A revolution in decline

By the last year of the 18th century, the French Revolution had drifted a long way from the heady days of 1789. Though the King was dead and France’s external enemies mostly defeated, it had largely devolved into an orgy of violence, known afterwards as the Great Terror.

Between 1793 and 1794, Robespierre’s France guillotined and summarily executed thousands of potential political opponents before the orchestrator himself lost his head in July 1794.

The fall of Robespierre ushered in a new, more conservative form of government known as the Directory. The Directory purged the former leader’s radical supporters – the ‘Jacobins’ – and resorted to extreme repression to keep the country under Parisian control.

The Directory

Historians have not been kind to the Directory, calling it unrepresentative and repressive.

The Directory was made up of five directors. The voting system at the time denied almost all Frenchmen any real say in who these Directors were. The regime was not a popular one.

It clung onto power over the last years of the 1790s. But when the brilliant young General Napoleon Bonaparte returned to France in October 1799, many saw him as a potential saviour.

Napoleon may only have been thirty at the time of the coup but he was already a famous soldier and regarded by many as the greatest son of the revolution. The chaos generated by the revolution had granted this gifted young man opportunities that would have been denied to him under the old regime.

Run on the Tuileries on 10. Aug. 1792 during the French Revolution, as painted by Jean Duplessis-Bertaux in 1793. Image Credit: CC

Military career

Napoleon began his military career as an artillery officer. He played an integral role in defeating a British Royalist force at the battle of Toulon in 1793.

Promotions quickly followed. Despite having been imprisoned for his connections to Robespierre, and his descent from a very minor noble family on the remote Italian-speaking island of Corsica, Napoleon was given command of a ragtag army in Nice in 1796.

Over the next year, he lead this army on a stunning campaign, defeating the Italians and the Austrians and forcing both to sign humiliating peace treaties. His next step was to take his armies to Egypt in a roundabout attempt to menace the growing British Empire in India.

The glamour of this campaign, though it was less successful than the first, enhanced the growing fame of the young soldier.

In the Autumn of 1799 he sensed an opportunity and returned to France (leaving his loyal and devoted troops behind to be defeated and captured by the British).

An offer he couldn’t refuse

This opportunity came at the hands of Director Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès. Though a member of the government, Sieyès was as bitterly disappointed with it as everyone else and had been planning a coup for some time.

But a coup needed popular support. Sieyès noted the adulation with which Napoleon was greeted when he returned home. He realised that this was the man to legitimise and defend his new regime.

Napoleon had other ideas. Far from being Sieyès’ puppet, he began planning to seize power for himself.

The uprising

A series of recent uprisings meant thousands of troops were conveniently stationed around Paris. The plan was to use these men to intimidate the upper and lower chambers of the government into resigning and permit a new more centralised regime to replace it.

The Storming of the Bastille, by Jean-Pierre Houël. Image Credit: Public Domain

Sensing that something was wrong, the Directors resigned and their system collapsed. But the upper and lower chambers remained defiant.

On 9 November, with Sieyès occupied in Paris, Napoleon took matters into his own hands. He marched proudly into the upper chamber – the Council of Ancients – surrounded by battle-scarred grenadiers.

The Ancients resisted, but a show of military muscle and an effective speech allowed Napoleon to escape unscathed. The lower chamber – the Council of the 500 – proved more difficult.

These men threatened Napoleon, many with daggers in their hands. According to some reports, Napoleon was paralysed with fear and came close to fainting.

Napoleon Crossing the Alps, currently located in the Charlottenburg Palace, painted by Jacques-Louis David in 1801. Image Credit: Public Domain

Fortunately for Napleon, his brother Lucien was President of the lower chamber. In the midst of the unrest, Lucien drew his sword and pointed it at his brother’s heart, roaring to the councillors that if his brother was a traitor he would kill him himself.

This ostentatious display gave control of the situation back to Napoleon, who then forced the 500 to sign a new constitution.

First Consul

Napoleon I as Emperor of France, c. 1805. Image Credit: Public Domain

With thousands of soldiers behind him, Napoleon intimidated Sieyès into changing the new constitution to give one man, “First Consul”, absolute power.

This man, of course, would be Napoleon. With this move, the French Revolution was over.

France had a new absolute ruler, and in 1804 he would dispense with the pretence of democracy by declaring himself Emperor.

This enormous toll, which came in the age of mechanised and mass mobilised warfare, is well known. What isn’t well known, however, is that more than 2,000 years before, in the era of the sword, shield and bow, the Republican Roman Army lost 2.5 times that many men in just a single day.

