'We will face the enemy, besiege places, and take them under his nose.'

- Ambrogio Spinola inspiring his tercios in a speech in 1614.

As the Captain-General of the Army of Flanders, he kept his promise.

Notice how the chronicler keeps referring to the Germans as 'Almaynes'!

In 1513 the English and the Imperial armies of Henry VIII and Emperor Maximilian fought together against the French and besieged the town of Thérouanne.

But during the siege a terrible brawl broke out between German Landsknechts and English longbowmen for unknown reasons.

The

I like how the dukes of Burgundy carried themselves.

The Grand Dukes of the West.

Reminds me of the famous Niccolò Machiaveli quote, 'Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.'

'It is better to eat the dog than be eaten by the dog.'

These important words of wisdom were uttered in 1330 by William Montagu who advised the young King of England Edward III to move against the powerful nobleman Roger Mortimer. Mortimer was then arrested and executed.

Lorenzo de' Medici once told his children about the most important characteristic a good ruler should have.

'His eyes must always be open so that the others may sleep.'

In 1468 Duke of Burgundy Charles the Bold asked King of France Louis XI for advice on what he should do with the rebellious city of Liège which his troops had just subjugated after it rebelled for the third time in three years.

The King of France gave him the following answer:

'Among the great ones of this earth, he was like a star in heaven. Every line proclaimed 'I am a prince and a man unique.''

Chronicler Georges Chastellain describing the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good.

'Kings die, reigns vanish but virtue alone and meritorious works serve man on his bier and gain him eternal glory.'

- Georges Chastellain, 15th century Burgundian chronicler.

The Duke of Alençon John II recalled how Joan of Arc inspired the French knights at the Battle of Jargeau in 1429.

'Joan said that unless she was sure that God was leading this work, she would have chosen to herd her sheep rather than expose herself to such dangers.'

During

One of the prosperous medieval city-states was the Republic of Metz.

It was an independent city inside the Holy Roman Empire from 1234 to 1552 ruled by a council of 21 aldermen who elected the Head-Alderman!

The city was an important center of banking nicknamed 'Metz the Rich'.

After the Siege of Meaux in 1422, King Henry V let the surrendered defenders live expect for 12 men.

One of the men who were killed was a trumpeter named Orace, 'one that blew and sounded an horn during the siege', who was executed for taunting the king during the siege.

In 1685 the citizens of Ansbach hunted down a wolf that had attacked and killed multiple people.

The wolf's dead body was hanged from a gibbet and dressed in man's clothes and a wig so that it resembled the hated late Bürgermeister of the city, Michael Leicht.

Apparently some