The Congress of Vienna began in November 1814 and its aim was to provide a plan for a long-term peace within Europe after nearly 23 years of constant conflict and to redraw territorial boundaries so no single nation could become too powerful. Dur: 28 mins File: .mp3
"American Indian Wars" in the modern perspective focuses mostly on the American West in the second half of the 19th century with cowboys, Custer and the calvary, but the worst defeat of an American Army in the Indian Wars happened over eighty years earlier when George Washington was president. Dur: 16mins File: .mp3
Another poem, "Gwaith Argoed Llwyfain", refers to another campaign against the Angles of Bernicia. It also provides remarkable insights. Here, the leader of the Angles is named as Fflamddwyn – perhaps meaning "flamebearer" or "flamboyant one." It may refer to Theodoric of Bernicia (r. ca. 584-591) whose reign coincides with Urien's. The idea that it refers to Ida, the first king of Bernicia (r. 547-559), is probably too early to correspond to Urien and Owain's dates (although there is some cross...
The works of the sixth century AD Brittonic poet and bard, Taliesin, survive in a fourteenth century Welsh manuscript of the Llyuyr Taliessin, The Book of Taliesin. Taliesin is one of the most important figures in Welsh literature, one of the Five British Poets of Renown listed in the ninth century Historia Brittonum. Taliesin himself may have served at the courts of several kings and, although the book ascribed to him contains poems from others and from later ages, at least some of the poems ar...
On 5 March, 1804, a group of 233 convict rebels revolted against their incarceration in the British colony of New South Wales (corresponding to modern Sydney, Australia). They were met by the local garrison, consisting of only 28-30 regulars and a few loyalist militia, at a place some 40km north-west of Sydney soon dubbed Vinegar Hill. Dur: 29mins File: .mp3
It is the dream of every ancient historian that some new discovery will solve a mystery of the past – some newly discovered fragment of a lost historian which will make everything clear. Such circumstances are very rare, but the Gothic War of Decius is one recent occasion where exactly the new discovery historians dream of took place. Dur: 24mins File: .mp3
The battle of Abritus saw the death of two emperors in battle against a foreign enemy – Gaius Messius Quintus Trajanus Decius, usually known as Trajan Decius (r. 249-251) and his son and co-emperor Quintus Herennius Etruscus Messius Decius, known as Herennius Etruscus (r. 251). They lost their lives intercepting an invasion of Goths led by their king, Cniva, as it attempted to leave the empire weighed down with plunder after an immensely successful two-year raid. Dur: 33mins File: .mp3
At the conclusion of the Malayan Emergency in July 1960, plans were put into place to incorporate British North Borneo and Singapore into Greater Malaysia. This idea was met with fierce opposition from President Sukarno of Indonesia and in 1962 Indonesia began supporting revolutionary factions on the large, dense jungle island of Borneo. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3
For the battle of Chaeronea, we get none of the detailed deployment which we get for the subsequent battles of Alexander in sources such as Arrian, Plutarch, Curtius Rufus, and even in Diodorus himself. We can use those later deployments to our advantage, however, as Macedonian deployment remained remarkably similar - and, having learned so many lessons evident at Chaeronea, why would Alexander deviate from what had happened there – especially when his subsequent battles too brought him so much ...
Australia's involvement and commitment to the Vietnam War continued until 1973 when the last remaining platoon who were acting as guards for the Australian Embassy in Saigon, were withdrawn in June 1973. As with American involvement, Australia's contribution also escalated over time. Following the arrival of the AATTV in 1962, in August 1964 the Royal Australian Airforce (RAAF) began to run supply missions to Vung Tau, the port south of Saigon. Dur: 23mins File: .mp3
Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War began in 1962. In July that year, the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) (or 'the Team') first arrived, consisting of thirty military advisers. These special teams were designed to train and advise local troops - ARVN units, Montagnards, territorial forces, and Mobile Strike (Mike) Forces. Dur: 25mins File: .mp3
Arthur Martin-Leake, serving as a lieutenant in the Royal Army Medical Corps in 1914 was the first man to be awarded a Bar to the Victoria Cross he received during the Second Boer War in 1902. In both circumstances Martin-Leake's conduct was to put the lives of his injured comrades first despite being exposed to constant enemy fire, and being wounded himself. Martin-Leake is the only recipient to gain his two Victoria Crosses in separate wars. Only two other men have been awarded two Victoria Cr...
On September 22nd, 1862, already almost two years into the US Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation stating that, as of January 1st, 1863, all slaves within any State would be "thenceforward, and forever free." This proclamation freed 3.5 million men and women of African-American descent and, included in the proclamation, was the sentence that "the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and...
In the Spring of 334 BC, the 22-year-old Macedonian king, Alexander III (r. 336-323 BC - not yet ‘the Great’), invaded the vast Achaemenid Persian Empire with an elite but small army of some 30-40,000 veteran infantry and only 5,000 cavalry. This invasion was the culmination of almost a century of pressure for some Greek commander or other to punish Persia for its own invasion of Greece during the fifth century BC. Persia had also continued to seriously meddle in Greek affairs thereafter, affect...
Twelve years have passed since the disastrous Crusader Battle of Varna and three years since the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Empire in 1453. Europe is reeling under the relentless pressure of Ottoman advances: Serbia fell in 1455, and Sultan Mehmed II had now amassed his forces for an invasion of the Kingdom of Hungary. To launch this invasion, he first needs the fortress town of Belgrade... Dur: 20mins File: .mp3
The Italian invasion of British Somaliland is an often-overlooked action of the Second World War. Although small and a backwater of the British empire, the region would see several significant firsts of the Second World War. The loss of the colony in mid-1940 was the first significant loss of British colonial territory during the war. The loss alongside the few casualties suffered, caused frustration and concern in London. While the unexpected collapse of Italian East Africa less than a year lat...
