WDF 25.0 Bibliography & More

History friends! I know we were a bit late, but as usual I have a really uninteresting techhy reason for the lateness; basically my lappy had to ruin itself on me. Currently I'm still installing the insane number of updates required by windows, though I thankfully backed up everything before I wiped the hard drive. Once again I was driven mad by technology, and the whole laptop episode probably set me back about 3 days podcast work. But there you go, my luck is bad, and yet the podcast is hopefully up to your standards! 

I added some extra music this time around, I hope you enjoy it! Expect the next installment of WDF 25 in about a week. I am genuinely TRYING to churn these bad boys out, so that they reach you freshly and well within a reasonable time!

Anyways, here be the bibliography for the episode! Thanksssss.

Peter Padfield, Armada (Victor Gollancz LTD; 1988).

Vincent J. Pitts, Henri IV of France: His Reign and Age (JHU Press; 2012).

Geoffrey Parker, Europe in Crisis 1598-1648 (Fontanna Press; 1990).

Edward Barton and Edwin Pears, “The Spanish Armada and the Ottoman Porte”, The English Historical Review, Vol. 8, No. 31 (Jul., 1993), pp. 439-466.

Matthew Dimmock, New Turks: Dramatizing Islam and the Ottomans in Early Modern England (Ashgate Publishing; 2005).

Hiram Morgan, Tyrone's Rebellion: The Outbreak of the Nine Years War in Tudor Ireland (Boydell Press; 1999).

Brendan Fitzpatrick, Seventeenth-century Ireland: The War of Religions (Rowman and Littlefield; 1989).

The REAL Red Wedding within the TRUE Game of Thrones

I don't know about yourself, but when I discovered that in 1572, Catherine de Medici, mother of the King of France Charles IX invited the leader of the Huguenots Henry III to marry Charles' sister and thus ensure peace at last between the long conflicting Protestant and Catholic elements in France....only to have all the Protestant guests at the wedding murdered, and to instigate a wave of mob violence across Paris, I could think of one thing: the absolute shock I was struck with during episode 9 of the most recent series of Game of Thrones, in which occurred perhaps the most unexpected and graphic scenes of television. The similarities between the two events is nothing short of startling, and leads me to wonder whether George R R Martin may have looked to France's troubled dynastic past for some inspiration.

Not to mention what happens next. After escaping with his life from this red wedding, young Henry of Navarre then engages in the fantastically named "War of the Three Henrys", a dramatically confusing three sided war in which Henry of Navarre, Henry III of France, the monarch at the time, and finally Henry of Guise, whose creation and leadership of the Catholic League and its support from Spain granted Mr. Guise a very strong position, all fought for France's throne. I won't spoil the story for you guys, you'll have to listen to the episode, but isn't it funny when we see events in history like this that are SO similar to things on TV, you wonder if it really is history repeating itself, or if the events within that period of history are just so spectacular, they deserve to be cast on the big screen?

Regardless, this is the painting of history's real red wedding by Francois Dubois, a Huguenot painter who eventually settled in Switzerland. Expect WDF's first episode on the 30 Years War within the week!

Thanksssss!

Here Comes The War! Notes on the 30 Years War Part 1

Hello history friends, just a bit of an intro here to remind you all that I still exist. WDF 20.0: SPECIAL= The Thirty Years War Part One: 1589-1600 is due for release soonish, within the next week, so I'd like to familiarise you all with the characters visually so that you know who I'm talking about and can at least picture them in your head. Bear in mind of course, that I will have to do this with the next few batch of episodes once these fine folks here pass on, but so lasting are their respective legacies that it is important you know who they are.

So for starters, here's Henry of Navarre, now known as Henry IV of France, and one of the key figures in the buildup to the 30 Years War, as well as a key ally of Elizabeth and enemy of Philip. Henry had to fight for his right to sit on the French throne every step of the way, but is widely seen today as one of the most charismatic and widely loved monarchs to have sat on it. That's probably why he has a quite obvious smile on his bearded face.

Next up is Queen Elizabeth, also referred to as Liz for convenience, she ruled England through this vital period in its history, and was England's last Tudor monarch. Her reign of over 40 years is seen as one of the most significant of any monarch of the era, so here she is in all her jazzed up glory.

Finally, Philip II of Spain enters the scene now. Philip oversaw the rule of Spain through years of financial strain and military supremacy, while also seeing his Armada fail against England. Philip was a micro-manager and one who didn't give up easily, and thus he was as good a match as any for Liz, once the war between the two heated up after the famous 1588 incident. Here's his face.

Hopefully that simplifies things a bit for you guys, now wish me luck as I get back to work!

Thankssssss

WDF 24 Bibliography

Here you have it, let me know what you thought of the episode as always. This time we were meant to have actually released this like a week ago, since it's been practically finished since that time, but things just kept gettting in the way, so here we are. Better late than never! Let's hope my 30 Years War narrative is a little less up and down.

• Peter Padfield, Armada (Victor Gollancz Ltd; 1988).
• Lawrence Flanagan, Ireland’s Armada Legacy (Gill and McMillan Ltd; 1988).
• Edward Barton and Edwin Pears, “The Spanish Armada and the Ottoman Porte”, The English Historical Review, Vol. 8, No. 31 (Jul., 1993), pp. 439-466.
• Colin Martin & Geoffrey Parker, The Spanish Armada: Revised Edition (Manchester University Press; 1999).
• Garret Mattingly, The Defeat of the Spanish Armada (Random House Publishing; 2011).

