Duke of Marlborough and Battle of Blenheim

Duke of Marlborough and Battle of Blenheim

The great Battle of Blenheim showed that the tide of history can be stopped and changed by a single event. Although the quarrels and disputes which led to it are long forgotten they might not have been forgotten if the battle had gone the other way.

In 1700 King Charles II of Spain died without leaving an heir. the various kings and rulers of Europe had for years been debating what should happen to Spain and her massive empire when Charles died. It had been generally agreed that the Spanish Empire was too powerful for any one person to control, so it was decided to divide up the Empire among other states

However, when Charles died he left his entire dominions to Philip, Duke of Anjou and grandson of King Louis XIV of France. Philip and Louis at once accepted the offer, ignored their agreements with other monarchs, and moved into Spain to take over. Louis was already a powerful monarch, so if his family had gained possession of the mighty Spanish Empire also, they would have become by far the mightiest power in the world. No other state would have been able to stand up to them and they could have done as they liked with the world.

Other monarchs realised they had to act quickly, before Philip could gain control of the Spanish Empire. A Grand Alliance was formed between Britain, the Netherlands, the Austrian Hapsburgs, Portugal and various German and Italian states. War was declared in 1701 and Europe plunged into bloodshed.

The early months of war were indecisive with the great armies besieging towns and fruitlessly trying to outmanoeuvre each other. Then, in 1704, the French gathered their armies for an attack on Vienna, capital of the Hapsburgs. If the attack were successful the Austrians would drop out of the Grand Alliance and France would gain victory.

The British commander, the Duke of Marlborough, saw the danger. He gathered his army away from the various sieges and skirmishes in the Netherlands and raced across Germany towards Vienna. He reached the city before the French, joined forces with the Austrian Eugene of Savoy and set out to face the French, commanded by Marshal Tallard.

The two armies were about equal in size, some 55,000 men, but the French enjoyed a superior position. Tallard drew up his men on a four kilometre long ridge with a marshy stream, the Nebel, running along the foot of the slope. The right flank was protected by the Danube river and the left flank by hills. Three villages stood on the he crest of the ridge, Blenheim on the right, Oberglau in the centre and Lutzingen on the left. Tallard fortified the villages and filled them with powerful forces of infantry. The spaces in between were held by cavalry, artillery and small forces of infantry. It was a very strong position and Tallard expected the Allies to fall back, hoping to lure the French on to other ground.

Marlborough and Eugene had other ideas. They arrived in front of the French lines at dawn, struggled across the marshy stream and began an attack just after noon. While Eugene held

 back attempts by the French left wing to outflank the Allies, Marlborough pretended to assault the fortified villages. In fact, he was using only the minority of his forces so that the French defenders were kept pinned down.

As soon as the main French forces were bottled up in the villages, Marlborough unleashed a massed attack of 23 infantry battalions and 90 cavalry squadrons, supported by artillery. The attacks swept through the French centre, driving away all defenders in the open country. The move isolated the French infantry in Blenheim and Oberglau, just as Eugene was driving the French back around Lutzingen. By late afternoon the French garrisons realised that their position was helpless and surrendered. Of the 55,000 French troops, only 15,000 escaped death or captured.

At Blenheim the main French field army was crushed. Although the war dragged on for another nine years, the French never again came close to outright victory. The British captured Gibraltar in 1704 and within two years they and the Portuguese had captured several major cities. The only point in further fighting was to secure territory and towns which would be useful in the peace negotiations.

In 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht was signed, bringing the war to an end. Philip of Anjou became King of Spain, but his Empire was stripped of various territories. In this way the French king was denied his dream of becoming the most powerful monarch on Earth.

A Bum Freezer from the Attic

During the Corona Virus lockdown, I did various jobs about the house. One was to sort out the attic. I found an old box that I had forgotten about entirely. It contained old clothes that had belonged to my father, but which were too small for me to fit into. They were too worn for sending to a charity shop, and I could never bring myself to throw them away as they were all top quality gear. So they went into the attic. I'll be posting about some of these as we go along.

