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It's Nick Holmes from the Byzantium and the Crusades podcast. Although I'm no longer making new episodes of this podcast, I thought you might be interested in my latest project which is a series of books as well as a new podcast on the Fall of the Roman Empire. And I'm contacting you because my latest book, and the fourth in my Roman series, called ‘Justinian's Empire', is out now on Amazon in ebook and paperback. It will be with other distributors later and also available in audiobook probably within the next six months. It's about the triumph and tragedy of the late Roman Emperor Justinian's reign. Triumph because Justinian's general, Belisarius, recovered North Africa and Italy from the barbarians. Justinian also created a new law code that would endure to this day. And he built extraordinary monuments, like the iconic Hagia Sophia in modern Istanbul, rivalling the great buildings of Ancient Rome. But all that glitters is not gold. There was also tragedy in his reign, especially with a mini ice-age that caused famine and bubonic plague. And I also suggest Justinian was a ruthless opportunist, and his western conquests drained the empire's wealth and critically weakened its army.So, rather than restoring Rome's greatness did he in fact pave the way for its catastrophic collapse less than a century after his death? I think the ebook is also really good value at only $4.99 in the US and £3.99 in the UK – probably cheaper than a cup of over-priced coffee! – and certainly cheaper than most other books on the Roman Empire. Paperback is obviously more expensive since I can't control the printing costs.The links to Amazon US and Amazon UK are in the notes to this and I do hope you'll take a look, and if you do buy it and you're feeling generous why not leave a review? I'd love to hear your feedback.Thanks for listening and I hope you continue to enjoy Byzantium and the Crusades!Please take a look at my website nickholmesauthor.com where you can download a free copy of The Byzantine World War, my book that describes the origins of the First Crusade.
Just a quick update to let you know if you like this podcast you can get the book on which it's based for free on my website nickholmesauthor.com. It's called The Byzantine World War, and it's about the origins of the First Crusade and suggests that it really began as the result of the defeat of the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. This caused a revolution in the Middle-East when the Turks overran the hitherto Greek-speaking region of Anatolia – which is now modern Turkey.What makes the story particularly exciting is that I suggest the Byzantines were actually winning the Battle of Manzikert until the emperor was betrayed by his own jealous nobles. So, history might easily have taken a totally different route. Indeed, there might not have been any Crusades at all.The book has been a bestseller on Amazon where it has over 400 reviews, so why not click on the link in the show notes which will take you to the offer on my website. You can also stay in touch with my latest historical research and books which are focused on the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Get your free book Here! Hope you enjoy it and look forward to staying in touch on Byzantine, Roman and Crusader history!Â
I wanted to let you know my latest book, Rome and Attila, is now available on Amazon in ebook and paperback, links in the episode notes. It's about one of the most infamous figures in history—Attila the Hun. He's a household name, but remarkably little is known about him and his popular legend as a brutal tyrant is not necessarily correct. I delve into the primary sources in search of the real Attila and find someone very different from the legend—a complex, captivating personality who despised ostentation, admired bravery and valued loyalty. Thanks for your time and I hope you enjoy it!Link to buy the book Amazon.comLink to buy the book Amazon.co.uk
I wanted to let you know my book The Byzantine World War is available for free here. It's about the reign of Romanos Diogenes and his defeat at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071 which led to the First Crusade. It's a thrilling story and the book has nearly 400 Amazon reviews, so why not click on the link and download it for free! Hope you enjoy it!
I wanted to let you know my latest book, The Fall of Rome, is now available on Amazon in ebook and paperback. It's about how the unthinkable happened in AD 410 when Rome was sacked by the Goths. Although it's about Rome rather than Byzantium, you might be interested because it's very relevant as background to how Byzantium and the Christian kingdoms of western Europe developed. It's only $3.99 for the ebook and $11.99 for the paperback. I hope you enjoy it!
This is just to let you know that you can get my ebook called The Roman Revolution, which accompanies the first part of my new podcast on the Fall of the Roman Empire, at a discounted price at Amazon for the next few days (until 29th September). It focuses on the transition from the classical Roman Empire to Constantine's Christian-centred empire run out of Constantinople. It's priced at 99 cents or pence in the US, UK, Canada and Australia. Links to it on Amazon by country are below.Link to US Link to UKLink to CanadaLink to Australia
I thought you might be interested to know that I've just published a book called The Roman Revolution. This is about the Roman Empire in the third century when Rome was truly revolutionized and ended up as a Christian monarchy. This was the origin of the Byzantine Empire, and so if you're interested in the Crusades, you might well enjoy this much earlier time in history which was so formative for both Byzantium and the Crusades.  Here is the link to the book on Amazon US. One click and you're there! Hope you enjoy it!Â
On the 29th May, 1453, the city of Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks. It was the final end of Byzantium. It was also the final end of the Crusades. Indeed, many historians regard it as the end of the Middle Ages. I regret to say that this episode is also the end of this podcast. But I am delighted to say that I have a new podcast called "The Fall of the Roman Empire"! And I would be thrilled if you would like to tune into that. See you there!
