When Diplomacy Fails Podcast

30YearsWar: #9 - "First of His Name"

[PATRONS]

Episode 9 of the Thirty Years War, First of His Name, is out NOW!

You can’t have a Habsburg protagonist without also having the anti-Habsburg antagonist, and in the years before the war, few individuals were better placed to challenge the Habsburg position than the Elector Palatine, one of seven men granted the honour of voting for the next Emperor, and a greatly influential ruler in his own right, holding sway over the disconnected lands that snaked along the Rhinelan...

PINYL: #6: "A Commonwealth Divided"

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After trouncing his enemies in Denmark and Russia, where would Charles strike next? The answer, predictably enough, was Poland. In this ep we track the movements of Charles XII from roughly 1701-06.

Following the disaster which was the battle of Narva, it would take some time for Peter to rebuild, but while he did so in December 1700, he was aware that Charles XII was considering carefully his next move – should he move with a vengeance against his Saxon cousin, and so...

30YearsWar: #8 - "German Problems"

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Straight to the point with that title, because while we've done some exposition on it, it's pretty clear to me history friend that we need to talk about the HRE...

As the name suggests, the Germans were occasionally a problematic people, especially when there was so much on the line. We are given something of a grand tour of the Empire in this episode, and introduced to some of the major issues which the German people faced. The Habsburgs had only been able to monopolise...

PINYL: #5 - "The Wrath of Charles"

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After taking a somewhat apathetic approach to the war, mostly because he expected King Charles XII of Sweden to invade Russia first, the Saxon King of Poland was confronted with a spectacle all too terribly familiar to those Poles old enough to remember the 1650s. The Swedish King was on the way, armed with a vendetta only more terrifying than the one pursued by his grandfather during the deluges. Now, for Charles XII, it was personal, and after asking the Polish Primate to es...

30YearsWar: #7 - "Turkish Delights, Habsburg Disasters"

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In this episode, we look at an oft-forgotten theatre of the Thirty Years War, the east. Specifically, we examine the Habsburg border with the Ottoman Empire, and assess the conflicts and slights which the two radically different powers had committed in previous years. The conflict wasn’t merely religious, or opportunistic or political – it was also a matter of pride, since both the Turkish Sultan and the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor laid claim to that banner of tradition: t...

PINYL: #4 - "A Crazy Kind of Genius"

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This is a good one! In the latter half of 1700, the time had come for the anti-Swedish league to attack. On paper, the triple onslaught of Russia, Denmark and Saxony against the Swedes appeared the nail in the coffin of Charles XII's fledgling reign. But you know what they say about the best laid plans! One by one, the dominoes began to fall. In cooperation with an anxious British and Dutch navy, the Swedish King landed outside Copenhagen and forced Denmark out of the war. Out...

30YearsWar: #6 - "King of the Islands"

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Episode 6 of the Thirty Years War, King of the Islands, is out NOW!

Traditional narratives of the Thirty Years War frequently gloss over the English/Scottish or British contribution, and in this episode, we do our best to rectify that error! We start with a scene of peacemaking not dissimilar to that visited in our previous episode, with the added twist that James I and VI had ended a twenty-year war instigated by his famous predecessor. The Anglo-Spanish war was at an e...

PINYL: #3 - "From Russia With Lies"

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In autumn 1699, the Tsar of Russia was mobilising not just his soldiers, but also all his talents for trickery and deception. The goal - make war on Sweden in league with the Kings of Poland and Denmark. The problem - the Swedish delegation were in town, and wanted at all costs to avoid the very war which the Tsar was planning to participate in. The solution - lie his head off, and take fibs to a new level, including crocodile tears and several instances of pretending to be th...

30YearsWar: #5 - 'The Triumphs of Peace'

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Episode 5 of the Thirty Years War, the Triumphs of Peace, is out NOW!

War wasn’t good for everything in the early 17th century, and nowhere was this more evident than in the spate of peace treaties which were signed between Spain and its enemies during the years 1598-1609. Spain went from at war with, to at peace with, its three primary enemies in the space of little more than a decade, and I think it’s time we examined why! Such a task isn’t possible without first...

