[PATRONS]
Order the book now! For God or the Devil is finally out!
After enduring Ferdinand’s repression, throwing off his yolk, formally deposing him and marching an army to Vienna, the Bohemians sought to go one better than all previous revolts had done. With Ferdinand deposed, this meant the crown of Bohemia was vacant, and it meant that s...
2020-08-02 22:09:12 +0000 UTC View Post
The book - For God or the Devil: A History of the Thirty Years War - is finally released, and in this short announcement episode I will cover the following:
[PATRONS]
You could be forgiven for thinking that after two decades of war, King Charles XII would be ready to throw in the towel. As we see in this episode, he wasn't just unready for this, he was also thinking bigger than ever before. A counter-attack against the distracted and divided anti-Swedish league was his plan for 1718, and it wasn't as crazy as it sounds.
What was crazy was Charles' unwillingness to compromise. Despite his delegate, von Goertz, having several dipl...
2020-07-27 05:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
Here we cover the years 1618-1619, when the fortunes of rebels, Hungarians, Habsburgs and everyone else in between would rise and fall. In this episode, we also see a critical milestone come to pass – Ferdinand, the new King of Bohemia, is formally deposed by his subjects, in protest at the heinous extent of his efforts to control their freedoms in violation of the Letters of Majesty. Our episode opens with the revolver pointed at Ferdinand's head, but his saviour was ...
2020-07-20 05:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
Oh what a tangled web these kings, dukes and Tsars managed to weave! In short, 1716-1720 was an absolute mess, but as we'll see here, it's a fascinating mess. Thanks to the eruption of war with Spain in 1718, those members of the Quadruple Alliance - Britain, the Dutch, the Holy Roman Emperor and France - would be supremely distracted from taking part in the Tsar's final assault on Sweden. As if that wasn't bad enough, those suspicious stares which had once greeted the tremend...
2020-07-13 05:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
Episode 16 of the Thirty Years War, Bohemia in Revolt, is out NOW!
Here we ask an important question – how did the Bohemia revolt become the Thirty Years War? After throwing the Habsburg magnates out the windows of the town hall in Prague, what was next for the rebels? First and foremost, the kingdom had to be brought together to fight as one, and the three estates were assembled, determining on resistance to their new King’s inflammatory po...
2020-07-06 05:00:01 +0000 UTC View PostHi patrons, it's that time again, where I gather your pressing questions together and tackle them in a dedicated episode!
This time, I wanted to give my supporters first dibs on this episode, so any questions you ask me here now will be guaranteed to be addressed in the episode FIRST!
In a week or so, I'll be announcing this in the Facebook and Twitter places for everyone to add their questions, but for NOW, all patrons have the floor, so plea...
2020-06-30 08:26:44 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
Resuming our Polish tale, in this episode we look at the apparent end of Sweden, except Sweden's King didn't seem to realise this fact. If King Charles XII did realise it, then accepting the loss of his kingdom's power was another thing entirely. The sharks continued to circle all around him, but Charles hadn't made it this far by coasting - his reputation, though diminished, was still fearsome. Added to this was the fact that Tsar Peter wasn't operating alone - he was now dep...
2020-06-29 05:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
Bohemia continues to descend into rebellion, but its activism did not stop merely on the local, national level. Instead, Bohemians contacted known advocates of an anti-Habsburg conspiracy, and they landed on Ferdinand’s arch-rival, Frederick V,...
2020-06-22 05:00:02 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
Down, but not out. That was King Charles XII of Sweden's mantra, whether his enemies (or his allies) liked it or not. After so many years as a Turkish guest, Charles finally felt forced to break out, and come home. An audacious forced march and an emotional return followed, but was it too late to save Sweden's Empire? Not so, said Charles, and yet the sharks continued to circle, closing in on what remained of that Kingdom's glorious past. If he succeeded, Charles' legend would...
2020-06-14 08:59:27 +0000 UTC View Post
Intelligent Speech is live on Saturday 27 June, see the program...
2020-06-07 18:55:29 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
Put the Bismarck Party on hold and check out the latest installment of PINYL today!
