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Military History Archive
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The Spanish Ulcer: Napoleon, Britain, and the Siege of Cádiz
Posted on February 20, 2013 | No CommentsWhen the dust settled on the Napoleonic Wars, Cádiz held the distinction of being the only city in continental Europe to survive a siege by Napoleon. -
“The Ablest Man in the British Army” The Life and Career of General Sir John Hope
Posted on February 4, 2013 | No CommentsThousands of books have been written about the England’s war with France during the Napoléonic Era; however, very few of these books highlight the life and career of General Sir John Hope. -
“The army isn’t all work”: Physical culture in the evolution of the British army, 1860-1920
Posted on February 4, 2013 | No CommentsBetween the Crimean War and the end of WWI the British Army underwent a dramatic change from being an anachronistic and frequently ineffective organization to being perhaps the most professional and highly trained army in the world. -
Wellington’s Two-Front War: The Peninsular Campaigns, 1808-1814
Posted on January 30, 2013 | No CommentsIn the spring of 1808, Britain faced a strategic dilemma. Since the beginning of the Revolutionary Wars in 1793, Britain had spent enormous sums of money to subsidize four unsuccessful coalitions against France and had failed in all of their attempts to defeat the French on land. -
The royal armour workshops at Greenwich
Posted on January 29, 2013 | No CommentsSoon after he came to the throne in 1509 Henry VIII established a royal armour workshop that was to survive him by about 100 years. -
Cromwell, Charles II and the Naseby: Ship of State
Posted on January 8, 2013 | No CommentsThe fortunes of Oliver Cromwell and Charles II and the regard in which their successive regimes came to be held were mirrored in the fate of one of their mightiest naval vessels, as Patrick Little explains. -
The Gran Armada of 1588 and the Commanders of the English Military: Francis Drake, Robert Dudley, and Charles Howard
Posted on January 7, 2013 | No CommentsKing Philip II of Spain’s 1588 mobilization of the Gran Armada against his northern foe represented perhaps the direst of these instances. Armed with what was believed to be an invincible fleet and an equally esteemed army, the Catholic monarch viewed as inevitable a triumph over the heretical Elizabeth I. -
Leather guns and other light artillery in mid-17th-century Scotland
Posted on January 6, 2013 | No CommentsIt was the Scottish officers who had served under Gustavus Adolphus who brought knowledge of leather guns to Britain. -
Turncoats and Renegadoes: Treachery and Traitors during the English Civil Wars
Posted on January 4, 2013 | No CommentsThe practice does much to illuminate 17th-century perceptions of honour whilst the justifications employed by the turncoats themselves reveal how they sought to defend their reputations with their contemporaries or for posterity. -
In a Short Time There Were None Almost Left: The Success and Failure of the Tudor Conquest in Ireland
Posted on December 29, 2012 | No CommentsWhile England succeeded in pacifying the Irish with ‘fire and sword’ during the Desmond Rebellion (1579-1584) and again in the Nine Years’ War, its success came at an enormous cost, both in terms of lives and coin. Furthermore, the goal of ‘reforming’ Ireland religiously, socially, and agriculturally--so frequently expressed in contemporary English writing--was not achieved in any meaningful or lasting way during this period. -
It Isn’t About Duck Hunting: The British Origins of the Right to Arms
Posted on December 16, 2012 | No CommentsWho, if any, of these American analysts has found the truth? Does the story of the British right to arms offer anything of value to the modern American gun debate? The academic literature has heretofore been sparse. My two books on gun control in Great Britain both focused mainly on twentieth-century gun policy, rather than the story of the 1689 Bill of Rights and its right to arms. -
A Special Reference to the Correspondence between England and the Low Countries during the Dutch Revolt 1585-1587 ; Diplomatic Communication in the Early Modern Europe
Posted on November 21, 2012 | No CommentsA significant part of this Leicesterian correspondence has been preserved to our days, and it offers an excellent case study of the diplomatic communication in the Early Modern times. The original letters are located in the various archives of the Netherlands, Great Britain and France. In addition, many of them are printed in collections. By examining this correspondence, it is perhaps possible to trace the broader conventions of communication in the Early Modern Europe. -
