Batu Khan, Genghis Khan's grandson, invaded Russian principalities in the 13th century, destroying most large cities including Ryazan, Kolomna, Suzdal, Moscow, Vladimir, Kiev, Chernigov, Rostov, Murom. Novgorod and it's vassal city of Pskov and a few cities in the South West escaped destruction.

The Mongols always sent ambassadors to offer the opponents no physical harm if they would surrender and become vassals before each military campaign. Most of the princes of Russian decided to fight.

The campaign, which was part of the larger plan of the Mongol invasion of Europe, started with the Battle of Kalka River (1223) which resulted in a Mongol victory over forces of several Russian principalities. Nevertheless, the Mongols retreated. Batu Khan's full-scale invasion of Russian principalities' occurred from 1237 to 1240. Most Russian city states became vassals and paid taxes to the Empire of the Golden Horde until 1480. The Mongols had to approve all new princely successions, the Khan of the Golden Horde would issue patents of office and title to the local dukes after they came to him and swore fealty and paid a large fee.

There were some benefits for Russia for the taxes they paid to the Mongols. When they were threatened by other countries the Mongols would send troops to help repel the invaders. The Mongols also got rid of the the bandits on the trade routes making long distance commerce much safer to conduct, Novgorod grew very rich on their trade with India and China and the mineral riches of the Ural Mountains.. The Mongols did not tax the church or it's property.

The invasion, facilitated the breakup of the great trading empire of Kiev and Russia of the water road. The invasion had incalculable ramifications for the history of Eastern Europe, including the division of the East Slavic people into three separate nations (modern-day Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus) and the rise of the Grand Duchy of Moscow,  in 1480 Moscow finally defeated the Golden Horde with guns and cannons. The Grand Duchy of Moscow tripled in size to 500,000 square miles under Ivan III (the Great 1440 - 1505. Grand Duke of Moscow and Grand Prince of all Russia) and was already a small empire when they defeated the Golden Horde and it eventually became the largest land empire in the World, the Russian Empire.

The Crimean War, October 1853 – February 1856, Russia vs the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France.

The Charge of the Light Brigade offical Movie Trailer

The movie is about a chronicle of events that led to the British involvement in the Crimean War against Russia which led to the siege of Sevastopol and the fierce Battle of Balaclava which climaxed with the heroic, but near-disastrous calvary charge made by the British Light Brigade against a Russian artillery battery in a small valley. An error of judgement and rash planning by the inept British commanders resulted in the near-destruction of the brigade.

The last part of Otakar Vavra's epic Hussite wars trilogy Against All Enemies, 1956 (Proti všem, 1956). Battle of Vitkov Hill, 14th July 1420.

The defense of Prague

The siege began on 12 June. The crusaders' forces, in the opinions of the chroniclers, consisted of 100-200 thousand soldiers. In the opinions of modern historians they probably had 50-100 thousand soldiers. One of the most important points in the fortifications of Prague was Vítkov Hill. The fortifications on this hill secured roads on the crusaders' supply lines. The fortifications themselves were made from timber but they were consolidated with a stone and clay wall and with moats. On the southern part of the hill there was a standing tower, the northern part was secured by a steep cliff. The fortifications were said to be defended by 26 men and three women, though in the opinion of J. Durdik, it was probably about 60 soldiers. On 13 July, the Crusader's cavalry crossed the river Vltava and began their attack. On 14 July, Hussite relief troops surprise attacked the Knights through the vineyards on the southern side of the hill on which the battle was fought. The violent attack forced the crusaders down the steep northern cliff. Panic spread among the crusaders, which made them rout the field. During the retreat, many knights drowned in the Vltava. Most of Žižka's forces were soldiers armed with flails and guns. After the battle, the Hussites had won. Crusaders lost about 300 knights. In honour of this battle, Vítkov Hill was renamed Žižkov after Jan Žižka. This battle was more of a political success than a military success. As a consequence of the Hussite victory on Vítkov, the crusaders lost any hope of starving the city into submission and their army disintegrated. Afterward the crusaders withdrew to Kutná Hora and began local warfare. A monument exists today on the hill and in 2003 local officials were attempting to replant the vineyard.