PINYL: #2 - 'With Friends Like These'

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Episode 2 of Poland Is Not Yet Lost is out NOW! In this episode we catch up with Augustus II, everyone's favourite random King of Poland, to see how he and Tsar Peter of Russia came to be such fast friends. Expect plenty of diplomatic intrigue, a whole load of fascinating characters, the lay of the land at the turn of the century, and the development of a plot to attack...wait...Sweden? Is this a typo? What's that? Their new king is an inexperienced teenager called Charles XII...

30YearsWar: #4 - "The French Connection"

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This episode continues where we left off in the previous instalment, by delving deeper into the motives of the French King Henry IV, in the context of the ongoing Julich-Cleve Crisis. Would Henry intervene, thereby reigniting the war against Spain which had only come to an end in 1598? The answer was no, but not for lack of trying. At the last moment, Henry was assassinated in 1610, on the verge, perhaps, of a great rupture with the enemies of France. That r...

30YearsWar: #3 - "Dukes, Electors, Emperors and Kings"

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If you thought you properly understood how the Empire worked at long last – then think again! There was always some wrinkle or exception to the rule, but perhaps no rules were more important than those concerning the role of Electors. We touched on them in the last episode, but here we place them in their proper context, and unwrap what specifically made them so important to the functioning of the Empire. The Habsburgs, powerful though they were, depended upon the Electors f...

PINYL: #1 - 'Elections and Elector'

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What exciting times! We finally launch into our narrative series for Poland Is Not Yet Lost, and we do so with a bang! The year in 1696, and the famed king of Poland Jan Sobieski has just died. A successor was needed, but who would step up? Would it be the French or Austrian candidate, and would this individual be capable of traversing the problems which the Commonwealth endured? Then, out of left field, came another pretender to the throne. He was the Elector of Saxony, and h...

30YearsWar: #2 - 'The Small Print'

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The Holy Roman Empire was a unique place, full of unique laws, unique settlements and very unique rulers. Unique is just a polite way of saying, that the HRE was a freakin’ mess, but it is a mess which we have to acquaint ourselves with if we’re to stand any chance of understanding the event which it housed – the Thirty Years War. It was in the lands of this sort of state/sort of empire that the events of this conflict were played out. It was fanned and exacerbated by me...

30YearsWar: #1 - "Prosperity, Profit, Power"

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We're back! After running through 17th Century Warfare with a fine-toothed comb, I am finally ready to deliver to you the most exciting series we've ever covered here at WDF Towers. It's eerily familiar, but also breathtakingly different - it sounds like the Thirty Years War!

Our first proper episode of the Thirty Years War begins with a somewhat surprising scene – Hernan Cortez, far away in South America, coming face to face with the Aztecs. Why do we begin our story ...

PINYL: D) The Liberum Veto

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With the best of intentions, the Poles created something of a monster in the Liberum Veto. See how that device was created by the politically ambitious, but totally naive Poles, in our final episode of 2019! Thanksss so much for a brilliant year of podcasting, and see you soon...in 2020!

30YearsWar: 17th Century Warfare Episode 15

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In the words of the historian John A. Lynn, "trying to understand seventeenth-century European history without weighing the influence of war and military institutions is like trying to dance without listening to the music." For the last 15 episodes, we've surrounded ourselves with a heck of a lot of music, so I hope you're ready to dance!  

This is it, our FINAL episode of 2019 [if you're not a patron!] and our last instalment of the 17th C...

PINYL: C) The Szlachta & the State Part 2

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In our second part, we bring our examination through the more turbulent years of the Commonwealth, and assess the role which the szlachta played in reducing Poland's powers at precisely the wrong time. Were the szlachta to blame, or simly a by-product of the times in which the country endured and struggled? Let's investigate...

PINYL: C) The Szlachta & the State Part 1

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The story of the Polish szlachta or nobility is a complex one, and here we set the foundations of our examination of their unique history and political traditions. These traditions granted Poland's nobles rights and privileges unlike any other class, but these benefits were not without their costs...

30YearsWar: 17th Century Warfare Episode 14

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Our war is nearly over, but we still have some matters to discuss! Here we summarise what we’ve learned over the last few episodes, and pave the way for the narrative to come. There is much we still don’t know about warfare in the 17th century, simply because there is so darn much to know! However, over the last several episodes, we’ve given a very good grounding in what 17th century warfare was all about. We saw how important the theory of the military revolution was, b...

