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.

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