Here, in our third-last episode of the series, we take the time to analyse Cardinal Mazarin's motives. What kind of role did religious motivations, strategic motivations, political or economic or any other kind of motivation have upon his behaviour? Was he fighting for French security, or future French expansion? In line with this, we look at the religious question in the Empire, which had appeared like an impossible riddle in previous years. How was it possible to make everyone happy, particula...
May 31, 2023•36 min
As the war raged, Maximilian of Bavaria was forced to reconsider his position towards his Emperor. As the Habsburgs' most faithful and important German ally since the beginning, the rumours that Max was contemplating a truce had to be taken seriously. One thing was clear though - the wily Bavarian Elector had made his name by identifying the most advantageous course, and whatever decisions he made, they would be for Bavaria and Bavaria alone. **FOLLOW THESE LINKS!** 1) To support the podcast fin...
May 18, 2023•32 min
By the end of 1646, two massive problems plagued the negotiators. For France, the matter was Alsace, a huge chunk of territory along the sensitive Rhine region, which had long served as a buffer between the French and Imperial spheres. For Sweden, Pomerania, a slice of land along northern Germany's Baltic coast, was the central issue. The process by which the powers solved these questions, the compromises they agreed, and the implications they had, are all examined here. Although in the context ...
May 03, 2023•30 min
Check out our series Diplomacy: Britain vs America to nerd out on a forgotten era of Anglo-American confrontation, complete with war scares, gunboat diplomacy, and me pronouncing many things incorrectly! It's time to get all emotional, as we tie up the Eighty Years' War between the Spanish and Dutch, which had formed an integral part of the Thirty Years' War in its earlier phase, but which had, from 1645, effectively been relegated to a sideshow of the larger war. The Dutch, and its House of Ora...
Apr 19, 2023•33 min
The Battle of Jankau in 1645, followed by Allerheim later in the year, confirmed that the Emperor could expect few miracles from the battlefield. Bavaria seemed teetering on the edge, making secret moves towards the French, while the Spanish buckled, and the Swedes rampaged throughout the Habsburg Hereditary Lands. Ferdinand III understood that his greatest chances for self preservation lay in Westphalia, and his agent, Trauttmansdorf, was sent with very specific instructions. Here, we cover thi...
Apr 05, 2023•37 min
The wide range of interests and powers that gathered at the two Westphalian cities each tell a fascinating story. Whether it was the two French agents that loathed one another; the Dutch tradition of representing each of the seven provinces; Swedish desires to legalise its control over Pomerania; Johan Oxenstierna's frequently drunken state, when he wasn't insisting on trumpets blasting to announce his presence; the Franco-Swedish request on having all Imperial estates represented at Westphalia,...
Mar 15, 2023•35 min
After so long dancing around the issue, here we finally look at the moment when the Westphalian towns of Osnabruck and Munster hosted delegates from all across Europe and the Empire. Why were the French so eager to arrive with an enormous entourage? How did the delegates get their mail? How did warmer creatures cope with the cold, rainy mud of Germany? We get into it here, as well as contextualising these key early steps of the most famous peace congress of the early modern era. **DON'T FORGET T...
Mar 01, 2023•30 min
Don't forget that for a limited time you can get 16% off an annual Patreon membership - sign up now to get 40 hours of exclusive content AND listen to our new series on Anglo-American diplomacy from 1838-1846. Your support will help me become Dr Zack! Yes, I do still exist! In this episode we examine how the French coped with the sudden absence of Sweden, which had turned its attention to the Danes. France had to contend with several fronts, particularly along the Rhine, in the Netherlands, and ...
Feb 18, 2023•30 min
Don't forget that for a limited time you can get 16% off an annual Patreon membership - sign up now to get 40 hours of exclusive content AND listen to our new series on Anglo-American diplomacy from 1838-1846. Your support will help me become Dr Zack! By late 1643, one could be forgiven for expecting Lennart Torstensson, the Swedish commander in Germany, to take stock of his situation and plan for a new campaign in the new year. But such plans were placed on hold, because a letter from the Swedi...
Feb 01, 2023•36 min
Don't forget that for a limited time you can get 16% off an annual Patreon membership - sign up now to get 40 hours of exclusive content AND listen to our new series on Anglo-American diplomacy from 1838-1846. Your support will help me become Dr Zack! It's about time I dropped my research on you guys, so in this episode we'll be plumbing the depths of something I've mentioned many times, but rarely taken the time to define or explain properly - national honour. What was it, where did it come fro...
