Introduction The Battle of Fukuda Bay (福田浦の戦い, Fukudaura no tatakai) in 1565 was the first recorded naval battle between Europeans (the Portuguese) and the Japanese. A flotilla of samurai under the daimyō Matsura Takanobu attacked two Portuguese trade vessels that had shunned Matsura’s port in Hirado and had gone instead to trade at Fukuda (now… Read More
Introduction The Battles of Kawanakajima (川中島の戦い, Kawanakajima no tatakai) were a series of battles fought in the Sengoku period of Japan between Takeda Shingen of Kai Province and Uesugi Kenshin of Echigo Province from 1553 to 1564. Shingen and Kenshin contested each other for control of the plain of Kawanakajima between the Sai River and… Read More
Introduction The Siege of Katsurayama in March 1557 was fought between the forces of the Japanese daimyō Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin as part of the Kawanakajima campaigns. Katsurayama castle was a strategically vital Uesugi stronghold in the contested Shinano Province and, when it was isolated from reinforcements due to late snow in early 1557,… Read More
Introduction The 1553 siege of Katsurao was one of many sieges undertaken by the warlord Takeda Shingen in his bid to gain control of Japan’s Shinano province. Outcome He successfully took the fortress from Murakami Yoshikiyo, and seized three more minor fortresses over the next four months, at Wada, Takashima, and Fukuda.
Introduction The Battle of Dyrrhachium took place on 18 October 1081 between the Byzantine Empire, led by the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081-1118), and the Normans of southern Italy under Robert Guiscard, Duke of Apulia and Calabria. The battle was fought outside the city of Dyrrhachium (present-day Durrës in Albania), the major Byzantine stronghold… Read More
Introduction The Battle of Larissa was a military engagement between the armies of the Byzantine Empire and the Italo-Norman County of Apulia and Calabria. On 03 November 1082, the Normans besieged the city of Larissa. In July of the following year, Byzantine reinforcements attacked the blockading force, harassing it with mounted archers and spreading discord… Read More
Introduction The Battle of Civitate was fought on 18 June 1053 in southern Italy, between the Normans, led by the Count of Apulia Humphrey of Hauteville, and a Swabian-Italian-Lombard army, organised by Pope Leo IX and led on the battlefield by Gerard, Duke of Lorraine, and Rudolf, Prince of Benevento. The Norman victory over the… Read More
