1.
Charles VII of France
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Charles VII, called the Victorious or the Well-Served, was a monarch of the House of Valois who ruled as King of France from 1422 to his death. In the midst of the Hundred Years War, Charles VII inherited the throne of France under desperate circumstances, in addition, his father Charles VI had disinherited him in 1420 and recognized Henry V of England and his heirs as the legitimate successors to the French crown instead. At the same time, a war raged in France between the Armagnacs and the Burgundian party. However, his political and military position improved dramatically with the emergence of Joan of Arc as a leader in France. Joan of Arc and other charismatic figures led French troops to lift the siege of Orléans, as well as other cities on the Loire river. With the local English troops dispersed, the people of Reims switched allegiance and opened their gates and this long-awaited event boosted French morale as hostilities with England resumed. Following the battle of Castillon in 1453, the French had expelled the English from all their continental possessions except for the Pale of Calais, the last years of Charles VII were marked by conflicts with his turbulent son, the future Louis XI of France. Born at the Hôtel Saint-Pol, the residence in Paris. He was the child and fifth son of Charles VI of France. His four elder brothers, Charles, Charles, Louis and John had each held the title of Dauphin of France in turn, all died childless, leaving Charles with a rich inheritance of titles. By 1419, Charles had established his own court in Bourges and they also decided that a further meeting should take place the following 10 September. On that date, they met on the bridge at Montereau, the Duke assumed that the meeting would be entirely peaceful and diplomatic, thus he brought only a small escort with him. The Dauphins men reacted to the Dukes arrival by attacking and killing him, Charles level of involvement has remained uncertain to this day. Although he claimed to have been unaware of his mens intentions, the assassination marked the end of any attempt of a reconciliation between the two factions Armagnacs and Burgundians, thus playing into the hands of Henry V of England. Charles was later required by a treaty with Philip the Good, the son of John the Fearless, to pay penance for the murder, at the death of his father, Charles VI, the succession was cast into doubt. For those who did not recognize the treaty and believed the Dauphin Charles to be of legitimate birth, for those who did not recognize his legitimacy, the rightful heir was recognized as Charles, Duke of Orléans, cousin of the Dauphin, who was in English captivity. Only the supporters of Henry VI and the Dauphin Charles were able to enlist sufficient military force to press effectively for their candidates, the English, already in control of northern France, were able to enforce the claim of their king in the regions of France that they occupied. Northern France, including Paris, was ruled by an English regent, Henry Vs brother, John of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Bedford
2.
Battle of Pinkie Cleugh
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The Battle of Pinkie Cleugh, sometimes known as the Battle of Pinkie, took place on 10 September 1547 on the banks of the River Esk near Musselburgh, Scotland. The last pitched battle between Scottish and English armies, it was part of the known as the Rough Wooing. It was a defeat for Scotland, where it became known as Black Saturday. In the last years of his reign, King Henry VIII of England tried to secure an alliance with Scotland by the marriage of the infant Mary, Queen of Scots, to his young son, the future Edward VI. When diplomacy failed, and Scotland was on the point of an alliance with France, the war also had a religious aspect, the Scots refused to have Reformation imposed on them by England. During the battle, the Scots taunted the English soldiers as loons, tykes, a thousand monks from various orders formed part of the Earl of Anguss division. When Henry died in 1547, Edward Seymour, maternal uncle of Edward VI, became Lord Protector and Duke of Somerset and he continued the policy of forcible alliance with Scotland by the marriage of Mary to Edward, and of imposing an Anglican Reformation on the Scottish Church. Early in September 1547, he led an army into Scotland. The Earl of Arran, Scottish Regent at the time, was forewarned by letters from Adam Otterburn, his representative in London, who had observed English war preparations. Somersets army was composed of the traditional county levies, summoned by Commissions of Array and armed with longbow and bill as they had been at the Battle of Flodden. The cavalry were commanded by Lord Grey of Wilton, as High Marshal of the Army, and the infantry by the Earl of Warwick, Lord Dacre of Gillesland, and Somerset himself. William Patten, an officer of the English army, recorded its numbers as 16,800 fighting men and 1,400 pioneers, Somerset advanced along the east coast of Scotland to maintain contact with his fleet and thereby keep in supply. Scottish Border Reivers harassed his troops but could impose no major check to their advance, far to the west, a diversionary invasion of 5000 men was led by Thomas Wharton and the dissident Earl of Lennox on 8 September 1547. They took Castlemilk in Annandale and burnt Annan after a struggle to capture its fortified church. To oppose the English south of Edinburgh, the Earl of Arran had levied a large army, Arran also had large numbers of guns, but these were apparently not as mobile or as well-served as Somersets. His cavalry consisted of only 2,000 lightly equipped riders under the Earl of Home and his infantry and pikemen were commanded by the Earl of Angus, the Earl of Huntly and Arran himself. According to Huntly, the Scottish army numbered 22,000 or 23,000 men, Arran occupied the slopes on the west bank of the River Esk to bar Somersets progress. The Firth of Forth was on his flank, and a large bog protected his right
3.
