19 February 1408 - The Battle of Bramham Moor.

One of the leading figures in the overthrow of King Richard II in 1399 and the installation of Henry, Duke of Lancaster on the Throne as King Henry IV was Henry Percy, Earl of Northumberland. He further proved his loyalty to the new King in 1402 by defeating a Scottish army that had invaded England. He took many noble prisoners which under the convention of the time has was allowed to hold for a considerable ransom. However King Henry demanded the prisoners for himself and pocketed the ransom. This outraged the Earl who promptly denounced Henry as a usurper and declared for the true King the 11 year old Edmund, 5th Earl of March.

At the age of 61 he did not lead the revolt himself, but sent his son Henry south with an army to link up with the Welsh rebels. However Henry Percy was defeated and killed at the battle of Shrewsbury in 1403 and the revolt fizzled out. Nevertheless the Earl's resentment continued and in 1405 he signed an alliance with the Welsh rebels and the followers of the Earl of March to divide England between themselves. But again the revolt failed and the Northumberland fled into exile in Scotland. 

At the age of 66 in 1408 he made a final attempt. With Scottish support he crossed the border into England and marched south. He was met by an English army under Sir Thomas Rokeby at Bramham Moor in Yorkshire. The outcome was a massacre of the rebels. Northumberland was killed and his head taken to London to be displayed on London Bridge. 

The power of the Percy's was broken, but it would return.  

Cavaliers is a broad term to describe soldiers in the King's army in the Civil War, but most of the men were common infantry, only the officers could be described as Cavaliers and as such would usually be mounted. The "traditional" dress was not battle dress but a more formal costume at Court events etc. 

French musketeers could be both, if mounted they would better be termed dragoons.

20-21 February 1339 - The Battle of Parabiago.

One of the many battles in Mediaeval Italy involving condottieri or mercenaries hired to fight on behalf of a state or even an individual.

In this case it was part of the conflict between the Lordship of Milan headed by Azzone Visconti and a rival to the Throne Lodrisio Visconti. Lodrisio hired around 3,500 Swiss and German mercenaries and moved on Milan. After early success in which he captured a number of towns Lodrisio's army met the Milanese in the snow at Parabiago.   

On the first day the mercenaries were successful driving the Milanese back into the city. But on the second day Azzone Visconti rallied his men who not only defeated his rival but took him prisoner. 

The defeated Lodrisio was imprisoned in an iron age for ten years before he was released.  

21 February 1849 - The Battle of Gujrat.

For the background to the 2nd Sikh War see the Battle of Chillianwala 13 January. After this hard fought victory the Sikhs were down but not out. They took up new positions at Gujrat and reinforced by troops from Afghanistan numbered around 60,000 where the British led by Gen. Sir Hugh Gough met them on 21 February. 

The battle began with an artillery duel with which the British with their larger and more numerous guns forced the Sikhs back. An attack by Sikh cavalry was repulsed and the British infantry broke through in the centre. The victory turned into a rout with the defeated Sikhs being chased for 12 miles. 

A peace treaty was agreed within weeks and the Sikh Kingdom of the Punjab was annexed by the British.

Interestingly the Sikh commander throughout the war Sher Singh Attariwalla served with the British in the Indian Mutiny eight years later and the deposed King, the ten year old Duleep Singh, was brought up by the British before being exiled in England at the age of 16. He lived at Elvedon Hall, Suffolk on a 17,000 acre estate from 1863. He died on a visit to Paris in 1893 aged 55 and is buried at St Andrew and St Patrick's Church, Elvedon, Suffolk.       

22 February 1797 - The French landings in Wales.

The last occasion in which an armed enemy landed in mainland Great Britain.

The plan was an invasion of Ireland supported by two smaller landings in England and Wales to divert British troops away from the main action. However bad weather forced the abandonment of the Irish and English ventures leaving just the landing of 1400 men led by the renegade Irish-American William Tate at Carreg Wasted three miles north of the south west Wales port of Fishguard.

They occupied a farmhouse and the next morning began the march on Fishguard which was defended by less than 200 local militia. Their expectation that the population would join them was quickly forgotten when clashes with locals resulted in the deaths of six French and Welsh. By that evening, 23 February, a more disciplined body of English soldiers led by Lord Cawdor arrived and set up their headquarters in a pub in Fishguard. After little more than 24 hours on British soil the French invaders were in disarray, many had deserted and the ships that delivered them had sailed away. In a formal ceremony the French surrendered the following afternoon after a stand off. The last invasion was over.  

The pub still stands today. Both the French and the Spanish tried several times to invade the British Isles, usually Ireland, but on almost every occasion the weather we complain about so much prevented them from landing.

The only landings since 1600 have been the Spanish in Ireland 1601 and Scotland 1719; the French in Wales 1797 and Ireland 1798. We can add the Jacobite landings in 1715 and 1745 of mostly renegade Scots plus French mercenaries. The only ones to cause significant problems were the 1745 and 1798 landings. 

