Historyzine 012: The Battle of Blenheim

In Historyzine 12 our main feature is 1704 and the battle of Blenheim. John Churchill (Duke of Marlborough) is rampaging around Bavaria with the Dutch, Hesse, Austrian, Hanoverian and English troops. Gathering against him under the command of Marshall Tallard, Marshall Marsin and the Elector of Bavaria are the troops of France and Bavaria accompanied by various mercenaries. Maximilian II Emanuel, Elector of Bavaria. Despite his careful planning Marlborough finds no siege train waiting for him in Germany. The food he requested is not there and various troops have been diverted into Italy and Hungary. Undaunted the Duke and the Prince (Prince Eugene of Savoy) bring the Franco Bavarian forces to battle at Blenheim. In this history podcast I describe the battle of Blenheim and try to show how the various general’s decisions made the difference on that fateful day. Salamander Cutts 1st Baron Lord Cutts was nicknamed Salamander due to his penchant for always being where the fire was hottest. He was referred to by the Satirist Jonathan Swift as being as ‘brave and brainless as the sword by his side.’ Cutts lead Marborough’s left wing attack upon the village of Blenheim. In the more general section of this podcast we look at the word Jacobean and attempt to straighten out a few myths regarding the Jacobite cause. The history podcast review this time concerns the Stanford University series of lectures on Hannibal. Some of the sources I use for this podcast can be found at Amazon.co.uk in the UK or at Amazon.com in the United States. If you wish to comment on the podcasts then please visit the website, historyzine.com or visit the contact page and leave me an email using the contact form there.