And, as if a death toll of 50,000 wasn’t shocking enough, it was suffered at the hands of a smaller and more lightly equipped Carthaginian army. This battle, which took place at Cannae, was the masterpiece of Hannibal Barca, and is undoubtedly one of the most spectacular military victories of all time.

The Punic Wars

Few tales from history can match the epic grandeur of Hannibal’s march into modern-day Italy during the Second Punic War. It was set against the backdrop of two powers that had grown too big to share the central Mediterranean and as a result came to clash with each other through the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC.

Carthage was a powerful maritime empire based around its capital of the same name which now lies in modern Tunisia. Predating Rome as a major power, by 264 BC (the year of its first clash with Rome), Carthage controlled much of North Africa, Spain and the western part of Sicily.

It was this last province that would cause Carthage to come into contact with Rome, the city-state that had now come to dominate much of Italy after defeating the Greek states of Magna Grecia (modern-day southern Italy).

How the western Mediterranean looked at the start of the First Punic War. Image Credit: CC

The first war between the two powers, known as the First Punic War, was fought over Sicily, and proved to be a see-sawing contest that took place on both land and at sea – the latter a theatre of war that the Carthaginians had previously dominated.

In the end, however, the bloody-minded and determined Romans were victorious, much to the disgust of the Carthaginian commander, Hamilcar Barca. Barca made his nine-year-old son, Hannibal, swear that as long as he lived, he would never be a friend of Rome.

Hamilcar’s revenge

After its defeat, the navy and finances of Carthage were in a sorry state. But Hamilcar wasn’t done. Taking his sons with him, he lead an invasion of the Iberian Peninsula in order to subdue the hardy tribes that resisted Carthaginian rule. After the death of his father, 26-year-old Hannibal took command in 221 and immediately made a name for himself.

His youth and energy made him popular with the multinational soldiers under his command, and a string of impressive victories helped subdue the Iberians and ensure that across the Balearic Sea the Romans were paying close attention to the revival of their old enemy.

The central government in Carthage had signed a peace treaty with Rome after their earlier defeat. But now the Roman government declared an alliance with the independent Spanish city of Saguntum, knowing that Hannibal was planning on attacking it.

The remains of the Roman forum at Saguntum. Seven years after Hannibal captured the city in 219 BC, it was taken by the Romans. Image Credit: CC

The young Carthaginian commander was popular enough at this stage to take politics into his own hands, and marched to besiege the city anyway, perhaps thinking of his promise to his father. The government back in Africa had little choice but to support the decision.

A brutal eight-month siege ensued before Saguntum’s eventual bloody fall. Rome demanded an explanation for Hannibal’s actions and by 218 BC the two empires were once again at war – but this time on a far greater scale. In the eyes of the Romans, they had already given Carthage one chance and this time it was all or nothing.

Hannibal’s march into Italy

Hannibal’s reponse to the declaration of war was simple. He would continue his march north through Spain, all the way to the Alps, and on into Rome’s heartland. He had a 40,000 infantry, 8,000 cavalry and 38 war elephants by the time he’d reached the foothills of the Alps – as well as boundless ambition.

But the crossing of the mountains in spring proved a disaster for Hannibal, costing him half of his men and almost all of his war elephants. Most generals would have given up at this stage, or at least limited their objectives.

Hannibal is depicted crossing the Alps on none other than an elephant. Image Credit: Public Domain

Hannibal, however, managed to win over the allegiances of many of the Alpine Gauls who had been troubling Rome with their raids for centuries. And he also had a plan to attract Rome’s reluctant southern and northern subjects to his cause.

By the time of his first major battle with Rome at Trebia in December, Hannibal’s army was back up to 40,000 infantry (though they were not well-armoured like their Roman foes). His army was still heavily outnumbered, but it did not seem to matter as the Romans were soundly defeated at Trebia and Lake Trasimene.

This latter victory took Hannibal deep into the fertile lands of Italy and put Rome into a state of blind panic. Had Hannibal struck at Rome then, history could have been very different, but he had no siege weapons and was still waiting for Rome’s allies to defect to even up the numbers.

Amid these circumstances, Quintus Fabius was appointed an emergency dictator in Rome. He pursued a policy of attrition, while refusing to meet the Carthaginians in a pitched battle. These tactics succeeded in frustrating Hannibal for a year, but by 216 BC the people of Rome were growing angry. They wanted victory and this invader to be removed at any cost.

The Romans go to Hannibal

To meet the demands of the people of Rome and take on Hannibal, a Roman army of unprecedented size had to be assembled. Some estimates put the size of this army as high as 90,000 men, though 50-70,000 is considered more likely.

