French History – Page 13 – General History

From private soldier to King of Sweden: Bernadotte

Bernadotte the French Marshal who became King of Sweden / unofficialroyalty.com

Born into a French middle-class family in 1763, Jean-Baptiste Jules Bernadotte got into the royal army as a private soldier in 1780 when he was seventeen; as he was apparently a terrific supporter of the French Revolution (q.v.) he got rapid promotion, becoming a general in 1793 when he was thirty. It had taken thirteen years to move upwards from private to cadet to colonel to general. This could only have happened in France, amid the insane atmosphere of the Revolution. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-04-02T09:25:25+00:00 April 2nd, 2013|French History, Scandinavian history, Today, World History|0 Comments

The battle of Austerlitz

Map of the Battle of Austerlitz

Anyone living at the beginning of the nineteenth century might have thought that the battle of Trafalgar, fought in October 1805 would be enough to topple Napoleon Bonaparte from his imperial pretensions and intensely Corsican gut-feeling that he should rule the world, starting with all Europe. But Trafalgar as we know was a sea battle, a crucial one too, but it did not take place between armies on land. Austerlitz, however, did, and it was Bonaparte’s greatest victory, planned almost as if on a model of the battlefield though – that field was in his brain. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-04-01T12:05:25+00:00 April 1st, 2013|Austrian history, Czech History, French History, History of Czechoslovakia, Russian history, World History|0 Comments

Field-Marshal Radetzky

Radetzky von Radetz / en.wikipedia.org

Josef Wenzel, Count of Radetz was born in Austria in 1766. He became a soldier aan fought the Turks at the age of twenty-two in one of those interminable Balkan wars. In 1800 he was wounded charging with the cavalry against Napoleon at the battle of Marengo, but had recovered enough to take part in the battle of Wagram in 1809, again against the French, but with a more senior rank. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-03-30T11:19:38+00:00 March 30th, 2013|Austrian history, French History, Italian History, World History|0 Comments

Metternich

Prince Metternich painted by Laurence / en.wikipedia.org

Of all the great statesmen and diplomats whose many different names have managed to confuse so many history students in the last century or two, this one is perhaps the most important, because of the significance of what he achieved before he finally failed. We have dealt with most of them in this general-history blog – John of Gaunt, Cardinal Richelieu, Thomas Cromwell, von Bismarck, both William Pitts, Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli – the list is long indeed. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-03-25T11:46:47+00:00 March 25th, 2013|Austrian history, EU History, French History, German History, Russian history, World History|0 Comments

The Kaiser (Wilhelm II of Germany)

All in the family; Wilhelm II with, among other, George V and Alfonso XIII. All pictured here are cousins and descendents of Queen Victoria

The future King of Prussia and German Emperor was born in 1859, the eldest son of the then Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia (he later became Emperor Frederick III) and his wife, daughter and namesake of Queen Victoria of Great Britain and Empress of India. This made George V, against whom Wilhelm went to war his first cousin – an embarrassment to say the least. He was born with a semi-paralysed left arm, several inches shorter than the right one. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-03-19T17:38:38+00:00 March 19th, 2013|British History, Dutch History, English History, French History, History of the Low Countries, Russian history, Spanish History, World History|0 Comments

A brief history of spectator sports

Le Mans 1955: Pierre Levegh lies near his crashed car that killed over 80 spectators /documentingreality.com

Most (but not all) of the sports which are super-popular with the public today were invented, improved and regulated in the independent private schools of Victorian Britain; that is to say, what in England are still called ‘the public schools’, as opposed to state ones. The most popular of all – Soccer – was being played in early medieval England, and has always been an almost entirely working-class game. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-03-17T19:47:01+00:00 March 17th, 2013|A History of North America, A history of the motor car, British History, English History, French History, German History, Greek History, History of New Zealand, Italian History, Spanish History, Today, World History|0 Comments

The Seven Years War

Most of the eighteenth century featured wars in Europe, as rulers came and went and tried to dominate other rulers. Nearly always the same countries were involved, and the Seven Years War was no exception: Prussia, Britain and Hanover (then a separate state) ranged up against Austria, France, Sweden, Spain and you guessed it – Russia. The date was 1756. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-03-15T12:44:54+00:00 March 15th, 2013|A History of North America, Austrian history, British History, English History, French History, German History, History of India, Russian history, Spanish History, US History, World History|0 Comments

John of Gaunt

John of Gaunt – Duke of Lancaster

The man who would be king – though not of England

John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster was a son of an English king. He was the father of an Englishman who was also a father and grandfather of English kings. Through his third and last wife he even engendered the first of the Tudors, for which haters of this dynasty cannot forgive him. But Gaunt never wished to be king of England, though he fought most of his life to be king of Castilla – in Spain.

He was the third surviving son (and actual fourth son) of Edward III (q.v.) and his queen, Philippa of Hainault; born at Ghent in 1340 – his birthplace supplies his name. He was tall, athletically built, appropriately gaunt of visage, clever and ambitious. His father Edward married him to Blanche, daughter and heiress of Henry, Earl and Duke of Lancaster, who was richer than the king. When Henry, who had served the monarchy dutifully died in 1362, John became Duke of Lancaster. He also became very rich indeed because of the marriage laws of that period. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2017-07-21T13:50:09+00:00 March 13th, 2013|British History, English History, French History, Spanish History, Today, World History|0 Comments

Gascony

Most well-read people, even in these depressingly sub-educated days, know from their reading that the hero of Alexandre Dumas’s musketeer books was a man from Gascony called D’Artagnan. This ‘fourth’ musketeer actually lived, as did Athos, Porthos and Aramis. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-03-11T18:09:57+00:00 March 11th, 2013|British History, English History, French History, World History|0 Comments

The time when there were THREE Popes

At this very moment the cardinals gathered in the Vatican are arguing about who shall be the next Pope, following Benedict XVI’s resignation on grounds of health. While the octogenarian Ratzinger rests ( and he certainly deserves to) in Castelgandolfo, dozens of seniors of the Catholic Church will shortly approach the moment when they must vote for the new Pontiff, and we will see white (or possibly) black smoke puffing from the famous chimney, installed again only two days ago. But many Catholic co-religionists do not even know that at the time of the Great Schism in the fourteenth century, there were at one time three popes! (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-03-11T11:09:59+00:00 March 11th, 2013|Church history, French History, History of Rome, Italian History, Today, World History|4 Comments