Marlborough and Eugene
The late Richard Holmes considered Marlborough to be Britain’s greatest general. He was probably right. But, like many great commanders, Marlborough was paired with a man of comparable calibre: Prince...
View ArticleYi Sun-sin: history’s greatest admiral
When we think of great naval commanders, Nelson immediately comes to mind. He fought 13 battles, winning 8. Admiral Yi Sun-sin fought 23 battles against Japan between 1592 and 1598, and won every one...
View ArticleRare military collection auctioned at Sotheby’s
A first edition of Machiavelli’s Libro dell’arte della guerra (The Art of War) has sold at auction for £150,000.
View ArticleThree Armada portraits of Elizabeth I united for the first time
Faces of a Queen: the Armada Portraits of Elizabeth, a free exhibition at the Queen’s House in Greenwich, opens on 13 February 2020 and runs until 31 August.
View ArticleREVIEW – The song of Simon de Montfort: England’s first revolution and the...
Simon de Montfort was a colossus in English affairs during the 13th century, as this biography skilfully explains. What is revealed is a man who was shaped by the mores of his times.
View ArticleCromwell’s Eye
The generalship of Oliver Cromwell, England’s great revolutionary leader, has sometimes been criticised. Wrongly, argues Martyn Bennett, in this detailed analysis of Cromwell’s conduct at Preston, the...
View ArticleREVIEW – The King’s Irish: the Royalist Anglo-Irish Foot of the English Civil...
Just as there was no single Parliamentarian army during the English Civil War, there was no single Royalist Army either. But while there are a number of works about the various armies which formed the...
View ArticleEnglish Civil War massacre ‘cover-up’ revealed
The site of a Royalist garrison in Nottinghamshire, Shelford Manor was besieged by Parliamentary forces on 3 November 1645.
View ArticleREVIEW – two new histories of the English Civil Wars
There are numerous histories of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (to give the ‘English’ Civil Wars their more-accurate title), as such, any new book, unless based on ground-breaking research, needs...
View ArticleThe Spanish Armada: England’s deliverance in 1588 | The PastCast
On this episode of The PastCast, historian Geoffrey Parker, co-author of a major new history on the doomed campaign, explains what really happened in 1588.
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