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The Magyars were one of a series of nomadic groups that threatened the more settled communities of Europe during late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. After an early involvement in a war between Bulgaria and Byzantium the Magyars migrated into Pannonia (west of the Carpathian Mountains), from where they raided further west, reaching into southern Italy, northern Germany and even crossing the Rhine. The main part of this issue of Medieval Warfare Magazine focuses on the Magyars - their migration, their victories and their defeats, and in particular the descivive victory of Otto I at Lech in 955.
The articles include an examination of the growth of Magyar power, a look at the attitude of Liudprand of Cremona (a contemporary chronicler), the development of Saxon armies and Otto I's great victory at the Lech on 10 August 955. This is an interesting case study of the victory of an apparently inferior and outnumbered army.
Away from this topic there are articles on the Byzantine attitude to Armenians, Glen Dwr's vivtory at Bryn Glas, the Byzantine fortifications of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles (attempting to uncover the Byzantine roots of many fortifications that have been greatly modified in the intervening years) and a look at the knight and the bow.
This is an interesting selection of articles, with a particularly strong theme looking at an often overlooked clash between two very different military cultures.
Articles
Historical Introduction - Migration, confrontation and transformation
From Pannonia to the west - The growth of Magyar power in Europe
'Not quite straight fly the arrows' - Liudprand of Cremona on the Magyars
The Other Saxon Revolution - Simple arms and complex strategy
'A cruel encounter' - Otto I's destruction of the Magyars, Augustus 955
Byzantine pragmatism vs imperial prejudice - The Armenians and Maurice's Strategikon
Strife over the straits - Fortresses on the Bosporus and the Dardanelles (1): The Byzantine Empire
Glyn Dwr's finest hour - The Battle of Bryn Glas (1402)
A warrior prejudice - The use of the bow by medieval knights