The First Crusade (1096–1099) started as a widespread pilgrimage (France and Germany) and ended as a military expedition by Roman Catholic Europe to regain the Holy Lands taken in the Muslim conquests of the Levant (632–661), ultimately resulting in the recapture of Jerusalem in 1099. It was launched on 27 November 1095 by Pope Urban II with the primary goal of responding to an appeal from Byzantine Emperor Alexios I Komnenos, who requested that western volunteers come to his aid and help to repel the invading Seljuq Turks from Anatolia. An additional goal soon became the principal objective—the Christian reconquest of the sacred city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land and the freeing of the Eastern Christians from Muslim rule.

During the crusade, knights and peasants from many nations of Western Europe travelled over land and by sea, first to Constantinople and then on towards Jerusalem. The Crusaders arrived at Jerusalem, launched an assault on the city, and captured it in July 1099, massacring many of the city's Muslim, Christian, and Jewish inhabitants. They also established the crusader states of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, the County of Tripoli, the Principality of Antioch, and the County of Edessa.

Because the First Crusade was largely concerned with Jerusalem, a city which had not been under Christian dominion for 461 years, and the crusader army refused to return the land to the control of the Byzantine Empire, the status of the First Crusade as defensive or as aggressive in nature remains controversial.

The First Crusade was part of the Christian response to the Muslim conquests, and was followed by the Second to the Ninth Crusades, but the gains made lasted for less than 200 years. It was also the first major step towards reopening international trade in the West since the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

The Battle of Little Big Horn, known as ''Custer's Last Stand,'' has been one of the most frequently depicted moments in American history—and one of the least understood, still shrouded in myth.The battle has inspired over 1,000 different paintings and works of art, calendar displays, comic books and cereal boxes. The golden-haired general and his doomed 7th Cavalry have been wiped out by Indians in more than 40 films. Yet the battle that left no white survivors also left two very different accounts of Little Big Horn: one white; one Native. Using journals, oral accounts and Indian ledger drawings as well as archival and feature films,

October 8, 1656
The battle of Prostki took place during the Second Northern War and was a decisive victory of Polish-Lithuanian forces numbering 10,000 men mostly Winged Hussars supported by 2,000 Mongol cavalry and lead by Hetman Wincenty Gosiewski over a Swedish-Brandenburgian army of 6,500 regulars nearly half of them infantry reinforced by 800 Lithuanian-Polish cavalry of prince Boguslav Radziwill and lead by prince Georg Friedrich von Waldeck. The battle was portrayed in the Polish movie "Potop" from 1974

The Battle of Naseby was the key battle of the first English Civil War. On 14 June 1645, the main army of King Charles I was destroyed by the Parliamentarian New Model Army commanded by Sir Thomas Fairfax and Oliver Cromwell.

The main Royalist military force had been shattered at Naseby. The King had lost his veteran infantry (including 500 officers), all his artillery, and many arms. He lacked the resources to create an army of such quality again, and after Naseby it simply remained for the Parliamentarian armies to wipe out the last pockets of Royalist resistance.

The Parliamentarians had also captured the King's personal baggage, with correspondence which showed he intended to seek support from the Irish Catholic Confederation through the Cessation Treaty, and Catholic nations in Europe. By publishing this correspondence, entitled The King's Cabinet Opened, Parliament gained much support in favour of fighting the war to a finish. Within a year, the First Civil War ended in a Parliamentarian military victory.

The BATTLE FOR WALES is about the rise and fall of Owain Glyn Dwr, the last native Welsh person to hold the title Prince of Wales. He led the Last War of Independence; This Welsh Revolt or "Glyndwr Rising" was the last major war for a Welsh independence movement before the incorporation of Wales into England by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535--1542.

This was the last battle of the last successful conquest of England.

The Battle of the Boyne was fought in 1690 between two rival claimants of the English, Scottish and Irish thrones - the Catholic King James II and William III Prince of Orange, Stadtholder of the United Netherlands, who had deposed James in 1688. The battle, won by William, was the end of James' unsuccessful attempt to regain the crown."

In 1688 William III,  invaded England with a Dutch navy and army and deposed his father-in-law, King James II, and took the British Crown.

King, William maintained the Protestant  Faith in Ireland, Scotland & England, brought civil and religious liberty to the people with the 1689 English bill of rights, and established parliamentary democracy.