Even so, an army of such a size was hugely impressive for a state still smaller than modern-day Italy in the ancient world. It dwarfed even the highest counts of Hannibal’s forces, which only numbered around 40-50,000.

The Romans’ enemy, meanwhile, was far to the south of Rome, attempting to court the former Greek city-states there, which had little fondness for their Roman conquerors. Hannibal had spent the winter and spring down in these balmy and fertile lands, and his own men had collected the harvest, meaning that they were well-fed and ready.

Eager to take the initiative, Hannibal seized the important supply post at Cannae in the spring, and waited for the Romans to come to him. They obliged.

The Romans were commanded by two consuls named Varro and Paullus, and the accounts of ancient historians tell of Varro winning a minor skirmish along the way to Cannae, which cultivated a dangerous sense of hubris in the days ahead.

Though modern historians believe that Varro’s fairly lowly origins made him something of a scapegoat for later writers, he still had every reason to be confident following the skirmish. Not only did he have more men, but they were also clad in heavy armour and fighting for their homelands against a ragged army of Gauls, Africans and Spaniards who were a very long way from home.

Hannibal’s invasion route. Image Credit: The Department of History, United States Military Academy / CC

Varro takes a risk

In ancient warfare the deployment of troops was crucial. The standard formation of the times was lines of lighter at the front and then heavier infantry in the centre, with the cavalry protecting the flanks. Varro, however, was wary of Hannibal’s genius and wanted to try something different.

He directed his men in the centre to stand much closer together than was normal, creating a dense fist of armoured men who would smash through the weaker Carthaginian line.

Hannibal, meanwhile, placed his Spaniards and Iberians in the centre and his veteran Africans on the flanks. This meant that, to the Romans, the task of breaking through the middle of the line and dividing the enemy army looked easy.

But Hannibal knew that the battle could be won via the Carthaginian cavalrymen – who he placed opposite their Roman counterparts – rather than in the unequal clash of infantry.

This part of the battlefield was also where the fighting began. As the Roman infantry marched forwards, Hannibal’s horsemen – commanded by his brother Hasdrubal – engaged their counterparts and put them to flight after a brief and vicious struggle.

Hannibal’s African soldiers win the day

By now, the slow-moving Roman infantry was already exposed, but the clouds of dust thrown up by so many thousands of men on a hot August day meant that they were oblivious to the danger. When they met the light Gallic and Spanish infantry in the centre, the Carthaginian general ordered his troops not to engage fully but to retreat steadily in the face of the closely-packed enemy.

The Romans, meanwhile, kept pressing further and further forwards, so enraged by the enemy refusing to stay put that they ignored the veteran Africans, who had remained in place and were now dangerously positioned on the Romans’ flanks.

How Hannibal’s men defeated the Roman army. Image Credit: The Department of History, United States Military Academy / CC

As Varro’s men advanced, the Africans began to press in on them until eventually they were so pressed together that they could barely swing their swords. Hannibal then gave his Africans the order to charge at the Roman flanks, completely encircling the Roman army and completing the pincer movement – one of the earliest examples of this tactic being used in military history.

Once Hannibal’s cavalrymen had hit the Roman rear to complete the chaos, the battle ended as a contest. The slaughter, however, continued.

Panicking, confused and hemmed in like cattle, thousands of Romans were massacred throughout the morning, with no means of escape with Carthaginians on all sides. Though some cut their way through to the nearest town, the vast majority of the massive army lay dead on the plain of Cannae, and Rome was in a state of numbed terror.

Rome lives to fight another day – just

Following the battle, Rome’s survival seemed genuinely threatened. Over a fifth of all Roman males over the age of 17 had died in a single day, while the old Greek cities, along with King Phillip of Macedon, joined Hannibal after the defeat.

This statue shows Hannibal counting the signet rings of Roman knights killed in the Battle of Cannae. Image Credit: Public Domain

And yet Rome survived. Perhaps its reaction to Cannae is the best demonstration of why Romans came to rule the known world. Refusing to give in, they stopped risking all against Hannibal in open battle, formed new armies and ground him down with a scorched earth policy until he was forced to return to Africa in the face of a Roman invasion.

The new hero of Rome, Scipio Africanus, formed the nucleus of his army with the survivors of Cannae, who had been humiliatingly exiled to Sicily after their defeat, but won redemption at the decisively fought battle of Zama in 202 BC.

