Published in the 200th Anniversary year of the Battle of Waterloo a witty look at how the French still think they won, by Stephen Clarke, author of 1000 Years of Annoying the French and A Year in the Merde. Two centuries after the Battle of Waterloo, the French are still in denial. If Napoleon lost on 18 June 1815 (and that's a big 'if'), then whoever rules the universe got it wrong. As soon as the cannons stopped firing, French historians began re-writing history. The Duke of Wellington was beaten, they say, and then the Prussians jumped into the boxing ring, breaking all the rules of battle. In essence, the French cannot bear the idea that Napoleon, their greatest-ever national hero, was in any way a loser. Especially not against the traditional enemy - les Anglais. Stephen Clarke has studied the French version of Waterloo, as told by battle veterans, novelists, historians - right up to today's politicians, and he has uncovered a story of pain, patriotism and sheer perversion ...

This is the true story of Colonel Edward Marcus Despard, the character in the fifth series of the BBC's popular television drama Poldark. Colonel Despard was the last person to be sentenced to hanging, drawing and quartering in Britain - for high treason, an alleged plot to kill the king. His execution on 21st February 1803 was witnessed by twenty thousand hushed onlookers. Their silence was ominous, for few believed he was guilty. His death would tear apart a Britain still reeling from the impact of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. But who was Edward Marcus Despard? Was he, as his comrade-in-arms on the Spanish Main Lord Nelson believed, an outstanding British army officer of unimpeachable honour, courage and patriotism? Or, as the white slave-owners of the Caribbean claimed, a traitor not only to his nation but to his race, who had married a local woman and championed the rights of freed slaves? And when Despard returned to London to answer these allegations, did he commit himself to the cause of political reform in Britain's best interest? Or did he join a shadowy international terrorist conspiracy dedicated to the murder of George III and the overthrow of the state? Despard's contested fate marked the sensational climax to a British revolution that never happened, but it also presaged the birth of modern democracy. 'Compelling, absorbing and wide-ranging . . . Jay weaves a complex variety of themes, many with overtly topical resonances, into Despard's journey from hero to traitor' Sunday Times

The 2019 From Reason to Revolution conference took as its theme the experiences of the ordinary British soldier in the era 1721-1815, from enlistment, through service at home, to life on campaign and the experience of battle. This book presents the proceedings of that conference in full, along with an introduction by series editor Andrew Bamford This was an era in which the social position of the soldier began to change, as did the relationship between the Army and society at large. Soldiers saw service against Jacobite rebels in Scotland and anti-Catholic rioters in London. Campaign service overseas stretched from garrison duties in the growing empire to pitched battles in Flanders and the Iberian Peninsula. Lack of indigenous manpower led to the enlistment of foreigners in large numbers into the British Army itself by the end of the period, whereas in earlier days the shortfall had been made up by hiring mercenaries. As the idea of a social contract became embedded, it was necessary to make provision for pensions for maimed or superannuated soldiers, as well as the more obvious need for medical care for the sick and wounded. The nine chapters contained in this volume all address aspects of these topics, drawing upon focussed case studies from across the long 18th century.

This book was written to provide an in-depth study of the Danish and Norwegian armies of the Napoleonic Wars. The goal was to provide a working document which is as accurate as possible, covering the uniforms of these armies, their weapons and their evolution as well as their colours and a look at their basic tactics. Although this is principally a uniform book, historical background is also provided to place the details in their context. Most of the information contained in this volume is published in the English language for the first time. This third volume looks in depth principally at the Norwegian Army including the regular infantry, cavalry, including their Colours, Guidons and Standards and field artillery covering all aspects of their organisation, uniforms, arms and equipment as well as their Jaegers, light infantry and ski troops. The specifically Norwegian cannon and limbers are also covered. Another subject covered by this volume is the numerous Norwegian and Danish volunteer and militias companies, some of whom were actively engaged on the field of battle. An in depth study of the Island of Bornholm is also included. This volume is illustrated with 54 original full colour plates. Unlike the few other works in English this book has been conducted with the assistance of respected Norwegian historians, as well as Danish and German historians.

When Napoleon's Grand Armee went to war against the might of the Habsburg empire in 1809, its forces included more than 100,000 allied German troops. From his earliest imperial campaigns, these troops provided played a key role as Napoleon swept from victory to victory and in 1809 their fighting abilities were crucial to the campaign. With Napoleon's French troops depleted and debilitated after the long struggle in the Spanish War, the German troops for the first time played a major combat role in the centre of the battle line. Aiming at a union of German states under French protection to replace the decrepit Holy Roman Empire, Napoleon sought to expand French influence in central Germany at the expense of the Austrian and Prussian monarchies, ensuring Frances own security. The campaign Napoleon waged in 1809 was his career watershed. He suffered his first reverse at Aspern. Victory was achieved at Wagram was not the knock-out blow he had envisaged. In this epic work, John Gill presents an unprecedented and comprehensive study of this year of glory for the German soldiers fighting for Napoleon, When combat opened they were in the thick of the action, fighting within French divisions and often without any French support at all. They demonstrated tremendous skill, courage and loyalty.

