Dean Swift

What happened to Napoleon’s Marshals?

Murat shot after Waterloo / executedtoday.com

Murat shot (by the French) after Waterloo / executedtoday.com

To reach the rank of Marshal in the French army before the Revolution (q.v.) was the highest achievement for a soldier. After the Revolution however, the rank was dismissed as ‘elitist’, only to be re-installed again in 1804 by Napoleon Bonaparte. It is said Bonaparte did this in an attempt to re-construct a system of honours (which was elitist) in France. The Emperor appointed 26 Marshals between 1804 and 1815. Where two of them are especially of interest to General – History, I have formed brief biographies. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-03-19T11:36:28+00:00 March 19th, 2012|French History, Italian History, Russian history, Spanish History, World History|0 Comments

The Normandy Landings & the Invasion

British and Commonwealth troops at Gold beach / paranormalknowledge.com

Until Mr Spielberg thought about a soldier with 3 dead brothers called Ryan there had been a number of films made about the Allied invasion through France which eventually, painfully slowly, brought World War II to a jagged end. One of these was a sort of ‘combined ops’ made in 1962, only eighteen years after the event. Hollywood contributed not a few stars and the money; Britain, France and Germany several more fine actors and the technical advisers. The final product was called The Longest Day. The finished movie used a lot of actual film shot during the Landings, an idea that provided a genuine feel, as well as horror. Above all, The Longest Day emphasised the undoubted fact that the Normandy Landings of June 1944 were a result of a brave attempt at co-ordination between the Allies – not an easy task when most generals from whatever nation can behave like a bad-tempered chorus of prima donnas and ballerinas. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-03-15T11:43:47+00:00 March 15th, 2012|English History, French History, German History, Russian history, US History, World History|1 Comment

What was the ‘Roman Question’?

It is something studious people have been asking for centuries: what relation does the city of Rome (for one thousand four hundred years in the ‘temporal’ possession of the Catholic Pope) have with any movement that might demand Italian unity?

Pope Pius IX (Giovanni Mastai-Ferretti) was obliged to get out of Rome fast when a popular uprising drove him out of the Vatican. A Roman Republic was set up, mainly by the cleverness of Giuseppe Mazzini (politically) and Garibaldi (militarily). It was recognised officially in 1849. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-03-14T09:44:16+00:00 March 14th, 2012|Italian History, Today, World History|0 Comments

Two sad, unlucky men: Alfonso XIII & the Duc d’Enghien

The execution of the Duke / albert-fagioli.blogg.org

Alfonso was born in 1896 and was King of Spain from that day, until 1933. His father, XII of that name, had died before the son was born. His mother, a melancholy lady called Maria Cristina was made Regent until the boy’s 16^th birthday.

Throughout Alfonso XIII’s reign there was trouble; the anarchists had found a wonderful country in which to molest the normal life. Spain was mostly desert lonely but beautiful beaches, mountains and valleys, with underpopulated villages and hamlets (where bandits hid), negligently policed cities and of course the permanent dissaffection shown by the Basque Country, Galicia and (worst of all) Cataluña towards the capital, Madrid. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-03-13T17:31:07+00:00 March 13th, 2012|French History, Spanish History, World History|0 Comments

The truth about Mayerling?

Contemporary photographs of the victims at Mayerling / en.wikipedia.org

Emperor Franz-Joseph of Austria/Hungary must have had tremendous self-discipline: his brother Maximilian was invited to become King of Mexico, accepted, and was later shot as a traitor (to Mexico one supposes) by order of the Liberals under Juárez at Querataro; his wife Elizabeth was murdered by another liberal, this time an Anarchist, at Geneva; his nephew Franz-Ferdinand and his wife were assassinated at Sarejevo in 1914, setting the world on course for world war; to cap it all his son (and heir) the Crown Prince Rudolf committed suicide along with his mistress in Franz-Joseph’s hunting lodge at Mayerling. Or did he? (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-03-12T09:33:21+00:00 March 12th, 2012|German History, Jewish History, World History|0 Comments

Two World War II soldiers: Alexander & Montgomery

Many generals co-operate or fight against each other, not always on opposing sides. Almost all the Second War generals and field marshals on both the Axis side or in the Allies actually knew each other, some reasonably well, because they had coincided at some military college or other. Sandhurst, St. Cyr, and even West Point trained and entertained future generals as officer cadets from Germany, France, Italy, Britain, her Commonwealth, and the United States. Here we take a brief look at two of the most important Generals in the War, later made Field Marshals. Neither was famous for enjoying good humour or any company other than their own; both were immensely ambitious, both were driven by the Furies that inspire War. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2018-04-26T09:44:13+00:00 March 12th, 2012|English History, French History, German History, History of India, World History|1 Comment

Two (du Plessis) Richelieus

Armand.Emmanuel du Plessis / retratosdelahistoria.blogspot.com

Cardinal Richelieu has not been treated kindly by journalists, novelists or movie-makers. I suppose it is an honour to have been played on the screen by, in alphabetical order, Mr Tim Curry, Mr Charlton Heston and Mr Vincent Price among others. In Man in the iron mask (Curry), the Cardenal schemes against the future Louis XIV, tries to seduce of the wife of Louis XIII, imprisons a mysterious twin brother, masking his face with a cruel contraption, and forces war against England. In two of the dozens of Three Musketeers Hollywood films, the Cardenal (Heston in one and Price in another) conspires with Milady de Winter to murder both Buckingham and the girl D’Artagnan has fallen for, persuades the King to disband the loyal (and fashionably dressed) Musketeers, sends his lackeys off to murder and rob. Fiction regards Cardinal Richelieu as a baddie. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-03-09T09:44:26+00:00 March 9th, 2012|French History, Russian history, Spanish History, US History, World History|0 Comments

Andorra & Luxembourg

The first is a co-Principality, and the second a Grand Duchy. Both are tiny, but significant in questions of tourism and politics. Andorra lies between France and Spain, a beautiful landscape of hills and valleys at around 900 metres, sometimes rising to peaks at 2900 metres (9,600 feet). The country is bisected by the River Valira, which provides for three distinct natural regions – valleys of the North and East Valira, and the Grand Valira. The peaks are snow-covered during several months of the year. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-03-08T11:17:03+00:00 March 8th, 2012|Dutch History, EU History, Spanish History, Today, World History|0 Comments

Two important Hungarians – Horthy & Károlyi

Miklós Horthy / kecel.jobbik.hu

Miklós Horthy de Nagybanya was born in 1868. He was destined to become an Admiral, and Regent while King Charles of Hungary was in exile. He was a member of a senior Protestant land-owning family, but instead of the army he trained in the Navy. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-03-07T10:28:15+00:00 March 7th, 2012|Czech History, EU History, German History, World History|0 Comments

War Crimes

This subject arouses all kinds of passions in men’s hearts. Historians are right when they say that subjecting leaders defeated in a war or wars to a tribunal accusing them of war crimes is likely to occur only to the winner. The vanquished are an easy target; in custody, defenceless, probably guilty – but no more so than the winners. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2024-01-15T13:14:33+00:00 March 5th, 2012|English History, French History, German History, Russian history, Spanish History, Today, US History, World History|0 Comments

admin

About Dean Swift