THEME Wars, battles and campaigns

Duke of Wellington Battle of Waterloo 1815

The Duke of Wellington stood at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, facing yet again Napoleon and the French army. He probably never thought he would have to face the Frenchman again after his victory in the Peninsular Campaign. The bloody battle left Wellington victorious

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Richard III Bosworth

Richard III Bosworth
This entry is part 1 of 5 in the series House of York

King Richard III Bosworth Field, where the King stood and faced the army of Henry Tudor and was defeated, his crown left tumbeld under a thorn bush, his body unceremoniously dumped at Grey Friars Leicester. This week is re-buried at Leicester Cathedral.

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Neville Chamberlain Prime Minister

Neville Chamberlain made an error of judgement it is offten argued in seeking a path of appeasement and in particular by seeking to sacrifice other smaller countries in negotiations with Hitler i order to seek to avoid entangling Britain in a further costly war both in human and economic terms that it was currently ill-equipped to fight whilst still recovering from WW1 and the difficult period between the wars that had been book-ended by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and the Depression of the early 1930s. In this series we ask questions of wider Britain and its easy criticism of Chamberlain, who was damned for a short period of a career that had largely bee dedicated to public service. But was he individually to blame or part of a wider political history of Britain which wrongly and rashly seeks to attribute blame to a single man, even the Prime Minister. The outcome of war with Hitler may not have changed irrespective of Chamberlain’s actions but would we have been better prepared and avoided some of the early errors in WW2 when Britain as a nation was so ill-prepared for war?

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Arthur James Balfour Prime Minister 1902-1905

This entry is part 2 of 2 in the series British Prime Ministers

Arthur James Balfour was a Prime Minister cut from the old aristocratic mould, an intelligent man who perhaps lacked emotional intelligence to match. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, nephew of Lord Salisbury, his mother’s brother. He would serve in coalition during WWI alongside Lloyd George more than strange bed-fellows. It was then that his now infamous Balfour Declaration would be declared and continues to cited as the root cause of the troubles between the Arab and Zionist causes in Palestine. and modern Israel. Unsuccessful Prime Ministers can be even more important it would seem than those that succeed and the failures may also be greatest when they are no longer in the top job.

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Winston Churchills Legacy a balanced perspective

This entry is part 1 of 4 in the series Winston Churchill polymath

How can you get a balanced view and perspective about this British Prime Minister and what his real legacy is on this (2015) the 50th Anniversary of Winston Churchill’s state funeral. The historians and politician’s literature never mind Winston’s own writings are huge. He never did a single TV interview Professor Vernon Bogdanor does us all proud with this excellent video lecture, in his roles as Emeritus Professor of Law and Visiting Professor of Political History at the excellent Gresham College find a little time and get an excellent balanced view and appraisal of the legacy left to us all by Winston Churchill.

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Treaty of Troyes 1420

Treaties for peace, to resolve conflict, seal a marriage, create trade opportunities or simply to fuel naked ambition of a king? Treaty of Troyes a wedding and a truce for England or does it seal the fate of the House of Lancaster, see the sun set on York and an early dawn for a new dynasty the Tudors? Sounds far-fetched? Read-on since when did a Treaty actually create the conditions for lasting peace? Part 1 of a series of posts on Treaties and the Trouble that lies ahead.

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Battle of Evesham 1265

Prince Edward demonstrated his fine military skills at Evesham following an overnight march the royalist troops slaughtered the Montfortians during the Barons War, this was the decisive Royalist victory

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Elizabeth Woodville Queen of Edward IV

Elizabeth Woodville
This entry is part 2 of 12 in the series Intriguing Women

Elizabeth Woodville would marry a King but her sons would end their lives imprisoned by their uncle in the tower who would become the much maligned Richard III. He was this Queen who drove a King to marry in secret and fall out with his own family?

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Cade’s Rebellion 1450

Jack Cade was he a leader or a pawn of Richard 3rd Duke of York?

Cade’s rebellion by the people of Kent, is it the start of the War of the Roses and who else was involved and what created the climate for rebelliono with Henry VI on the throne of England?

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Richard Duke of York 1411 1460

Richard of York was born of Royal blood and lineage from both his parents, he would seek to usurp the ineffectual Henry VI and lead the Yorkist cause, he would be killed before the Yorks came to the throne but his death would urge his son Edward IV to seize the crown. Find out here about the intriguing events that drove his life and influence upon the outcomes of the War of the roses fought between the Lancasters and Yorks and eventually embroiling the TUDORS who would come to outlive and rule beyond both great houses.

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