In our latest episode of Poland Is Not Yet Lost, we see what happened as the Turks confronted the Russians along the River Pruth. With the Turkish Grand Vizier holding all the cards, with his guns pointed literally at the heart of Russia’s government, how could Tsar Peter hope to survive the ordeal with his regime intact? The odds had been stacked against him e...
2020-05-31 09:30:52 +0000 UTC View PostUrrrgh, taxes...
Hi history friends, some meh news I'm afraid, so let's get it out of the way as quickly as possible.
Basically, from 1st July, Patreon will be forced to charge sales tax on certain parts of its processes, mostly through pledging patrons. This means that for some of you, another few cents will be tacked onto the price you're already paying, which sucks.
This isn't due to Patreon being annoying [again!] - actually, it's du...
2020-05-28 20:39:58 +0000 UTC View Post
Episode 13 of the Thirty Years War, the Pax Hispania, is out NOW!
We're on Lyceum, which you should definitely check out!
In this instalment of our series, we look at how the moment of peace moved the Spanish to act in concert with their Austrian Habsburg cousins. More specifically, we assess the relationship of the Emperor and the King of Spain and, it may surprise you ...
2020-05-24 19:48:26 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
Just because our Bismarck party is in full swing, doesn't mean Poland should be left to the wayside!
In our latest episode here, we see what happened in the immediate aftermath of Poltava in 1709. Peter was triumphant, his nemesis in Charles had been utterly destroyed...or had he? In desperation, the King of Sweden made for the Ottoman Empire, and to the one place where a campaign of vengeance might feasibly be arranged. For sure, Charles'...
2020-05-17 10:55:25 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
Place that Bismarck party on pause and head on over here, because Episode 12 of the Thirty Years War, the Roots of Spain, is out NOW!
Here we look at a rarely mentioned aspect of Spain – the fact that it was still teeming with citizens of a different culture and religious persuasion than those of the Catholic, Castilian majority. These were the Moriscos, first or second generation Muslims who had converted to Catholicism rather than leave the country, but in many cases...
2020-05-11 05:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
That's right! Poland Is Not Yet Lost isn't stopping merely because our Bismarck party is in full sway! Here we learn more about King Charles XII's desperate situation by the spring of 1709. This situation was dire, but it was soon to get worse. As the noose closed in on the unconquered Swedish King, not even the Tsar was willing to believe that the turn was at hand - Charles had, after all, defied the odds and then some before, but would he do so again? As the thea...
2020-05-04 05:00:01 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
Blood and iron, the Alvensleben Convention, and then the Congress of Princes – Bismarck’s first year as Minister President was certainly a busy one, yet it was about to become busier still. As a happy accident, the Danish crown became vacant upon the death of its king, and with this succession looming, Danish control over its German duchies, Schleswig and Holstein, loomed to the forefront of European politics once again, in a manner which it hadn’t done since 1848. The p...
2020-04-30 05:07:00 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
He had made his fair share of errors, but it was fair to say at the same time that Bismarck wasn’t going anywhere. By the summer of 1863, the Polish business was mostly forgotten, and Bismarck could look further afield and see what developments in foreign affairs provided an opportunity to wipe the slate clean. He didn’t have to wait long. The Austrian Emperor Franz Josef claimed to desire a new constitution, one which all Germans should cooperate in crafting. To learn mor...
2020-04-30 05:06:02 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
In this episode we examine the opening six months of Bismarck’s regime, and what a regime it was. It began, to Bismarck’s surprise, with a somewhat bumpy road. In the course of his first speech before the Landtag as Minister President, Bismarck discovered that his very reputation might prove the greatest danger to his premiership. In the course of this ‘Iron and Blood’ or blood and iron speech, Bismarck simply set forth the ideas and principles which he had always held...
2020-04-30 05:05:59 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
Years of struggle and disappointment had finally led to this moment. On 22 September 1862, a fatalistic and hesitant King Wilhelm finally did it, he finally agreed to appoint Otto von Bismarck as Prussian Minister President, or Prime Minister. It was a decision which Wilhelm felt forced to take in the heat of the moment, what with those darned liberals still refusing to relent and give Prussia the military reforms she needed. Yet it was a decision which was to have profound co...
