Historyzine: The History Podcast

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 my ancestors.

Exploring the phrase - Fork it over. Is it a man with a pitchfork handing over his produce to the landlord or is it a pickpocket thing?

A review of ‘In Our Time’. The BBC radio 4 series ‘In Our Time’ is placed under the Historyzine microscope.

The War of the Spanish Succession, 1705 - Forcing the Lines of Brabant.
The Duke of Marlborough after his successes in Bavaria in 1704 is gathering his forces for a push up the Moselle into France. The allies from Baden, Hanover and Austria are not ready for the start of the campaign so the plans are thrown into disarray. The French generals Villars and Villeroi lead Marlborough a merry dance as they make the most of their advantage.
Then Marlborough formulates a plan to attack the Lines of Brabant feinting toward the weakest part of the lines and then changing direction under cover of darkness to attack the lines at their strongest point. The plan works brilliantly. The lines are dismantled and the forces of England, the Netherlands and Austria once more hold the upper hand against those of France, Spain and Bavaria.

Some of the sources I use for this podcast can be found at My Amazon UK Affiliate page
or my United States of America Affiliate page . There are lots of very useful books there if you want to know more about the War of the Spanish Succession and if you decide to buy any of them then using the links from the pages of Historyzine will send a tiny fraction of money my way which will help offset some of the costs of the podcast.

If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.

 

 Historyzine 014 - Forcing the Lines at Brabant [38:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (7848)

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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 the victory. That palace was built and named after the battle as Blenheim Palace It is a truly overwhelming place to behold. I’ve visited several times and have always been quite breathless at the sheer scale and extravagance of the building.
In the podcast I speculate on the direction events may have taken if the Franco Bavarian forces had been sucessful in the 1704 Battle of Blenheim and we wander off down several avenues of what if speculation.
In the history podcasts review section I review the All Things Medieval podcast.
I also review the new film, the Duchess which stars Ralph Fiennes and Keira Knightley. This film is based upon the wonderful book ‘Georgiana’ by Amanda Foreman. I highly recommend the book as an intriguing insight into the lives of the rich and famous in 18th century England. As you’ll hear in the podcast, I’m not sure I can recommend the film quite as highly.
I did, however discover a couple of BBC mini series DVDs that I can recommend.
There’s a biopic of Charles II
. This is a lively account of the life of this merry monarch but it makes a case for him also being more politically savvy than he’s usually given credit for.
I also encountered a low budget, but still very watchable BBC docudrama called ‘The Early Churchill’s’ which covers the lives of John and Sarah Churchill, the first Duke and Duchess of Marlborough.
. This is a very long docudrama which contains lots of fascinating detail about this couple although can be a little skimpy as regards the War of the Spanish Succession and the history of europe at the time.

The linguistic history trivia bit in this episode is a look at the word Macaroni and what it meant when bandied around in the coffee houses of 18th century London. It’s a fun word describing quite a bizarre fashion set. You’ll find out more by listening to the podcast either by clicking on the play link at the end of this post or downloading and playing it in Itunes.

As promised in the podcast, here is the link to the program, levelator.

Some of the sources I use for this podcast can be found at Amazon.co.uk in the UK
or at Amazon.com in the United States. There are lots of very useful books there if you want to know more about the War of the Spanish Succession and if you decide to buy any of them then using the links from the pages of Historyzine will send a tiny fraction of money my way which will help offset some of the costs of the podcast.

If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.

 

 Historyzine 13: The aftermath of Blenheim [42:24m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (8181)

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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 by various mercenaries.

Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria.

Despite his careful planning Marlborough finds no siege train waiting for him in Germany. The food he requested is not there and various troops have been diverted into Italy and Hungary. Undaunted the Duke and the Prince (Prince Eugene of Savoy) bring the Franco Bavarian forces to battle at Blenheim. In this history podcast I describe the battle of Blenheim and try to show how the various general’s decisions made the difference on that fateful day.

Salamander Cutts

1st Baron Lord Cutts was nicknamed Salamander due to his penchant for always being where the fire was hottest. He was referred to by the Satirist Jonathan Swift as being as ‘brave and brainless as the sword by his side.’ Cutts lead Marborough’s left wing attack upon the village of Blenheim.

