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Battle of Bannockburn 1314 - Scottish Wars of IndependenceAfter the death of Edward I, his ineffectual son, Edward II, abandoned the war against Scotland. During the following seven years, Robert I the Bruce, united Scotland under his rule and forced the English out of all the castles north of the Tweed River except for Berwick and Stirling.  When these tow remaining English castles came under siege, Edward II marched north with a strong arm...

Battle of Grandson 1476 Swiss Burgundian War Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, engaged in 3 unsuccessful attempts against the Swiss, with the 3rd ending in his death.  The first encounter was the Battle of Grandson in 1476.    There had been great tension between Alsace and Burgundy, beginning in 1469 when Charles acquired Alsatian land through the Treaty of St. Omer. The Alsatians, feeling threatened, entered into an alliance...

In 1565, Suleiman the Magnificent, Sultan of Turkey and Emperor of the Ottoman Empire, launched a flotilla of 200 Turkish ships carrying 40,000 fighting men with the intention of further domination of the Mediterranean Sea. In May of that year they laid siege to the small, vitally strategic island of Malta. The Christians consisted knights, local peasant soldiers and a few thousand Maltese soldiers. Jean de Valette was in command of the defense,...