As a result, the reasons for the Battle of Cannae’s enduring fame are not political ones, though it did form the climax of the romantic period of Hannibal’s doomed invasion of Italy. It did not topple Rome, nor – ultimately – save Carthage from destruction at the hands of the newer power less than a hundred years later.

However, it has been taught consistently in military academies ever since as the perfect way of destroying a superior force utterly using encirclement, and has fascinated all the great commanders of modern times, from Frederick the Great and Napoleon to Eisenhower, who said, “In modern war, every ground commander seeks to duplicate the classic example of Cannae”.

With 1093 invention patents to his name – almost twice as much as anyone else in American history – Edison (and his employees) did more than anyone else to create a range of products that are now central to modern life. Here are 5 of Edison’s most famous inventions.

1. The Light Bulb (1879)

Arguably Edison’s most famous invention, the incandescent light bulb was patented in 1879. Scientists had been racing to create artificial light for years, yet it was the Ohio-born inventor who cinched the win by creating an incandescent bulb with a carbon filament that could be practically reproduced on a mass scale.

Thomas Edison holding his electric light bulb. Image Credit: Public Domain

Image Credit: Public Domain

In his first public demonstration of the new light bulb, which took place at Edison’s Menlo Park, New Jersey laboratory on New Year’s Eve, 1879, Edison showed how the light bulb created light when electrical current passed through the metal filament wire, heating it to a high temperature until it glowed. More importantly, the hot filament was protected from the air by a glass bulb that was filled up with inert gas.

Edison was able to spend so much time on this invention because, thanks to his reputation as a successful inventor, he had the support of some leading financiers of the day. J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilt family established the Edison Light Company and advanced Edison $30,000 for research and development.

2. The Phonograph (1877)

On 21 November, 1877, Edison was officially credited with inventing the phonograph – a revolutionary device which could record and play back sounds. This invention was greeted with hysteria at the time, so utterly extraordinary was the idea that we could preserve the spoken word, and its legacy has transformed every aspect of our modern world.

Edison first thought about the phonograph whilst working on two other world-changing 19th century inventions – the telephone and the telegraph. The technology used for the two, he decided, could also be altered to record sound – something which had hitherto never even been considered as a possibility.

Patent drawing for Edison’s phonograph, May 18, 1880.

In 1877, he began to create a machine designed for this purpose with two needles, one for recording the sound, and one for playing it back. The first needle would indent the sound vibrations onto a cylinder covered with tin foil, while the other one would copy the exact indentations to produce the same sound again.

When he spoke the oddly chosen words “Mary had a little lamb” into the machine, he was awed and astonished to hear them played back to him. Or, perhaps, he was the first of millions of people to dislike the sound of his own voice on recording.

3. The Kinetograph / Motion Picture Camera (1891)

In the late 1880s, Edison supervised his lab’s development of a technology “that does for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear.” Seeking to provide a visual accompaniment to the phonograph, Edison commissioned William Kennedy-Laurie Dickson, one of his young laboratory assistants, to invent a motion-picture camera in 1888 (possibly because of his background as a photographer).

Dickson combined the two final essentials of motion-picture recording and viewing technology. A device, adapted from the escapement mechanism of a clock, to ensure the regular motion of the film strip through the camera and a regularly perforated celluloid film strip to ensure precise synchronization between the film strip and the shutter.

There has been some argument about how much Edison himself contributed to the invention of the motion picture camera. While Edison seems to have conceived the idea and initiated the experiments, Dickson apparently performed the bulk of the experimentation, leading most modern scholars to assign Dickson with the major credit for turning the concept into a practical reality. The Edison laboratory, though, worked as a collaborative organization.

Movies became a big industry and Edison’s camera and viewer were quickly replaced by innovations such as the Lumière Cinématographe, a combination camera, printer and projector that allowed audiences to watch a film together. But Edison adjusted and his company became a thriving early movie studio, churning out scores of silent films between the 1890s and 1918, when it shut down production.

4. The Alkaline Battery (1906)

As one of the leaders of the electricity revolution, Edison patented the Alkaline Battery on July 31, 1906. In the early twentieth century, the available lead acid rechargeable batteries were notoriously inneficient and the acid battery market was already tied up by other companies. Hence, Edison pursued using alkaline instead of acid.

He had his lab work on many types of materials (going through some 10,000 combinations), eventually settling on a nickel-iron combination.

Share of Edison’s Storage Battery Company, c. 1903. Image Credit: Public Domain

Edison obtained a US and European patent for his nickel–iron battery in 1901 and founded the Edison Storage Battery Company and by 1904 it had 450 people working there. The first rechargeable batteries they produced were for electric cars, but there were many defects with customers complaining about the product.

