Ethan Bale looks at the Battle of Stoke Field in 1487, a ‘forgotten’ fight which finally secured the throne of England for Henry VII and the Tudor dynasty. It’s the perfect pub quiz gotcha: What is considered to be the last battle of the Wars of the Roses? If you said “Bosworth Field” you’d be […]
Brávellir: the greatest battle… that never was
Angus Donald, author of King of the North, writes about the Battle of Brávellir, a famous Viking conflict… which probably never happened. But, he says, we can still enjoy the epic story, a 12th-century piece of historical fiction which inspired his own novel. “Then the trumpets sounded, and both sides engaged in battle with all […]
Battling with history: how to write fight scenes and battles in historical fiction
How do you write a battle scene which engages your readers and drives the story on? It’s a question many authors of historical fiction fight with. Matthew Harffy, well known for his action-filled Bernicia Chronicles series, gives Historia his advice. All good stories need conflict, and what better way to convey conflict than to have […]
The Battle of Killiecrankie
To mark the 330th anniversary of the Battle of Killiecrankie, historian and author Maggie Craig considers why this violent confrontation still evokes memories as well as enthusiastic public interest. The Battle of Killiecrankie was fought on 27 July 1689. This bloody clash of arms in a mountain pass a few miles north of Pitlochry in […]
Did Roman Soldiers Suffer PTSD?
Rubicon by HWA authors Post Traumatic Stress Disorder – a debilitating psychiatric condition usually experienced after witnessing traumatic events – is all too common in the modern military, but did ancient warfare have the same effects? Anthony Riches, Roman specialist and author of the bestselling Empire series, considers the evidence. To be very clear, before I […]