I recently read alot about medival knights and roman cataphracts, and on all the pictures they carry long lances.

But aren't lances (on horseback) completely useless, because when you charge a enemy with said lance and penetrate his body what are you going to do? Let go of the lance? Try to get his body of? If you just leave the lance after one hit why even bother?

In 1193, Rashid ad-Din Sinan sent a letter to Leopold V of Austria absolving Richard the Lionheart of guilt in the murder of Conrad de Montferrat, taking full credit for the assassination. Why did Rashid protect Richard?

Hi, I just started reading the Iliad and the Odyssey and I am curious about all the names and locations thrown about. I understand these names and places probably gave much information for the people it was originally made for, but I'm finding it hard connecting the dots on the 10 different locations one group of people is from. I am thoroughly enjoying it for the story it is meant to be, but there is an itch in my modernized brain that wants to connect all these greek city/village/island names with actual locations so I can get a better understanding of the picture. Does anyone know of a centralized place for all of this type of info for the Iliad and Odyssey, or am I stuck with just googling them, after I finish reading it once, to better understand where everything took place and who all these random names were?

So I've been thinking alot recently about proto indo-Europeans and how they are the common Ancestors for most Western European Cultures. Also about how much of what we might not know about ancient cultures such as Germanic, Celtic, and maybe even proto Slavic cultures because they didn't write anything down and the only sources we have are foreign and biased.

So with that in mind how different were these cultures that we think of today when we talk about, let's say iron age Celts in Gaul and Rhineland Germanic cultures? Where much more closely related than we might think or where they much more diverse. At what point would these cultures have become distinct?

Another thing that comes to mind with this is that were brittonic cultures very much alike with Celtic cultures on the mainland or where they something different?

Sorry if this just sounds like a load of rambling

I see people make the argument "Haha you guys lost to a bunch of rice farmers haha" against me whenever i say something remotely patriotic about the U.S. and I wanted to see if this is true. I don't believe it's entirely true but there might be some truth to it. could someone clear this up for me? sorry if this has been asked here before.

Please cite sources. Thank you!

Hello historians I am here to ask you a rather simple question. How accurate is this biography? I have recent decided to read a biography on every US president up until our current one and I was wondering how good this one is. I have seen it recommended a ton but I would rather have some expert advice before I buy it. If you have any other biographies on other presidents I would be happy to take suggestions. Thanks in advance!

My parents fled Argentina in 1981 to escape the military junta. I don't know much about the Dirty War - they've never liked to talk about it - , so I'd like to read up on it.

Thanks in advance!

I've read that James I & VI had some trouble early on in dealing with the English parliament, because he was used to a Scottish parliament that was mostly a rubber stamp. But I've also read that Scotland was pretty independent from England before the Acts of Union, and that the monarchs were mostly forced by their courts to stay in London.

So who was actually in charge in Scotland? Was the Scottish parliament more of an independent body than I had been led to believe? Did it reassert its independence in the absence of the King? Or was there some other power like a regency?

I learned about the trail of tears, genocides of tribes, and cultural oppression throughout my high school learning and was wondering how and if this kind of thing was taught throughout the 20th century.

Some mild spoilers for Midsommar if you haven’t seen it.

In the movie, it is stated that the festival is held every 90 years, and they’ve held it 30 times, so it’s been going for 2700 years. This means that it started in the 27th century BC. While the cult and village in Midsommar are fictional, were there really human sacrifice cults in Sweden from ancient times? If so, what were they like, and how long did they survive? And finally, how did they die out, assuming they did indeed exist.

Could this not have been a claim to legitimize the antiquity and therefore claims of the mystery cult?

I'm mostly referring to the use of LVTs that were able to better support landing infantry. When reading about D-Day, I continuously hear stories about how troops were towed across the Channel in some landing craft.

I would think, for the largest and most essential naval invasion in history, that the Allies would have relied on LVTs.

How did Marcus Aurelius, arguably one of the most sophisticated Roman emperor's, and the last of the good emperors, have such an incompetent and "evil" son like Commodus?