The first to write about was what my father always referred to as his Bum Freezer Suit. Here it is, together with the tie that was wrapped around the hanger on which it had been when put away.

As you can see it is a two piece suit with a two button front and quite a deep V open front and medium width lapels. Standard collar and lapels for a single breasted suit like this. At first sight it looks charcoal grey, but when we look at the fabric we will see that is not quite right.

So, what is a "bum freezer suit". As the name implies, it was a suit with a very short jacket. Th polite term for this was a "Roman Jacket" as the style first came to prominence in Italy and the Roman fashion houses. Foreign films were shown more often in mainstream cinemas back in the 1950s and 1960s, so continental influences were more a part of the popular scene than they are now. Short jackets enjoyed a good run of fashion. When the Beatles first hit the big time, they wore short jacket suits.

Anyway, back to my father's suit from the attic. Here is the label inside the inner breast pocket. You can see that it was mde by H. Huntsman in August 1958. My father got his work suits from Huntsman. He said that they made the best jackets in the world.

Founded in 1849, Huntsman is a Savile Row tailor, producing traditional bespoke suits and other items for gentlemen and ladies. Huntsman has been granted several royal warrants bestowed by British and European monarchs, including The Prince of Wales, (later Edward VII) and Queen Victoria.  Huntsman is also one of the founders of the trade body responsible for protecting and promoting the working practices of Savile Row.

Here is the inside of the jacket. The arms have a cream satin lining, allowing the arms to slide easily into what seem to me to be rather slim sleeves. The lining of the body of the jacket, in contrast, is rough and thick. There is a lot of friction there. You can see the trousers in this picture. They are "drainpipes" - they are slim and taper to the ankles quite sharply. 

 The next photo shows the two button fastening. As you can see the front of the jacket slopes quite sharply back from the upper button. I remember that my father used to wear this suit with only the top button done up. The lower button was never fastened. Looking at this, I suspect that it was not supposed to do up at all.

 This photo of the pocket flap shows that they flap is horizontal, a fairly formal look for a business suit. You can see that up close the fabric is actually a textured mix of pale grey and black threads, not a charcoal grey at all.

 Here is the back of the jacket. Sorry about the rumples, but it has been in a box for about 30 years. Note that there are no vents at all. It was possible to do this as the jacket is so short. If it were longer, vents would be needed to allow the legs to move freely and to prevent the jacket rucking when you sit down. But it is so short neither is a real problem.

So there you go. The first of the garments to come out of the box from the attic. More later.

Not everything that looks like a cat is a cat

Not everything that looks like a cat is a cat

The Thylacosmilus looks very like a sabre-tooth cat. It has a cat-shaped body and long stabbing teeth to kill prey. However, it is a marsupial hunter which is more closely related to the kangaroo than it is to cats.  Thylacosmilus lived in South America about 4 million years ago.

Julius Caesar and the Gladiators

Julius Caesar borrowed money to buy his gladiators

Julius Caesar rose to become the dictator of the Roman Empire. Early in his career he staged spectacular games to win votes in elections. But Caesar was too poor to afford to pay the bills, so he borrowed money from richer men. When he won the elections, Caesar repaid the men with favours and titles.

Caesar’s gladiators fought in silver armour

In 65BC, Julius Caesar staged the funeral games for his father, who had died 20 years earlier. Caesar was standing for election to be Chief Priest of Rome. To make his games even more special, Caesar dressed his 640 gladiators in armour made of solid silver.

Caesar brought war elephants to Rome

In 46BC Julius Caesar celebrated a victory in North Africa by staging gladiatorial games in Rome. Among the prisoners of war forced to fight in the arena were 40 war elephants, together with the men trained to fight from them.

Caesar turned senators into gladiators

On one occasion Caesar forced two rich noblemen to fight in the arena. The two men had been sentenced to death by a court, but Caesar ordered that the man who killed the other in the arena could go free.

Caesar’s final show was too big for the arena

The games staged by Julius Caesar when he wanted to become dictator of Rome were the grandest ever held. After several weeks of shows, games and feasts, the final day saw a fight between two armies of 500 infantry and 30 cavalry. The battle was so large it had to be held in the enormous chariot race course.