5. The Carbon Microphone (1878)

The first ever microphone that enabled voice telephony and amplification was the Carbon Microphone (then called the “carbon transmitter”), another one of Thomas Edison’s famous inventions.

He had begun work to improve the transmitters in 1876 by developing a microphone that used a button of carbon, changing the resistance with the pressure of sound waves. This would serve as a massive improvement on the existing microphones developed by Johann Philipp Reis and Alexander Graham Bell, which worked by generating an extremely weak electric current.

Edison’s work in this field was concurrent with Emile Berliner’s loose-contact carbon transmitter (who lost a later patent case against Edison over the carbon transmitters invention) and David Edward Hughes’ study and published paper on the physics of loose-contact carbon transmitters (work that Hughes did not bother to patent).

The carbon microphone is the direct prototype of today’s microphones and was critical in the development of telephony, broadcasting and the recording industries. Carbon microphones were widely used in telephones from 1890 until the 1980s.

An ancient gamble

Lotteries are by no means a modern invention. They have been used for centuries by governments looking to make some extra cash. It is even believed that a sort of lottery was used to raise funds to construct the Great Wall in Ancient China.

The first lottery in England

A very rich Lotterie generall, without any Blanckes, contayning a great number of good Prices

The first lottery in England was held during the reign of Elizabeth I, on 11 January, 1567. England’s power was growing and more funds were needed to build ships and harbour facilities. Rather than raise taxes, Elizabeth opted to raise the money through a lottery instead.

Tickets cost ten shillings, making it too rich for ordinary people to enter. There were 400,000 tickets on offer and the prizes were very enticing; top prize was £5,000! Although not all of it came in the form of “ready money,” two thousand pounds of the prize was paid in plate, tapestries and linen.

WHOSOEVER shall winne the greatest and most excellent price, shall receive the value of Five thousande Poundes sterling, that is to say, Three thousande Pounds in ready money, Seven hundreth Poundes in Plate gilte and white, and the rest in good Tapissarie meete for hangings and other covertures, and certaine sortes of good Linnen cloth.

Header Image Credit: British Library

Charles Martel’s legacy extends beyond his military triumphs. He is credited with stabilising and strengthening the Frankish realm, laying the groundwork for the Carolingian Renaissance that brought significant cultural and intellectual advancements in Europe during the early Middle Ages. His contributions to Frankish society and politics shaped the course of European history.

Born to rule

Martel was born in 686 in Frankia, one of the Christian kingdoms which would rise out of the ashes of the Roman Empire. Charles’ father, Pepin of Herstal, was Mayor of the palace, a title which had come to mean de facto leader of the Frankish state. Like in modern Britain, the monarch held little power, and the authority of kingship rested in the hands of the mayor.

Thus, Charles was born into the centre of power in one of the strongest kingdoms of Early Middle Age Europe. This strange political set-up had begun with an earlier King, Sigebert III, who had trusted Martel’s ancestor Grimoald with too much power, which the mayors had subsequently been disinclined to relinquish.

Pepin was the first mayor bold enough to declare himself Prince of Frankia, and despite question marks later raised over his legitimacy Charles was groomed as his heir.

However, when Pepin’s new wife Plectrude appeared on the scene, she convinced Pepin to make his grandson Theudohald heir instead, and upon his father’s death Charles was ignominiously imprisoned in Cologne in order to get him out of the way.

Charles Martel depicted in the French book ‘Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum’ by Guillaume Rouillé, published in 1553.

Image Credit: Aleksandr Gertsen, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Quelling internal dissent

Despite being unified under Pepin Frankia had been divided into two parts; the north-eastern kingdom of Austrasia and the more southerly land of Neustria. Cologne was in Austrasia, whose nobles were highly sympathetic to Charles’ cause, and after sensationally escaping from prison he met with them and was proclaimed mayor of Austrasia.

In Neustria, however, a rival called Ragenfrid had himself declared mayor by his tame King Chilperic II – and marched to meet Charles in Austrasia. Charles allowed Ragenfrid’s army to besiege and take Cologne, before feigning a retreat and smashing their complacent forces at the battle of Amblève when they were least expecting it.

Charles had trained his Austrasians himself and their discipline, combined with the tactic of the feigned retreat and ambush, was revolutionary in Europe at this time – and would be repeated with great success by William the Conqueror at Hastings. Charles never lost a battle in his entire military career after this brilliant start.

Over 717 and 718 Charles marched against Neustria and eventually regained his position as the mayor of Frankia. Afterwards he finally turned on Plectrude and Theudohald and captured them. Unusually for the times, he was merciful to the pair, who were allowed to live out the rest of their lives in comfort.