Jan 25, 2023•2 hr 43 min
To get this series and 40+ hours of extra content, make sure you sign up for an annual Patreon membership to get 16% off NOW! I couldn't have got this far in the PhD without the support of you lovely patrons, and this is my way of saying thanksss, so why not nerd out with us? Oh boy, it's finally time! Now you get to see what I've been working on over the Christmas break, an extremely chunky and detailed twelve part series examining Anglo-American relations from 1838-1846. Expect fractious diplo...
Jan 14, 2023•33 min
Get 16% off an annual Patreon membership and access to our new series examining Anglo-American Relations from 1838-46 when you sign up now! The Battle of Rocroi was a signal French triumph, but it did not transform the face of the war, either in the Netherlands or in Europe. A Bavarian victory later in the year at Tutlingen made 1643 a year of ups and owns, but of far greater consequence than who won, was who left the scene after so many years. Within a season, Cardinal Richelieu, King Louis XII...
Jan 11, 2023•33 min
Give yourself an early Christmas present including over 40 hours of extra content when you sign up on Patreon! I'll even lie about you in the opening monologue! Pay for a year's membership and get 5% off! 1641 was the year when Lennart Torstensson was finally appointed commander of Sweden's mostly German army. Having hunkered down for many years in the north of the country, Torstensson understood that Sweden had to strike hard against the Imperials if anything was to change. Possessed of a fierc...
Dec 18, 2022•39 min
By 1640, two rebellions shook Madrid to its core, and had a dramatic knock on effect on Spain's ability to support its Habsburg cousins in Vienna. In summer, Catalonia erupted in revolt after years of provocations and intransigence. When Portuguese soldiers were sent to quell the rising, those soldiers took home news of Spanish weakness, and by December, Portugal had broken away, and declared itself independent under King John IV. It was plain that Spain couldn't suppress the original Dutch revo...
Nov 30, 2022•32 min
In this episode I'm joined for a great conversation about Frederick the Great's 1740 invasion of Silesia, by a guy who knows a whole lot about it - Alec Avdakov from the Life and Times of Frederick the Great Podcast! Listen in and make sure you find Alec's show by clicking below. Thanksss Alec! Follow on Spotify Subscribe on Apple Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Nov 19, 2022•43 min
By 1640, both the Habsburgs and their foes had reached something of a crisis. There were opportunities to be had, if a new campaign could be pursued, but where to find the money, and how to support the soldiers in lands no longer suitable for massive armies? As they sized each other up, diplomacy continued in the background. Could the Swedes and French finally achieve that seizmic victory they desperately needed? Could anything plug the gaping hole in Habsburg financial and military resources lo...
Nov 09, 2022•29 min
War is hell, as the saying goes, but just how bad was the war by the late 1630s, after two decades of fighting? As we learn here, the worst aspects of the conflict didn't come from the deaths in battle, but what went along with the battle - armies that marched over aching, increasingly desolate lands; the ruination of the delicate agricultural system; the acute crisis of starvation that followed, and the spread of disease that followed it. The picture was depressing, but it tells a story of a co...
Oct 26, 2022•32 min
King Philip IV of Spain and King Charles of Britain had a surprising amount in common by the late 1630s. Both were presiding over a deteriorating situation domestically and abroad, and during the Battle of the Downs in October 1639, both came off worse than before. For Charles, the problem was one of authority, which had suffered terribly following years of wrong headed religious and political policies. With Scotland in revolt, and only pacified with painful concessions by spring 1639, Charles n...
Oct 12, 2022•32 min
Want to do some research? Want to nerd out on a massive selection of history books? Perlego has you covered, and you can get your first week for free and 50% off your first month by signing up here! After ten years of podding, we've seen a wide range of fascinating guests brave enough to nerd out with yours truly, but who is my favourite? Find out here, in this long-delayed episode, to see if your fave made the cut, and don't forget to track them down in our large back catalogue! Hosted on Acast...
Oct 06, 2022•30 min
The war which began in the Habsburg humiliation at Prague had arguably crystallized by the late 1630s, and thus begins perhaps my favourite period of the conflict! We now have battles raging in Northern Germany, where Johan Baner's Swedish-German force faced down Matthias Gallas' Imperials. Further towards the Rhine, Octavio Piccolomini watched the border near the Spanish-Dutch war, where Spain poured its resources into a never ending grinder of men and money. With Portugal and Catalonia showing...