Among the many brave acts of the Second Anglo-Afghan War (November 1878-September 1880), sixteen were awarded the Victoria Cross. Among this relatively small collection of awards, however, are several remarkable circumstances. The war saw the last Victoria Cross awarded to a civilian and the same award was the first to a clergyman (Reverend James Adams). Dur: 33mins File: .mp3
At the turn of the nineteenth century, Italy, a newly unified upstart Great Power, was looking to expand its political and economic influence into neighboring North Africa. Just a few years earlier, France had taken effective control of the North African coast from Tunisia to Morocco, while Egypt was a British protectorate. Just two areas of North Africa were unoccupied by Western European powers: Morocco and Ottoman Libya. Dur: 22mins File: .mp3
In the early stages of the Battle, aimed at capturing the high ground east and south of Ypres, the men of the New Zealand Division were tasked with capturing the village of La Basseville, southwest of the Messines Ridge (where the division had fought in June). La Basseville was situated on the Lys River (the border with France) and on the extreme right of Haig’s grand offensive. The New Zealanders' attack would act as a distraction to the German forces and, hopefully, cause them to divert troops...
In AD 376 an entire nation of Goths (the Theruingi) gathered on the northern banks of the Danube and asked permission to enter and settle within the Eastern Roman Empire. The Eastern Emperor, Valens (r. 364–78), agreed and this set off a series of events which would end in the greatest disaster for Rome since Cannae in 216 BC: the battle of Adrianople, fought on August 9, AD 378. Dur: 19mins File: .mp3
In AD 376 an entire nation of Goths (the Theruingi) gathered on the northern banks of the Danube and asked permission to enter and settle within the Eastern Roman Empire. The Eastern Emperor, Valens (r. 364–78), agreed and this set off a series of events which would end in the greatest disaster for Rome since Cannae in 216 BC. Dur: 22mins File: .mp3
It is a rare thing that a man be awarded his country's highest award for bravery because of his actions as a Prisoner of War, but that is exactly why Air Wing Commander James Stockdale was singled out. He was the highest ranking US Prisoner of War during Vietnam from 9 September 1965 until 12 February 1973 and was awarded the Medal of Honor for his unrelenting bravery in the Hanoi Hilton. Dur: 21mins File: .mp3
By the time of America's entry into WWI in April 1917, Eddie Rickenbacker was already famous. Always obsessed with engines, he had become a mechanic to Lee Frayer in the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup at the age of only 15. In 1910 he became a race-car driver himself, racing in the Indianapolis 500 in 1911. Dur: 20mins File: .mp3
In late October AD 312, the fate of the future of the Roman world was decided near the Pons Milvius, the Milvian Bridge (the modern Ponte Milvio, Italy), crossing the River Tiber some 5 kilometres north of Rome on the via Flaminia. The battle was the culmination of the war between rival Roman emperors, Maxentius and Constantine, to see who would dominate the western Roman Empire. Dur: 34mins File: .mp3
The First Battle of Ypres came at the end of the strategic 'race to the sea' which occurred following the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, when allied forces halted the initial Axis advance made since the outbreak of the war. Before winter set in, several offensives were launched by both sides to try and outflank the other’s northern flank as they each moved towards the North Sea coast. Dur: 18mins File: .mp3
This episode was written by Scott Forbes Crawford. An author based in Asia, he writes about ancient and medieval history in novels and nonfiction alike. A newly published history book, The Han-Xiongnu War, 133 BC – 89 AD, explores a decisive conflict between China and a nomadic steppe empire through the lives of fifteen historical figures, including the subject of today’s episode. Dur: 29mins File: .mp3
During the Baltic campaign of the Crimean War, in August 1854, Lieutenant John Bythesea together with Stoker William Johnstone of Her Majesty's ship HMS Arrogant performed an audacious act of bravery. This would lead to both men being awarded the Victoria Cross, among the first gazetted and earliest actions so awarded. Despite this, tragedy would soon envelop Stoker Johnstone and his story deserves to be better known. Dur: 19mins File: .mp3
During the Baltic campaign of the Crimean War, in August 1854, Lieutenant John Bythesea together with Stoker William Johnstone of Her Majesty's ship HMS Arrogant performed an audacious act of bravery. This would lead to both men being awarded the Victoria Cross, among the first gazetted and earliest actions so awarded. Despite this, tragedy would soon envelop Stoker Johnstone and his story deserves to be better known. Dur: 22mins File: .mp3
The legions of Magnentius and Decentius in Amida had been raised by the former usurper Magnentius (a general who usurped against Constantius in Gaul between 350 and 353) in his name and that of his brother. They were therefore a remnant of those disloyal troops, hence their stationing (a banishment) in the east. Their conduct at Amida would restore both their honour and reputation. Dur: 21mins File: .mp3
In the summer of AD 359, the armies of the Sasanian Persian Shahanshah ("King of Kings"), Shapur II (r. 309-379), invaded the Roman east. This invasion was the long-cherished revenge for a humiliating peace imposed on the Persians by the Romans sixty years earlier. The Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus was an eyewitness to the most dramatic events of this new war, serving in the army of the emperor Constantius II (r. 337-361) as a protector domesticus, a guard cavalryman. His Res Gestae (Roma...
