No comments about The Marlborough tapestries at Blenheim Palace: And their relation to other military tapestries of the War of the Spanish Succession,.

No comments about The War of the Spanish Succession, 1702-1713: A Selected Bibliography (Bibliographies of Battles and Leaders).

No comments about Marlborough Goes to War: Eyewitness Accounts 1702 - 1713.

No comments about Gustavus Adolphus: A History of the Art of War from Its Revival After the Middle Ages to the End of the Spanish Succession War, with a Detailed Account ... Campaign of Turenne, Condé, Eugene and Marl.

No comments about The Peace of Utrecht: A Historical Review of the Great Treaty of 1713-14, and of the Principal Events of the War of the Spanish Succession [1885 ].

No comments about Great and Glorious Days: Marlborough's Battles 1704-09.

2 comments about The Treasure of the San José: Death at Sea in the War of the Spanish Succession.

1. Don't be fooled by the title, this book has really very little to do with the Spanish naval operations against Britain, and even less about the loss of the treasure of the San Jose. Instead, it is more of an expose' on the convoluted corruptions of the Spanish government and its impact on naval operations in the New World. In fact, after reading about the interminable bribery, double-dealing and graft associated with squadron command, it is amazing the Spanish were able to get anything done in the New World, or elsewhere. If you are of a legalistic turn of mind, you will probably enjoy this book, but if you are looking for any sort of detailed discussion of Spanish ships, personalities, Caribbean operations, or tales of the treasures of the Spanish Main, you will be quite disappointed! Far better to read Arpestegui's book 'Pirates of the Caribbean' to get a detailed Spanish view of the intricacies of Caribbean operations in the days of Spanish hegemony.



2. Phillips, Carla Rahn. The Treasure of the San Jose: death at Sea in the War of the Spanish Succession. 1st. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007. 0978-0-8018-8580, 248 p., il, maps and charts.
   
   
   
   Phillips (history, Univ. of Minnesota; Six Galleons for the King of Spain: Imperial Defense in the Early Seventeenth Century). Sunk by the British in 1708, the Spanish galleon San José was said to hold the richest cargo ever lost at sea. European conquests foundered, family fortunes were lost and history was changed in many ways. Still unfound today the San Jose has become "Black Pearl" of real history and the stuff of dreams and legends. However, the facts survive in the formidable archives of the colonial Spanish empire that only a scholar of Phillips standing could take on and survive. With careful research Phillips shows that the tale of the San Jose that most people know is "virtually in all of the details it contains are false". Yet even though this maybe the definitive scholarly book, Phillips begins her book with Gabriel Garcia Marques haunting description of the wreck of the San Jose near the harbor of Cartagena de Indias as a metaphor for lost dreams. It is in truth, the tale of the magnificent galleon San Jose under the command of the Count of Casa Alegre and manned by 600 souls that still rests untouched and waiting. Larger public libraries, academic libraries and specialized maritime collections.
   
   Suzanne Lay

No comments about Military Memoirs of Marlborough's Campaigns, 1702-1712.

1 comments about Rules of War (Jack Steel 2).

1. If you are a fan of historical fiction, this is a solid read. The book goes at a quick pace, plots are believable, the only draw back is, it reminds me of the Richard Sharpe Series by Bernard Cornwell. You have the Rogue officer the big sergant, the do or die missions plus the ever so hot damsel in trouble. Since the stories are 100 years before Sharpe, it truely informs about new weapons of the time, battle order, Honour and Glory are always abound.

5 comments about Battle for Europe: How the Duke of Marlborough Masterminded the Defeat of the French at Blenheim.

1. Readable, effortlessly so in fact - I am not sure but I think Charles Spencer, or Earl Spencer, is actually a journalist - if so I think this book is the best of all worlds. It is a well referenced book which I think will appeal to academics and historians of English and military history - but his ability to tell a good story makes this a pleasing and easy read.
   
   This books follows and really climaxes at one of the most significant battles in Europe at the time, and one which was really epitomised the animosity between the French and the English which was to finally end with Waterloo so 100 years later. The explanation of the background and the domination of the French in Europe at the time is well done. This is no dry-rendering of facts.
   
   The book is divided into two halves, the first half backgrounds the politics of Europe and the various men who would later indulge in the war - and it seems it was an indulgence.
   
   the second half takes us through the campaign, the life, and the major battles, including the battle of Blenheim which left several thousand British and allies dead and many more French.
   
   John Churchill, who lead the British was later created Duke of Marlborough by Queen Anne for his efforts and was granted Government money to build the immense palace which was named for his most famous battle. Charles Spencer and the Earls of Spencer are descended from the Junior Branch of his family and so I expect he may have had access to papers to assist in this. For whatever reason it seems appropriate that he should write this book about his ancestor.
   
   A great book and a good read.



