The Bloodiest Battle in Britain

[2322]

This is the best piece of journalism I've read in a long time. It's a sobering account of medieval warfare, The War of the Roses, and how 1% of Great Britain's population died in one day.

Powerful and sobering.

Towton, the bloodbath that changed the course of our history

 

[Phil Ayesho]

great article.

Reminds me of the Connections series by James Burke... wherein, to give the folks an understanding of medieval battle, he took a broadsword to a side of beef.

Unlike in movies... a broadsword was not a weapon for killing... it was a weapon for maiming. You hacked swathes of flesh loose from bone... and the victim died in the mud... or days later from his injuries.

As Burke described it... "unimaginably unpleasant."

 

[deleted213967]

This is the best piece of journalism I've read in a long time. It's a sobering account of medieval warfare, The War of the Roses, and how 1% of Great Britain's population died in one day.

Powerful and sobering.

Towton, the bloodbath that changed the course of our history

For the life of me I'll never "get" the European Middle Ages (save a few Happy Days here and there)...

What a mind-boggling and interminable regression from the heights of the Athenian society or even the sophistication (cum caveats) of the Rome of Cicero.

I remember a riveting course in economic history in which we learned that after the fall of Rome those barbaric mammals could not even figure out how to maintain the Roman road infrastructure.

Many scholars tried to figure out why it took us so long to finally "take off" again.

The jury is still out but I've read some interesting theses.

One of my early childhood fantasies was to travel back in time and show those savages a shortcut to the Industrial Revolution.

 

[Flashy]

Unlike in movies... a broadsword was not a weapon for killing... it was a weapon for maiming. You hacked swathes of flesh loose from bone... and the victim died in the mud... or days later from his injuries.

As Burke described it... "unimaginably unpleasant."

I agree...as evidenced by the research and descriptions of the time, medieval combat was not something to be scoffed at...the results can be disastrous.

as detailed in these gruesome examples of video frames from a documentary film about medieval combat

http://volumeone.typepad.com/volume_one/images/2007/07/30/blackknight.jpg

http://vwt.d2g.com:8081/knight_at_the_bridge.jpg

 

[2322]

Gruesome? Hardly! It's just a flesh wound!

 

[Penis Aficionado]

That was a brilliant piece of writing.