England, Scotland, Holland, Germany and the House of Orange get the last laugh ...
This post is a piece of musical and historical whimsy and is not meant to make any great political point.
1) Steinkirk.
My Sunday music spot posted earlier today, and selected purely because it is a great piece of music, was Marc-Antoine Charpentier's "Te Deum" in D Major, which was written to celebrate the French victory at the battle of Steinkirk (also spelt several other ways including Steenkerque.)
This was a victory in 1692 by the forces of King Louis XIV of France against an allied army comprising units from England, Scotland (this was before the Act of Union,) the Netherlands and Germany. The Prince of Orange was the allied commander - he was also, of course, King William III of England and II of Scotland.
William launched an surprise attack against a strongly-held French position which he correctly judged that the French army would not be expecting - it was the sort of attack which historians tend to call brilliant if it comes off and folly if it doesn't.
This one didn't.
When that became apparent William ordered a general retreat and the Allied forces retired in good order after both sides had lost a lot of good men. It was regarded by veterans of that conflict, the nine years war, as the hardest-fought battle of the war.
The battle gave its name to an article of dress. A "steinkirk" was a lace cravat loosely or negligently worn, with long lace ends. According to Voltaire it was in fashion after the battle at which French gentlemen had to fight with disarranged cravats on account of the surprise sprung by the Allies not giving them time to dress properly.
However, the composition of the armies which fought in the battle may remind you of a subsequent and far more important battle fought by pretty much the same nations 123 years later which has been in the news this weekend for musical reasons and had a rather different outcome.
2) Waterloo
In 1815 a French ruler with even more grandiose and dangerous ambitions than the Sun King - he spoke of wanting to be Master of the World - was also confronted by allied armies from Britain (with regiments recruited in both England and Scotland plus the rest of these islands,) Holland, Belgium, and Germany (to be precise, the historical states of Hannover, Brunswick, and Nassau in Wellington's multinational army and Prussia under Blucher.)
The Prince of Orange was one of the Allied commanders in his capacity as a general in the British army. (See footnote below)
Like Steinkirk this was a very hard fought battle, it was also, in the words of the victorious commander, a "damned close run thing." But the fact that it could easily have gone either way does not mean that the result was not decisive.
This battle was, of course, the battle of Waterloo, which so comprehensively terminated Napoleon's dreams of conquest that the expression, "meeting one's Waterloo") has entered the language as a term for a complete and irrevocable defeat.
It was in the sense of a comprehensive surrender that the term "Waterloo" was used as the title of Abba's song by that name which won the Eurovision song contest back in 1974 and was voted the best Eurovision song contest winner of all time yesterday.
The opening of the song,
"My my,
At Waterloo Napoleon did surrender"
is not strictly historically accurate, as he escaped the battle but surrendered to a Royal Navy ship of the line a few days later. However, in terms of the impact of the battle on his prospects, it might as well be.
"Waterloo" is one of the few Eurovision song contest winners which has stood the test of time to be remembered for many years afterwards, and although I have not agreed with too many of the Eurovision song contest votes in recent years I think this one was entirely justified.
Footnote: the Prince of Orange at Waterloo.
The quality of leadership shown by the Prince of Orange at Waterloo remains controversial to this day. It seems unlikely that he was either quite as much of a dangerous idiot as he has been depicted in works of fiction like "Sharpe's Waterloo" and some partisan historical analysis, or as good a general as was usually suggested at the time.
There does not seem to be any reason to doubt that the prince displayed considerable personal courage and energy, or to question that the musket ball which took him in the shoulder really was fired by the French and not by anyone on his own side. Nor is there any doubt that he was popular with his own countrymen and, at least up until Waterloo, with his comrades in the British army.
Unfortunately, neither is there much doubt that he really did make costly errors of judgement. The charge most often made against him, that some of those mistakes resulted in infantry under his command being caught by French cavalry when not in square formation, which was almost invulnerable to cavalry attack, but in line formation or while changing between the two, when they were much more vulnerable, does appear to have substance.
Those like myself who have been fortunate enough never to be within a thousand miles of a battlefield should be careful about judging those who have, or assuming that we have any idea how difficult making life-or-death decisions on a battlefield actually is. Perhaps the last word should be left to the Duke of Wellington himself, particularly as he was noted for speaking his mind and not sparing those of very high social status from criticism. The Iron Duke's opinion was that the Prince of Orange had made mistakes but that they were due to inexperience rather than any fundamental lack of ability and that he might eventually make a very fine commander. :
1) Steinkirk.