The Mary Rose archers were among the elite soldiers of the 16th century, research reveals
Posted on November 19, 2012 | No CommentsThese findings come from a new research project being carried out by sports scientists at Swansea University and the Mary Rose Trust to discover more about the lives of the 16th century archers on board the ship. -
‘England expects’: Nelson as a symbol of local and national identity within the museum
Posted on October 21, 2012 | No CommentsWhen Admiral Lord Nelson died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805 his lifetime achievements and his agonizing death elevated him to the status of a national hero. -
The Revolution in Military Affairs: The Historian’s Perspective
Posted on October 18, 2012 | No CommentsThe Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), a phrase much employed over the last decade, is at once description, analysis, prospectus and mission; and much of the confusion surrounding the use of the term reflects a failure to distinguish between these aspects of the situation. -
For Something More Than King and Country: The Persistence of the Mercenary Tradition in Seventeenth Century Scottish Military History
Posted on October 15, 2012 | No CommentsWhy was it that the Highlanders came into the military service of a regime that had previously treated their society as a pariah? -
James VI ‘s Ius Suum Conservare: His Intrigues with Spain, 1580-1603
Posted on October 15, 2012 | No CommentsIn 1580, Scotland was drowning in a sea of instability. James was in a position which, for good or ill, was fraught with momen- tous issues for the future of the kingdom. Yet the task of controlling the forces in Scottish political life might well have been too much even for a skilful and determined statesman. James, aged only fourteen, faced two complex tasks: to govern an intractable realm, and to successfully endure, and if possible take advantage of, the increasingly tense relations between England and Spain. -
Oliver Cromwell : Man of Force
Posted on October 5, 2012 | No CommentsThere is no denying the fact that in many instances, Oliver Cromwell was in the right place at the most opportune time and that events often seemed to work in his favor through sheer luck, assuming that he had no hand in them. -
What if the Irish had Won the Battle of the Boyne?
Posted on September 20, 2012 | No CommentsWhile the answers to these questions would be pure speculation, it is possible to extmpolate certain patterns o f cause and effect, and piece together an alternate history. But first it is important to understand the situation in Ireland before, during, and immediately after the War ofthe Two Kings. -
Secret Weapons of the Napoleonic Wars
Posted on September 20, 2012 | No CommentsToward the end of the Napoleonic War a British naval architect designed a fighting ship with a rounded instead of a square stern. -
Within Ourselves… – The Development of British Light Infantry in North America During the Seven Years’ War
Posted on September 14, 2012 | No CommentsThe first British regulars to appear in North America were those accompanying a small British expedition to wrest Manhattan from the Dutch in 1664 -
Reexamining the Stability of British Naval Mastery, 1692-1815
Posted on September 6, 2012 | No CommentsThe focus of this paper is to identify why Britain’s rivals’ attempts to counterbalance British naval power failed. -
Wellington and Siege Warfare in 1812
Posted on August 31, 2012 | No CommentsFrom May 1811 to September 1813, Wellington’s forces engaged in four major sieges - of Badajoz, Ciudad Rodrigo, Burgos and San Sebastian - which resulted cumulatively in more casualties than any single battle Wellington fought in the Peninsula -
His Britannic Majesty’s Army in Germany
Posted on August 29, 2012 | No CommentsFrom the point of view of the eighteenth century specialists and British army historians, this campaign is of specific interest in that it is a prime example of the use of German auxiliaries, and debates about the efficacy British troops on campaign. -
Sir Francis Vere in the Netherlands, 1589-1603: a re-evaluation of his career as Sergeant Major General of Elizabeth I’s troops
Posted on August 22, 2012 | No CommentsA combination of a lower profile commander and an apparently less interesting and significant Anglo-Dutch alliance has in turn led most historians to neglect these areas in preference for the earlier period and protagonists of their connection. -
The Development of Modern Propaganda in Britain, 1854-1902
