The Battle Fields Of Germany From The Outbreak Of The Thirty Years War To The Battle Of Blenheim

Author : G. B. Malleson
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781502400178
Total Pages : 316 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (1 download)

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Download or read book The Battlefields of Germany, from the Outbreak of the Thirty Years' War to the Battle of Blenheim written by G. B. Malleson and published by . This book was released on 2014-09-17 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the preface:"A little reflection will, I think, prove that, beginning with the battle-fields of the Thirty Years' War, the subject naturally divides itself into three great series or epochs. The first of these, treated of in this volume, deals with the principal military events of the Thirty Years' War, with the battle which was the final turning point in the history of the House of Hohenzollern, with the decisive overthrow of the Turks before Vienna, and with the famous battle-field which gave the first check to the ambitious designs of Louis XIV. on Germany. From that moment we enter upon a new epoch. The Porte and France had alike ceased to be mortally dangerous to the Empire, and we arrive at a period when the North and the South of Germany, the former represented by Frederick II. of Prussia, the latter by the House of Habsburg, began their long struggle for predominance. That struggle was still undecided when the old order of things in Europe was swept away by the wave of the French Revolution. Whilst, then, the history of the battles of that epoch would form the second, that of the battles of the epoch subsequent to the year 1789 would form the third, series, of the subject which constitutes the major title of this work.To the political history of the Thirty Years' War I have referred as little as was possible. My object has been rather to describe the battles and the events which led to those battles. Englishmen have, no doubt, read in their own language accounts of Leipzig (Breitenfeld) and of Lützen; but of Duke Bernhard's campaign in the valley of the Danube; of Banner's daring and all but successful raid upon Ratisbon; of that battle of Jankowitz which made possible the capture of Vienna; of the surprises of Tuttlingen and Mergentheim; of the battle of Zusmarshausen; of the closing scene of the Thirty Years' War, the splendid defence of Prague; of that Fehrbellin which was the turning point in the history of the Hohenzollerns; they can have read, in the same tongue, but little save the barest outline, and sometimes not even that. To resuscitate these battle-fields from the oblivion into which they had fallen, and to describe them in the English language, has been to me a labour of love. I have had, indeed, to delve into many musty documents, and to pore over many forgotten folios in German and French; but never, I can truly assert, have I found the early hours of the morning pass more pleasantly than when I was engaged in a work which carried me, mentally, into the inspiring company of some of the greatest men who have trodden this earth."