Bloody Violent History

A matter of honour or an encounter between fools?

1. Billiard Ball. 2. The Renaissance. 3. Hopton on Duelling, section one. 4. History of the Due. 5. Hopton on Duelling, section two. 6. Decline of the Duel. ps. The Wild West

Whether acting on principal or an example of extreme folly, the duel captured the imagination of European society for at least three centuries. There was the duel involving billiard balls, an armed encounter between balloonists, and even a skirmish between two society ladies in Hyde Park in which one lost her hat to a lead round.

Many lost their lives during these encounters, often for the most trivial of perceived slights. In France alone, over a ten-year period during the seventeenth century, over 2,000 aristocrats and officers were killed in duels. The sport certainly took its toll. There were duels in London clubs and even the Palace of Westminster, and once the middle classes took up the sport it became almost a contagion. One drunken duelist even faced his opponent naked. Yet eventually the habit died out, a victim of its own ridiculous nature and growing alarm in the political establishment. America developed its own form with the arrival of gunfights in the Wild West. These too were to eventually fade into history and legend.

So it goes

Tom Assheton and James Jackson

Readings by David Hartley from Richard Hopton's book Pistols at Dawn published by Piatkus 2007

(Richard Hopton's latest book, The Straits of Treachery, is published by Allison & Busby)

See also:

YouTube: BloodyViolentHistory

https://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/

https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.com

https://www.tomtom.co.uk

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1. Intro 2. Famous gladiators 3. Allure of the gladiator 4. Types 5. Training 6. Gladiatorial spectacular p.s. Mandingo

Gladiators have intruded on the public consciousness for two millennia. Fuelled by books and movies. Yet the truth behind them all is often more vivid and brutal than fiction could ever convey. Training was hard, specialised skills were prized, and the spectacle was all. Bread and circuses. There were horsemen and charioteers, mock naval battles, and dramatic re-enactments of famous Roman victories. Blood was usually demanded. Around the Roman empire, amphitheatres were constructed to take this popular entertainment to the masses and to imprint Roman culture and values, and to carry Roman influence across the world.

Some gladiators became famous, some the lovers of society women, some led revolts or were used as bodyguards by emperors and generals under threat. With the Colosseum still standing and the remains of the gladiator school nearby, this era of history evokes powerful emotions and imaginings. It continues to fascinate to this day.

Stansted Park - Battle of Waterloo event: Stansted Park Summer Jamboree

Also check out our: BVH E2 Cavalry Charge

So it goes,

Tom Assheton & James Jackson

See also:

YouTube: BloodyViolentHistory

https://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/

https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.com

https://www.tomtom.co.uk

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the word

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Jamie goes solo while we are on our end of series break.  Despite a resistance to using any new technology (in this case Tom's tape recorder and a set of gaming headphones), Jamie valiantly lays down a track on Submarines.  These 'Bloody Bites' are short podcast episodes which will hopefully answer a few questions thrown up in our general podcast discussions. A kind of  BVH glossary.

Let us know if you would like to hear Jamie's take on a particular topic.  [email protected]

So It Goes

Tom Assheton & James Jackson

See also:

YouTube: BloodyViolentHistory

https://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/

https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.com

https://www.tomtom.co.uk

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the word

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Chapters cont... 4. Dysentery 5. Typhoid & Cholera 6. Yellow Fever, Typhus and Malaria 7. Small Pox 8. Aids to Covid ps Biological Warfare

The second and concluding part to our dive into the story of Contagion.

Mankind has defeated all comers in the struggles we have had with the animal kingdom – no sabre-tooth tiger, crocodile or shark has been able to stall the Ascent of man ... except perhaps our microscopic competitors; pathogens in the form of a virus, bacteria or God forbid, fungus. Throughout our history these miniscule machines of death have destroyed huge numbers of people across the planet. And we, humans, seem to positively encourage their many successes with our move to urbanisation, our migrations, our wars. Pestilence and plague seem to follow our every geopolitical convulsion. These crafty pathogens find any convenient vector to invade our fragile bodies – they are in the water we drink, the food we eat, the air we breath.

From the distant past to the present day ‘Plagues’ have been sawing at the trunk of human progress: in this episode we take a tour through their greatest hits. Pity the poor Pangolin.

so it goes,

Tom Assheton and James Jackson

See also:

YouTube: BloodyViolentHistory

https://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/

https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.com

https://www.tomtom.co.uk

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the word

See https://simplecast.com/privacy/ for privacy information

1. Fight or Flight 2. Deliverance 3. Embarrassing Retreats 4. Arduous 5. Catastrophic 6. ps Trafalgar

Today we are going to discuss the contentious issue of going backwards in war. And no, we are not just talking about certain nations driving their tanks with 10 reverse gears. We are talking about retreat, generally seen as a bad thing and withdrawal, sometimes seen as not such a bad thing. As Demosthenes put it ‘Sometimes you need to live to fight another day’. And we’ve seen leaders turn disaster into triumph – Rourke’s Drift, the evacuation at Dunkirk comes to mind. The US General Smith coined perhaps the best phrase for it when describing his military reverse ferret, at the Chosin Reservoir retreat by UN forces in the early stages of the Korean War in 1950. General McArthur ordered him to retreat and his reply, ‘Retreat, hell we’re not retreating we’re just advancing in the wrong direction’. It’s a known feature in war that the time of highest danger for men in battle is if they run, and the retreat turns into a rout. Many of the great massacres in battle begin with a disordered group of soldiers running from the battlefield, as happened in 1416 at the battle of Towton the greatest slaughter of men on English soil.

Today we’ll look at four categories of retreat, Deliverance, the Embarrassing retreat, the Arduous and the Catastrophic. We should remember Churchill’s line in his great Dunkirk speech, ‘Wars are not won by evacuations’. However, a successful withdrawal can allow those men to live, to fight another day. Jamie and Tom discuss.

So It Goes

Tom Assheton & James Jackson

See also:

YouTube: BloodyViolentHistory

https://www.instagram.com/bloodyviolenthistory/

https://www.jamesjacksonbooks.com

https://www.tomtom.co.uk

If you enjoy the podcast, would you please leave a short review on Apple Podcasts/iTunes, Spotify or Google Podcast App? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really helps to spread the word

See https://simplecast.com/privacy/ for privacy information