Viking warriors were feared by their contemporaries and their ferocious reputation has survived down to the present day. This book covers the military history of the Vikings from their early raiding to the final failure of their expansionist ambitions directed against England. In that period Viking warbands and increasingly large armies had left their Scandinavian homelands to range across vast regions, including the whole of Northern Europe and beyond, even reaching North America. The British Isles were terrorised for two centuries and at times largely conquered, in Normandy, Russia and elsewhere they also settled and founded states. Tough, skilled and resourceful, with a culture that embraced the pursuit of immortal fame and a heroic death in battle, their renown as warriors was second to none. As far afield as Constantinople, the Byzantine emperors employed them as their elite Varangian Guard. Gabriele Esposito outlines the history of their campaigns and battles and examines in detail their strategy, tactics, weapons, armour and clothing. The subject is brought to life by dozens of colour photographs of replica equipment in use. AUTHOR: Gabriele Esposito is a military historian who works as a freelance author and researcher for some of the most important publishing houses in the military history sector. In particular, he is an expert specialising in uniformology: his interests and expertise range from the ancient civilizations to modern postcolonial conflicts. During recent years he has conducted and published several researches on the military history of the Latin American countries, with special attention on the War of the Triple Alliance and the War of the Pacific. He is among the leading experts on the military history of the Italian Wars of Unification and the Spanish Carlist Wars. His books and essays are published on a regular basis by important publishing houses and he is also the author of numerous military history articles appearing in specialized magazines like Ancient Warfare, Medieval Warfare, The Armourer, History of War, Guerres et Histoire, Focus Storia and Focus Storia Wars. His many previous works include Armies of Early Colonial North America 1607-1713 and Armies of the Late Roman Empire AD 284-476 , Armies of the Hellenistic States 323 BC - AD 30, Armies of Celtic Europe 700 BC - AD 106 , Armies of Ancient Greece circa 500 - 338 BC, and Armies of Ancient Italy 753 - 218 BC.
50 colour illustrations