Bavaria and the War of the Bavarian Succession
Bavaria is an almost painfully beautiful area in the south-easternmost part of Germany. It is also one of the oldest existing political entities in Europe, though it has changed in structure (and size) over the [...]
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, one of the latter James’s numerous mistresses, [...]
The Barbary Coast, and Wars
It is difficult to find any time since the Byzantine Empire when the North African coast from Morocco to Libya was not infamous for piracy. The worst period was the beginning of the sixteenth century [...]
The Visconti
One of the historic Italian families, lords of Milan and Lombardy from the second half of the thirteenth century. The Visconti family was without any doubt the most powerful in northern Italy. Very early names [...]
Two unfortunate (royal) children
It was difficult enough merely to survive childhood in earlier times, with nearly certain death in childbirth or later in infancy – through lack of hygiene, lack of medicine, lack of medical knowledge or simply [...]
Appeasement
A bit of a dirty word since 1938 but it shouldn’t be. There is enough appeasement going on now over the disgusting situation in Syria to fill the Golden Bowl with appeasers eager to keep [...]
Dorothy Parker: some things worth remembering . . .
She was born Dorothy Rothschild (nothing to do with the bankers) in 1893 and died just over seventy in 1967. She was American, one of the founders of the wits’ Round Table at the Algonquin [...]
The Normans & the Norman Invasion of England
Normans were and are inhabitants of Normandy, a picturesque western coastal part of France. They are of mixed descendence, much of their blood being of Scandinavian or Viking origin, the rest Frankish (or French). The [...]
Nihilism & Nihilists
A portrait of Sergei Nechaev / allpowers.co.uk These two words, plus nihilistic, are come across by history students frequently; they may know what the words means, or perhaps not. Imagine a child not [...]
The Battles of Copenhagen
/ britishbattles.com When the history student thinks of Denmark, he will not think of that Scandinavian country as a bristling enemy of Britain, except possibly during Denmark (and Norway’s) Viking stages. But the [...]
Revolution in Mexico (1910 – 1949)
Mestizo Porfirio Diaz, President of Mexico 1876 – 80; 1884 – 1911 / sinaloamx.com During Porfirio Diaz’ rule, power in Mexico was pre-eminent among the elite – landowners, bankers, captains of industry etc. [...]
Poor Laws in Britain, and ‘Speenhamland’
A typical Victorian workhouse / ihbc.org.uk The Poor Law provided during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I at the very end of the sixteenth century was still in force at the very beginning [...]
Medieval and pre-medieval Ireland
The English Pope Hadrian started the troubles in Ireland with his bull Laudabiliter / historytoday.com Before the 5th century, Ireland was virtually unknown, except as a wilderness island too far away and consequently [...]
Boyars and Kulaks
Artist Ivan Bilibin’s painting of Boyars / russianartgallery.org Two words which appear regularly in fiction and essays concerning Russia are Boyar and Kulak. They invariably appear with pejorative intention: “Don’t let that bunch [...]
Strategic bombing offensive: the science of massed air attacks
Crudely developed during the later stages of World War II, the SBO was a series of mass attacks from the air on both military and civilian targets. The idea was to destroy your enemy’s capacity [...]
The battle for Stalingrad (August ’42 – February ’43)
/ simcountry.wikia.com Volgograd was a city that stretched for eighteen miles along the banks of the river Volga in deepest Russia. The oilfields of the Caucasus were near, and the huge town was [...]
The liberators of Spanish South America
José de San Martín The end of the great Spanish Empire was to a great extent aided by two officers, one Spanish himself, the other a Creole from Venezuela. Both achieved huge successes, [...]
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