Fishguard has got on display a tapestry made in 1997 in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry telling the story on the 1797 invasion. 

 Boy, is that some Tapestry. For years I have been telling you to buy a camera and take pictures Mark. Remember a picture is worth a thousand words and picture of that tapestry would be worth 10,000.

Fishguard is the port for sailings to Rosslare in the far south of Ireland.

The name means "fish yard" an enclosure for catching fish or keeping them in once caught. It's Welsh name is Abergwaun "mouth of the river Gwaun" which is self explantory.

I've stayed there and seen the Last Invasion Tapestry. 

23 February 1885 - The Battle of Dong Dang.

A battle of the Tonkin Campaign during the French colonization of Vietnam.

As the French expanded northwards in Vietnam they came into conflict with the Chinese who were also interested in expanding into the area. A pro-Chinese warlord Liu Yongfu established himself in northern Vietnam and had held out against French attacks for two years. 

In February 1885 a French army under Gen. de Négrier set out to remove Chinese forces from Tonkin while a second army advanced to the relief of a besieged outpost at Tuyen Quang. Négrier's mission was to prevent the Chinese from interfering with the march on the beleaguered outpost.

On 23 February the French 2000 strong encountered 6000 Chinese entrenched at Dong Dang. Superior French firepower and tactics forced the Chinese into a full retreat back to the border, the French actually crossing into China in a mopping up operation. French casualties were light, just nine killed to an unknown but large number of Chinese dead. 

Meanwhile the second French force reached Tuyen Quang and raised the siege in early March. 

24 February 1991 - The Allied invasion of Kuwait, the Gulf War.

One we can all remember. Iraq occupied Kuwait in August 1990 with an allied air campaign of liberation beginning in January 1991. On 24 February US troops backed up by a international coalition crossed the Saudi border into Kuwait. 

25 February 1336 - The Teutonic Order captured Pilėnai.

An almost legendary incident during the Lithuanian Crusade. For decades Christians of the Teutonic Order had been fighting pagan Lithuania in order to convert it to Christianity. 

In 1336 yet another Christian army invaded Lithuania and advanced on the hill fortress of Pilėnai where Duke Margiris and 4000 refugees sought shelter. Seeing that a defence would be useless most of the inhabitants chose to die by murder/suicide than surrender including Duke Margiris himself. According to legend only a handful of the 4000 escaped as the Teutonic knights entered the burning fortress.    

26 February 1266 - The Battle of Benevento.

In 1262 the Pope declared Manfred, King of Sicily deposed and awarded the Crown to Charles, Count of Anjou the younger brother of the King of France. Charles of course had to battle for the Throne as Manfred ignored the Pope's edict, He first sent an army ahead of him before joining it in 1265 and was crowned King of Sicily in Rome in January 1266, but Charles had yet to actually reach Naples the capital of the Kingdom of Sicily.

Later that month he marched south where the two armies met at Benevento. In a hard fought contest Manfred was overwhelmed and killed along with most of his 13,500 men including a large corps of Saracens serving as mercenaries. 

Charles reached Naples virtually unopposed to take up the Crown. The battle marked the end of German domination in Italy to be replaced by French.  

Yes, the capital was Naples but for some reason it was known as the Kingdom of Sicily as it also included the island of that name.

This map shows its borders plus the location of the battle of Benevento.

27 February 1545 - The Battle of Ancrum Moor.

A rare 16th century Scottish victory over the English.

In December 1542 James V, King of Scots died leaving the Throne to his daughter Mary aged just six days. The ever ambitious Henry VIII in England saw an opportunity to take over Scotland by betrothing her to his five year old son Edward. The Scottish Regent the Earl of Arran signed an agreement with Henry the following year without consulting the Scottish Parliament which disowned it a few months later.

King Henry was furious and in 1544 sent an army north by land and sea to invade Scotland and bring the Scots to heel. After several months of the English slashing and burning their way through the borderlands and the seaborn troops burning Edinburgh the Scots, who had been fighting among themselves, put their differences aside and opposed the English at Ancrum Moor in the Borders. 

Despite having less than half the number of men than the English the Scots under the Earls of Arran and Angus soundly defeated the English killing the two commanders Sir Ralph Evers and Sir Brian Layton, partly due to 700 "loyal" Scots in the English ranks changing sides. Over 800 were killed and 1000 taken prisoner.

One of the legends surrounding the battle can be seen at the grave of the Fair Maid Lilliard, a woman who fought with the Scots after the English had killed her lover. She died in the battle so it is said.

It would be more than two years before the English took on the Scots again. 

They only formed a superficial united front when confronted by the English, then it was back to in-fighting again. The 1540s to 70s were a tough time in Scotland, apart from fighting the English they had the Reformation to contend with and all the trouble that brought.