History Briefs: The Duke of Marlborough, England's Greatest General
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- Опубліковано 29 сер 2024
- John Churchill, first Duke of Marlborough is, arguably, the greatest English General of the modern era. His famous victories over the French at the Battles of Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet were just the icing on a glittering military career that covered a period where a professional army was established in Great Britain. He was fundamentally important to its development and in providing it with a fearsome reputation that ranked alongside that of Britain's growing naval power.
During the War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714) it became apparent that neither the Dutch nor the Austrians were capable of withstanding the might of France and Spain without British assistance. By the end of this war, largely thanks to the efforts of Marlborough, Britain became, alongside France, one of the outstanding European powers setting the scene for a worldwide conflict between these two countries for the remainder of the eighteenth century.
This video forms part of the History Briefs series from "Great Stories from the Past" which is designed to provide a quick yet reasonably detailed overview of famous people and renowned events in history.
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Sir. I read many fine books, and watch every documentary I can consume. That was as fine a 20-minute documentary as I have ever seen. And the particular subject matter was pleasing to me.
Thank you for your kind remarks. Hopefully we can produce some more documentaries that will interest you.
Would you please produce many in-depth documentaries on the wars of succession, and specifically their colonial American counterparts. The war of the Spanish succession has an American theater we call Queen Anne's War. And the war of the Austrian succession actually started in the new world as the war of Jenkins ear and then moved into New England as King George's war. There's a very interesting episode when the New England legislature declared war on New France and took the capital fortress of louisbourg for the empire, circa 1745. The intersection of the Anglo and American has been my historical obsession. We were the first British empire for 175 years but everyone just treats that history as a run up to the revolution and it drives me crazy because it's nothing of sort.
As someone who is inclined towards the military side of history, I am fascinated by the 18th century. To add to your list of wars of that period are the Seven Years War (the first global conflict in history which includes Britain's defeat of the French in Quebec), the three Carnatic Wars in India, the three Silesian Wars in central Europe, not to mention the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. This period was also the making of America, and the dawn of Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
We have already touched upon some of these topics in videos already on this channel. The Carnatic Wars are the backdrop to our video on Clive of India - ua-cam.com/video/sCTxRVZttq0/v-deo.html - and the Austrian Succession and Revolutionary Wars are the backdrop to our video on The Great Siege of Gibraltar - ua-cam.com/video/chWKh7LRuZU/v-deo.html - which I think you might enjoy as we describe how that siege affected the outcome of negotiations between Britain and America at the end of the Revolutionary War.
We certainly intend to do more on the 18th Century while also satisfying high demand for World War Two material. Thanks again for your interest in what we are doing.
@@GreatStoriesNow933 oh I've already watched all your videos. They're great. The long 18th century (1688-1815) is the focus of my principal expertise. However, I'm far more interested in content covering the first half, only for the reason that the second half of the long 18th century has such voluminous coverage that I have no problem delving deeper and deeper into that era. I find the material on the first half to be much more wanting. And frankly just as consequential. In America 1750 & beyond receives the Lion's share of attention and scholarship. But nearly always as a vehicle to talk about the revolution. The war of 1812, for all of the talk about its obscurity, has a lot of American scholarship to read.
It's from the Glorious Revolution to the treaty of Aix-La-Chappelle, in Europe and the Americas, that I really desire content for.
Anyway, thanks for the content and the interaction I appreciate both.
An excellent short biography of Marlborough. After Wellington's rise to fame, Marlborough is often forgetten, or relegated to a lesser status. However, even here in the US, we still study Marlborough at our military academies.
His use of logistics to keep an army, far from home, often in hostile territory, well supplied is one of his greatest legacies.
Among soldiers there is a saying, amateurs study tactics whilst professionals study logistics.
Thanks for that saying ... very true! Personally, I have always though that Marlborough was greater than Wellington but I would not like to argue the point. Thanks for watching.
Great piece of history.....Again brilliantly told and illustrated...
Thanks for your comments
I enjoy your work very much but, if l may say so, l often feel that your background music, though well-chosen, is a little too loud and is in competition with your narration.
Other than that, please don't change a thing. 😊
Noted! Thanks for your comment.
These are the men that made Britain "Great"! 🇬🇧
During the War of Spanish Succession, the British army under Marlborough became a force that other countries, for the first time, had to start really taking seriously. The unfortunate thing is that British governments over hundreds of years have never given the British army the resources they really require unlike the Royal Navy. If they had the army would have been able to perform at the same level as the Navy at battles like the Nile and Trafalgar. But that's another subject that we will be touching on in due course.
Thanks for watching!
Please, please do more of these they're FANTASTIC! I LIVE AND BREATHE English Royal History Documentaries, European History Documentaries actually and i have seen ALL of the available ones already a million times over.
I like that you had a short one on Catherine of Braganza, as she is how i found your channel. Looking for information on her. Great topics, wonderful images and narration. Historically accurate and scholarly. I enjoy longer documentaries, rather than short. Please, please delight us with more, soon?! 👸🤴
Very good documentary.
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.
Excellent, you deserve a lot more views and subs, hopefully they will come soon
Thank you very much!
i agree and i have just subscribed.
Good work, wholely fascinating.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Superbly put together.
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it!
I haven't read about Marlborough since my schooldays.
Interesting that Winston Churchill also changed sides on the Parliamentary benches, a couple of times.
I think Winston was also driven by the historical figure he felt, he had to live up to.
Queen Anne was said to have had eighteen failed pregnancies and was thought by some to be having an affair with Marlborough's wife Sarah.