Battles of Kawanakajima
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The location is in the southern part of the present-day city of Nagano. Five major battles took place there, Fuse in 1553, Saigawa in 1555, Uenohara in 1557, Hachimanbara in 1561, and Shiozaki in 1564. The best known and most severe among them was fought on October 18,1561, the battles were fought after Shingen conquered Shinano, expelling Ogasawara Nagatoki and Murakami Yoshikiyo, who subsequently turned to Kenshin for help. The battles became one of the most cherished tales in Japanese military history, the battles were part of the 16th century Sengoku period, also known as the Age of Civil War, and were little different from other conflicts. After the Ōnin War, the system and taxation had increasingly less control outside the province of the capital in Kyoto. Such lords gained power by usurpation, warfare or marriage, any means that would safeguard their position and it was manifested in yamajiro, which overlooked the provinces. In 1541, Shingen began his conquest of Shinano Province, in 1550, Shingen advanced once again into Shinano, and quickly conquered Hayashi Castle, Kiribara and Fukashi Castle. These had been controlled by Ogasawara Nagatoki, who fled to Murakami Yoshikiyo, in October 1550, Shingen began the Sieges of Toishi Castle, from which position he intended to carry out the final attack on the main Murakami castle of Katsurao. However, in November the siege was abandoned and Shingens army was counterattacked by Murakami, however, the following year, Murakami was forced to leave the castle, and the successful Siege of Katsurao ensued. In the first battle of Kawanakajima, also known as the Battle of Fuse, was fought in 1553, although regarded as the first battle, it is related to the two battles of Hachiman fought in the same year south of the plain. Twelve days after taking Katsurao Castle, Shingen penetrated far into the Kawanakajima plain along the bank of Chikumagawa river. Uesugi Kenshin marched up the bank to support Murakami Yoshikiyo. After Takeda withdrew, Uesugi continued his march and laid siege to Katsura, in September, Takeda returned to crush the remaining Murakami forces around Shioda. Wada was taken on September 8 and Takashima on the 10th, in both cases, the entire garrison was put to death as a warning to other Murakami hold-outs. Murakami Yoshikiyo retreated from Shioda on 12 September and about 16 of the outposts in Shinano surrendered to Takeda. Shingen pursued Yoshikyo across the Chikumagawa river but was turned back by Kenshins reinforcements at the Battle of Fuse, Kenshin pursued Shingen, winning another battle at Hachiman. The victorious Uesugi forces went on take Arato castle before winter forced both sides to disengage, from August to November 1555, the second battle of Kawanakajima, also known as the Battle of Saigawa, began when Takeda Shingen returned to Kawanakajima, advancing up to the Sai River. He made camp on a hill to the south of the river, while Uesugi Kenshin was camped just east of the Zenkō-ji temple, which provided him an excellent view of the plain
4.
John Smith (explorer)
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Captain John Smith, Admiral of New England, was an English soldier, explorer, and author. He was knighted for his services to Sigismund Báthory, Prince of Transylvania and he was considered to have played an important part in the establishment of Jamestown, the first permanent English settlement in North America. He was a leader of the Virginia Colony between September 1608 and August 1609, and led an exploration along the rivers of Virginia and he was the first English explorer to map the Chesapeake Bay area and New England. His books and maps were important in encouraging and supporting English colonization of the New World and he gave the name New England to the region and noted, Here every man may be master and owner of his owne labour and land. If he have nothing but his hands, he may. by industries quickly grow rich, when Jamestown was Englands first permanent settlement in the New World, Smith trained the settlers to farm and work, thus saving the colony from early devastation. He publicly stated He that will not work, shall not eat, quoting from the Bible, harsh weather, lack of water, living in a swampy wilderness and attacks from the Powhatan Indians almost destroyed the colony. The Jamestown settlement survived and so did Smith, but he had to return to England after being injured by an explosion of gunpowder in a boat. John Smith was baptized on 6 January 1580 at Willoughby near Alford, Lincolnshire and he claimed descent from the ancient Smith family of Cuerdley, Lancashire, and was educated at King Edward VI Grammar School, Louth from 1592–1595. After his father died, Smith left home at the age of sixteen and he served as a mercenary in the army of Henry IV of France against the Spaniards, fighting for Dutch independence from Spanish King Phillip II. He then set off for the Mediterranean, there he engaged in both trade and piracy, and later fought against the Ottoman Turks in the Long Turkish War. Smith was promoted to a captain while fighting for the Austrian Habsburgs in Hungary in the campaign of Michael the Brave in 1600 and 1601. After the death of Michael the Brave, he fought for Radu Șerban in Wallachia against Ottoman vassal Ieremia Movilă, however, in 1602, he was wounded in a skirmish with the Tartars, captured, and sold as a slave. As Smith describes it, we all sold for slaves, like beasts in a market, Smith claimed that his master, a Turkish nobleman, sent him as a gift to his Greek mistress in Constantinople, who fell in love with Smith. In 1606, Smith became involved with the Virginia Company of Londons plan to colonize Virginia for profit, it had granted a charter by King James. The expedition set sail in three ships, the Discovery, the Susan Constant, and the Godspeed, on 20 December 1606. His page was a 12-year-old boy named Samuel Collier, during the voyage, Smith was charged with mutiny, and Captain Christopher Newport had planned to execute him. The English arrived at Jamestown in April 1607 and, by the summer of that year, the search for a suitable site ended on 14 May 1607 when Captain Edward Maria Wingfield, president of the council, chose the Jamestown site as the location for the colony. After the four-month ocean trip, their stores were sufficient only for each to have a cup or two of grain-meal per day
5.