His greatest struggle

With his kingdom secured, Charles turned his genius to foreign affairs. Firstly he secured his borders in modern-day Holland, before repelling Saxon invasions and conquering what is now southern Germany.

Martel’s power was now so secure that he appointed Frankish Kings by decree, and by the end of his reign he had decided that no King was actually needed – and the appointments ceased. However, Martel’s greatest struggle was yet to begin.

In Europe Frankia’s power was expanding but compared to the advance of Islam in the last century it was risible. Since the death of Muhammed in 632 this new religion had reached India and Europe, and by the 720s was a direct challenge to Martel and his aspirations for his new kingdom.

Map of the Umayyad Caliphate in 750 AD.

Image Credit: Sheperd, William R.; Historical Atlas; New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1911. 53., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Halting a seemingly-unstoppable advance

To the south of Frankia was the semi-independent duchy of Aquitaine, invaded by an Islamic army in 732 led by Abd al-Rahman al-Gafiqi. Duke Eudes fled to request help from Martel, who gathered and trained an army. At Tours, Martel won a decisive victory, halting the Muslim army’s advance and killing Al-Rahman.

Martel’s campaigns continued, facing more invasions, including a fleet commanded by Al-Rahman’s son in 736. Martel defeated the invaders and reconquered cities from Islamic rule, using a winning combination of heavy cavalry and veteran infantry. Charles ruled as “dux” or Lord of War after King Theuderic IV’s death in 737, finishing off the Muslim armies until his own death.

Charles Martel in the Battle of Tours. Painting by Charles de Steuben, 1837.

Image Credit: Charles de Steuben, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A peaceful end

In the last years of his life, Charles Martel reflected on his legacy and succession. He divided his vast realms among his sons in 740, enjoying one more peaceful year before passing away on 22 October 741.

Despite belonging to a lesser-known era, Charles Martel’s impact on history is unparalleled. His triumphs over the Islamic armies and establishment of a strong Frankish Empire propelled Europe into a new age of dominance. His innovative heavy-cavalry tactics shaped warfare for centuries, with knights leading thunderous charges across Europe and beyond. The dynasty he founded, which included his son Charlemagne, would continue his legacy as rulers and complete what Charles Martel had started.

Churchill’s refusal to negotiate with Nazi Germany and his unwavering commitment to victory, even in the darkest hours of the war, earned him admiration and respect on a global scale. His leadership during the Battle of Britain, where the Royal Air Force successfully defended the country against German air attacks, further solidified his reputation as a steadfast leader.

Beyond his wartime achievements, Churchill’s career as a politician, writer, and historian also contributed to his worldwide fame. Churchill’s international influence and recognition as a statesman continue to resonate, solidifying his place as one of the most revered figures in modern history.

Young Churchill

Winston Churchill, characterised as a stocky red-haired boy, endured a somewhat distant relationship with his aristocratic parents during his youth. He encountered difficulties during his school years, particularly at Harrow, which he despised. However, he persevered and ultimately secured admission to the prestigious Royal Military College at Sandhurst, marking a turning point in his educational journey.

Following his initiation as a cavalry officer in the Queen’s Hussars, Churchill confronted the financial burden of the officer’s mess while feeling neglected by his family. Determined to secure additional income, he embarked on a journey to Cuba, assuming the role of a War Correspondent.

Churchill held a certain fondness for that period, recalling that his 21st birthday coincided with his inaugural exposure to enemy fire—an experience that would repeat itself in the future. He also developed a lasting appreciation for Cuban cigars during his time on the island.

Churchill in the military dress uniform of the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars at Aldershot in 1895. Image credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Travelling the Empire

In 1897, the British Army transferred Churchill to India, which was under British rule at the time, where Churchill not only focused on his military education but also developed a keen interest in British politics. In the same year, upon learning about a campaign against a tribal group on the north-western frontier, Churchill sought permission to join the expedition.

His experiences during this campaign served as the inspiration for his first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force, in which he vividly recounted the events and challenges faced during the campaign. A year later, in 1898, Churchill was transferred to Egypt, a transfer that allowed him to further expand his military and political experiences.

Churchill went on to join Lord Kitchener’s force in the Sudan to combat Islamist rebels. It was during the battle of Omdurman that Churchill participated in a historic cavalry charge, marking the last such charge in British history, striking down several opponents from the back of his horse.

Upon his return to England in 1899, Churchill made the decision to resign from his military commission and embarked on a new journey in politics. Although his initial attempt at securing a parliamentary seat in Oldham was unsuccessful, Churchill’s determination remained undeterred.