The Ottoman Sultan, Mehmet II, has decided to launch an all-out attack on the city of Constantinople. But the brave defenders are prepared. They resist wave after wave of Turkish troops until their luck runs out with a cruel twist of fate.Â
For seven weeks the Turks had besieged Constantinople. But all they had to show for it were heavy casualties and not a single victory either on land or at sea. The Turkish Sultan, Mehmet II, had a moment of doubt. Should he abandon the siege? Find out in this episode.
Constantinople is surrounded. For seven weeks, it has endured Turkish attacks by land and sea. Its defenders have fought heroically but now they are exhausted. But so too are the Turks. Their losses have been huge and the Turkish Sultan, Mehmet II, starts to wonder whether he should call the siege off.
The Ottoman Turks have dragged their ships overland into the Golden Horn and Constantinople is now surrounded on all sides. In desperation, the defenders plan for a night attack to destroy the Turkish fleet and a last appeal to the West for help.
Constantinople was probably the best fortified city in the medieval world. But it had one weak spot. To the north of the city lay the Golden Horn, the wide estuary that was blocked to enemy ships by a great iron chain. The Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II pondered long and hard how to break into the Golden Horn. Then he came up with an extraordinary idea.
With over 100,000 Turkish soldiers facing them, the 7,000 or so defenders of Constantinople awaited the first attack. All they could do was to hope and pray for a miracle.
As the Turkish army approached Constantinople in 1453, the Byzantine defenders were joined by a handful of Genoese, Venetians and other adventurers prepared to join the fight to save the great Christian city.
By 1452, the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II had decided to launch a huge attack on the ancient city of Constantinople. But as he gathered his army from all over his dominions, he knew that he would need more than soldiers. To breach the ancient walls he would need gunpowder and cannons!
With the Ottoman Turks closing in on Constantinople, the Byzantine Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologus made a last desperate appeal to the West for help. But would it be too little and too late?
The Ottoman onslaught against Constantinople is getting closer. Two new leaders emerge on either side. Constantine XI Palaiologos, the last Emperor of Byzantium, and the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II, better known as Mehmet the Conqueror. Both men will go down in history as great heroes - discover why in this podcast.
In the fourteenth century, the growing power of the Ottoman Turks seemed unstoppable. But there was one man who checked it. This was Timur the Lame, or Tamerlane, as he was called in Europe. Of mixed Turkish and Mongol descent, he created a vast empire at the end of the fourteenth century that was modelled on the Mongol Empire of the legendary Genghis Khan.
In the thirteenth century, the Mongols destroyed the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum in Anatolia. But after the Mongols left, a new Turkish dynasty began to rise to power in western Anatolia. This dynasty was that of the Ottomans.Â
In this new mini-series, we will hear about the fall of Byzantine Constantinople in 1453 to the Ottoman Turks. Many people see it as a turning point in history, marking the end of the Middle Ages. But what really happened? Find out here.Â
The year is 1396. The Ottoman Turks are threatening to conquer Eastern Europe and take Constantinople from the Byzantines. A new Crusade against them is proclaimed, and a great international army from Hungary and Western Europe is raised to meet them in battle.
As Crusading enthusiasm faded in Europe in the fourteenth century, in the East an obscure Turkish emir called Osman founded a new dynasty. This would rise to become one of the greatest empires in the world: the Ottoman Turks. The response in Europe was to call for a new crusade.
Although the Crusading spirit of the eleventh century had faded in Europe after the fall of Outremer in 1291, there was still enough interest in 1365 to launch one last Crusade to recover the Holy Land. It would be remembered for its particular destruction and brutality.
With Outremer destroyed in 1291, Christian Europe lost its final link with the original crusading ideology focused on the capture of Jerusalem. What then should happen to the three religious Military Orders which had been established to defend Outremer - the Templars, the Hospitallers and the Teutonic Knights? A particularly grim fate awaited the Templars, which has served as the inspiration for countless myths and conspiracy theories, not least that contained in Dan Brown's bestseller The Da Vinci Code.
The year is 1291. Outremer, as the Crusader states in the Middle East were called, has one last great battle to fight as a vast Mamluk army advances on Acre, the Crusader capital.
The year is 1287. The final countdown to the destruction of the Crusader states in the Holy Land has begun. But there is a strange air of complacency among the last Crusaders as the final storm begins to build.
In the 1280s, the age of the Crusaders was nearly over. But the Mongols, still the most powerful empire on the planet, were keen to unite with Christian Europe to defeat the Mamluks. So, what went wrong? Find out in this episode.
Baibars, the Mamluk Sultan, is on the verge of destroying the Crusaders. But there is one last hope of help from the West. The English King Henry III has vowed to go on crusade. Now an old man, he sends his son, Prince Edward, to the Holy Land to lead the Ninth Crusade.
