Small Wars and their Influence on Nation States by William Urban

Author:William Urban
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / General
ISBN: 9781473844612
Publisher: Frontline Books
Published: 2016-01-31T05:00:00+00:00

1. We know much about the life of mercenaries from the memoirs of Robert Monro (c1606-c1680), who told of the adventures and sufferings of Scottish soldiers in Europe from 1626 to 1637. John Miller, Swords for Hire, covers Monro’s career on the continent, but not his more controversial campaigns in 1640s Ireland as a parliamentary general.

2. Contemporaries (and some modern historians) attributed some of the blame for Charles’s many disastrous political policies on his wife, the aunt of Louis XIV. Henrietta Maria (1609-69) advocated pro-Catholic and pro-French policies, a programme that would be remembered by her sons, Charles II (1630-85) and James II (1633-1701). A daughter, Mary (1631-60), married William II of Orange, and her son, William III (1650-1702), became king of England in 1689, but his claim on the English throne lay less in his Stuart ancestry than in his wife, Mary, being the daughter of James II. Another daughter, Henrietta (1644-70), married the bi-sexual brother of the French king, Philip; some contemporaries believed that Louis XIV was the actual father of her two daughters.

3. Timothy Dalton played Rupert (1619-82), in the movie Cromwell (1970). The movie takes liberties with chronology, events, the depiction of battles, and dialogue, but it has unforgettable portrayals of Charles I, Cromwell, Rupert, and the future Charles II. It won an Oscar for costume design.

4. Thomas Blood (1618-80), a veteran of Cromwell’s army, had gone into exile in 1660, but later returned to England. Colonel Blood was a familiar figure in London’s high society and at court, well-known as a scandalous and romantic adventurer. Ormonde should have been flattered to have been in his company, even for so short a time.

5. The role of James II’s queen, Mary of Modena (1658-1718) was important, especially her admiration of Louis XIV’s autocratic government and listening to Jesuit advisors. James escaped her forceful personality by the traditional means of keeping mistresses. One of these, Arabella Churchill, was Marlborough’s sister. Their son, James Fitzjames, the Duke of Berwick, became a French marshal. The Tombses, That Sweet Enemy, note that Louis XIV’s warning against efforts to overthrow James II was exactly what the king’s enemies needed to demonstrate the existence of a secret Bourbon-Stuart alliance, when in reality James II was much more independent than Charles II had been. Louis XIV’s revocation of the Edict of Nantes, stripping the Protestants of the guarantee of religious freedom, had brought a flood of refugees warning about the Sun King’s ominous threats to Protestants everywhere. This managed to overcome a generation-long memory of commercial rivalry and war between Holland and England. That same act was very popular in France.

6. ‘Bonnie Dundee’ (John Graham of Glaverhouse, 1648-89) had served with English troops sent by Charles II to aid Louis XIV against the Dutch, then in the army of William of Orange; returning to Scotland in 1678, he was given the responsibility of suppressing the outdoor meetings of the Covenanters, a task he performed with such enthusiasm as to earn the nickname ‘Bluidy Clavers’.

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