The Battle of Valmy
02/13/25 • 47 min
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Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most consequential battles of recent centuries. On 20th September 1792 at Valmy, 120 miles to the east of Paris, the army of the French Revolution faced Prussians, Austrians and French royalists heading for Paris to free Louis XVI and restore his power and end the Revolution. The professional soldiers in the French army were joined by citizens singing the Marseillaise and their refusal to give ground prompted their opponents to retreat when they might have stayed and won. The French success was transformative. The next day, back in Paris, the National Convention abolished the monarchy and declared the new Republic. Goethe, who was at Valmy, was to write that from that day forth began a new era in the history of the world.
With
Michael Rowe Reader in European History at King’s College London
Heidi Mehrkens Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Aberdeen
And
Colin Jones Professor Emeritus of History at Queen Mary, University of London
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list
T. C. W. Blanning, The French Revolutionary Wars, 1787-1802 (Hodder Education, 1996)
Elizabeth Cross, ‘The Myth of the Foreign Enemy? The Brunswick Manifesto and the Radicalization of the French Revolution’ (French History 25/2, 2011)
Charles J. Esdaile, The Wars of the French Revolution, 1792-1801 (Routledge, 2018)
John A. Lynn, ‘Valmy’ (MHQ: Quarterly Journal of Military History, Fall 1992)
Munro Price, The Fall of the French Monarchy: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the baron de Breteuil (Macmillan, 2002)
Simon Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (Penguin Books, 1989)
Samuel F. Scott, From Yorktown to Valmy: The Transformation of the French Army in an Age of Revolution (University Press of Colorado, 1998)
Marie-Cécile Thoral, From Valmy to Waterloo: France at War, 1792–1815 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most consequential battles of recent centuries. On 20th September 1792 at Valmy, 120 miles to the east of Paris, the army of the French Revolution faced Prussians, Austrians and French royalists heading for Paris to free Louis XVI and restore his power and end the Revolution. The professional soldiers in the French army were joined by citizens singing the Marseillaise and their refusal to give ground prompted their opponents to retreat when they might have stayed and won. The French success was transformative. The next day, back in Paris, the National Convention abolished the monarchy and declared the new Republic. Goethe, who was at Valmy, was to write that from that day forth began a new era in the history of the world.
With
Michael Rowe Reader in European History at King’s College London
Heidi Mehrkens Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Aberdeen
And
Colin Jones Professor Emeritus of History at Queen Mary, University of London
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list
T. C. W. Blanning, The French Revolutionary Wars, 1787-1802 (Hodder Education, 1996)
Elizabeth Cross, ‘The Myth of the Foreign Enemy? The Brunswick Manifesto and the Radicalization of the French Revolution’ (French History 25/2, 2011)
Charles J. Esdaile, The Wars of the French Revolution, 1792-1801 (Routledge, 2018)
John A. Lynn, ‘Valmy’ (MHQ: Quarterly Journal of Military History, Fall 1992)
Munro Price, The Fall of the French Monarchy: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the baron de Breteuil (Macmillan, 2002)
Simon Schama, Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution (Penguin Books, 1989)
Samuel F. Scott, From Yorktown to Valmy: The Transformation of the French Army in an Age of Revolution (University Press of Colorado, 1998)
Marie-Cécile Thoral, From Valmy to Waterloo: France at War, 1792–1815 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011)
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production
Previous Episode
Plutarch's Parallel Lives
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek biographer Plutarch (c46 AD-c120 AD) and especially his work 'Parallel Lives' which has shaped the way successive generations see the Classical world. Plutarch was clear that he was writing lives, not histories, and he wrote these very focussed accounts in pairs to contrast and compare the characters of famous Greeks and Romans, side by side, along with their virtues and vices. This focus on the inner lives of great men was to fascinate Shakespeare, who drew on Plutarch considerably when writing his Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Timon of Athens and Antony and Cleopatra. While few followed his approach of setting lives in pairs, Plutarch's work was to influence countless biographers especially from the Enlightenment onwards.
