Description
In this issue:
– Bosworth – What really happened? Battlefield archaeology has transformed our understanding of how King Richard III lost his throne. Military History Monthly assesses the evidence and attempts to reconstruct what actually happened. We discover a bizarre clash between cannon and heavily armoured knights – a battle symbolic of the transition from the medieval to the modern world.
– History of the British Army – Quebec, 1759. In this instalment of our series on the British Army, we examine James Wolfe’s victory at Quebec, the victory of an army forced to adapt fast to the demands of colonial warfare in the wilderness.
– The Defence of Malta – Park’s other triumph. Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park was the strategist behind the Battle of Britain. Military historian Dave Sloggett tells the story of the tactical master-mind’s central role in the aerial defence of an island under siege.
– All Hell Let Loose – Max Hastings on WWII. MHM talks to Max Hastings about the thinking behind his new book and his personal engagement with the subject of the Second World War.
– Prince Albert – Reforming the Victorian Army. Jules Stewart, author of a new biography of Prince Albert, argues that his role was crucial in creating a national force fit for purpose.
Plus: news, reviews, museums, opinion columns, and much more!
From the Editor:
This issue, Military Times becomes Military History Monthly. We are keeping our basic format of five strong features, and also all of our most popular regulars, but we are bringing in some new ones – campaign medal, war culture, and MHM briefing room. We hope you like the new look.
We lead this month with Richard III and the Battle of Bosworth. Very little is known from historical sources about what was surely one of the most decisive battles in British history.
My list of decisive British battles would be: the defeat of Caratacus in AD 43 and of Boudica in AD 61, Hastings (1066), Bosworth (1485), the defeat of the Spanish Armada (1588), Naseby (1645), Trafalgar (1805), and the Battle of Britain (1940).
Most of these battles either led to or prevented foreign conquest. The two exceptions are Bosworth and Naseby, both civil war battles that ushered in radical changes in the way Britain was governed. Bosworth, of course, put the Tudors in power, perhaps the most dynamic and innovatory royal dynasty since the Normans.
Yet we know less about the events of 22 August 1485 than about the Battle of Hastings 400 years earlier. In fact, we know no more about how Richard III lost his throne than we do about how Caratacus and Boudica lost theirs.
We should celebrate, therefore, the recent efforts of battlefield archaeologists. They have both relocated the site of the Battle of Bosworth and added weight to the current view that it was a modern battle fought with cannon and handguns as much as with longbows and bills – a battle that heralded the new era of Renaissance and Reformation which Britain was entering.
Cover Date: Dec-2011, Volume 2 Issue 3