Articles written by Grant Sebastian Nell

Close-quarter firearms were immensely popular in the eighteenth century.

Dec 27, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The bayonet was thought to have orginated in the town of Bayonne, in France, sometime in the 1600's.

Dec 27, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Ancient people actually practised a high standard of cleanliness, relative to the times they lived in.

Dec 27, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The army of ancient Rome was one of the first to standardise the issue of rations. The daily ration of Roman soldiers equalled roughly 1.5 kg (3lb 5 oz) of grain.

Dec 27, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The Kentucky rifle was first made by immigrant German gunsmiths in Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Dec 27, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Highlanders of the eighteenth century wore a variety of clothing which provided the basis for the formal Highland dress we are most familiar with today.

Dec 26, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Tales of ninja have attained enormous popularity worldwide, their stealth and deadly skill a common theme of martial arts movies, books and comics.

Sep 26, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Sohei were buddhist monks who took up arms to defend their temples. Occasionally they fought for samurai lords or as part of an ikki (a peasant uprising).

Sep 26, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Spartacus was from what is now the Balkans. In 73 BC, he and seventy gladiators escaped from their barracks in Capua.

Sep 26, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The Iberians were in great demand as mercenaries throughout the western mediterranean. They were a tribal people, and Iberian men valued martial prowess above all.

Sep 25, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

In 326 BC, on the banks of the Hyphasis River in India, Alexander the Great's quest for Empire ground to a halt.

Sep 25, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The Numantines were a Celtiberian people who took their name from their principle fortress, Numantia.

Sep 25, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The Numidians were nomads from what is now Algeria in North Africa. Numidia means 'Land of the Nomads'.

Sep 25, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Hannibal Barca was born in 247 BC. His name would resound throughout the ages as the man who almost brought Rome to her knees.

Sep 25, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Scurvy was the biggest killer of sailors from the 1500s to early 1800s, although it has been around for thousands of years.

Jun 26, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Elcano was captain of the carrack Victoria, the first European ship to completely circumnavigate the globe.

Jun 26, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

When seafarers first began the long succession of epic voyages that opened the age of discovery, they knew little of what lay before them.

Jun 25, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

From the start of the fifteenth century, Europeans powers began to expand across the globe in their quest for a sea route to the riches of the east.

Jun 25, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The attempted retreat from the Kabul cantonments in January 1842 was one of the worst disasters in British military history.

Jun 24, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

A naumachia was an aquatic 'naval' event featuring the use of boats, pontoons or rafts, upon which armies of convicted men fought to the death.

Jun 24, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Clippers traced their origins to relatively small, fast ships built in America in the late 1700's.

Jun 21, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

This battle took place on 23 December, 1879, the culmination of Afghan attempts to destroy the British forces of Major General Frederick Roberts.

Jun 19, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Ibn Battutta was a Moroccan-born Muslim who travelled the greater part of 75,000 miles over the course of his lifetime.

Jun 17, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Linking a train of wagons together in a circle or square and plugging the gaps with stakes, thorn-brush or fences created a fortress-like enclosure.

Mar 26, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Starting at the end of the twelfth century, a series of crusades were waged in the lands to the east of the Baltic sea.

Mar 26, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The Roman penchant for witnessing violent, gory death was not restricted to combats between gladiators or the public execution of criminals.

Mar 23, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Jean, Lord of Joinville, was a councillor in the service of King Louis IX of France. He accompanied Louis on the seventh crusade.

Mar 23, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Willard was one of the oddest boxers to ever bear the distinction of World Champion.

Mar 22, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

El Cid - his real name was Rodrigo Diaz - was born in Vivar, in the old Christian Kingdom of Castile, c. 1040/1043.

Mar 21, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Swords evolved from daggers. The earliest daggers were crafted from flint, bone or obsidian. Although stone blades were razor sharp, they were also brittle.

Mar 21, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

During the Crusades, the customs and traditions surrounding the order of knighthood began to display new and radical changes.

Mar 19, 2009 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Shaka was 23 when he started waging war in earnest, as a member of the Mtetwa IziCwe regiment.

Dec 25, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Shaka was born sometime around 1787. His mother was Nandi, daughter of the chieftain of the Elangeni clan, and his father was Senzangakona, chieftain of the Zulus.

Dec 25, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

Elephants have been used in war for thousands of years. With their massive strength and magnificent ivory tusks, they inspired awe and terror in all who faced them.

Dec 20, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

When the British fleet met the combined French/Spanish fleets off Cape Trafalgar one calm sunny day in 1805, they possessed a definite advantage.

Dec 20, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The Sassanians rose to dominance in the middle east and Persia after overthrowing the Parthians in AD 224.

Dec 14, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

In 53 BC, a Roman army under the command of Marcus Licinius Crassus - the man who had defeated the slave army of Spartacus in 71 BC - invaded Parthia.

Dec 9, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

In the Middle Ages, the tournament was a place to win glory and a training ground where untested Knights and Squires could hone their skills in preparation for warfare.

Sep 18, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The Battle of Spion Kop was fought on the 24th of January 1900 in South Africa. It was one of the bloodiest battles of the Second Anglo Boer War.

Sep 12, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The Anglo Boer War (sometimes known as the South African War) was fought between the Boer Republics of the Orange Free State and Transvaal and the British Empire.

Sep 9, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The Mongol army created by Genghis Khan was possibly the best military force since the armies of Ancient Rome.

Aug 27, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The Mongols of Genghis Khan's day lived a pastoral existence augmented by hunting and gathering.

Aug 24, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The army of the Middle Kingdom (2055 - 1650 BC) was an infantry force - horses had not yet been introduced to Egypt.

Aug 21, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

The Knights Templar were originally a small group of warriors sworn to defend pilgrims and the Holy places of Christendom in the Holy Land.

Jun 13, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

In the 11th and 12th Centuries AD, Muslim Cavalry was comprised of a limited number of Mamluks - warriors of slave origins - and faris. Faris is Arabic for horseman.

Jun 13, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

From the eighth century AD to the beginning of the 1100's, Europe, England, Russia and even the Middle East were terrorised by marauding armies of Scandinavian Pirates.

Jun 10, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

In January 1598, the vastly outnumbered Japanese garrison of Ulsan resisted the assaults of a numerically superior allied Chinese/Korean army.

Jun 7, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

A short examination of the weaponry used by the samurai and several examples of treating wounds inflicted by those weapons.

May 29, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

A quick look at the design and construction of Japanese castles during the Sengoku Jidai.

May 28, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell

A brief overview of a standard phalanx-to-phalanx engagement between opposing Hoplite armies in the age of the Greek City States.

May 15, 2008 - Grant Sebastian Nell