The Battle of Stamford Bridge took place at the village of Stamford Bridge, East Riding of Yorkshire in England on September 25 1066, between an English army under King Harold Godwinson and an invading Norwegian force led by King Harald Hardrada of Norway (Old Norse: Haraldr harðráði) and the English king's brother Tostig Godwinson. After a horrific battle, both Hardrada and Tostig along with the majority of the Norwegians were killed. Although Harold repelled the Norwegian invaders, his victory was short-lived: he was defeated and killed at Hastings less than three weeks later. The battle has traditionally been presented as symbolising the end of the Viking Age, although in fact major Scandinavian campaigns in the British Isles occurred in the following decades, notably those of King Sweyn Estrithson of  Denmark in 1069–70 and King Magnus Barefoot of Norway in 1098 and 1102–03.

The Battle of Gettysburg, was fought July 1–3, 1863, in and around the town of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The battle with the largest number of casualties in the American Civil War, it is often described as the war's turning point. Union Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade's Army of the Potomac defeated attacks by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending Lee's invasion of the North.

After his success at Chancellorsville in Virginia in May 1863, Lee led his army through the Shenandoah Valley to begin his second invasion of the North—the Gettysburg Campaign. With his army in high spirits, Lee intended to shift the focus of the summer campaign from war-ravaged northern Virginia and hoped to influence Northern politicians to give up their prosecution of the war by penetrating as far as Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or even Philadelphia. Prodded by President Abraham Lincoln, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker moved his army in pursuit, but was relieved just three days before the battle and replaced by Meade.

It is currently a widely held view that Gettysburg was a great victory for the Union. It is inarguable that Lee's offensive on July 3 was turned back decisively and his invasion of the North was ended.

Perhaps the originator and the first practitioner of what the twentieth century came to know as "total war," William Tecumseh Sherman in 1864 commanded the Union armies of the West in the decisive drive from Chattanooga to Atlanta and the famous "march to the sea" across Georgia.

This was a important battle in the history of the Romanian independence war 1877-1878 , The Grivita Redoubt was conquered with the price of 9000 Romanian Soldiers . When the soldiers were under the walls the officers of the 3 Battalion , Special Division said " Haideti bai ca vo i-au altii inainte , gornist suna atacul " in English , " Come on boys someone else is in font of us , sound the charge " so we can say that in that day everyone wanted to be first in the Redoubt

The Battle of the Golden Spurs between the Kingdom of France and the County of Flanders which is in today's Belgium.
The reason for the battle was a French attempt to subdue the County of Flanders which was formally part of the French kingdom and added to the crown lands in 1297 but resisted centralist French policies. In 1300, the French king Philip IV appointed Jacques de Châtillon as governor of Flanders and took the Count of Flanders, Guy of Dampierre, hostage. This caused considerable unrest among the influential Flemish urban guilds.
The French king sent a powerful force led by Count Robert II of Artois.
The Flemish responed with two groups, one of 3,000 men from the city militia of Bruges, was led by William of Jülich, grandson of Count Guy and Pieter de Coninck, one of the leaders of the uprising in Bruges. The other group of about 2,500 men from the suburbs of Bruges and the coastal areas, was headed by Guy of Namur, son of Count Guy, with the two sons of Guy of Dampierre; the two groups met near Kortrijk. From the East came another 2,500 men, led by Jan Borluut from Ghent and yet another 1,000 men from Ypres, led by Jan van Renesse from Zeeland.
The Flemish were primarily town militia who were well equipped, with such weapons as the mace goedendag and a long spear known as the geldon. They were also well organized; the urban militias of the time prided themselves on their regular training and preparation, which allowed them to use the geldon. They numbered about 9,000, including 400 nobles. The biggest difference from the French and other feudal armies was that the Flemish force consisted almost solely of infantry with only the leaders mounted, more to express their leadership than for combat.

The French were by contrast a classic feudal army made up of a core of 2,500 noble cavalry, including knights and squires. They were supported by 1,000 crossbowmen, 1,000 spear men and up to 3,500 other light infantry, totaling around 8,000. Contemporary military theory valued each knight as equal to roughly ten infantry.
The large numbers of golden spurs that were collected from the French knights gave the battle its name at least a thousand noble cavaliers were killed
 The French losses over 1000, the Flemish losses 100.
Starting forces County of Flanders 9,000 the Kingdom of France 8,000

