Historyzine: The History Podcast » history podcast

Historyzine 019: The Battle of Oudenarde

jimmowatt — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 16:45:46 +0000

Historyzine’s retelling of The War of the Spanish Succession now reaches the year 1708 and the Battle of Oudenarde. The Duke of Burgundy and the Marshall Vendome make initial gains in the Spanish Netherlands moving swiftly to take control of the fortress cities of Ghent and Bruges. Looking to strengthen their supply routes back toward France they move toward Oudenarde.

The allies move fast and manage to surprise the French army just to the North of the city.

The troops engage but it’s all a bit hesitant until Rantzau launches his cavalry, slamming into the unprepared left flank of the French army. More and more troops are fed into the fray and the battle front extends further and further and further with both sides continually threaten to flank the other. The allied troops are moving on to the battlefield from the bridges at Eename but also General Overkirk is advancing through Oudenarde itself with 25,000 troops. He will take these troops around the back of the French battle line and then, hopefully take them by surprise. By 10 o clock at night the French find themselves almost completely encircled.

So, that’s the special feature section – The War of the Spanish Succession.

In the magazine portion of the show we look at the word ‘ye’.

I interview the military history author, James Falkner

and there is a review of the podcast, A History of Rome.

The music you hear in this podcast is by Gustav Holst and you’ll be able to download it from the website http://musopen.com/

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.

Also I wish to draw your attention to the twitter feed we’ve started for the Historyzine History podcast.

You’ll find Historyzine twittering away at http://twitter.com/Historyzine .

I hope you enjoy the podcast. Press the play button below to listen or subscribe (it’s completely free) using one of the two buttons at the top of this post. One will link you to your Itunes program and the other will give you an rss link for your podcast feed aggregator. Happy listening.

Historyzine 018: 1707

jimmowatt — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 15:24:24 +0000

Historyzine now moves into the year 1707 in the saga of the War of the Spanish Succession. This year the allies are looking to attack Toulon and hopefully make more gains in the Spanish Netherlands. The Duke of Marlborough has an army of 80,000 in the Low countries facing off against Villars who has 100,000 under his control. Prince Eugene leads an army of 35,000 against Toulon and the Earl Galway is left with only 15,500 in Spain which he uses to bring the Duke of Berwick to battle at Almanza.

Galway, of course, is on to a loser and is soundly beaten by the French in a terrible setback for the allies in Spain. They fair little better at Toulon and after an abortive siege there, they retreat back to Italy. The Admiral supporting this endeavour is Sir Cloudesley Shovel and he returns home only to be shipwrecked in one of the worst naval disasters ever recorded, off the Scilly Isles, only a few miles from port It’s a poor year for the Anglo/Dutch/English and Portuguese alliance and all around they are beset by failure and disaster.

In the magazine portion of the show the Linguistic History Trivia Bit, looks at the words Avatar, Thug and Blighty. As the more perceptive among you will note, all these words have an Indian origin. The Indian theme grows out of one of the History podcast reviews which is of the UCLA series on British India.You’ll find this series at the UCLA Office of Instructional Development. The other podcast review this time is the series, Stuff you Missed in History Class.

There’s a couple of announcements in the show. I exhort you to visit my online shop at http://historyshopper.com. to take a look at my history themed birthday cards and also to come along to the Marlborough Study Day on march 13th at the Assembly House in Norwich . This will feature the military history writers, James Falkner and Richard Holmes and it’s a Battlefields Trust Event . Tickets are only 15 pounds, with part of the proceeds going to Help for Heroes . Here is the note which appeared in the Early 18th Century Wars mailing list

We have Richard Holmes and James Falkner speaking at Norwich on Marlborough and his battles on Saturday March 13th at 14:00 at The Assembly House.

Tickets available from 20 Rowington Road, Norwich. NR1 3RR.

Please make cheques available to the Battlefields Trust.

The intro music for this episode is Die Valkure Fantasie, composed by Richard Wagner.

