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The Great Inca Rebellion – The Siege of Cuzco II
Manco Inca and other 3 soldiers with Spanish weapons during the rebellion. The beleaguered Spaniards now decided that their immediate survival depended on the recapture of the fortress on the cliff...
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The Great Inca Rebellion – The Siege of Cuzco I
As always, the Spaniards’ first reaction to a disturbance with the Indians was to try to seize the initiative. Hernando sent his brother Juan with seventy cavalrymen – virtually every horse then in...
View ArticleTHE PENINSULAR WAR: OPORTO
12 May 1809 Sir Arthur Wellesley was a distinctly odd man; fastidious, snooty and intelligent all at once. He was also deeply ambitious and powered by intolerance towards others. He could hardly have...
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THE BATTLE OF CORUNNA, 16 JANUARY 1809
42nd Highlanders the Black Watch at the Battle of Corunna on 16th January 1809 in the Peninsular War: picture by Harry Payne The positions of the armies at Corunna. The British are in red and the...
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The Change of Dynasty – Bourbon Spain
Louis XIV presents his grandson, the King of Spain to the Court and to the Spanish Ambassador. The dichotomy of Castile-Aragon could not be summarily removed by the stroke of a pen – not even the pen...
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Siege of the Alcázar at Toledo (July 21–September 27, 1936)
On July 17, 1936, with leaders of the Popular Front government of Spain learning of their plans, rightist plotters in the army were forced prematurely to begin their effort to seize power in what...
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Santa Ana (1784)
Santa Ana was a three-masted first-rate, with three decks of guns: the prototype for seven other ships built during the 1780s at Spanish and Cuban yards. Santa Ana 1784 by San Martín – Artesanía...
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Siege of Saigon (March 1860–February 1861)
Capture of Saigon by Charles Rigault de Genouilly on 17 February 1859, painted by Antoine Morel-Fatio. The 11-month siege of Saigon (today Ho Chi Minh City) in Vietnam during March 1860–February 1861...
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The history of the [Spanish] Army of Flanders and the Eighty Years War. Part II
BATTLE OF ROCROI, 19 MAY 1643 Following successful cavalry charges by Isembourg on the Spanish right and Conde on the French right, the latter won the battle by keeping his horsemen in check, riding...
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The history of the [Spanish] Army of Flanders and the Eighty Years War. Part I
By Fernando González de León It appears that there were two distinct periods or eras in the history of the Army of Flanders and the Eighty Years War. The first one lasted roughly from 1567 to the...
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BATTLE OF THE RIVER SALADO
Book Link Development of the Battle of Salado 30 October 1340 Many of the battles fought between Islam and Christianity have been hailed as the decisive encounter between the two religions. Few of...
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Spanish arquebusier
1568. Battle of Jemmingen. Spanish arquebusiers. Angel García Pinto for Desperta Ferro magazine Gonzalo de Córdoba, (1453-1515). “el Gran Capitan.” Castilian general who reformed the tercios, reducing...
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Sertorian War (80-72 B. C. E.)
Sertorius was a disaffected Roman who fought successfully against Sulla and Pompey. He was a masterly tactician specialising in surprise and ambushes exploiting wooded hills and according to Plutarch...
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Carlos III’s Reign
Portrait by Anton Raphael Mengs, c. 1761 Though Fernando VI’s reign saw the end of French tutelage, the latest intellectual currents from France and elsewhere circulated among the Spanish elite and...
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Fernando VI (1746–59), King of Spain
Portrait by Louis Michel Van Loo The Franco-Spanish fleet commanded by Don Juan José Navarro drove off the British fleet under Thomas Mathews near Toulon in 1744. Fernando VI (1746–59) ascended to the...
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Elizabeth towards War II
What is often depicted as the apotheosis of the Elizabethan Age, the turning point at which the wisdom of everything the queen had done was made manifest and the way was cleared for England’s...
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Elizabeth towards War I
European matchlock musketeers of the Elizabethan period. By the early 1570s the Puritans had grown significantly in numbers and in economic and political clout. They were not only unsatisfied,...
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