Posted on August 20, 2012 | No CommentsThe aim of this thesis then is to address this gap by considering the nature, meaning and operation of propaganda in this period. In order to accomplish this, this thesis creates a set of criteria for identifying and distinguishing „modern‟ propaganda, before demonstrating that what is generally conceived as modern, and characteristic of the twentieth century, in fact existed or was developing in the latter half of the nineteenth century. -
Leather Stocks and Wooden Heads? British Military Thought during and as a consequence of the Seven Years’ War, 1756-63
Posted on August 14, 2012 | No CommentsBy the early to middle of the 18th century there was a brisk market for books on military matters. These ranged from drill and tactics manuals, philosophical discourses on the nature of soldiering and soldiers, to studies of previous and near-contemporary campaigns. -
‘The Summe of all Intelligence’: Pamphlets and Newsbooks of the English Civil War
Posted on July 29, 2012 | No CommentsPamphlets evolved into newsbooks, the forerunners of newspapers. The first English newsbook was published in November 1641 and was simply a record of parliamentary proceedings -
Requirement for and subsequent development of a training scheme for the officers and staff of the British Army 1799 -1858
Posted on July 6, 2012 | No CommentsIt is interesting to note that the curriculum established for the education of army officers in Great Britain was, during the early years of the training scheme in the nineteenth century, based upon mathematics, languages, science and sketching. -
Civil Wars in Britain, 1640-1646: military revolution on campaign
Posted on July 6, 2012 | No CommentsThe wars in Scotland and England between 1640 and 1646 were complex affairs that defy ready categorization. They were also remarkably destructive. The Second Bishops’ War of 1640 caused relatively few casualties because one side, the Scots, soundly defeated the English in a rare and extraordinary example of a decisive battle. The English Civil War of 1642 -1646 that pitted Parliamentarians (and Scots for awhile) against the royalist supporters of King Charles I was far bloodier. -
Knights and knighthood in Tudor England
Posted on June 19, 2012 | No CommentsThis thesis is an attempt to determine the nature of that significance, and the degree to which it changed throughout the period, by examining the considerations which led, to the dubbing of a gentleman, the nature of the knighting ceremonies, and the role of the knight in Tudor society. -
The Invasion of 1667: The story of a Dutch attack on Canvey Island
Posted on June 10, 2012 | No CommentsStanding on the sea wall overlooking the Thames estuary and the distant Kent shore it is difficult to visualize the scene 300 years ago when a raiding party from a Dutch man-of-war stepped ashore at Hole Haven on Canvey Island and set about looting some of the farmhouses and barns lying close to the waterfront. -
The impact of the Napoleonic Wars on the Romney Marsh
Posted on May 25, 2012 | No Commentsor 12 years Britain braced itself for invasion, but although there were several limited and unsuccessful landings from 1796 to 98 in Ireland and Wales, French threats were never translated into full scale invasion. -
“When the Plough and Breeding of Cattle Cease, Then Will the Rebellion End”: The Adoption of Total War as English Policy in Ireland, 1558-1603
Posted on May 14, 2012 | No CommentsAs money and men were sucked into an Irish black hole, the English felt it more necessary to quickly subdue the island, and with all other attempts having failed, the English were, if they were to have any chance of success, forced to make war on the Irish population, and therefore perpetrated the violence and brutality inherent in Total War. -
Riotous or Revolutionary: The Clubmen during the English Civil Wars
Posted on April 3, 2012 | No CommentsIn the English Civil Wars, which pitted the supporters of the King (Royalists, or Cavaliers) against the Roundhead Parliamentarians, some might point to the rise of the 1644 Clubmen in the countryside as just such a lower class, agrarian revolutionary moment. -
Buttressing a Monarchy: Literary Representations of William III and the Glorious Revolution
Posted on March 27, 2012 | No CommentsThe 1690s have been unfairly criticized as one of the dullest periods in English literature.i While the period lacks the euphoria of the years immediately following the Restoration, the literature in the years following William III’s ascension is anything but dull. As writers wrestled with the monumental changes to the English government brought about by the Glorious Revolution, they created a body of literature that significantly engages political issues and vibrantly expresses the varied conceptions of government circulating at the time. -
Sports scientists examine the medieval archers of the Mary Rose
