The History Network

Edward II of England, stung by constant humiliations from Scottish raids, was assembling the largest army ever to invade Scotland. Over twenty thousand men, the flower of English chivalry, the finest knights in Europe, all converging on one goal - to crush Robert the Bruce and his lieutenants once and for all. Dur: 25mins File: .mp3

In the nurseries of northern England, mothers would hush their crying children with a simple rhyme: "Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye, the Black Douglas will not get ye." But this was no fairy tale monster - this was a real man, a Scottish knight whose name became a legend of terror across the known world. Dur: 14mins File: .mp3

The Persian King who invaded Greece in 480 BC is remembered for his defeat at the Battle of Salamis, but he was much more than that.

Xerxes was the king of the Persian Empire from 486 until 465 BC. He is remembered in Western scholarship for his defeat by combined Greek forces during his invasion of Greece in 480 and 479 BC. A quick look at his twenty-year reign, however, tells us that his rule must have amounted to more than that. Unfortunately, the best surviving source for him remains Herodotus, the Greek historian from Halicarnassus, who wrote the history of the Persian Wars (from the Greek perspective). Xerxes is, therefore, the villain of the story, full of hubris (because of his eventual defeat) and reduced almost to a caricature of a bad ruler.

This episode was written by Murray Dahm.

Murray is an ancient and medieval military historian from New Zealand, living in Australia. He has written more than 100 articles on various aspects of ancient and medieval military history and other historical topics from all periods. He is the author of Macedonian Phalangite vs Persian Warrior, Athenian Hoplite vs Spartan Hoplite and Leuctra 371 BC, all from Osprey Publishing. He is a regular on the Ancient Warfare Podcast.

One of the first things to note about our surviving sources for the battle of Agincourt (or Azincourt), fought on October 25th, 1415, is just how many of them there are. In a way, this is unsurprising since it was (and is) one of the most celebrated (and unexpected) victories in English history. And yet, does this plethora of sources actually allow us to get any close to what actually happened at the battle? As historians, we are blessed with a multitude of accounts from differing perspectives on the battle – from eyewitnesses on both sides, writers who were close to the participants of the battle, all the way through to later chroniclers and analysts. Dur: 26mins File: .mp3

In the Second World War, the Rock of Gibraltar stood like a sentinel at the gateway to the Mediterranean. Whoever held it could open or close the sea lanes to North Africa and beyond. To Britain it was a vital stronghold, but by 1940 it looked vulnerable. Spain was under Franco's rule, sympathetic to Berlin, and German planners drew up schemes to seize the fortress in one swift move. It was in this climate that a plan was conceived that bordered on the unimaginable. A small group of men would vanish from the surface of the Rock and take up residence in a chamber hollowed out within its limestone core. They would not leave again until the war ended. Dur: 29mins File: .mp3

The Peloponnesian War pitted the two most powerful Ancient Greek states, Athens and Sparta and their respective allies, against each other in an epic struggle for the control of all of Greece. Dur: 22mins File: .mp3

The (second) battle of Mantinea, July 4, 362 BC: the final nail in the coffin of Spartan dominance. At the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, a resurgent Thebes led by its great statesmen and tactician reformers Epaminondas and Pelopidas defeated the army of Sparta. The defeat was one of the greatest shocks Greece had witnessed - not only did the Thebans defeat the Spartans but the Spartans turned and fled from the battlefields - something they had not done before even in the face of defeat. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3

At the battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, a resurgent Thebes led by its great statesmen and tactician reformers Epaminondas and Pelopidas defeated the army of Sparta. The defeat was one of the greatest shocks Greece had witnessed - not only did the Thebans defeat the Spartans but the Spartans turned and fled from the battlefields - something they had not done before even in the face of defeat. Dur: 16mins File: .mp3

The Final showdown at Hexham, May 15th, 1464 John Neville probably marched along the north bank of the River Tyne along Carrel Gate. This route put Bywell castle under threat, but we do not hear of Henry leaving (although he must have if this was the line of march – and other alternatives still put Bywell under threat). In his march west, Neville probably crossed the Tyne at Corbridge (or perhaps Bywell – both had extant Roman bridges) and so came upon the Lancastrian camp from the east or northeast. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

A combination of two battles fought close together in Northumberland in April and May 1464 brought Lancastrian resistance to the Yorkist king Edward IV to an end during the Wars of the Roses until 1469. These battles are of extreme importance but are confused in the primary sources and often elided in modern accounts into a single battle, the last one fought at Hexham on May 15th (although the date of the battle is also unclear). One of the reasons for this confusion is that the battles were fought close together within a very short space of time, only three weeks apart. Dur: 21mins File: .mp3