2. The abundantly plain prose of Mr. Spencer, interrupted here and there with some sparks of brilliance an even humor, fully accomplish the task of NOT showing any novelty about an age that, granted, has been well trodden by myriads of historians of any and every caliber. He, also, hit the target in NOT making a convincing case of his main idea that the battle of Blenheim, the axis of his narrative, changed the course of european history stopping the run of Louis XIV to continental domination. Mr Spencer himself, in some of his best chapters, give a plenty account of how stretched and weakened France was after so many campaings, so how improbable was that Louis could ever sustain such an empire even winning in Bleinheim.
   It must be said that in any case, never forgetting the moderate standards of the so called "popular history", Mr. Spencer can be read in a leisurely sunday afternoon and, with hope, better works can be realistically expected from him in the future. So I give him three stars.



3. I had noticed this book while picking through works on the War of Spanish Succession here on amazon and I placed it on my Christmas list. I was surprised to open it and began reading it on Christmas day and couldn't put it down. I finished it the next day after reading through the night.
   
   Spencer pens an amazing book that is said to concern the 1704 Battle of Blenheim in Bavaria. Instead, the book deals with a period of history of approximately 1670-1705, the time in world history where empires were rising and falling and what could be termed as the "calm between the storms" of the Reformation and Enlightenment. Spencer weaves and intricate and flowing tale of the great clash of arms between the marshalls of Louis XIV and the Duke of Marlborough, backing the narrative of the war and the battle with political intrigues, explanations of 18th century warfare, and a look at the three major characters of the book, the Duke, Louis XIV, and Prince Eugene of Savoy.
   
   All in all, this book is an excellent first work from Spencer and I fervently await subsequent books.



4. Other reviewers have noted that this is a well-written book, and it is. Having recently finished Winston Spencer Churchill's much longer life of Marlborough, it seemed to me that Mr. Spencer relied heavily on Winston Churchill's prior work for facts, and sources. However, this may be unfair since both Mr. Spencer and Mr. Winston Churchill meticulously mined and primarily relied on the private material at Blenheim Castle, and as long as both of them are honest and through, it would be more surprising if their tales differed, rather than the reverse.
   
   Mr. Spencer does not feel as great a need as Mr. Winston Churchill did to defend the reputation of his famous forebear. These slights of earlier, also partisan, writers have in general stood neither the test of time, nor in particular, the exquisitely detailed, point-by-point, refutation contained in Mr. Winston Churchill's biography of the same man. If you have been a very active general, and John Churchill was very active. If you have repeatedly fought the best generals and best armies of your time, and, John Churchill fought them all except his friend and fellow genius Prince Eugene of Savoy. And nonetheless, your biographer can still say that you never fought a battle that you did not win, nor besieged a town that you did not take, then you are indeed a Great Captain and leader of men. The Duke of Marlborough was this and much more.
   
   Unfortunately we do not get to see the "much more" in this book. As the title indicates this is a retelling of the story of a great, complex and important battle. Blenheim was not just murder by the thousands. Like the Greatest Generation, John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough, accomplished something truly important with his victories, and particularly with this victory. Unlike Alexander who's empire immediately disintegrated upon his death, the political results achieved by John Churchill's military prowess survived his critics and, more important, his incompetent, if not quite treasonous successors. Marlborough's great services served England for generations, and ultimately provided the man, Winston Spencer Churchill, who would quite literally save England from her greatest, most powerful enemy -Adolph Hitler.
   
   To soundly defeat the greatest army of the age, led by a competent, respected general is always memorable. However, it should be remembered that the purpose of war is political change, not victory per se. Probably the greatest military victory ever, Hannibal's victory over the Roman Legions at Cannae is instructive. Cannae, although it was the classic battle of annihilation, had almost no effect other than to kill a lot of people. After the tragic loss, the Romans reacted like they always had: they prayed to their gods, created a new army, and appointed a new general who decisively and permanently defeated their impertinent opponent.
   
   Given the comprehensive excellence of this, his first book of history, I can only hope that Mr. Spenser will at some time delve more deeply, much more deeply, into the enigma that is John Churchill. Like George Washington, he is a man that defies routine, as well as exceptional examinations. John Churchill was so much more than a great general. He was in fact, if not in name, a wartime Prime Minister in a two-man cabinet. He was subject to fits of depression like Lincoln, and like Lincoln, depression, even the death of a son, never interfered with his duty. In an age where men married for money or property - he married for love, and they remained in love as long as they lived. Who was this man? I hope that Charles Spenser one-day answers this question as well as he has answered why Blenheim was, the Battle for Europe.



5. The value of Spencer's Battle for Europe is in making the personality of Marlborough and the story of Blenheim accessible to the non-professional military history enthusiast. That's especially important here in the U.S., where outside of academia little is known or appreciated about the era of Louis XIV and his wars.
   
   Like Lee, Marlborough reaches his peak in his fifties, old for a great general to do so. Like Scipio, his achievements stir petty jealousies and lead to intrigues that smear his reputation. Like Napoleon, he marches energetically and gives battle in textbook style: freezing the enemy's attention on fixed points, and just when the time is right, the decisive breakthrough.
   
   All these things Spencer relates clearly and concisely. He can be forgiven for not turning over any new ground in Marlborough scholarship.