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Teutonic Order Crossbowman Firing
The Battle of Lake Peipus took place in 1242 between the Livonian Branch of the Teutonic Knights and Republic of Novgorod. It was a part of the Northern Crusades of the Catholic Christian Military Orders against the "pagans" of the Eastern European Baltic states. Alternatively named "the battle on the ice" because a large part of it was fought on the surface of a frozen lake, the Battle of Lake Peipus was a significant Crusader defeat at the hands of Alexander Nevsky. Nevsky's strategy was to feign withdrawal to lure the overconfident Teutonic Knights onto the surface of the Lake. A melee ensued over the course of a few hours and the exhausted Crusaders succumbed to a final attack of the Wings of Nevsky's army. The ice of the lake began to crack under the strain in some sections and many of the heavily armored Crusaders and Teutonic Knights drowned as a result.
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Hospitaller Crossbowman Firing
Aim... Fire... Reload! A skilled Crossbowman could load and fire as many as six bolts a minute if required. The Order of St. John of the Hospital of Jerusalem (or simply the Hospitallers) was not created as a result of the First Crusade in 1099. Instead it was previously established by a consortium of Italian merchants and noblemen from Amalfi in the mid 11th Century. Thanks to the financial support of this group volunteers and mercenaries came from all over Italy and beyond to join the order, which had already received the Papal blessing and set up its headquarters and training facility near Amalfi before leaving for The Holy Land.
As a consequence of the crusading movement ‘Hospitallers’ became recognized as one of the best disciplined and best-led of all the Crusader armies. On the battlefield their principal colors were ‘black’ and ‘blood red’. This release shows a range of Hospitaller Men-At-Arms in action wearing a variety of blood-red tunics and even some partially-red steel helmets.
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