PINYL: B) The Story So Far Part 3

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Hang in there Poland! Help is at hand! Our final in a trilogy which brings our story up to the end of the 17th century begins with a melancholy examination of the impact and devastation caused by the Deluge, but it concludes with a less doom-laden, though still bitter-sweet note. Jan Sobieski does his best to pick up the pieces, but the cracks were already beginning to spread as the 18th century approached. Upon his death bed, Sobieski would have known that everything depended...

30YearsWar: 17th Century Warfare Episode 13

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This is a tale of two sieges! We examine the siege of St Martins on the Isle of Re by the English, and the siege of Mantua by the Imperials and Spanish. These two sieges in the late 1620s were pivotal cases where the Thirty Years War hung in the balance. Unrelated though these theatres were to the main war in Germany, they each created ripples which had a profound effect on the outcome of the war. But these sieges did more than that - they also provided us with an ideal opport...

PINYL: B) The Story So Far Part 2

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As we bring the story up to 1699, this episode covers the point when arguably, everything changed for the Commonwealth. In the space of only a few years, beginning in 1648, Poland began to fracture amidst a Cossack revolt and a war on two fronts with Russia and Sweden. The Golden Age was well and truly over, and the chronic rot which would characterise the 18th century experience was setting in. It makes for bleak listening, as the weaknesses of the Commonwealth were laid bare...

30YearsWar: 17th Century Warfare Episode 12

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We've heard a great deal about how armies changed during the 17th century, and how their commanders adopted new tactics and reforms to increase their firepower and ferocity. BUT what about the states that commanded these armies? Here we look at a specific case study, Austria, to see not just how the creation of a standing army empowered this curious state, but also how it defined what it meant to be an Austrian Empire. Where exactly did the Austrian Empire come from, carved as...

Happy B-Day Zack Twamley!

[PATRONS] In an unscripted romp through several issues, I say thanksss for joining me and for making October 2019 our most successful month yet! If you want to be a PhD Pal then you have only 24 HOURS left to get your name in the acknowledgements of our book, so don't delay! In other news, I explain our plan for the PhD audio diaries, which were recently unlocked, and my plans for the History Podcasting Platform. All in all, it's a super positive episode, and as wife and I are currently relax...

PINYL: B) The Story So Far Part 1

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After examining how the Commonwealth came to be, in this new three-parter, we look at the story from 1573-1699, and investigate what happened to the Commonwealth in that time to leave it so weakened as it entered the 18th century. The answer revolves around its third post-Jagiellonian King, but arguably its most important - Sigismund III of the House of Vasa. Sigismund's claim to the Swedish throne, his Jesuit education and his refusal to compromise with Poland's nobles, creat...

30YearsWar: 17th Century Warfare Episode 11

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Breitenfeld. The most important battle of the Thirty Years War in my view, and the ideal but also terrifying testing ground for all of Gustavus' new reforms. Could the Swedish King leverage all his innovations in the infantry drill, in the use of artillery, or in the harnessing of cavalry's best bits? Or would he be just another victim to Count Tilly's war machine? You probably know the answer, considering his large fame, but you may not know the stor...

PINYL: A) Creating a Commonwealth Part 3

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The road to the Union of Lublin was not paved with romantic ideals of compromise and self sacrifice, but with vested self-interests of the Lithuanian and Polish nobility; with the ambitions of the nobility in the wild eastern lands, and with no small fear of Ivan the Terrible, who by 1569 had given Eastern Europeans much to think about. The creation of a Commonwealth was made possible thanks to this Union of Lublin, but upon the death of the final Jagiellonian King in 1572, th...

30YearsWar: 17th Century Warfare Episode 10

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At long last, our series on 17th century warfare smacks straight into the man many of you probably came all this way to see. What did Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden do to make his name in the military sphere? Did he really do all that is often assumed? Do we give me too much credit? What, at the base level, can it truly be said that he accomplished? Come and find out here, as we look at the Swedish king's innovations in infantry drill, firepower, artillery and cavalry, to build a...

What should our first installment of Hardcore WDF be about?

As we recently announced, Hardcore WDF is being brought to life in spring 2020, as per the rewards for the PhD Pal tier. We plan on releasing up to four large episodes a year, completely separate to our series on the Thirty Years War and Poland Is Not Yet Lost. By so doing, my hope is that the upper level supporters will feel valued, and that those PhD Pals who do decide to sign up in October 2019 to avail of our special offer will see a reason to stick around. ...