2020-04-30 05:05:00 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
As he soon discovered upon returning to Berlin in early 1859, he was not bound for a ministerial post, but a new role as the Prussian ambassador to Russia. It was still a great promotion for a man who had only a slim record of diplomatic training – now he was to be head of the Prussian embassy! But Bismarck was less than thrilled. He was not only disappointed in not grabbing the brass ring of a ministerial post, he was also irritated that he would have to leave Frankfurt in ...
2020-04-30 05:04:00 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
The Crimean War changed everything in Europe. It left Austria alienated, her Russian ally bitter and the Tsar vengeful, after Austria’s display of perfidy. ‘Austrian ingratitude’, claimed the new Tsar Alexander II, ‘killed my father.’ Under these circumstances, it was possible that Prussia could take advantage. Could an agreement with Russia be created, to be directed against Austria? But then there was the issue of France, and what Napoleon III intended to do with t...
2020-04-30 05:03:00 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
When we last left Bismarck, he had established himself in Frankfurt, and prepared to meet the challenges which Prussia faced, following several years of bungled, humiliating foreign policy. The constraints upon Bismarck seemed obvious, the greatest restriction by far being the Austrian domination of the German Confederation. This domination, an established fact since 1815, was to Bismarck the greatest flaw in Prussian diplomacy – made worse by the fact that few in Berlin, if...
2020-04-30 05:02:00 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
In this episode, the first of eight, we explore the life of a young Otto von Bismarck, and assess the different events, influences and individuals who moved through his life. It’s a personal story, but it’s also a story about the unassuming, you could even say unremarkable, beginnings, of a man who would one day dominate Europe. At this stage in his life, only those three qualities – intelligence, ambition and energy – were palpable, but there was also something raw wi...
2020-04-30 05:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
At long last, I can finally share the secret which has been at the front of my mind for months! Bismarck, and as you've never seen him before. That's right, on Thursday 30 April, we're starting a new series called Bismarck: Rise, which will look at the Iron Chancellor's life and times in some serious detail, in the period 1815-1864. This is the legend of Bismarck, now watch him rise!
Seriously though, I am super excited about this, and when you listen in I'm sure you'll ...
2020-04-27 16:16:27 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
In this episode we radically change our focus, away from the Empire and towards a brand new theatre of Europe – Scandinavia. It was there, in the sphere of the Baltic, Eastern Europe and the wild North, that an incredible drama was playing itself out, as the House of Vasa divided over matters or religion and leadership, with profound results for Poland, Sweden, Russia and pretty much everyone else in the region. The House of Vasa’s predominant King, Sigismund III, rowed aw...
2020-04-27 05:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
In this episode, we watch King Charles XII of Sweden embark on what would become arguably, the warmonger's most infamous journey - the invasion of Russia. It was an invasion which had been conducted successfully by the Poles the previous century, but would Charles be up to the task here? The events of late 1707-spring 1709 would reveal that, contrary to the expectations of all, the Swedish King had gotten more, far more, than he had bargained for in this invasion. This was not...
2020-04-20 05:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
It's time to meet Ferdinand of Styria and the rest of his lovely Habsburg family! Taken together, these were the kind of people who would fight doggedly for their rights and their faith. They also seemed to have a real hard time leaving Prague alone (foreshadowing!)
The counterpoint to Frederick V, Ferdinand of Styria was the heir designate to the Imperial throne, but he brought to the table a legacy which many would have found unsettling. A history of oppression and rep...
2020-04-13 05:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post
[PATRONS]
In the latest episode of Poland Is Not Yet Lost, we examine the immediate aftermath of Charles XII's triumphant occupation of Saxony throughout much of 1706 and 1707. While secured in Saxony, Charles had god reason to be confident. He had utterly trounced his enemies, forcing one foe to abdicate from the Polish throne, while his newly appointed Polish King, Stanislaus Lechinski, was in his pocket. With the Commonwealth now taking orders from Sweden for the first time ever, Cha...
2020-04-06 05:01:00 +0000 UTC View Post