With
Judith Mossman Professor Emerita of Classics at Coventry University
Andrew Erskine Professor of Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh
And
Paul Cartledge AG Leventis Senior Research Fellow of Clare College, University of Cambridge
Producer: Simon Tillotson
Reading list:
Mark Beck (ed.), A Companion to Plutarch (Wiley-Blackwell, 2014)
Colin Burrow, Shakespeare and Classical Antiquity (Oxford University Press, 2013), especially chapter 6
Raphaëla Dubreuil, Theater and Politics in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives (Brill, 2023)
Tim Duff, Plutarch’s Lives: Exploring Virtue and Vice (Oxford University Press, 1999)
Noreen Humble (ed.), Plutarch’s Lives: Parallelism and Purpose (Classical Press of Wales, 2010)
Robert Lamberton, Plutarch (Yale University Press, 2002)
Hugh Liebert, Plutarch's Politics: Between City and Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2016)
Christopher Pelling, Plutarch and History (Classical Press of Wales, 2002)
Plutarch (trans. Robin Waterfield), Greek Lives (Oxford University Press, 2008)
Plutarch (trans. Robin Waterfield), Roman Lives (Oxford University Press, 2008)
Plutarch (trans. Robin Waterfield), Hellenistic Lives (Oxford University Press, 2016)
Plutarch (trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert), The Rise and Fall of Athens: Nine Greek Lives (Penguin, 2023)
Plutarch (trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert), The Age of Alexander: Nine Greek Lives (Penguin, 2011)
Plutarch (trans. Richard Talbert), On Sparta (Penguin, 2005)
Plutarch (trans. Christopher Pelling), The Rise of Rome (Penguin, 2013)
Plutarch (trans. Christopher Pelling), Rome in Crisis: Nine Lives (Penguin, 2010)
Plutarch (trans. Rex Warner), The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives (Penguin, 2006)
Plutarch (trans. Thomas North, ed. Judith Mossman), The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (Wordsworth, 1998)
Geert Roskam, Plutarch (Cambridge University Press, 2021)
D. A. Russell, Plutarch (2nd ed., Bristol Classical Press, 2001)
Philip A. Stadter, Plutarch and his Roman Readers (Oxford University Press, 2014)
Frances B. Titchener and Alexei V. Zadorojnyi (eds.), The Cambridge Companion to Plutarch (Cambridge University Press, 2023)
In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production
Next Episode
Catherine of Aragon
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536), the youngest child of the newly dominant Spanish rulers Ferdinand and Isabella. When she was 3, her parents contracted her to marry Arthur, Prince of Wales, the heir to the Tudor king Henry VII in order to strengthen Spain's alliances, since Henry's kingdom was a longstanding trade partner and an enemy of Spain's greatest enemy, France. For the next decade Catherine had the best humanist education available, preparing her for her expected life as queen and drawing inspiration from her warrior mother. She arrived in London to be married when she was 15 but within a few months she was widowed, her situation uncertain and left relatively impoverished for someone of her status. Rather than return home, Catherine stayed and married her late husband's brother, Henry VIII. In her view and that of many around her, she was an exemplary queen and, even after Henry VIII had arranged the annulment of their marriage for the chance of a male heir with Anne Boleyn, Catherine continued to consider herself his only queen.
With
Lucy Wooding Langford Fellow and Tutor in History at Lincoln College, University of Oxford and Professor of Early Modern History at Oxford
Maria Hayward Professor of Early Modern History at the University of Southampton
And
Gonzalo Velasco Berenguer Lecturer in Global Medieval and Early Modern History at the University of Bristol
Producer: Simon Tillotson In Our Time is a BBC Studios Audio Production
Reading list:
Michelle Beer, Queenship at the Renaissance Courts of Britain: Catherine of Aragon and Margaret Tudor, 1503-1533 (Royal Historical Society, 2018)
G. R. Bernard, The King's Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church (Yale University Press, 2007)
José Luis Colomer and Amalia Descalzo (eds.), Spanish Fashion at the Courts of Early Modern Europe (Centro de Estudios Europa Hispanica, 2014), especially vol 2, 'Spanish Princess or Queen of England? The Image, Identity and Influence of Catherine of Aragon at the Courts of Henry VII and Henry VIII' by Maria Hayward
Theresa Earenfight, Catherine of Aragon: Infanta of Spain, Queen of England (Penn State University Press, 2022)
John Edwards, Ferdinand and Isabella: Profiles In Power (Routledge, 2004)
Garrett Mattingley, Catherine of Aragon (first published 1941; Random House, 2000)
J. J. Scarisbrick, Henry VIII (first published 1968; Yale University Press, 1997)
David Starkey, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII (Vintage, 2004)
Giles Tremlett, Catherine of Aragon: Henry's Spanish Queen (Faber & Faber, 2011)
Juan Luis Vives (trans. Charles Fantazzi), The Education of a Christian Woman: A Sixteenth-Century Manual (University of Chicago Press, 2000)
Patrick Williams, Catherine of Aragon: The Tragic Story of Henry VIII's First Unfortunate Wife (Amberley Publishing, 2013)
Lucy Wooding, Henry VIII (Routledge, 2009)
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