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Early Muslim Expansion - Conquest of Syria and Iraq 602-636 CE
In the new Kings and Generals full animated historical documentary, we will describe the rise of the Rashidun Caliphate, its first wars against the Eastern Roman and Sassanid Empires. This first video largely focuses on Khalid ibn al-Walid...

Article
The Layout of a Medieval Abbey
Abbeys were a striking feature of medieval urban and rural landscapes. Their layout and architecture reflected their purpose as cut-off monastic retreats which, conversely, also served and inspired their local communities. Although evolving...

Definition
Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar
Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar (also spelt Velásquez, 1465-1524) was a Spanish conquistador who conquered Cuba in 1511, became the island's first governor for the next decade, and sponsored expeditions of conquest directed at the American mainland...

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Hereward the Wake
Hereward the Wake, an Anglo-Saxon rebel who fought unsuccessfully against the Norman army of William the Conqueror in 1070-71 CE at Ely in East Anglia during the closing stages of the Norman Conquest of England.

Definition
Aethelred the Unready
Aethelred II, also known as Aethelred the Unready, was king of the English from 978-1013 and 1014-1016. His long reign was initially stable, but Viking attacks on England escalated from the 990s onward. Viking incursions eventually grew so...

Definition
Gildas
Gildas (c. 500-570 CE) was a Romano-British monk, known primarily for a work entitled De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae, translated as On the Ruin and Conquest of Britain. Gildas' work is a polemical sermon recounting British history while...

Definition
First Crusade
The First Crusade (1095-1102) was a military campaign by western European forces to recapture the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslim control. Conceived by Pope Urban II following an appeal from the Byzantine emperor Alexios I...

Definition
Dover Castle
Dover Castle, located in the southern county of Kent, is one of the largest castles in England and one of the first to have concentric defensive walls. First built in 1066 CE by William the Conqueror to help prevent anyone repeating his own...

Definition
Works and Days
Works and Days is an epic poem written in dactylic hexameter, credited to the 8th-century BCE Greek poet Hesiod. Hesiod is generally remembered for two epic works, Theogony and Works and Days but, like his contemporary Homer, he was part...

Article
Diversity in Church Architecture in Medieval England
Medieval English churches differed in size and layout. Their original and evolving role(s), financial and material resources, and architectural fashions helped determine variability. However, their look ultimately grew from a constant symbiosis...