Having defeated both the Crusaders and the Mongols, the Mamluk leader, Sultan Baibars, wanted to destroy the Crusaders once and for all. In 1268, he attacked Antioch, one of the most strongly fortified Crusader cities.
In 1260, the Mamluk victory over the Mongols at the battle of Ain Jalut saved Islam. Under the leadership of their new Sultan, Baibars, they now turned their attention to destroying the Crusaders.Â
In 1258, the Mongols sacked Baghdad, possibly the largest city in the world at that time and the centre of Islamic culture. It seemed as if Islam was doomed. But the powerful army of the Mamluks in Egypt was mustering to confront the Mongols. A great battle was about to be fought.
In the mid-thirteenth century, the Mongol Empire was the most powerful state on the planet. In 1256, a huge Mongol army advanced into the Middle East. Its first major objective was Baghdad, one of the largest and most splendid cities in the world at the time.
The Seventh Crusade was the last major military effort by Western Europe to recover Jerusalem. Brilliantly successful to begin with, it met fierce opposition from the Egyptian Mamluk army, led by its brilliant general Baibars, who was poised to seize power in Egypt and establish a Mamluk empire that would ultimately destroy the Crusaders.
In this episode, we hear how the last major Crusade - the Seventh Crusade - led by King Louis IX of France, achieved outstanding success initially only to fail along the banks of the River Nile.
In the the first half of the thirteenth century, it seemed as if nothing could stop the Mongols. Their empire stretched from the Pacific Ocean to the Mediterranean. Yet hopes grew in Europe that they would convert to Christianity and unite with the Kings of Europe in the greatest of all Crusades.
The last fifty years of the Crusader states were dominated by two new emerging superpowers - the Mongols and the Mamluks. In this episode, we hear the extraordinary story of the man who created the Mongol Empire - Genghis (or Jenghiz) Khan.
In this episode we reach a turning point in the history of the later Crusades, as the Crusaders face a devastating battle against Ayub, Sultan of Egypt. This marks not just the beginning of the end for the Crusaders but the start of the rise to power of the Mongols and the Mamluks, both of which will come to dominate the thirteenth century.
In 1239, the Barons' Crusade arrived in Palestine to help the Kingdom of Jerusalem. But it achieved little and, in 1244, Jerusalem was captured and sacked by a group of Turkish nomads. It would be nearly 700 years before a Christian army regained the city.Â
The Lombard Wars were a period of civil war in the Crusader states between the German Emperor Frederick II's Lombard troops and the Crusader barons in Cyprus and Palestine. Why did the Muslim states not attack the Crusaders when they were weakened by civil war? Find out in this episode.
The German Emperor Frederick II has achieved the impossible - the recovery of Jerusalem for Christendom. But is there rejoicing in the West? Not at all. For Frederick has been excommunicated and is reviled both in the West and in Outremer. The next events will reveal how superficial his victory has been.
The German Emperor Frederick II was an unusual medieval monarch. He shocked contemporaries by keeping a harem in his court at Palermo, and was excommunicated three times by the Pope. Yet he was the only monarch to succeed in recovering Jerusalem.
The Fifth Crusade is poised for victory in Egypt. But its final offensive ends in catastrophe. Find out what went wrong in this episode.
The Fifth Crusade has struck at Egypt. Can its fanatical leader, Cardinal Pelagius, achieve the greatest victory since the First Crusade?Â
The Fifth Crusade isn't as well known as it should be. It was actually one of the most significant military expeditions that set out to recover Jerusalem.Â
This episode looks at one of the strangest episodes in the whole history of the Crusades when, in 1212, groups of children in France and Germany followed child preachers on a wildly unrealistic expedition to liberate Jerusalem. It provides a fascinating insight into the medieval mind, dominated by a belief in miracles and a yearning to seek a better life.
How did the Crusaders of the Fourth Crusade rule their new city of Constantinople and their lands in Greece? And how did the break-away Byzantine states oppose them? Find out in this episode.
The Fourth Crusade was initiated as a plan to attack Egypt. But with the Crusaders short of money, and the emergence of a Byzantine pretender, claiming that he would help the Crusaders if they helped him, things started to develop somewhat differently. With the scheming Venetians in the background, the Crusaders looked east not to the Holy Land but to the glittering city of Constantinople.
The First Crusade had saved Byzantium. Now the Fourth Crusade would be directed against it. How and why did this happen? Find out in this episode.
Ever heard of the German Crusade of 1197? Probably not. It must be one of the most overlooked Crusades. And yet it could have been a game-changer. Discover why in this episode.
In this episode, we move onto what can be called the Second Age of the Crusaders, that is the period after the Third Crusade, when the Crusader states were weakened but still controlled the coast of Palestine. After Richard the Lionheart's departure from the Holy Land in 1192, it wasn't long before his great rival, Saladin, also died, an event that would reshape medieval Islam and the entire Middle East.