On March 24, 1199, Richard I of England—the warrior-king whose legend had been forged in the campaigns of the Third Crusade—was struck by a crossbow bolt while besieging a minor fortress in southwestern France. The wound, sustained at the castle of Châlus-Chabrol Castle, would…
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On February 3, 1451, Mehmed II ascended the throne of the Ottoman Empire, inheriting a state that was powerful, ambitious, and unfinished. At just nineteen years old, Mehmed succeeded his father, Murad II, whose reign had stabilized Ottoman rule in Anatolia and the Balkans…
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