American Revolutionary War
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From about 1765 the American Revolution had led to increasing philosophical and political differences between Great Britain and its American colonies. The war represented a culmination of these differences in armed conflict between Patriots and the authority which they increasingly resisted. This resistance became particularly widespread in the New England Colonies, especially in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. On December 16,1773, Massachusetts members of the Patriot group Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party. Named the Coercive Acts by Parliament, these became known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, establishing a government that removed control of the province from the Crown outside of Boston. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and established committees, British attempts to seize the munitions of Massachusetts colonists in April 1775 led to the first open combat between Crown forces and Massachusetts militia, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Militia forces proceeded to besiege the British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington to take command of the militia. Concurrent to the Boston campaign, an American attempt to invade Quebec, on July 2,1776, the Continental Congress formally voted for independence, issuing its Declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe began a British counterattack, focussing on recapturing New York City, Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, leaving American confidence at a low ebb. Washington captured a Hessian force at Trenton and drove the British out of New Jersey, in 1777 the British sent a new army under John Burgoyne to move south from Canada and to isolate the New England colonies. However, instead of assisting Burgoyne, Howe took his army on a campaign against the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. Burgoyne outran his supplies, was surrounded and surrendered at Saratoga in October 1777, the British defeat in the Saratoga Campaign had drastic consequences. Giving up on the North, the British decided to salvage their former colonies in the South, British forces under Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis seized Georgia and South Carolina, capturing an American army at Charleston, South Carolina. British strategy depended upon an uprising of large numbers of armed Loyalists, in 1779 Spain joined the war as an ally of France under the Pacte de Famille, intending to capture Gibraltar and British colonies in the Caribbean. Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in December 1780, in 1781, after the British and their allies had suffered two decisive defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, Cornwallis retreated to Virginia, intending on evacuation. A decisive French naval victory in September deprived the British of an escape route, a joint Franco-American army led by Count Rochambeau and Washington, laid siege to the British forces at Yorktown. With no sign of relief and the situation untenable, Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781, Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tory majority in Parliament, but the defeat at Yorktown gave the Whigs the upper hand
6.
Nathan Hale
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Nathan Hale was an American soldier and spy for the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. He volunteered for a mission in New York City but was captured by the British. His last words before being hanged were reported to be, I only regret that I have, Hale has long been considered an American hero and, in 1985, he was officially designated the state hero of Connecticut. Nathan Hale was born in Coventry, Connecticut, in 1755 to Richard Hale, in 1768, when he was fourteen years old, he was sent with his brother Enoch, who was sixteen, to Yale College. Nathan was a classmate of fellow patriot spy Benjamin Tallmadge, the Hale brothers belonged to the Linonian Society of Yale, which debated topics in astronomy, mathematics, literature, and the ethics of slavery. Nathan graduated with honors in 1773 at age 18 and became a teacher, first in East Haddam. After the Revolutionary War began in 1775, he joined a Connecticut militia and was elected first lieutenant within five months and his militia unit participated in the Siege of Boston, but Hale remained behind. On July 4,1775, Hale received a letter from his classmate and friend Benjamin Tallmadge and he wrote to Hale, Was I in your condition, I think the more extensive service would be my choice. Our holy Religion, the honor of our God, a glorious country, tallmadges letter was so inspiring that, several days later, Hale accepted a commission as first lieutenant in the 7th Connecticut Regiment under Colonel Charles Webb of Stamford. In the following spring, the moved to Manhattan Island to prevent the British from taking over New York City. In September, General Washington was desperate to determine the location of the imminent British invasion of Manhattan Island, to that end, Washington needed a spy behind enemy lines, and Hale was the only volunteer. The Battle of Long Island led to British victory and the capture of New York City via a flanking move from Staten Island across Long Island, Hale volunteered on September 8,1776, to go behind enemy lines and report on British troop movements. He was ferried across on September 12 and it was an act of spying that was immediately punishable by death and posed a great risk to Hale. During his mission, New York City fell to British forces on September 15, on September 21, a quarter of the lower portion of Manhattan burned in the Great New York Fire of 1776. The fire was widely thought to have been started by American saboteurs to keep the city from falling into British hands, though Washington. It has also speculated that the fire was the work of British soldiers acting without orders. In the fires aftermath, more than 200 American partisans were rounded up by the British, an account of Nathan Hales capture was written by Consider Tiffany, a Connecticut shopkeeper and Loyalist, and obtained by the Library of Congress. In Tiffanys account, Major Robert Rogers of the Queens Rangers saw Hale in a tavern, after luring Hale into betraying himself by pretending to be a patriot himself, Rogers and his Rangers apprehended Hale near Flushing Bay in Queens, New York
