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First published in 1968, The Bourbon Tragedy marks the fall of the
ancient French monarchy on August 10, 1792. The Bourbon Royal
Family was imprisoned in the tower of the Temple, a dark, medieval
dungeon. The following January Louis XVI was taken out, tried and
guillotined, and later Marie Antoinette too. Their two children,
the Dauphin, a boy of eight, and his fourteen-year-old sister, were
shut up alone. Eventually, in 1795, the girl was released to her
mother's Austrian relatives in exchange for eight French prisoners.
She survived to ride at her uncle's side at the Bourbon Restoration
which followed the defeat of Napoleon. The boy's fate is a mystery.
Officially Louis Charles died on June 8, 1795, but it was later
claimed by a series of Pretenders to the French throne that the boy
who died in the Temple was not the Dauphin, but a dumb boy, dying
of scrofula, who had been substituted for him. They may have been
right: the little phantom King may have been rescued and, in this
case, what happened to him? Was one of these claimants truly the
Dauphin? Rupert Furneaux discusses this intriguing problem in a
book which tells the intimate, tragic story of the captivity and
fate of the whole Bourbon family in the French Revolution. This
book will be of interest to students of French history, war
history, literature, philosophy as well as to any casual reader
interested in the mysteries of history.
The Grand Strategy, the imaginative plan to divide the rebellious
American colonies, ended in disaster. On October 17, 1777, General
Sir John Burgoyne, alone, unaided and stranded in the American
wilderness, capitulated with his army at Saratoga in upper New York
State. It was the ‘turning point’ of the Revolution, which
culminated four years later in the British surrender at Yorktown.
Creasy wrote of Saratoga: ‘Nor can any military event be said to
have exercised more important influence upon the future fortunes of
mankind…’ Who blundered? For nearly two centuries, Lord George
Germain, the ‘maladroit’ minister, has been blamed, together
with the Commander-in-Chief, Sir William Howe; but Burgoyne,
‘Gentleman Johnny’ as his affectionate troops called him, has
largely escaped criticism. Only in the late 1960s had a full
assessment become possible, by the publication of all the
correspondence that passed between these men. Originally published
in 1971, from his study of these letters, and by his visit to the
campaign area, author Rupert Furneaux questions this long accepted
view. The British disaster resulted, he says, not because anyone
particularly blundered, or from any ‘pigeon-holed’ despatch,
but rather because no one bargained that thousands of ordinary
American citizens would rally to bar Burgoyne’s path. Experienced
frontier-fighters and skilled marksmen, they mowed down the
closely-ranked Redcoats and the German mercenaries, who had all
been trained for European battles. Saratoga heralded a new age of
warfare, which Europeans took another hundred years to learn. It
was also far more than a British defeat; it was an American
victory, the decisive battle whereby they won the right to run
their own lives without interference from Europe – and with
incalculable consequences.
First published in 1963, Massacre at Amritsar recreates the
terrible scene of the Jallianwala Bagh from the stories of
eyewitnesses and survivors. General Dyer's action at Amritsar on
April 13, 1919 flared up into one of the most heated political and
moral controversies of 20th century. Was he right in firing without
warning on the group which had gathered in defiance of his orders?
And in continuing to fire after they had started to disperse? Did
he thereby save Punjab from worse bloodshed, and all India,
perhaps, from a second Mutiny? Or did he commit a cold-blooded,
purposeless massacre, for which no excuse was possible? The Army,
which had condoned his act on his first explanation, could not
stomach his arrogant replies at the enquiry. The Government of
India described Dyer's act as 'monstrous.' And perhaps more than
any other single factor the massacre consolidated Indian opinion
behind the campaign for independence. Yet a large section of the
British public backed Dyer; a huge subscription was raised for him,
and the House of Lords exonerated him. This book examines the
circumstances that led up to the massacre and the deplorable
actions that followed it and offers a new solution to the enigma of
Dyer's mind, making it an important read for students of history,
South Asian studies, area studies and for the people of any
erstwhile colonized nation.
The Grand Strategy, the imaginative plan to divide the rebellious
American colonies, ended in disaster. On October 17, 1777, General
Sir John Burgoyne, alone, unaided and stranded in the American
wilderness, capitulated with his army at Saratoga in upper New York
State. It was the 'turning point' of the Revolution, which
culminated four years later in the British surrender at Yorktown.
Creasy wrote of Saratoga: 'Nor can any military event be said to
have exercised more important influence upon the future fortunes of
mankind...' Who blundered? For nearly two centuries, Lord George
Germain, the 'maladroit' minister, has been blamed, together with
the Commander-in-Chief, Sir William Howe; but Burgoyne, 'Gentleman
Johnny' as his affectionate troops called him, has largely escaped
criticism. Only in the late 1960s had a full assessment become
possible, by the publication of all the correspondence that passed
between these men. Originally published in 1971, from his study of
these letters, and by his visit to the campaign area, author Rupert
Furneaux questions this long accepted view. The British disaster
resulted, he says, not because anyone particularly blundered, or
from any 'pigeon-holed' despatch, but rather because no one
bargained that thousands of ordinary American citizens would rally
to bar Burgoyne's path. Experienced frontier-fighters and skilled
marksmen, they mowed down the closely-ranked Redcoats and the
German mercenaries, who had all been trained for European battles.
Saratoga heralded a new age of warfare, which Europeans took
another hundred years to learn. It was also far more than a British
defeat; it was an American victory, the decisive battle whereby
they won the right to run their own lives without interference from
Europe - and with incalculable consequences.
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