Great Battles in History

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Fought on July 8, 1709, the Battle of Poltava was the turning point of the Great Northern War. It was the climax of the long duel between two of the greatest monarchs of the age: King Charles XII of Sweden and Tsar Peter I of Russia. Poltava marked the end of the Stormaktstiden, Sweden's Age of Empire, and the rise of Russia as a great power.

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The battle of Breitenfeld was fought on September 17, 1631. It was one of the largest and most important battles of the Thirty Years' War. It was the most famous victory of Gustavus Adolphus, Sweden's hero-king. It was the beginning of the Stormaktstiden, Sweden's Age of Empire. 

If you're enjoying Great Battles in History, please follow it and rate it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen. And if you'd like to give me more support, then please consider buying my book, 1709: The Twilight of the Sun King. It's published by Bloomsbury and available from major booksellers.

To help listeners navigate this episode, here is a chapter breakdown (timings are approximate):

1.     01:34-12:13                Introduction

2.     12:15-33:53                Dominium Maris Baltici: the Struggle for the Baltic

3.     33:55-1:13:48             Sweden’s Northern Wars

4.     1:13:50-2:09:45          Seventeenth-Century Warfare

5.     2:09:47-2:46:57          Gustavus Adolphus

6.     2:46:59-3:12:35          The Causes of the Thirty Years’ War

7.     3:12:37-3:46:35          The Thirty Years’ War Begins

8.     3:46:37-4:09:38         The Swedish Intervention

9.     4:09:40-4:52:10         The Battle of Breitenfeld

10.  4:52:12-5:34:54          Stormaktstiden: Sweden’s Age of Empire

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The Battle of Breitenfeld, fought on September 17, 1631, was one of the most important battles of the Thirty Years' War. It was the greatest victory of King Gustavus Adolphus, the Lion from the North, and marked the beginning of the Stormaktstiden, Sweden's Age of Empire. 

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The Battle of Nagashino is one of the most famous battles in Japanese history. It was the climax of the Sengoku Jidai, the Age of Warring States, a century-long period of civil wars and social upheaval. It represented the culmination of a revolution that had transformed Japanese warfare. And it punctures many myths of the samurai, the warrior-heroes of Japan.

This episode also ends a long hiatus for Great Battles in History. For the past couple of years, I've been working on a book. Researching and writing it took up all the time I would have devoted to this podcast. With the book now done, I'm planning to return to a more regular release schedule.

If you enjoy this podcast and would like to support it, please consider buying my book. It's called 1709: The Twilight of the Sun King. In 1709, France faced the coldest winter of the past five centuries, famine, financial collapse, and foreign invasion. The Twilight of the Sun King is an expertly researched, engagingly written narrative history of how France survived one of its greatest crises. It explains how Louis XIV, the aging Sun King, and his state passed their greatest test. It presents a total history of an early modern campaign, one that integrates finances, logistics, and diplomacy with military operations. It culminates with an account of Malplaquet, the largest and bloodiest battle of the eighteenth century in Europe. 1709 offers new insights on the development of the French absolute monarchy and the nature of early modern European warfare.

Here's a link to my publisher, Rowman and Littlefield and a link to everyone's favourite online bookseller.

You can also order it from your local bookstore. 

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Trailer for Episode Six, the Battle of Nagashio, coming soon.

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On October 7, 1571, the fleets of the Christian Holy League and the Ottoman Empire clashed near Lepanto off the west coast of Greece. Lepanto was the largest battle on land or sea in Europe in the sixteenth century. During it, over 130,000 combatants had crewed some 500 oared warships. At the battle’s end, at least 35,000 Ottomans and 8,000 Christians had lost their lives. Lepanto was also the climax of a ferocious fifty-year-long struggle waged by the greatest naval powers of the day for domination of the Mediterranean Sea. On one side were Spain, the first global empire in history, and Venice, a fabulously wealthy merchant republic. On the other side was the Sublime State of the House of Osman—the Ottoman Empire—a dynamic Muslim polity that ruled a domain stretching from Algeria to Mesopotamia. Last but not least, Lepanto was the swan song of the naval technology that had dominated the Mediterranean Sea for over two thousand years: the war galley.  

In the coming weeks, I will also be posting this episode in shorter parts.

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Trailer for Episode Five, the Battle of Lepanto, coming in January 2022. The music is Havada Bulut Yok by Turku, Nomads of the Silk Road , licensed under an Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

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The complete episode of Agincourt, including parts one to ten.

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Agincourt was an overwhelming victory for Henry V and England. After it, the English went on to conquer Normandy. Then, in 1420, Henry forced the French to agree to the treaty of Troyes, which made him the heir to the French throne. But his premature death in 1422 turned the tide of the Hundred Years' War. The French recovered and pushed their enemies out of France. By 1453, only Calais remained in English hands. The Hundred Years ' War was over. 

 

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On October 24, 1415, the feast day of the twin saints Crispin and Crispinian, the English and French armies arrayed for battle on the muddy field of Agincourt. The action began when the English advanced and the longbowmen loosed a storm of arrows. When the fighting ended three hours later, the English had won an unexpected and total victory.