The name could hardly sound more French, and yet Henri was the grandson of William of Orange ‘The Silent’, which should make him at least a Netherlander. Henri’s…
Category: History of the Low Countries
‘Stadhouder’: what was a ‘stadholder’?
The names in Dutch and English are similar; this was the office of the chief executive of the Dutch Republic when Holland was a republic and not, as…
The EIGHTY years war
There have been wars that lasted a few days; the Great War lasted a terrible four years, and the Second World War six. There was a thirty year…
Catalunya, the Revolt of Cataluña & the Count-Duke of Olivares
Catalonia (English spelling), Cataluña (Castilian spelling) and Catalunya (Catalán spelling) all refer to the same autonomous region, made up by the provinces of Barcelona, Gerona, Lérida and Tarragona…
The Ist Duke of Berwick, illegitimate and Jacobite
James Fitzjames was born in 1670. His father was James II of England and VII of Scotland, younger brother of Charles II. His mother was Mrs Arabella Churchill,…
English monarchs from the Norman Line to the Windsors
Before a Norman Duke successfully invaded England, there had been in the Danish or Viking Line six kings including the last two, Edward the Confessor (started building Westminster…
The Thirty Years War
The British were involved in this nasty episode, though only on the margins. All wars are horribly wasting, but this one could be taken as the best example….
The Merchant Adventurers
This early fifteenth century name was coined to cover English merchants engaged in the export/import trade. The first of these was made official in 1407. After this, internationally-based…
The Battle of ‘the Bulge’
I happened to see a new DVD of an old film with this title last night. It was a typical Hollywood presentation, cost a fortune, was directed oddly…
Caustic Congresses III: the Peace of Utrecht (1713)
Of all the peace conferences that turned caustic almost at the moment of signing, the Peace of Utrecht which ‘ended’ the War of the Spanish Succession (q.v.)…