Has an armed gang ever taken a medieval city?
score:5
Accepted answer
Yes, the vikings did just that. A longship can have to about 100 crew/warriors on board. (Different type of ships had a smaller or larger crew on board.) A raid often was done with one or two ships. Laying siege was of course impossible. But having the element of surprise might give them the edge. Storming the walls was suicide. Favorable circumstances (fog, bad weather, etc.) might give viking raiders enough time to assault before the defenses were ready.
Surprise is everything. The city of Breda in The Netherlands was in 1590 taking from a well armed Spanish garrison with a ruse: 70 soldiers hid in a peat barge and took the city from within. So it worked very well, also after the middle ages.
Such a surprise raid wouldn't work with 1 or 2 ships on large coastal towns with harbors and fortifications. Not all towns were that large or had fortifications. Plenty of cloisters too that were close to the coast. Those could (and were) fair game to individual raiders.
More post
- π Which event is this memorial referring to when it says WW1 ended in 1919?
- π When did druids become widely accepted as 'shapeshifters'?
- π About what percent of people died on the Oregon Trail?
- π Why would Japanese people be in China during the 1920s?
- π In medieval Europe, were children born in an annulled marriage automatically illegitimate?
- π The role of the two world wars in the evolution of Fordism
- π Why did the Russians lose to the Turks in 1711 after defeating them in 1700 and the Swedes in 1709?
- π What was the impact of Fischer vs. Spassky 1972 on the relationship between the USA and the Soviet Union?
- π What is the earliest historical record of Hungarian words?
- π How was the Czech sudetenland repopulated by Czechs?
- π Did Andrew Jackson kill Dickinson fairly according to the customs of duels at the time?
- π Were blue-tinted glasses prevalent in Victorian England and, if so, why?
- π What is the origin of Gladiatorial Games?
- π How did the mortality of the Native Americans happen?
- π What incentives are in place for American soldiers to go fight in Iraq?
- π How important was the war against Vercingetorix to the Romans?
- π What was the value of the spice trade during the age of exploration?
- π ΩWhen did sexual life outside marriage became popular in Europe? and why?
- π Would the original readers of Lewis Carroll's books have made connections between the experiences in the books and drug use?
- π Which head of state had the most gaps in their rule?
- π What was the first confirmed use of black powder to blow stuff up in war (in China and in Europe)?
- π For whom would this priest write a long geographical report on his parish?
- π What would a Roman slave be legally required to do if his master vanished?
- π Did Trotsky serve as a hate-figure in PRC propaganda?
- π Sources for historical information about the life and career of Basil Zaharoff?
- π In the past were there gifts on the days leading up to Christmas instead of them all being on the one day?
- π On what basis did Mao denounce Confucianism?
- π Is there any support within the scholarly community for Cyrus Gordon's "Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations"?
- π Did Sun Tzu's "Art of War" influence Napoleon's philosophy of war and strategy?
- π Why didn't Soviet Jews flee east ahead of the advancing Nazis?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- π Has an armed gang ever taken a medieval city?
- π Has any medieval army ever fought 3 or more distinct battles on the same day?
- π Has the USA ever taken unilateral military action?
- π Is Chicago the most regularly laid-out city that has ever existed?
- π Has a sovereign Communist government ever run, and conceded loss, on a fair election?
- π Has there ever been a truly multi-sided war?
- π Has an individual ever purchased an entire country?
- π Has there ever been a non-rectangular banknote?
- π Has there ever been a case when a traitorous military commander took command again for the side he betrayed?
- π Has a state ever "attacked" another one by printing fake money?
- π Has NATO ever started a war?
- π Has anyone ever named a war after their own country or faction?
- π Has there ever been an instance of an active nuclear power plant within or near a war zone?
- π Has there ever been a cold war other than between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.?
- π Has the United States ever had a non-Christian President?
- π Has any country ever diverted an international flight in order to arrest a wanted person?
- π Has an heir ever made the country believe the current ruler died in order to take over the throne?
- π Has there ever been a peaceful overthrow of a dictator or monarch?
- π Has there ever been a battle with only a single survivor?
- π Has there ever been a major migration from the New World to the Old World? If not, why?
- π Has any country ever had 2 former presidents in jail simultaneously?
- π Has women's suffrage ever decided an election?
- π Has there ever been anything like the oil boom we see today?
- π Has there ever been a true kidnapped princess from anywhere in the world?
- π Has there ever been an archbishop or bishop younger than the 16-year-old James of Nicosia?
- π Has chattel slavery ever been used as a criminal punishment in the USA since the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment?
- π Has mercantilism ever been successful?
- π Has there ever been a serious effort to reform the US Electoral College system?
- π Has there ever been a truly bilingual country prior to the contemporary period?
- π Has any foreign embassy ever been entered without permission?