The Hussite wars were religious wars fought in Bohemia between breakaway Protestants and Catholics.
The Battle of Sudomer was fought on March 25, 1420, between Catholic and Hussite forces. The Hussites were led by B?en?k from Švihov who was killed in the battle and Jan Žižka, and they were victorious. This was the second battle of the Hussite Wars.
At the beginning of battle, the Hussites were attacked under a white flag of truce. However, the Hussites had fortified the area. One flank was protected by the war wagons, and the others were protected by irrigation ponds.  One thousand Johannites from Strakonice led by Jind?ich from Hradec, who was killed in the battle, attacked the war wagons that had been positioned on a dam with huge casualties and no success. After that another thousand knights of the Royalist cavalry led by Peter von Konopischt from Sternberg, who was killed in the battle Vitkov in 1420, rushed a weakly held side of the enemy formation, but got  mired in a pond of mud, so they dismounted, but got mired again. After that, the Hussite light infantry with armored flails could finish them easily. The battle ended with the advance of night and fog. Zizka was then able to escape. In the end, this was the first success out of many that the Hussites would have. The Hussite victory was amazing. Only 400 Hussites, farmers and townsmen including women and children, have beaten 2,000 cavalry. The ingenious use of Wagenburg tactics and choice of position by Jan Zizka would win the day.

The Battle of Hastings occurred on 14 October 1066 during the Norman conquest of England, between the Norman-French army of Duke William II of Normandy and the Saxon army under King Harold II. It took place at Senlac Hill, approximately 10 km (6 1⁄3 miles) northwest of Hastings, close to the present-day town of Battle, East Sussex Shire, and was a decisive Norman victory.

Harold II was killed in the battle, legend has it that he was shot through the eye with an arrow. He was the last English king to die in battle on English soil until Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth Field. The battle marked the last successful foreign invasion of the British Isles. Although there was further Saxon resistance, this battle is seen as the point at which William gained control of England, becoming its first Norman ruler as King William I.

The battle also established the superiority of the combined arms attack over an army predominately composed of infantry, demonstrating the effectiveness of archers, cavalry and infantry working cooperatively together. The dominance of cavalry forces over infantry would continue until the emergence of the longbow.

The famous Bayeux Tapestry depicts the events before and during the battle. Battle Abbey, founded by King William, marks the site where the battle was fought.  it serves as a memorial to the dead and may have been an act of penance for the bloodshed. The site is open to the public and is the location of annual re-enactments of the battle.

This was one of many battles between the Republic of Novgorod and Sweden, all fought over Novgorod's monopoly on the Northern European trade routes to the Silk Road to China, India, the fur trade, and the mineral wealth of the Ural  Mountains, diamonds and other precious stones. All trade goods from these routes going to Northern Europe came through Novgorod. The merchants and the city of Novgorod in general became very wealthy from this trade. Sweden wanted to add land to it's domains and obtain the riches from this trade. Sweden had to capture Russia's access to the Baltic, The Republic of Novgorod the Great to obtain their goal.

Frisians Gotlanders and Swedes, had enjoyed trade relations and had started settling near Novgorod before the Viking Age began. They were the ones who originally founded what would become Novgorod. Merchants from Gotland had their own trading house, Gutagård, and the St. Olaf church in Novgorod. But there were also isolated Scandinavian raids on Novgorod territory. Eiríkr Hákonarson raided Ladoga in 997, followed by his brother Sveinn Hákonarson in 1015. After Yaroslav I's marriage to Ingegerd of Sweden in 1019, Ladoga was made a vassal sub-principality of Kiev, under Jarl Ragnvald Ulfsson, father of King Stenkil of Sweden and there were no more raids. There were many dynastic marriages between Kievian and Scandinavian royal families.

According to the First Novgorod Chronicle, in 1142 Swedish ships attacked Novgorod merchant ships in the Baltic Sea. It is the first known case of hostilities between Sweden and Novgorod. In 1164, a strong Swedish fleet approached Ladoga but was soundly defeated with most of its ships captured by Novgorod.

Novgorodians and their Karelian allies launched a series pirate raids against mainland Sweden in retaliation.
 
In 1300 Sweden built the castle of Landskrona at the mouth of Neva River, a total threat to Novgorod trade. A Novgorod fleet sailed and attacked the castle from the river with rockets obtained from the Mongols and set the castle on fire, then landed scaled the walls took the castle and finished burning Landskrona castle to the ground.

The Neva Fight
The Swedes came with an army, which included Swedes, Norwegians, Finns and other adventurers seeking booty. The Swedes also came with their prince and bishops and they camped on the Neva River wanting to take Novgorod and the vassal city of Pskov.

The 18 year old prince of Novgorod, Alexander Nevski with his men at arms and the Novgorod militia, met the Swedish invaders on the shores of the Neva River, attacked at daybreak and won the battle.