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.
Also I wish to draw your attention to the twitter feed we’ve started for the Historyzine History podcast.
You’ll find Historyzine twittering away at http://twitter.com/Historyzine .
I hope you enjoy the podcast. Press the play button below to listen or subscribe (it’s completely free) using one of the two buttons at the top of this post. One will link you to your Itunes program and the other will give you an rss link for your podcast feed aggregator. Happy listening.

Historyzine 017: The Aftermath of Ramillies

jimmowatt — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:09:13 +0000

Historyzine 17 features 1706 and the Aftermath of Battle of Ramilies as well as the relief of Turin in our War of the Spanish Succession section. In the linguistic history trivia bit we’ll be looking at a couple of printing terms which have morphed into regularly used modern day phrases. The phrases I’ll be focussing upon are, uppercase and lowercase as well as getting ahold of the wrong end of the stick. They’re a fascinating couple of phrases and I very much enjoyed researching their provenance.

Composing Stick

We have a short interview with Richard Saunders from Historypress who talks a little about the most popular of the history books at the History Press and tells us a little about the commissioning and submission procedures at the History Press.
The are two history podcast reviews this time. We’ll be turning the spotlight on Living History, a podcast for reenactors and the new BBC/British Museum podcast, A History of the World in 100 objects. These are both fascinating podcasts for very different reasons.
There’s some feedback from Portugal and also the announcement of my new online shop for history nerds which you’ll find at http://historyshopper.com/
The War of the Spanish Succession takes up a goodly portion of the show this time. We looked at the battle of Ramilies in the last episode and now we move on to see if the allied army can take advantage of the situation. However, things still look bleak for the allies in Italy. Turin is under siege and may fall all too soon. Prince Eugene after his defeat at Calcinato is rushing to relieve the city but his forces are barely adequate.
This is quite a long episode at just over an hour so I’ll give you some timings in case you wish to skip about in the podcast.
0.00 to 0.32 Intro Music
0.32 to 6.18 Intro and feedback
6.18 to 12.23 Review of the Living History Podcast
12.23 to 16.00 Review of A History of the World in 100 Objects
16.00 to 21.03 Linguistic History Trivia Bit
21.03 to 23.47 Interview with Richard Saunders from Historypress
23.47 to 25.27 Announcement of HistoryShopper shop for history nerds: This shop is selling History themed birthday cards at the moment and can be found athistoryshopper.com/
25.27 to 1.01.16 War of the Spanish Succession
1.01.16 to 1.02.03 Outro Music.

The intro music for this episode is The Brandenburg Concerto 6 by Johann Sebastian Bach and the outro music is also by Bach and is Air on the G String.

Historyzine 016 – Ramillies

jimmowatt — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:25:19 +0000

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 his troops up against the French at the Battle of Ramillies. This is a particularly fascinating battle as it is a very clear demonstration of military distraction technique. This battlefield definitely dictates the strategy for the battle with only one section of it available for cavalry action but Marlborough manages to convince Villeroi that he’s going to do something else entirely. Villeroi falls for this feint and the rest is history.

As you can see from this map, the only clear country in which you can properly engage your cavalry is that section inbetween Overkirk’s troops and the Maison Du Roi.

The Linguistic History Trivia Bit for this episode covers the phrase, ‘Nose to the Grindstone’ as shown in this jolly picture. The podcast review for this time is Lars Brownworth’s delightful new podcast, The Norman Centuries. I don’t think I’m giving much away when I say I very much enjoy this podcast and await, with delight, each new episode.

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.

Also I wish to draw your attention to the new twitter feed we’ve started for the Historyzine History podcast.

You’ll find Historyzine twittering away at http://twitter.com/Historyzine .

Historyzine 014: Forcing the lines of Brabant (1705)

jimmowatt — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 00:33:03 +0000

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.

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: The Battle of Blenheim

jimmowatt — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:53:50 +0000

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 009: The March to Blenheim

jimmowatt — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:43:33 +0000

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.