The Napoleonic Wars Podcast

How did the British manage to help an entire Spanish army escape from Central Europe so that they could be shipped home to fight in the Peninsular War? John Marsden joins us to explore the story of 'Napoleon's stolen army', and how these Spanish troops and British intrigue managed to pull off one of the most audacious and little known operations of the Napoleonic Wars. Support the show at patreon....

What did the Founding Fathers really want the government to look like? Peter Kastor's new digital history project - "Creating a Federal Government" - looks beyond the elected politicians at the top to provide some answers to this and other questions . He joins Josh and Luke to talk all about it. Check out the project ⁠here⁠ .

Rory Butcher, Liam Telfer, William Fletcher, Beatrice de Graaf and Karen Robson join Luke, Zack and Josh for a series of Vox pops live from the Wellington Congress, organised by the University of Southampton's Special Collections Department. Special Collections (Wellington Papers): https://www.southampton.ac.uk/archives/index.page Rory Butcher: https://x.com/RMB_History William Fletcher: https...

Professor Kevin Linch joins us again for our second part of episode covering all things British Officer. Professor Linch is a Professor of Modern History at the University of Leeds. He specialises in the history of Britain in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, focusing on the history of Britain's armed forces and their relationship to wider political, social, and cultural trends. H...

Happy Birthday to the Napoleonic Wars Podcast! We see in the fifth year of the show with a special State of the Union episode, in which we get heated about the extent to which the British firebombing Copenhagen was justifiable, Zack and Luke go off on one about the 1857 India Mutiny (yeah, I know, Liam was exasperated too), and The Beau asks supposedly important questions about medals and cloak ch...

In the next instalment of the Birth of America series, Sara Georgini joins us to discuss one of America's most contested and most consequential elections. Check out her Sara's book here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/household-gods-9780197647219

The Peninsular War is one of our most consistently demanded topics on this podcast. Following recent requests to make access the series easier, we're compiling the 1808 related interviews into one epic 8 hour saga of an omnibus episode. Time stamps below. Topics include: where the Peninsular War came from, if Napoleon should have gone to war or could have avoided it, what happened at the Battles o...

Nigel Worden joins us to discuss a huge yet unique slave rebellion that broke out in Napoleonic era South Africa... Read about Nigel's research here: https://humanities.uct.ac.za/department-historical-studies/people-emeritus-staff/emeritus-professor-nigel-worden Check out his book here: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-Making-of-Modern-South-Africa-by-Nigel-Worden/9780470656334

The farm of Gemioncourt of the Quatre Bras battlefield is under threat. In this special bulletin, Zack White unveils a new initiative 'Heritage 1815', which is fighting to safeguard the site, stop any prospect of bulldozers going near it, and look to find a way that Gemioncourt can become a place of learning for people to better understand the Battle of Quatre Bras, its significance in the Waterlo...

Did Britain suffer its worst defeat of the Napoleonic Wars at Bergen Op Zoom in 1814? If so, why? And how could this happen when the British Army was supposedly at the height of its powers in 1814? Andrew Bamford joins us for the concluding episode of his two part series looking at the British campaign in the Low Countries in 1813 and 1814. We discuss the bombardment of Antwerp, why it was doomed...

David Head returns to discuss a group of American rogues and their huge designs for a spinoff of the Spanish American Wars of Independence... in Florida. Read about David Head's research here: https://www.davidheadhistory.com/about

Peter Kastor returns to talk about Washington's domestic administration, foreign policy and his legacy. Creating a Federal Government project:https://creatingafederalgovernment.wustl.edu/ Peter Kastor's profile: https://history.wustl.edu/people/peter-kastor

In 1795, the biggest slave rebellion in British history erupted on the island of Grenada. Led by Julien Fédon, it threatened to turn the Caribbean upside down... Read about Kit Candlin's research here: https://www.newcastle.edu.au/profile/kit-candlin

David Hopkin of Oxford University joins us to discuss the women - real and symbolic - who fought in the Grande Armée in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Who were they? How many of them were there? And how did pull it off? Check out the Folklore Society here: https://folklore-society.com/ Read about David's research here: https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/people/david-hopkin

Matthew Taylor joins us for the second part of a long-anticipated and fascinating interview on the subject of his first book: The Corps of Colonial Marines, aka 'The Black Redcoats'. Matt's book: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Black-Redcoats-Hardback/p/49346 Check out our socials, join our mailing list or browse our shop at: https://linktr.ee/napwarspod

Pirates, privateers, smugglers - whatever you call them they are fascinating! David Head joins us to talk about the early United States, the Spanish American Wars of Independence and a group of maritime brigands who took matters into their own hands... Read about David Head's research here: https://www.davidheadhistory.com/

Kevin Linch joins us for the fourth part of a long-anticipated and fascinating series on all things British Army. Check out Kevin's book, the inspiration for this series here: Pen and Sword Books: The British Army, 1783–1815 - Hardback Kevin's other work includes: Britain and Wellington's Army: Recruitment, Society and Tradition, 1807-15 | SpringerLink Check out our socials, join our mailing list...

In the second instalment of the Birth of America series we welcome Peter Kastor to discuss the presidency of the most famous Founding Father... Creating a Federal Government project: https://creatingafederalgovernment.wustl.edu/ Peter Kastor's profile: https://history.wustl.edu/people/peter-kastor

Religious discrimination is a problem as old as religion itself. For those living in Britain in the early 19th Century a long shadow of religious turmoil lay thick over society. Memories of papist plots, civil wars and the religious roller coaster of succesive Tudor monarchies may have been more than a century in the past but they had dominated the conversaion leading to stigmatisation and the exc...

Brendan Tam joins us to talk about friendship in politics, why party political alliances are much murkier than we tend to think, and how patronage could become an instrument of blackmail in the 18th century. Support our work at https://www.patreon.com/c/thenapoleonicwarspod

Andrew Dorman and Zack have a 'ding dong' about whether civilian courts were more or less lenient than military ones, and why the Irish Military Establishment really wasn't as rubbish as people claim. We also discuss wardrobe malfunctions and Zack whines about the cold for the umpteen-thousandth time. Support our work at https://www.patreon.com/c/thenapoleonicwarspod

Seth Le Jacq joins us to discuss his research in how the Royal Navy prosecuted homosexuality during the 18th century, in an interview that set fire to the question list and was run entirely off the cuff, in possibly the most lively and wide-ranging episode we've ever done. Find out more about Seth's work: https://www.sethlejacq.com Support us at https://www.patreon.com/c/thenapoleonicwarspod

Dr Clementine Garcenot, Severine Angers and Ella Harford take time out of the British Society for Eighteenth Century Studies Conference to talk about their research into women in the French Revolution, mourning in the Napoleonic Wars, and women's sexual deviancy in the 18th century.

Why do the Hessians get all the blame for pretty much every war crime committed during the American War of Independence?  Professor Friedericke Baer joins us to talk about her book on the Hessians, who they were, where they came from, and why the often-repeated claims about them simply don't stack up with the reality. Buy Friedericke's book at:  https://global.oup.com/academic/product/hess...

Amy Wilson joins us for a vox-pop on her work looking at women and maternity in the 18th Century, with a particular focus on why Queen Charlotte was never painted as being pregnant, despite spending a total of 16 years of her life pregnant. Find out more about Amy's work at https://amywilsonstorey.com