Military

Francis Austen served throughout the Napoleonic Wars and, writes David Hopkinson, lived until the age of ninety-one; an Admiral of the Fleet.

From February until December 1916, Verdun was the scene of the longest and heaviest series of battles.

L.W. Cowie describes how, early in 1805, a series of strong points were built along the British coast-line, to defend against Napoleon’s army, then arrayed across the Channel.

Stephen Clissold uncovers a brutal crime with its roots deep in the rank soil of Balkan politics.

During the campaign of 1815, writes Michael Glover, Wellington was handicapped by a shortage of military maps.

During the Mamluk Sultanate, writes P.M. Holt, men imported as slaves and trained as warriors became rulers of a great Islamic state.

Pergamon became independent in the third century B.C.; Philip E. Burnham describes how its last king bequeathed his territory to Rome, and whence the Roman occupation of Asia began.

Tracked down to a ‘hut in the cavern of a rock’, writes J.J.N. McGurk, Desmond met his death at the hands of fellow Irishmen.

In 1579 James Fitzmaurice Fitzgerald, cousin to the 14th Earl of Desmond, took up arms against the English foe.

That an occupant of the Celestial Throne should fall into the hands of the barbarians was an unprecedented catastrophe. Nora C. Buckley describes how the situation was cleverly dealt with by his ministers.