John Tincey — новинки

Combining one of history's most audacious strategic manoeuvres with perhaps the greatest military victory ever won by a British commander, the Blenheim campaign is rightly considered the pinnacle of the career of John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. On 13 August 1704, Marlborough and Prince Eugene of Savoy faced a Franco-Bavarian army threatening to knock Austria out of the War of the Spanish Succession. In a hard-fought battle Marlborough won a resounding victory, capturing Marshal Tallard and over 14,000 men. In this book John Tincey describes how Marlborough's victory crushed his enemies, shattered the myth of French invincibility and laid the foundations for two centuries of British world dominance.

The entry of the Scots into the English Civil War on 19 January 1644 on the side of Parliament radically changed the balance of power in the North of England. The Royalists in the North were forced onto the defensive and besieged in York. In a bold march Prince Rupert outmanoeuvred his enemies and relieved York without a shot being fired. However, when Rupert met the allied army in battle on Marston Moor on 2 July his cavalry was defeated by Cromwell's Ironsides who then turned on the Royalist infantry. The result was a hard-fought but catastrophic defeat; the Royalist army was crushed and their forces driven from the north of England.

The Ironside is symbolic of the one occasion when the army took an active role in British politics. He represents a unique period when ordinary people displaced the established order to take political control into their own hands. In the nineteenth century a rash of historical publications, paintings and statues with a civil war theme reflected the political divisions of Victorian society and Royalist and Parliamentarian causes were argued over again, reflecting the sub text of contemporary political struggles. This book attempts to take a wider view of the Ironside as a warrior who evolved from the experiments of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries to combine firepower with the armoured cavalryman.

This, the first ever Osprey campaign title to deal with the English Civil War, looks at the battle of Edgehill, the first major clash of the Wars. In 1642 both Royalists and Parliamentarians expected that one great contest of arms would see the crushing of their enemies. When their field armies blundered into contact on the evening of 22 October 1642, Prince Rupert urged King Charles to array his army on the great ridge of Edgehill and give battle. The next day, amidst abject cowardice and absolute courage, the tide of battle swept Rupert's cavalry to triumph, but saw victory snatched away as the Royalist infantry was hurled back by the defiant Parliamentarians. The chance for decisive victory was lost and the bloody civil war raged on.

The period between the Restoration of Charles II in 1660 and Marlborough's decisive victory at Blenheim in 1704 is often seen as something of a 'backwater' in military history; however, this 40-year pause saw the birth of the British Army in its modern form, and the establishment of many regiments that survive to this day. This book examines the uniforms and equipment of the British Army during this eventful, if often overlooked, period of the reign of Charles II, James II and William II. Colour plates, illustrations and photographs portray infantry uniforms and equipment, as well as the uniforms and weapons of the horse, in vivid detail.

In March 1642 King Charles I, believing that Parliament had gone too far when it issued the Grand Remonstrace, moved to arrest John Pym and four other leaders. That summer Parliament, fearing military action, tried to seize control of the army by issuing orders for soldiers to report to Parliamentary, rather than royal, representatives. The King countered by ordering the bill ignored and raised his own army. Some turned out for the King, some for Parliament, and so the war started. This book examines how the cavalry soldiers of 1642 expected to fight the Civil Wars, and how experience changed their ideas.

In the latter part of the 16th century, Spain was the major international power and her leader, King Phillip II, pledged to conquer the Protestant heretics in England. He envisioned a two pronged attack. He would send his ‘Invincible Armada' of 125 ships into the English Channel where it would link up with the Duke of Parma. The Armada would ferry the Duke's soldiers across the straight of Dover and these troops would march on London, seize the Queen, and proceed to conquer the entire country. Over 400 years have passed since this momentous expedition 'sailed and failed', but its fascination and significance remain undiminished.