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Ancient History

Operation Nemesis and Other Historic Paybacks

Armenian Genocide - 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

Pedro the Cruel. Wikimedia

23. Charles the Bad’s Badness Goes International

To the south, Charles the Bad’s poor reputation was no better in Spain than it was in his native France. He allied with Peter the Cruel of Castile against Peter IV of Aragon in 1362, only to turn around and betray Castile the following year, by allying with Peter IV against Peter the Cruel.

Crossing somebody whose epithet was “the Cruel” was risky, and in 1378, Castilian armies invaded Navarre, forcing Charles to flee post haste. Out of allies, having betrayed them all, Charles was forced to agree to a humiliating treaty that defanged his kingdom and reduced him and his realm to Castilian clients.

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A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.

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