The stage was set for Churchill’s meteoric rise as a renowned statesman and leader.

The Boer War

In October 1899, a pivotal moment in history unfolded as the South African Boers initiated hostilities against the British Empire, launching attacks on British territories in the region. Seizing the opportunity to be on the front lines, Churchill secured a position as a correspondent for The Morning Post and embarked on a voyage aboard the same ship as the newly appointed commander, Sir Redvers Buller.

Churchill spent weeks reporting from the front lines, providing firsthand accounts of the ongoing battles. During one fateful scouting expedition to the north aboard an armoured train, the journey was unexpectedly derailed by enemy forces.

Churchill found himself once again engaging in combat, but soon found himself captured and imprisoned within a Boer Prisoner of War camp.

Churchill commanding the 6th Battalion, the Royal Scots Fusiliers, 1916. His second-in-command, Archibald Sinclair, is seated on the left. Image credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Incredibly, after enlisting the help of a local mine manager he escaped over the fences and walked 300 miles to neutral territory in Portuguese East Africa – an escapade that briefly made him a national hero.

Ascending the political ladder

In 1900 Churchill once again stood for Oldham as a Conservative Party MP – this time successfully. However, despite being just 26 and regarded as a bright new hope by the party, the young man’s stance on free trade, and his friendship with the Liberal MP David Lloyd-George, meant that he took the almost unprecedented step of ‘crossing the floor’ and joining the Liberals in 1904.

That same year, he met Clementine Hozier, at a ball in Crewe Hall, whom he would marry 4 years later on 12 September 1908 in St. Margaret’s, Westminster.

Despite it’s controversy, the decision to join the Liberals appeared to be vindicated in 1905 when they swept into office, and new Prime Minister Campbell-Bannerman granted Churchill the position of Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies – an important position given the fragile nature of the Empire after the Boer War.

After demonstrating his capabilities in various roles, Churchill then joined the cabinet at the relatively young age of 34. As the President of the Board of Trade, he introduced a series of progressive policies, including the implementation of National Insurance and the introduction of the first minimum wage in the United Kingdom.

Churchill (second left) photographed at the Siege of Sidney Street. Image credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A controversial career

Continuing his remarkable ascent, Churchill’s political career reached new heights when he assumed the role of Home Secretary in 1910. However, his handling of a miner’s riot in Wales drew strong criticism from Welsh and Socialist circles, as his militaristic approach clashed with their expectations of a more measured response.

Then, in 1911, a gripping incident unfolded in London as a pair of Latvian anarchists found themselves besieged in a house. Intriguingly, Churchill, arrived at the scene amidst the chaos. Churchill later disputed his direct involvement, but was documented as giving operational orders and allegedly preventing the fire brigade from rescuing the anarchists from the burning building.

These controversial actions were widely criticised by senior political figures, who viewed them as irresponsible and somewhat farcical. Churchill’s reputation suffered a blow as a result.

Despite these setbacks, Churchill’s early career had already established him as one of the most charismatic and renowned politicians in the country by the outbreak of World War One. Moreover, the experiences from these incidents provided him with valuable lessons and a lifelong passion for warfare, foreign affairs, and the intricacies of high-level politics.

Its real historical significance, however, was that it weakened the army of King Harold to an extent where he could be beaten by another man of Viking descent – William the Conqueror.

Raised for war

Harald was born in 1015 in Norway, and the sagas that have preserved his memory claim descent from the legendary first King of that country – Harald Fairhair.

At the time of his birth, Norway was part of the Danish empire of King Cnut, which included England and parts of Sweden. The Norwegians were not happy with foreign rule and Harald’s older brother Olaf was exiled for his dissent in 1028.

14th-century portrait of Cnut the Great. Image credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

When the fifteen year-old Harald heard of his planned return two years later, he gathered a force of 600 men to meet his brother, and together they raised an army to take on Cnut’s loyalists. At the ensuing battle of Stiklestad Olaf was killed, and Harald badly wounded and forced to flee, though not before showing considerable fighting skill.

Rise to stardom

After recovering in a remote cottage in the far north-east, he escaped into Sweden and, after a year of travelling, found himself in the Kievan Rus – the confederation of Slavic tribes which included Ukraine and Belarus, and is seen as the ancestor state to modern Russia.

Surrounded by enemies and in need of soldiers, Grand Prince Yaroslav the Wise welcomed the newcomer, whose brother had already served him during his own exile, and gave him command of a detachment of men near modern St Petersburg.

