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A whirlwind of events set the stage for the last great medieval battle in English history, the Battle of Bosworth Field of 22 August 1485. The sudden death of King Edward IV in April of 1483 thrust his young son Edward V (b.1470-Missing, 1483) into nominal rule until his forever historically maligned uncle, Richard the Duke of Gloucester (b.1452-1485) , seized the young king and his younger brother Richard the Duke of York Richard acted decisively; detaining their legal protectors and retinues, having most of them executed. Following the disinheritance and disappearance (and probable murder) of his two nephews, Gloucester survived his own betrayal in the rebellion of the Duke of Buckingham in October of that year to ascend to the throne on 26 June 1483 as King Richard III. His only son, the sickly eight year old Prince of Wales would predecease him in the year 1484.  Richard III charges at the Battle of Bosworth (Osprey) In the winter of the next year King Richard's beloved wife, L

On this day in 1966 the Battle of Long Tan was fought in Vietnam between elements of 6 th Royal Australian Regiment (6 RAR), D company, and NVA/Viet Cong forces during the Vietnam War (1955-1975). The more than three and half hour battle was fought in the ruins of an old French rubber plantation between ANZAC (Australian-New Zealand, mostly Australian) forces and Viet Cong and regular North Vietnamese Army forces. Australian soldiers prepare for evacuation in a Iroquois chopper The forces engaged that day at Long Tan consisted of 105 Australians, plus a 3 man New Zealand artillery team, of the 161 Field Battery who fought in a vicious skirmish in the rain and mud, against a 2,500 or more strong force of Viet Cong irregulars and regular NVA forces from the North. RAR soldier with a US M60 machinegun While on a routine patrol in the province members of D company clashed with a VC platoon purely by chance, stumbling into one another on the trails of a rundown rubber plantation, a late 19

On this day in History 1057, Macbeth, the King of Scots, then known as the King of Alba, was killed at the Battle of [the Peelring of] Lumphanan in what is today Aberdeenshire , Scotland . Macbeth was killed in battle by the combined Scottish-Scandinavian army of Prince Malcolm Canmore, the son of the dethroned and murdered King Duncan I. Macbeth in combat, 19th century depiction The Battle of Lumphanan began when a small band of Macbeth’s retainers, 300-450 mounted warriors and the former King Macbeth were ambushed as they were on the march south by Prince Malcolm’s army near or at the Peelring of Lumphanan, southeast of Essie. An odd looking landmark, the Peel of Lumphanan is a sort of pudgy hill fortification or redoubt, which the saga writers and chroniclers believed was the likely place where the battle was fought and the usurper-king killed. Macbeth was either found amongst the dead on the battlefield by Prince Malcolm or captured and summarily executed immediately after the en

Imperial Glory, Pyro Studios 2005, $5.99 on gog.com Imperial Glory is a turn based war & diplomacy strategy game for PC and Mac set primarily between the years of 1789-1830. As the Player Character nation (PC) you are tasked with being the emperor of one major European nation, charged with making his empire the great nation and conqueror of the world. Players can choose between 5 nations, Great Britain , France , Austria , Prussia , & Russia , each with their own unique advantages and disadvantages along with (somewhat) unique elite and special forces units. Through diplomacy and battlefield tactics the PC is tasked with rewriting history and conquering as much territory as they can in Europe and North Africa . The player can choose two modes; 1789-1830, a score based mode, and then an untimed mode, in which the player must conquer the whole map and rule the world. From this reviewers perspective the score mode is much more of a challenge, more realistic, and better suits the g

The Honolulu Rifles regiment was a militia force of predominantly Anglo-American or European descendants living in Hawaii, formed in Honolulu in what was then the Kingdom of Hawaii,  1884. Founded originally as a parade-social club with their own uniforms, weapons, drill manuals, etc. the Honolulu  Rifles regiment became a potent military presence in Hawaii at a critical time in the island nation’s history, which came to be called the Hawaii Rebellions from 1887-1895. Honolulu Rifles regiment The downfall of both the Kingdom of Hawaii and the independent Hawaiian republic in 1893 & 1895 respectively were both directly linked to actions of the Honolulu Rifles brigade. Hawaii ’s annexation as a territory of the United States was in its day a  diplomatic and political hair trigger argument. President Grover Cleveland (b.1837-1908) opposed annexation in both his terms as president and only during President William McKinley's term in 1898 did the machinations & campaigning o

Wars of Tudor England: Part I After the reign of Henry VIII uncertainty clouded the English succession, just as the King had feared throughout his lifetime and many marriages. The lack of a strong and old enough male heir was a major problem dating back to the Wars of Roses and many feared for the safety and security of England and her realms if a Queen succeeded Henry. Like his brother Arthur, the untimely death of the pre-eminent royal heir, Henry’s only legitimate son Edward VI (b.1537-1553) in the year 1553, worried those royal lords and retainers who had served the Tudor hegemony for many years faithfully. Would they lose everything in another play for the kingdom like the Wars of the Roses from 1455-1487. The only other male heir with a claim, Henry Fitzroy (b.1519-1536), the King’s legitimized bastard had already long since died, a crisis was brewing. King Edward VI of England & Ireland 1547-July 6, 1553 Had the young King Edward lived longer perhaps Tudor succession would h

Through the lens of warfare and diplomatic historical analysis, the timeline of Tudor England from 1485-1553 is fascinating because of the complex nature of late medieval and renaissance culture. Furthermore it was a time where weapons (gunpowder: firearms, artillery and naval cannon) and strategic understanding were advancing rapidly but the medieval style of combat from the skirmish, to cavalry, and siege warfare, remained entrenched in the values and teachings of the past. What makes this period so fascinating is that it was the end of medieval era chronologically, though technically speaking the realm's military institutions would only begin to modernize into the later reign of Henry VIII and his daughters. Henry VIII as he looked in his later reign The medieval influences on the reign of the Tudors cannot be overstated, it was an era which saw the end of the ‘bastard feudalism’ which tore England apart, and signaled the beginning of a modern Great Britain , united under the En