If true, the subsequent coldness between them, might go some way to explaining Marlborough's decline in favour.
An interesting character, never the less.
The Duke of Monmouth, Charles IIs illegitimate son, who rebelled against his Uncle, James II, was captured and beheaded on the order of James.
The executioner is said to have taken five blows to lop off his head.
Methinks the axe was very blunt that day, or James was trying to send a clear message to anyone who should attempt to usurp his throne.
If Marlborough witnessed the brutal execution, perhaps this was the last straw that persuaded him to relinquish James's service, in favour of William, Prince of Orange.
Thanks for your comments.
Queen Anne did have 18 pregnancies from which only five children were born alive. Of these, only one, a son, survived infancy. He died in 1700 which ended Anne's hopes of providing a successor.
I think you are also right that the Duke of Monmouth's execution played a part in Marlborough's decision to support William of Orange. Monmouth and Marlborough were close; they served together in the army, and Monmouth always maintained that his mother had actually married Charles II.
Great documentary. John Churchill's success, apart from his own abilities, depended on court favour. His wife played a big role. All in all he led a great life. Blenheim, Oudenarde, Malplaquet, and Ramillies are his famous victories. Achieved in partnership with Prince Eugene of Savoy. The British Army was performed better in that period than in the 7 years War and right up to before the Peninsular campaign.
Thanks for your comments. Glad you enjoyed the video.
The British army that fought in the Penisular, was a well-trained force, directly because of ONE man. General Sir John Moore was the one that turned a rabble into an army, and Wellesley would never have been given charge of that army if Moore had not been killed at Corunna. Corunna was a defeat for the Brits, but the runaway was successful, and could be regarded as the rehearsal for Dunkirk!
He may have been the best general that England ever had, but I would offer Oliver Cromwell as a better one. And both are no match for Napoleon, who had more victories than Caesar, Hannibal, Alexander, Marlborough and Genghis Khan together, but was always more intelligent than all of them, as well. He reformed the civil and criminal law of France into the Code Napoleon, still used today in many countries. He reformed the Tax system, making it efficient for the first time ever. He had roads built, with trees on the edges of the roads to shelter the users from the sun. He established a telegraph system that could get a message from the south coast to Paris or the Manche coast within two days maximum, rather than the two weeks it had previously taken. He had canals built to bring drinkable water into cities, he had commercial canals built all over France, increasing productivity everywhere. Free schooling to 11 years old, pensions, first for handicapped soldiers and then everyone, free hospitals, free almshouses. His reforms meant that at the end of the wars, the population of France was higher than at any other time in its past.
Marlborough was nothing in comparison, he exploited the corrupt monarchical society he lived in, doing everything for his own good, not the people. A typical Anglo-Saxon methinks?
Got to here from siege of Gibraltar which was excellent. Slightly confusing this one I found, too much he she him her.......….. King this king that would be less confusing.. The computer generated voice is good but the word "power" needs to be rerecorded as it's being said as "pow". I'm enjoying my Sunday afternoon listening to your channel
Thanks for your thoughts.
Another excellent presentation. A great pity that Marlborough was dragged down by Sarah and her steady stream of complaining letters about Anne while her husband was off fighting battles.
There's nothing like biting the hand that feeds you!
@@GreatStoriesNow933 BITE it?? Hell, she chewed it off and then tried to sell it back to poor old Anne!
Thats our very great granduncle William Cadogan with Churchill. Another of his generals was our very great grandpappy Sir Thomas Pendergast, killed at Malplaquet... He was Cadogan's brother in-law, married to Cadogan's sister Penelope 🎉
Cadogan was a very eminent soldier in his own right
@@GreatStoriesNow933 I think a contemporary said that there would be no Marlborough without Cadogan...
I think this happens in France as well. I'm from Spain and as a kid we were singing a song about Mambrú that was basically a propaganda song against this guy...
I presume you are referring to the song, "Mambrú se fue a la guerra"? I believe this French song is about the Battle of Malplaquet in which the French thought the Duke of Marlborough had been killed.
@@GreatStoriesNow933 Yeah, that one 😃
The narrator sounds like Drachininfel.
!!! ... ??? Sorry, NO
A fine commentary ruined by a superfluous, loud and distracting background music track that added nothing to an intrinsically dramatic story -and often made it hard to take in. Duh!
Thanks for your comments which have been noted.
@@GreatStoriesNow933 On the other hand, I liked the music. It was mostly Handel, wasn't it?
👍👍👍
Thanks again
Without Prince Eugerne of Savoy (Europe's greatest general , Marlborough would have been a no body..
His battles were studied by all generals , and Marlborough knew his strength
Not true, Marlborough was capable even without Eugene.
@@Bullet-Tooth-Tony- English generals were accurately described by the Irish enlisted.
Shit in silk stocking
Many thanks for your post. I have never actually come across any suggestion of Prince Eugene being described as "Europe's Greatest General". He was certainly a very fine General, but "greatest"? I'm not sure. Interestingly the Battle of Ramillies which many consider to be Marlborough's greatest victory was won without Prince Eugene.
Perhaps the word "greatest" is being over-used in this conversation? Hope you enjoyed the video.
@@GreatStoriesNow933 Europe's greatest general
Alex the great
Prince Eugene
Napoleon
Mehmed 11
Guderian
Rommel
Jan Zizka
Forgot Frederick the Great
Shame our ancestors allowed the monarchists / aristocrats / oligarchic back into power after defeating them in the Civil War. We suffer for this reverse now.
Thanks for your comments. That's a subject that would certainly take some unpacking!