Takes us through the numerous battles in Wales.

The British Isles have witnessed hundreds of battles, both great and small, in their two thousand years of recorded history, but not all are widely remembered today. Many of these battles are well known, due to their far-reaching consequences, their sheer scale or the involvement of famous protagonists. Even so, many battles have never been properly investigated, perhaps because their importance was never understood or because they have never been included in previous books on British battlefields. In this book, Martin Hackett examines ten forgotten British battles, covering the length and breadth of Britain and some 900 years of warfare. For each, he provides a concise account of the battle itself and analyses its military, archaeological and political significance. Each entry is accompanied by current photographs of the location, a modern map of the battlefield with suggested tours and information on exploring the site today.

The United Kingdom was united in battle - and some of those battles, though an important part of British history, have been forgotten.

The British Isles have witnessed hundreds of battles, both great and small, in their two thousand years of recorded history, but not all are widely remembered today. Many of these battles are well known, due to their far-reaching consequences, their sheer scale or the involvement of famous protagonists. Even so, many battles have never been properly investigated, perhaps because their importance was never understood or because they have never been included in previous books on British battlefields. In this book, Martin Hackett examines ten forgotten British battles, covering the length and breadth of Britain and some 900 years of warfare. For each, he provides a concise account of the battle itself and analyses its military, archaeological and political significance. Each entry is accompanied by current photographs of the location, a modern map of the battlefield with suggested tours and information on exploring the site today.

What is — or makes a place — a 'historic battlefield'? From one perspective the answer is simple — it is a place where large numbers of people came together in an organised manner to fight one another at some point in the past. Yet from another perspective it is far more difficult to say. Why any such location is a place of battle rather than any other kind of event, and why it is especially historic, is hard to identify. This book sets out an answer to the question of what a historic battlefield is in the modern imagination, drawing upon examples from prehistory to the 20th century. Treating battles as events in the past and battlefields as places in the present, this book exposes the complexity of the concept of a historic battlefield and how it forms part of a Western understanding of the world. Taking its lead from new developments in battlefield study, especially archaeological approaches, it establishes a means by which these new approaches can contribute to a more radical thinking about war and conflict, especially to Critical Military and Critical Security studies. The book goes beyond the study of battles as separate and unique events to consider what they mean to us and why we need them to have particular characteristics. It will be of interest to archaeologists, historians, and students of modern war in all its forms.

This is a reprint of the 1989 second edition of this book in our "Armies and Enemies" series. It includes details of armies from Andalusia, Bulgaria, England, Estonia, France, the Holy Roman Empire, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, the Ordensstaat of the Teutonic Knights, the Earldom of Orkney, the Papal State, Poland, Prussia, Lithuania, the Low Countries, Kievan Russia, Scandinavia, Scotland, Serbia, Sicily, Spain, Venice, Wales and Wendland.

Armies of the Dark Ages spans the period from 600 AD to 1066 and describes Byzantine, Sub-Roman, Pictish, Irish, Visigothic, Lombard, Merovingian, Carolingian, Ottonian, Viking, Russian, Slav, Avar, Khazar, Magyar, Bulgar, Pecheneg, Ghuzz, Alan, Armenian, Sassanid, Arab, Andalusian, Near Eastern, Saxon, Norman, Italian and Spanish armies. It examines tactics and strategy, organisation and formations as well as providing a detailed guide to the dress and equipment of the armies of the period. Comprehensive illustrations complement the text and the result is a wealth of information for anyone interested in the warfare of the time. Long out of print, the book has been a source of inspiration to wargamers and academic historians alike. It is reprinted here in its complete 1980 second edition with an updated bibliography.

A look at what world history might have been like if not for the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This is a fascinating exploration of how the history of Europe, and indeed the world, might have been different if the Western Roman Empire had survived the crises that pulled it apart in the fourth and fifth centuries. The author starts by showing how that survival and recovery might plausibly have happened if several relatively minor things had been different. He then moves on to discuss a series of scenarios which might have altered the course of subsequent history dramatically. Would the survival of a strong Western Empire have assisted the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire in halting the expansion of Islam in the Middle East and North Africa? How would the Western Roman Empire have handled the Viking threat? Could they even have exploited the Viking discovery of America and established successful colonies there? While necessarily speculative, all the scenarios are discussed within the framework of a deep understanding of the major driving forces, tensions, and trends that shaped European history and help to shed light upon them. In so doing they help us understand why things panned out as they did, as well as what might have been.

St Albans is unique in having been the site of two pivotal battles during the Wars of the Roses, yet this is the first book-length account to have been published. It offers a gripping account of the fighting, and of the politics and intrigue that led to it, and it incorporates the results of the latest research. The authors also plot the events of over 500 years ago onto the twenty-first century landscape of St Albans so that the visitor can retrace the course of each battle on the present-day ground.