This is Historyzine, Episode 16 featuring 1706 and the War of the Spanish Succession. In Spain, Lord Peterborough and the Archduke Charles are busily not speaking to each other when perhaps they should be putting Charles on the throne and consolidating their power. In Flanders in this same year the Duke of Marlborough is leading [...]

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Historyzine follows the Duke of Marlborough as he conducts an epic journey of almost 2000 miles by carriage and barge during the fierce winter months in order to soothe and cajole the various allies. The Duke visits the Elector Palatine, The Margrave of Baden, the King of Prussia and the Electoral Prince of Hanover and then [...]

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Family History – connecting up with large scale history. I’ve recently spent a considerable amount of time delving into my family history and been quite delighted by the reflection of large scale events such as the industrial revolution, highland clearances and the potato blight of 1846 that are to be found in the movements of [...]

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The history of Europe was altered forever by the Battle of Blenheim. In this episode I talk about the aftermath of the battle and look at the celebrations in England. The country is delirious with delight and Marlborough is granted the estate of Woodstock and given funds toward the building of a palace to commemorate [...]

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In Historyzine 12 our main feature is 1704 and the battle of Blenheim. John Churchill (Duke of Marlborough) is rampaging around Bavaria with the Dutch, Hesse, Austrian, Hanoverian and English troops. Gathering against him under the command of Marshall Tallard, Marshall Marsin and the Elector of Bavaria are the troops of France and Bavaria accompanied [...]

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The 2nd special episode from the reenactment weekend of 12th, 13th of July 2008 in the town of Oudenaarde in Belgium. This was the 300th anniversary of the battle of Oudenaarde in which the forces of the Anglo Dutch Austro German alliance managed to achieve a convincing victory over Louis XIV and the forces of the [...]

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A special episode featuring a report from the reenactment of the battle of Oudenaarde over the weekend of 12th and 13th of July, 2008. I’ve travelled over to Belgium and am staying in the town of Oudenaarde as they commemorate this battle from 300 years just outside the town. Reenactors from all over Europe are [...]

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This issue features a review of the Richard Holmes book on Marlborough and in the section on the War of the Spanish Succession we look at the march of the allied troops across Europe and take a peek at some of the planning and attention to detail that made this march a success. John Churchill Some of [...]

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It’s 1703 and all is not going well for the allies. Churchill’s ‘Great Design’ goes awry; the Hungarians revolt against the Empire and the Elector of Bavaria joins up with the French forces to directly threaten Vienna. This map should give you some idea of the threats to Austria in this year with armies in both [...]

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In this episode we explore the phrase to gird your loins. We examine the case of Admiral Byng who was executed to encourage the others and we interview Tony Cox of the Binge Thinking History Podcast. There’s a shout out for a splendid forum at http://historum.com. I hope to meet up with some of you on there. In [...]

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In episode 6 of Historyzine we look at early 18th century sieges, the changing nature of warfare and some of the reasons behind the reticence to commit troops to a fully fledged battle in this War of the Spanish Succession. We will focus particularly on the great French engineer Vauban, his fortresses and his techniques [...]

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In episode 5 of Historyzine we have a review of the National Archives Podcast Series; Historical webby gems Harry Lamin’s war correspondence Here we go around Wakefield Prison’s Mulberry Bush. And Episode 5 of our series on The War of the Spanish Succession features the campaigns of the Allies against the French forces on the Meuse in 1702. Marlborough [...]

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This is episode four of Historyzine. In this episode we review Parnell’s History Podcast and History Podcast plus we look at the requirement to read the Banns before a wedding can be legalised. In the feature on the War of the Spanish Succession the allies are busily arguing among themselves at the Hague trying to decide who [...]

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This is episode three of Historyzine. In this episode we take a look at the podcast series, Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. We pick apart the phrase, ’sleep tight, mind the bed bugs don’t bite’ and of course we have the next part of our series looking at the War of the Spanish Succession. This week Eugene performs some [...]

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This is episode two of Historyzine. In this episode we review the delightful podcast TPN Napoleon, hosted by Cameron Reilly and J. David Markham and offer a shout out to ‘The Binge Thinking History podcast which, in episode 3 of that podcast gives some useful background to the English situation at the end of the [...]

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The first episode of Historyzine features a review of the podcast, History According to Bob and a look at the phrase, ‘burning the candle at both ends.’ My featured subject at the moment is the ‘War of the Spanish Succession.’ In this episode we look at the 3 wars preceding this one and get some idea of [...]

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