The History Network

The battle of Königgrätz (also known as the battle of Sadowa or the battle of Chlum) was the most decisive clash between the armies of Prussia and those of Austria and her allies during the short, seven-week long, Austro-Prussian War in 1866. The war itself is also known under several different titles. Königgrätz was also one of the largest battles of the age with almost half a million men fighting on the field. Dur: 26mins File: .mp3

At the end of the 19th century tensions had been high between the United States and Spain - the point of friction being Spanish colonial rule specifically in Cuba. When the USS Maine mysteriously exploded in Havana harbour, it pushed the American President McKinley into war with Spain. Dur: 16mins File: .mp3

When the Indian Mutiny broke out in May 1857, members of the Honourable East India Company became involved. Soon, several outstandingly brave deeds by them and other volunteer civilians were reported back in England but there was no official way to recognise civilian valour in times of armed conflict. Dur: 26mins File: .mp3

At the end of the First World War France and Italy had wanted the German High Seas Fleet divided between them, Britain and the USA wanted it scuttled, which Germany did anyway without permission. The resulting Treaty of Versailles imposed strict limits on size and number of warships the newly constituted German government was allowed to build and maintain. This nullified the threat of Germany at sea. Dur: 14mins File: .mp3

The Athenian army moved into position for the coming struggle. The right wing was commanded by Callimachus – for it was the regular practice at that time in Athens that the polemarch should lead the right wing; then followed the tribes, in order of their numbers; and, finally, on the left wing, were the Plataeans. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3

On September 10th 490 BC, hoplites from the Greek city of Athens faced an invasion force sent from the enormous and powerful Persian Empire to the east on the field at Marathon, a bay 26.2 miles (42.195 kilometres) northeast of Athens. The Athenians were outnumbered but the result would not be what anyone expected. Dur: 21 mins File: .mp3

In his account of Xerxes' invasion of Greece, the historian Herodotus goes out of his way to give an account of Artemisia, female tyrant of Halicarnassus, before, during and in the aftermath of the battle Salamis in 480 BC. This account, and Artemisia herself, are remarkable for a variety of reasons but the idea of a woman commander, one as clever as a man, had a great impact on the ancient world. Dur: 24mins File: .mp3

England and the Netherlands were natural allies when they both became Protestant, which finally happened in England in 1558 when Elizabeth I was crowned queen. In 1585 the queen sent Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester with 5,000 to 6,000 troops to the Netherlands to help in their revolt against the Spanish rulers of the Netherlands. Dur: 16mins File: .mp3

For centuries naval warfare consisted of vessels in relative close proximity to one, another fighting it out. This combat might take the form of ships in the ancient world ramming, or with the development of gunpowder vessels would launch broadsides at short range into the opposition. Dur: 16mins File: .mp3

The Residency complex at Lucknow was under siege. It had been since late June 1857. It was now October. A small relief force had broken through from Cawnpore but it was then too weak to enable the combined garrison to break out. Dur: 23 mins File: .mp3

Throughout the Indian Mutiny of 1857-1858, a total of 182 Victoria Crosses were awarded; more than one third of those were awarded for actions in in the city of Lucknow. It is a place with which anyone who studies the history of military bravery should be intimately familiar. One of the most remarkable actions during that part of the conflict was the relief of Lucknow on November 16th, 1857. Dur: 28mins File: .mp3

In this second episode of the life of Charles V Holy Roman Emperor we continue the story of his reign and of the conflicts in the first half of the 16th Century that shaped Europe and the world. The ruler of an empire is forever in the saddle and so it was with Charles. Conflict began in the year of the Diet of Worms when the French under Francis 1 invaded Lombardy in Italy. Dur: 17mins File: .mp3

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor also known as Carlos was born in 1500 and he lived for 58 years, dying in the Spanish monastery of Yuste of malaria. As we list his titles, King of Spain, King of the Netherlands, Flanders and Belgium, Emperor of Austria and Hungary, ruler of much of Italy including Milan, Sicily, Sardinia and Naples and Emperor of the Americas, the listener is apt to think that his realm encompassed much of the known world, as indeed it did, but this does not take account of the periphery. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

The Byzantines, the subjects of the Eastern Roman Empire, were great survivors. They outlasted their cousins in the west by a thousand years, withstanding the great waves of barbarian invasions and even managing to flourish amidst the chaos. Less than a century after the last western emperor was deposed in 476, the Eastern Romans under Justinian reconquered Italy and North Africa, and seemed on their way to restoring the entire Mediterranean to Roman rule. Dur: 30mins File: .mp3

On May 18, 1863, Major General Ulysses S. Grant achieved the objective he had sought for months. Union troops surrounded Vicksburg on three sides, and on its west side, Admiral David Porter's warships controlled the waters of the Mississippi. For three months Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton had watched as Grant flailed about in the floodplain on various unsuccessful bayou expeditions. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3

On May 18, 1863, Major General Ulysses S. Grant achieved the objective he had sought for months. Union troops surrounded Vicksburg on three sides, and on its west side, Admiral David Porter's warships controlled the waters of the Mississippi. For three months Confederate Lieutenant General John C. Pemberton had watched as Grant flailed about in the floodplain on various unsuccessful bayou expeditions. Dur: 30mins  File: .mp3

At the Battle of Cannae, 2 August, 216 B.C., Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca administered one of Rome's most crushing military defeats. Depending upon the ancient source, Roman losses on the Apulian battlefield numbered anywhere from roughly 50,000, as Livy relates, to around 70,000, as Polybius insists. Hannibal had enacted a double envelopment of the Roman army, a maneuver widely considered to be a tactical masterpiece that is to this day studied in war colleges around the world. Dur: 25mins File: .mp3

The last pitched battles on English soil were Sedgemoor in 1685 and Preston in 1715. But after that the army still needed to train and practice. The first land on Salisbury Plain was not bought for army training until 1897 and Catterick Camp was opened after the outbreak of WW1. So from 1853 when there was a renewed invasion scare, to 1914, there were many large scale army exercises or 'manoeuvres' all across the countryside of southern England. Dur: 26mins File: .mp3

When the first actions were gazetted in The London Gazette on February 24th, 1857, the first name to appear was that of Cecil Buckley. The action for his award was performed in May 1855 while he was a lieutenant but he had been promoted Commander soon after and so was the highest ranking naval officer gazetted in that initial list. Dur: 16 mins  File: .mp3

The First Victoria Cross – Charles Davis Lucas, Cecil William Buckley, or Henry James Raby. During the Crimean War (March 1854-February 1856), the movement to recognise the valour of the ordinary fighting man of the various branches of the British armed forces gained immense momentum. The Crimean War was the first conflict where newspaper reporters were with the troops (today we’d use the term ‘embedded’) and wrote back to their publications with the details of the heroism of the rank and file. Dur: 16mins. File: .mp3