For the month of July the Xtra feed is lit up with five installments of Louis XIV's Arms & Armies, a very exciting and fascinating 10 part series (with the tenth part released in September) looking at how Louis managed to wage war with his troops, what he changed in the French state to make it happen and what the legacy of such changes was. It makes for some very interesting listening, and herein we give you a sample of each of the five episodes releasing in the Xtra feed in July, so I hope you'll check them out! For the record, here's a brief rundown of each ep. Episode 1: setting the scene of 17th century warfare and the French experience, how France had been threatened and how Louis planned to react.Episode 2: how Louis furthered the changes advanced by his predecessors in the constitution of French armies; how the armies wielded by the state went from mostly mercenaries to state funded and organised institutions in their own right, and how Louis XIV organised the monies around to pay for them.Episode 3: technology of infantry, above all the musket, and how it was gradually upgraded and adapted to make the most efficient use of its strengths, while making allowances for its limitations on the field.Episode 4: how the terrible impact of warfare in the 17th century forced Louis' armies to adapt and develop their own military drill, which came in time to represent a set of hard and fast rules religiously adhered to by each rank and file soldier. The aim was to produce an unthinking and unfearing killing machine, answerable only to his officers and immune to the concerns posed by the warfare waging around him.Episode 5: How the obsession for security in Louis' mind prompted Vauban to advocate the siege above all, and how the siege came to represent the fundamental backbone of all military procedures going forward, rather than the less conclusive and more costly pitched battle.I hope you enjoy these teasers history friends, and if you do, I hope again that you'll consider joining up to the greatest history club in podcasting, if I do say so myself! Check out www.patreon.com/WhenDiplomacyFails and sign up at the $5 level now to access all of this great content and so much more besides!Remember also to follow us on Twitter @wdfpodcastVisit the website: www.wdfpodcast.comFollow the journey on Facebook too!Thanksssssss!

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