Sep 22, 2022•35 min
Get 50% off your first month and a week's free trial when you sign up to Perlego with my link! Use the code WDF2022 and access an incredible catalogue of academic and library books - I'd be lost without Perlego , and I think you'll be really excited and impressed when you check them out. Their history collection has saved me $ and time! EPISODE : With the passing of Emperor Ferdinand II in February 1637, the moment seems right for a lay of the land by this eventful new year. The challenges for b...
Sep 06, 2022•37 min
Having looked at Sweden's failed plans for Poland, and then at Richelieu's ultimate survival, we return here to the Swedish theatre - this time, the pressure is all on the Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, who somehow had to turn everything around, and keep Sweden's war in Germany going. As 1635 turned to 1636, Oxenstierna's desperation moved him to approach Cardinal Richelieu, cap in hand, for a renewal of the Franco-Spanish alliance of 1631. Lacking leverage, Ax Ox was still willing to swal...
Aug 19, 2022•36 min
Since my laptop died, I would REALLY appreciate your support in getting a new one. RIP my twelve year old lappy! After so many years of cold war, finally, by 1635, France and Spain were destined to face each other in the battle - and what a battle it was! As defensive and offensive plans collided, and each side verged from crisis to stability and back to crisis again, the world shivered with nervous excitement. This was a test for the ages, a great power confrontation like no other, which would ...
Aug 04, 2022•33 min
Sweden's strategic situation was pretty desperate by early 1635, but to appreciate just how desperate it was, we have to look away from the Holy Roman Empire, and towards the East, where in Poland, the truce was about to expire with Sweden's dynastic enemy. Worse, for Swedish Chancellor Axel Oxenstierna, the grand plan of distracting Poland by orchestrating a Russian war had failed as well, leaving the Poles vengeful, the Russians weakened, and everything apparently in the air. Before the French...
Jul 20, 2022•36 min
What's your favourite podcast series under WDF's umbrella? We've covered an awful lot, and a wide range of history, from the obscure, to the famous and infamous, to the shockingly misunderstood. We've come a long way in these ten years, and picking ten of my faves was a difficult task, but after a brutal process of elimination, here it is - complete with music to get you all nostalgic. Do you agree with my choice? Were you surprised by my number one? Thanksss again for a brilliant decade of hist...
Jul 14, 2022•1 hr 4 min
After ten years of history podcasting, I've come across many remarkable and fascinating historical figures, but can I pick a favourite? The task is a difficult one, so to make it easier for myself, I picked ten. Find out here which figures make the cut, as I rank them from number ten all the way down to number one. Did my choices surprise you? Do you feel a particular character was unfairly maligned or skimmed over? The debate can continue in the WDF Facebook group, so I hope to see you there......
Jul 11, 2022•1 hr 16 min
On 18 May 2012, When Diplomacy Fails Podcast broke into the history podcast scene, and the rest is history! For more than a decade, this show has granted me opportunities and experiences I never dreamed possible. It made me who I am today, from my past jobs, to my education, literally down to where I am professionally and personally right now. This is the story of how something as simple as a history podcast can radically change a young guy's life, and although this episode is basically me talki...
Jul 08, 2022•1 hr 16 min
As spring 1635 approached, France had a choice to make. She could remain neutral, and allow the Imperial-Spanish triumph to overwhelm the Swedish and Dutch. Or, she could join their struggle, and end once and for the Bourbon-Habsburg cold war that had lasted a generation. It's decision time for Cardinal Richelieu... **DON'T FORGET TO FOLLOW THESE LINKS!** 1) To support the podcast financially in return for some extra audio content, check out Patreon! 2) To find a community of history friends, lo...
Jul 06, 2022•37 min
Get your tickets to Intelligent Speech Conference now! It's on Saturday 25 June, so don't delay! Matchlock and the Rebel is out NOW! Grab your copy of this Thirty Years' War historical fiction series here. Wallenstein exhausts Emperor Ferdinand's patience, the Battle of Nordlingen ushers in a new era of Habsburg supremacy, and an Austro-Spanish alliance is forged just in time to meet France on the battlefield. 1633 may have been quiet, but 1634 would prove the most consequential year of the war ...
Jun 24, 2022•37 min
We're ten years old! Wish WDF a happy birthday by buying the NEW and IMPROVED edition of Matchlock and the Embassy! The death of Gustavus Adolphus at Lutzen cast a long shadow over the year 1633. Could the Swedes rebound, and consolidate their gains, or would the Emperor avenge himself on his ungrateful subjects, after a worrying season of setbacks? As it turned out, nothing came easy to either side in the new year. But as Gustavus' ghost was joined by another, even more consistent actor in the ...
May 25, 2022•39 min
