A tale of three cities: Constantinople 1453, Belgrade 1456, Olomouc 1468
A tale of three cities: Constantinople 1453, Belgrade 1456, Olomouc 1468 In my essay ‘Giovanni da Capistrano and the crusade of 1456’, published in 2004 in Crusading in the Fifteenth Century, ed. Norman Housley, I briefly (pp. 112-13) made reference to a fresco in the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Olomouc. The church, which […]
Ottoman Defeat in the Eastern Balkans: the Battle of Vaslui, 1475
Ottoman Defeat in the Eastern Balkans: the Battle of Vaslui, 1475. We approach the 540th anniversary of the Turkish defeat at Vaslui, which occurred on 10 January 1475. Compared with the sealing of Magna Carta (1215), or with Agincourt and the burning of Jan Hus at Constance (both 1415), Vaslui is likely to attract scant […]
Unexpected consequences: expulsion and flight in fifteenth-century Europe.
Unexpected consequences: expulsion and flight in fifteenth-century Europe. We live in an age of enforced migration, as war, ethnic cleansing and religious conflict force vast numbers of innocent people to leave their homes and livelihoods and face an uncertain future. In the 1420s the populations of certain parts of […]
1414 and 1914: the origins of ‘Prussianism’
1414 and 1914: the origins of ‘Prussianism’ Recent days have witnessed a heated debate between Michael Gove, the combative Secretary of State for Education, and Tristram Hunt, Gove’s shadow on the Labour benches, about the most appropriate way to commemorate the First World War. Reacting strongly against what he sees as a left-wing tendency to […]
Crusading in Kraków, 18-19 November 2013
‘Holy war and cultural transformation in late medieval and early modern East-Central Europe’ The glorious medieval city of Kraków was the setting for this stimulating conference organised jointly by Mainz’s Johannes Gutenberg University and Kraków’s Jesuit University Ignatianum. It was fascinating to see how the themes explored at Kraków – in papers presented by colleagues […]
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