NORMAN CROSS was the site of the world's first purpose-built prisoner-of-war camp constructed during the Napoleonic Wars. Opened in 1797, it was more than just a prison: it was a town in itself, with houses, offices, butchers, bakers, a hospital, a school, a market and a banking system. It was an important prison and military establishment in the east of England with a lively community of some 7,000 French inmates. Alongside a comprehensive examination of the prison itself, this detailed and informative book, compiled by a leading expert on the Napoleonic era, explores what life was like for inmates and turnkeys alike - the clothing, food, health, education, punishment and, ultimately, the closure of the depot in 1814.

The brutal conflict that raged across Spain and Portugal between 1808 and 1814 was one of the most devastating episodes of the Napoleonic Wars. It made Wellington and his redcoats heroes, crushed Napoleon’s army – and set the scene for his ultimate downfall. Yet the Peninsular War was, above all, an Iberian tragedy: where a once-invincible imperial power was plunged into terror and over a million were slaughtered, leaving a bitter legacy for years to come. This gripping book draws on the accounts of generals, soldiers and guerrilla fighters to take us into the heart of one of the bloodiest battles in European history.

Making extensive use of previously unpublished material this book gives an unprecedented view of the Waterloo Campaign from the viewpoint of a single regiment. It reveals the preparations that preceded the battle, the role of the regiment in the battle, and the long months spent in France after Paris fell, until the regiment finally returned home in December 1815. An Order Book for the year, and letters and diaries of several officers, shed light on the internal life of the regiment and their - occasionally humorous - social life.

Europe's Restorations were characterised by their evolving dialectics. The chapters in this first volume address the key questions and controversies of Napoleonic history from a national and international perspective. From the re-ordering of the European world through the tools of intervention, occupation and diplomacy, to the creation of new constitutional monarchies across France, Scandinavia and Germany the volume outlines the processes that realigned national priorities and the accompanying dynamics of social and political identity. In a structure that makes sense of what Luigi Mascilli Migliorini describes as the 'fiendishly complex' process of reconstructing order in post-Napoleonic Europe, this collection of essays brings together experts in the field to set a new precedent for transnational research frameworks in the study of the European Restorations.

Though pressed many times to write about his battles and campaigns, the Duke of Wellington always replied that people should refer to his published despatches, and he refused to add further to his official correspondence, famously remarking that: The history of a battle, is not unlike the history of a ball. Some individuals may recollect all the little events of which the great result is the battle won or lost, but no individual can recollect the order in which, or the exact moment at which, they occurred, which makes all the difference as to their value or importance.' Yet Wellington did, in effect, write a history of the Peninsular War in the form of four lengthy memoranda, summarising the conduct of the war in 1809, 1810 and 1811 respectively. These lengthy accounts demonstrate Wellington's unmatched appreciation of the nature of the war in Spain and Portugal, and relate to the operations of the French and Spanish forces as well as the Anglo-Portuguese army under his command. Unlike personal diaries or journals written by individual soldiers, with their inevitably limited knowledge, Wellington was in an unparalleled position to provide a comprehensive overview of the war. Equally, the memoranda were written as the war unfolded, not tainted with the knowledge of hindsight, providing a unique contemporaneous commentary. Brought together by renowned historian Stuart Reid with reports and key despatches from the other years of the campaign, the result is the story of the Peninsular War told through the writings of the man who knew and understood the conflict in Iberia better than any other. These memoranda and despatches have never been published before in a single connected narrative. Therefore, Wellington's History of the Peninsular War 1808-1814 offers a uniquely accessible perspective on the conflict in the own words of Britain's greatest general.

In the interwar years, emigre scholars in Czechoslovakia provided continuity and a bridge for Ukrainian scholarship from its inception at the end of the nineteenth century to the development of Ukrainian studies in the twenty-first century. These scholars forged a legacy that spread beyond Czechoslovakia. Without their work in the postwar era, the development of Ukrainian emigre scholarship would not have flourished. Narrated from a Ukrainian perspective, Scholars in Exile concentrates on the astounding efforts by Ukrainians to establish institutions of higher learning in the unique democratic spirit of Tomas Garrigue Masaryk. The book also explores Ukrainian scholarly and professional societies, museum and archival collections, scholarly publishing, and little-known intellectual connections between Ukrainian emigre scholars and their colleagues in Czechoslovakia and various other European countries. Scholars in Exile brings to light an interesting facet of modern Ukrainian history, allowing for a better understanding of the general intellectual and institutional history of Ukraine.