After so thoroughly enjoying Charles Spencer’s Prince Rupert biography, I picked this up, even though I really shouldn’t have. At this point, I don’t need to be dragged into the early 18th century, as much fun as it is. To be …
Book Review- Blenheim: Battle for Europe by Charles Spencer Read more »
The mere mention of musketeers brings to mind attractive men wearing large hats, tall boots and fighting with swords. And yet, we are not here just to stare at pictures of such. Although it was a hazard of my “research.” …
Since the majority of my main characters are based on historical figures, I thought I’d profile some of them, and then let you figure out who’s who. No, actually I’ll totally hit you over the head with the who’s who. …
One rainy summer afternoon, many, many years ago, I was doing the guided tour of Heidelberg Castle in Germany. The guide explained how the formal gardens- mostly in ruins today- were considered the 8th wonder of the world at the …
In doing some technical research for another main character, I came across these guys. Cuirassiers were named for the breastplates (cuirasses) they wore, and were a type of heavy cavalry popular well into the 19th century. In fact, they were …
Some of you might have noticed that my book is tentatively titled The Winter King. That’s just a working title for now until I find something better. After all the changes I’ve made, there will be neither winter nor a king …
So, I jumped the gun a bit in my last post. Before the Bohemians could elect a new king, a bunch of other stuff happened. When I first started to write my book, I wanted to cover all of this. …
After successfully (hah!) compressing the events of The Thirty Years War into 700 words, I thought I would do the same for the events that precipitated said war. After all, if the entire war could be summarized so succinctly, surely …
The title of this post implies it’s about peace, but never fear- it will end with war! (but just a short one) The post itself will also be mercifully short. After the considerable upheaval of the Protestant Reformation, many rulers …
This agglomeration which was called and which still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.- Voltaire In other words, the title of this whole thing is very misleading. And yet, in order to …