Posted on March 21, 2012 | No CommentsA unique project about the historical warship the Mary Rose which is providing information about life in medieval times is benefitting from 21st century technology. -
Battle of the Boyne: King William III’s Victory in Ireland
Posted on March 18, 2012 | No CommentsIt would be difficult to find a battle more indelibly etched into the folk memory of a people than the Battle of the Boyne, which remains as meaningful to Irish Protestants today as it was to their forefathers in 1690. Each year on July 12, thousands of Orangemen march to the sound of tin whistles, accordions and booming lambeg drums to honor the 'glorious and immortal memory' of William III, Prince of Orange and King of England. -
Battlefield Integration: Wellington’s use of Portuguese and Spanish Forces During the 1812 Salamanca Campaign
Posted on March 12, 2012 | No CommentsThe Peninsular War offers one situation in history where a coalition of allies with somewhat dissimilar cultures and vastly different military capabilities fought together to defeat a common enemy. -
Binding Prometheus: How the 19th Century Expansion of Trade Impeded Britain’s Ability to Raise an Army
Posted on March 6, 2012 | No CommentsContrary to the conventional wisdom that trade enhances a state’s military power, we find that the expansion of trade did not ease Britain’s resource constraints by making labor more freely available for military purposes. -
Fencing in Seventeenth-Century England: A Visual Study of Joseph Swetnam’s Treatise
Posted on February 12, 2012 | No CommentsIn early modern England, there existed a simultaneous eagerness to embrace Italian humanism and a reluctance to abandon England's own established culture. A microcosm of this cultural tension can be found in English fencing treatises of the turn of the 17th century -
The City of York in the time of Henry VIII
Posted on January 31, 2012 | No CommentsDuring this period, the role of the landed aristocracy was changing. With the creation of a professional standing army, in which soldiers were paid a wage, and the use of foreign mercenaries (think of the Swiss Guard), the traditional military function of the nobility receded. -
Beliefs and Approaches to Death and Dying in Late Seventeenth-Century England
Posted on January 27, 2012 | No CommentsThis study evaluates beliefs and practices of death and dying among Puritans and Arminians in England during the latter half of the seventeenth century, from the English Civil War era through the Glorious Revolution. -
Forging a coalition army: William III, the grand alliance, and the confederate army in the Spanish Netherlands, 1688-1697
Posted on January 27, 2012 | No CommentsThe wars against Louis XIV were fought by coalition armies. In the autumn of 1688, Louis’ forces invaded the Palatinate triggering the largest European conflict of the age, a war that would eventually involve — either directly or indirectly — every state in Europe. -
Writing and Re-writing the English Civil War
Posted on January 15, 2012 | No CommentsAlthough not ‘total war’ in the modern sense in which that term has come to be understood – Royalists and Parliamentarians were militant minorities, fighting was seasonal, and some parts of the land were relatively unaffected – the English Civil Wars hit this country with devastating impact. -
The development of the British army during the wars with France, 1793-1815
Posted on January 3, 2012 | No CommentsThe British Army that fought the engagement at Waterloo in 1815, was outwardly little changed from that which was engaged in the initial campaigns of the Wars, twenty- two years previously. -
A Clash of Wills: Napoleon vs. Wellington, 1808-1815
Posted on December 15, 2011 | No CommentsFor nearly twenty years, Napoleon Bonaparte was the master of Europe. However, as time went on, his enemies gradually learned how to fight and defeat him on the battlefield. One such rival was the Duke of Wellington. -
The Royal dockyards in England at the time of the American War of Independence
Posted on December 13, 2011 | No CommentsThe system was at fault. Individuals, such as Lord Sandwich and Charles Middleton, worked hard to keep it going, while trying at the same time to improve it. Fortunately, defeat in the war encouraged the start of this reform in the 1780's. -
Signs and Wonders and the English Civil War
Posted on November 29, 2011 | No CommentsChris Durston records how the monstrous and the supernatural were seized on by political and religious factions in seventeenth century England as signs of judgment. -
Why did Charles I fight the Civil War?
Posted on November 29, 2011 | No CommentsConrad Russell finds that it is easier to understand why sheer frustration may have driven Charles to fight than to understand why the English gentry might have wanted to make a revolution against him.