noez i am out of arrows/bullets run away run away” dimension of battles — which with javelins i imagine comes all too quickly — is not looked at closely enough in films and books and etc (apart from the ultra-gritty realism accorded legolas, who has to go pick his arrows up again after a skirmish)

By: Tom

Tom — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:28:54 +0000

I am not sure Holland does mention the stirrups, though he goes into some detail on William’s mounted superiority. From your summary I am not totally sure why you would bother with a lance prior to the invention of the stirrup!

By: a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît

a tanned rested and unlogged lørd sükråt wötsît — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 11:13:47 +0000

as i am fond of the “overlooked technology that changes everything” meme, does holland mention STIRRUPS? these are routinely said to be why william the conqueror beat harold godwinson at hastings, but surely normans did not invent them?

(value of stirrups: if you’re using a lance in a cavalry charge without them, you will fall off backwards at point of impact, and then the swarming skraelings will finish you off)