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.

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.

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 .

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.

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.

Blenheim Palace

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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/

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.

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 will lead the allied armies. The French are threatening Nijmegen and John Churchill who is eventually appointed as leader of the alliance rushes off to try and organise his forces.
The focus this time is upon the Duke of Marlborough and we do a potted history of the Duke and try to get a feel for the genius of this great English General.