Thanksssss

WDF 24: The Anglo-Spanish War 1585-1604

How does someone even begin to approach a conflict like this one? I often find that with wars that are so well known, there is the added pressure to deliver, whereas with the lesser known wars, though they are in their own right harder to research, because less is known about them I will generally be less criticised. There is also the fact that this period, the Armada and all its consequences, has been covered so many times, that it is difficult to really put my own spin on it. That said though, it is a thoroughly fascinating time.
I especially love the idea of a powerful Spain, because such an idea does not last very long in the grand scheme of things. Indeed, as we shall soon see, once the 30 Years War changes the balance of power in a big way, Spain becomes perhaps the largest non-entity in the world, culminating in its domestic and international collapse in 1702, which we know as the War of the Spanish Succession.

It is a fall from power which Philip no doubt did not see coming, as he plotted his invasion of England in the late 1580's. Indeed, upon his succession to the throne in 1555, the Habsburgs, of which Philip was a member, could count among his dominions the majority of Europe, not to mention the majority of the known world.

It must have been inconceivable to Philip that Elizabeth and her tiny island dominion would be his downfall, but that's exactly what happened. After years of ruling the world, Philip's son would inherit a Spain unsure of its place in the world, and unaware that its ship had sailed in the never-ending struggle for European, and by extension world, dominance.

Check me out as I cover the Armada and more in WDF 24: The Anglo-Spanish War 1585-1604, coming soon! Thankssssss.

WDF 23: The Greek War of Independence Bibliography and More

Hey guys, thanks for dropping by!

I just wanted to give a little of my own thoughts on how the actual episode itself went, and as usual give you the Bibliography afterwards. First of all, a huge thankssss to John, Phil and Joseph on their donations; your financial support is seriously appreciated so cheers sincerely.

If you were expecting an account of how the Greeks were militarily successful in this war then you may be disappointed. Everyone knows by know, I'd assume, that this isn't a military history podcast, but even so, I think this may well have been the least military detail I ever put into an episode. The reason for this is that I got so caught up in everything else, namely, the awesomeness that is Metternich.

Ever since I started WDF I've been dreaming up ideas for other podcasts, yet I simply don't have the time to do them. What I have been considering, after a few listeners suggested it, is taking a few episodes out to cover important figures in diplomacy. Metternich is an obvious example of such a figure, but I'd also love to properly get into the life of Bismarck again, and other figures I don't know that much about, in completely different eras, such as Kissinger. What I'm saying is that the giant presence of Metternich in this episode was no accident...kind of. You should expect him to reappear in the future, hopefully in that important figure episode format, but also just generally. I really enjoyed looking at the impact he made and what his concerns were within his foreign policies. I hope my focus on him, and often narration of the episode from his point of view was a positive thing, and that those looking for a more militarily focused episode weren't too upset.

I hope that in general the episode greets you well. I had wanted originally to delve into the Russo-Turk War of 1828-29 in more detail, but I simply did not have the time. Also, sincere apologies for saying I was going to release the episode on Friday 12th and not actually releasing it until 5 days later. I am a bit of a mess at the moment between everything that's going on.

So I hope you enjoyed this trip forward into the post-Napoleonic era, we'll be going back to our more familiar late Medieval narrative next time, specifically to look at the Spanish Armada of 1588, so I hope you'll join me for that!

Here is the bibliography. As usual any questions please send them on. Thankssss once again history friends.

• Douglas Dakin, The Greek Struggle for Independence: 1821-1833 (University of California Press; 1973).
• Virginia Penn, ‘Philhellenism in Europe, 1821-1828’, The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 16, No. 48 (Apr., 1938), pp. 638-653.
• Virginia Penn, ‘Philhellenism in England’, The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 14, No. 42 (Apr., 1936), pp. 647-660.
• Angelo Repousis, ‘The Cause of the Greeks": Philadelphia and the Greek War for Independence, 1821-1828’, The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 123, No. 4 (Oct., 1999), pp. 333-363.
• Allan Cunningham, ‘The Philhellenes, Canning and Greek Independence’, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2 (May, 1978), pp. 151-181.
• Walter Laquer, Guerrilla Warfare: A Historical and Critical Study (Transaction Publishers; 1976).
• http://www.tc-america.org/issues-information/turkish-history/greek-war-of-independence-and-its-toll-on-turks-668.htm
• http://www.chioshistory.gr/en/itx/itx25.html

WDF 23: The Greek War of Independence

This episode takes a different period, that of post-Napoleonic, pre-Crimean Europe, and focuses mainly on the history of the Ottoman Empire up to 1821, when the Greeks proclaimed a national uprising. This proclamation was not the first in the history of a Greece controlled by the Turks, but it would be the last. Additional attention is paid to the international intervention in this Greek War; why foreign nations such as France, Britain and Russia chose to get involved and what such involvement meant not just for Turkish sovereignty, but for its empire as a whole.

All in all, it's a fascinating glimpse at what is to become the norm for the Ottomans, and is also a key stop off for Europe before the Crimean War, because it demonstrates Russia's newfound sense of purpose on the international stage, when such actions were not altogether familiar to the Western European camp. It is something of a detour from our Medieval European narrative, but I hope you won't mind that too much!

Once again, thankssss to listener Benjamin Ashewell, and be sure to look out for his podcast on the unification of Italy soon!