Military

Ivan Morris asserts that, among the legends of the prehistoric Japanese past, it is the aura of failure and tragedy surrounding his end that establishes Yamato Takeru as a model hero.

Desmond Seward describes the abrupt end of a European military and financial institution.

Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson describes the failure of the unfortunate Pretender’s first attempt to invade Scotland.

One of the last battles of the English Civil Wars – the Battle of Surbiton – took place in the county of Surrey, a few miles south of London in 1648.

David Jones describes how romanized Gothic and Vandal leaders overran the capital of a declining Empire in the fifth century.

For Serbs the 1389 Battle of Kosovo was a physical defeat against the Ottoman Turks, but a moral victory that formed the backbone of Serbian national identity.

Four years after William I's conquest of England, writes J.J.N. McGurk, a Lincolnshire thegn named Hereward led a fierce resistance movement against Norman rule.

Judith Mason describes how, in February 1525, Francis I of France was defeated and taken prisoner at Pavia by an Imperial army, led by his rebellious subject the Constable of Bourbon, who later launched an attack upon the Holy City.

David Chandler describes a heroic episode during the War of the Spanish Succession.

C.A. Usher describes how, during the thirteenth century, the divided Principality of Wales succumbed to English Conquest.