In the more general section of this podcast we look at the word Jacobean and attempt to straighten out a few myths regarding the Jacobite cause.
The history podcast review this time concerns the Stanford University series of lectures on Hannibal.
Some of the sources I use for this podcast can be found at Amazon.co.uk in the UK
or at Amazon.com in the United States.

If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.

 

 Historyzine 012 - Battle of Blenheim [54:15m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6037)

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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 French and Spanish crowns.
We interview some of the reenactors (including Colonel Holcroft Blood’s Regiment)

and try to capture some of the atmosphere of the town square at night.

Hope you enjoy it.

I’ve taken many many pictures of the reenactors in their glorious costumes.
I’ve uploaded a few of them to flickr including a bunch from the parade around Oudenaarde town square on Saturday.
Saturday Parade in Oudenaarde
Photos from the reenactment

and I’ve put together a few photos and little video clips from the parade and reenactment into a very short youtube video.

Some of the sources I use for this podcast can be found at Amazon.co.uk in the UK
or at Amazon.com in the United States.

If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.

 

 Historyzine 2nd Oudenaarde special [8:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (6117)

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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 here with guns, cannons, horses and bags of enthusiasm.
This is only a short podcast and is out of sequence with the series on the Spanish Succession that we’ve been doing. We’re on 1704 at the moment and Oudenaarde is 1708 but I wanted to try and communicate some of my delight at being here while I’m actually in Oudenaarde.

Hope you enjoy it.

I’ve taken many many pictures of the reenactors in their glorious costumes.
I’e uploaded a few of them to flickr including a bunch from the parade around Oudenaarde town square on Saturday.
Saturday Parade in Oudenaarde
Photos from the reenactment

Some of the sources I use for this podcast can be found at Amazon.co.uk in the UK
or at Amazon.com in the United States.

If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.

 

 Historyzine 010 - A special from Oudenaarde [7:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (5571)

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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 the sources I use for this podcast can be found at Amazon.co.uk in the UK
or at Amazon.com in the United States.

If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.

 

 Historyzine 009 - March to Blenheim [21:30m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (5643)

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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 Bavaria and Hungary posing serious threats.

Anneisaman reviews The Missing Link Podcast and we look at the word CABAL.
Some of the sources I use for this podcast can be found at Amazon.co.uk in the UK
or at Amazon.com in the United States
If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.

 

 Historyzine 008: 1703 [33:56m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (7208)

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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 our section on the War of the Spanish Succession we continue to follow the events of 1702. We follow Admiral Rooke into Cadiz and then ponder the black-hearted treachery of Max Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria.

If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.

 

 Historyzine007 - 1702 and all that [35:58m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (7814)

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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 for laying siege to a fortress. There’s a plan of a Vauban type fortress here

If you take a look at this pdf document you will be able to see some really good aerial photographs of Vauban fortresses that give a fine indication of how it works as a piece of defensive technology.

Finally here’s a picture showing the lines of circumvallation and contravallation and the three parallels the besiegers would dig as part of the siege of a fortress town.

We mention in the podcast one of the finest references on the net for the War of the Spanish Succession www.spanishsuccession.nl and also give a shout out to the Genealogy Gems podcast plus a mention for a site simply jammed full of history podcast reviews http://anneisaman.blogspot.com/
Latest news on the Oudenaarde re-enactment for the 300th anniversary of the battle of Oudenaarde is that I have booked my hotel room and the reenactment will be taking place over the weekend 12th and 13th of July.

Our review this time is of a podcast from the History Network and is an audio tour of a walk around Soho in London.

If you wish to leave feedback on the podcast then do so through the site http://historyzine.com/ or use the contact page to send a form email http://historyzine.com/contact/

 

 Historyzine006 [31:28m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (7514)

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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 is twice thwarted in his attempts to bring the French to battle, once by his Dutch deputies and then by the delightful General Opdam but then engages in a fine series of sieges which takes back the Meuse and reconnects the English and Dutch forces with Maastricht.

 

 Historyzine 005 [19:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (3108)

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