My Sunday music spot posted earlier today, and selected purely because it is a great piece of music, was Marc-Antoine Charpentier's "Te Deum" in D Major, which was written to celebrate the French victory at the battle of Steinkirk (also spelt several other ways including Steenkerque.)
This was a victory in 1692 by the forces of King Louis XIV of France against an allied army comprising units from England, Scotland (this was before the Act of Union,) the Netherlands and Germany. The Prince of Orange was the allied commander - he was also, of course, King William III of England and II of Scotland.
William launched an surprise attack against a strongly-held French position which he correctly judged that the French army would not be expecting - it was the sort of attack which historians tend to call brilliant if it comes off and folly if it doesn't.
This one didn't.
When that became apparent William ordered a general retreat and the Allied forces retired in good order after both sides had lost a lot of good men. It was regarded by veterans of that conflict, the nine years war, as the hardest-fought battle of the war.
The battle gave its name to an article of dress. A "steinkirk" was a lace cravat loosely or negligently worn, with long lace ends. According to Voltaire it was in fashion after the battle at which French gentlemen had to fight with disarranged cravats on account of the surprise sprung by the Allies not giving them time to dress properly.
However, the composition of the armies which fought in the battle may remind you of a subsequent and far more important battle fought by pretty much the same nations 123 years later which has been in the news this weekend for musical reasons and had a rather different outcome.
2) Waterloo
In 1815 a French ruler with even more grandiose and dangerous ambitions than the Sun King - he spoke of wanting to be Master of the World - was also confronted by allied armies from Britain (with regiments recruited in both England and Scotland plus the rest of these islands,) Holland, Belgium, and Germany (to be precise, the historical states of Hannover, Brunswick, and Nassau in Wellington's multinational army and Prussia under Blucher.)
The Prince of Orange was one of the Allied commanders in his capacity as a general in the British army. (See footnote below)
Like Steinkirk this was a very hard fought battle, it was also, in the words of the victorious commander, a "damned close run thing." But the fact that it could easily have gone either way does not mean that the result was not decisive.
This battle was, of course, the battle of Waterloo, which so comprehensively terminated Napoleon's dreams of conquest that the expression, "meeting one's Waterloo") has entered the language as a term for a complete and irrevocable defeat.
It was in the sense of a comprehensive surrender that the term "Waterloo" was used as the title of Abba's song by that name which won the Eurovision song contest back in 1974 and was voted the best Eurovision song contest winner of all time yesterday.
The opening of the song,
"My my,
At Waterloo Napoleon did surrender"
is not strictly historically accurate, as he escaped the battle but surrendered to a Royal Navy ship of the line a few days later. However, in terms of the impact of the battle on his prospects, it might as well be.
"Waterloo" is one of the few Eurovision song contest winners which has stood the test of time to be remembered for many years afterwards, and although I have not agreed with too many of the Eurovision song contest votes in recent years I think this one was entirely justified.
Footnote: the Prince of Orange at Waterloo.
The quality of leadership shown by the Prince of Orange at Waterloo remains controversial to this day. It seems unlikely that he was either quite as much of a dangerous idiot as he has been depicted in works of fiction like "Sharpe's Waterloo" and some partisan historical analysis, or as good a general as was usually suggested at the time.
There does not seem to be any reason to doubt that the prince displayed considerable personal courage and energy, or to question that the musket ball which took him in the shoulder really was fired by the French and not by anyone on his own side. Nor is there any doubt that he was popular with his own countrymen and, at least up until Waterloo, with his comrades in the British army.
Unfortunately, neither is there much doubt that he really did make costly errors of judgement. The charge most often made against him, that some of those mistakes resulted in infantry under his command being caught by French cavalry when not in square formation, which was almost invulnerable to cavalry attack, but in line formation or while changing between the two, when they were much more vulnerable, does appear to have substance.
Those like myself who have been fortunate enough never to be within a thousand miles of a battlefield should be careful about judging those who have, or assuming that we have any idea how difficult making life-or-death decisions on a battlefield actually is. Perhaps the last word should be left to the Duke of Wellington himself, particularly as he was noted for speaking his mind and not sparing those of very high social status from criticism. The Iron Duke's opinion was that the Prince of Orange had made mistakes but that they were due to inexperience rather than any fundamental lack of ability and that he might eventually make a very fine commander. :
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