Over the following years Harald saw his star rise after fighting against the Poles, Romans and the fierce steppe nomads who always threatened from the east.

Mercenary service

By 1034 the Norwegian had a personal following of around 500 men, and took them south to Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire. For decades now the Roman Emperors had kept a bodyguard of Norsemen, Germans and Saxons, picked for their powerful stature and known as the Varangian Guard.

Harald was an obvious choice, and quickly became the overall leader of this body of men, though he was still only twenty or twenty-one. Despite their status as bodyguards the Varangians saw action all across the Empire, and Harald was credited with the capture of 80 Arab fortresses in present-day Iraq.

Near-contemporary depiction of Byzantine Varangian Guardsmen, in an illumination from the ‘Skylitzes Synopsis’. Image credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Credit: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

After peace was won with the Arabs, he joined an expedition to retake Sicily, which had recently been conquered and declared an Islamic caliphate.

There, fighting alongside mercenaries from Normandy, he further cemented his reputation, and in the tumultuous years that followed he saw service in the south of Italy and Bulgaria, where he earned the nickname “Bulgar burner.”

When the old Emperor, and Harald’s patron, Michael IV died, his fortunes sank however, and he found himself imprisoned. Various sagas and accounts give different reasons why, though there are many hints at a sex scandal at court, which was divided between the followers of the new Emperor Michael V and the powerful Empress Zoe.

His stay in jail was not long, however, and when some loyal Varangians helped him escape he exacted a personal revenge and blinded the Emperor, before taking his newly amassed wealth and marrying Yaroslav’s daughter back in the Rus. In 1042, he heard of Cnut’s death and decided that the time was right to return home.

Though he had helped her win the imperial throne, Zoe refused to let him go, and so he once again escaped with a band of loyal men, heading north.

Returning home

By the time he returned in 1046, Cnut’s empire had collapsed, his sons had both died, and a new rival, Magnus the Good, son of Olaf, ruled over Norway and Denmark.

In the latter kingdom he had deposed Harald’s other nephew Sweyn Estridsson, who he joined in exile in Sweden. His efforts to oust the popular Magnus proved futile however, and after negotiations they agreed to co-rule Norway.

After just one year, fate and luck played into Harald’s hands, as Magnus died childless. Sweyn was then made King of Denmark, while Harald finally became sole ruler of his homeland. Never content with sitting still, the years between 1048 and 1064 were spent in constant, successful but ultimately fruitless war with Sweyn, which won Harald more reputation but never yielded the throne of Denmark.

He also earned his nickname “Hardrada” – hard ruler – during these years.

King of Norway

Norway was a land unused to strong central rule, and the powerful local lords were difficult to subdue, meaning that many were violently and brutally purged. These measures proved effective however, and most domestic opposition had been removed by the end of the wars with Denmark.

The more positive side of his rule was brought by his travels, as Harald opened trade with the Romans and the Rus, and developed a sophisticated money economy in Norway for the first time. Perhaps more surprisingly, he also helped the slow spread of Christianity across the scattered rural parts of the country, where many still prayed before the old Norse gods.

After 1064 it became clear that Denmark would never belong to Harald, but events across the North Sea in England soon turned his head, After the death of Cnut, that country had been ruled by the steady hand of Edward the Confessor, who had spent the 1050s negotiating with the Norwegian King and even hinting that he might be named as successor to the English throne.

The Viking invasion

When the old King died childless in 1066 and Harold Godwinson succeeded, Harald was angry, and allied himself with Harold’s bitter estranged brother Tostig, who helped convince him that he ought to seize the power that was rightfully his. By September, his swift preparations for an invasion were complete, and he set sail.

The Battle of Stamford Bridge, from The Life of King Edward the Confessor by Matthew Paris. 13th century. Image credit: Matthew Paris, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Credit: Matthew Paris, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Harald was getting old by now and knew the risks of the campaign – making sure to declare his son Magnus King before leaving. On 18 September, after a journey via the Orkney and Shetland islands, the Norwegian fleet of 10-15000 men landed on English shores.

There Harald met Tostig face-to-face for the first time, and they planned their attack southwards. The situation had played into their hands. King Harold was waiting with the English army on the south coast, anticipating an invasion from William, the Duke of Normandy, who – like Harald – believed that he had been promised the English throne.

The Norwegian army first met with resistance from the town of Scarborough, which refused to surrender. In response Hardrada burned it to the ground, causing several northern towns to hurriedly pledge their allegiance.

Though Harold was only just responding to the threat in the north, having been taken completely by surprise, his strongest northern lords, Morcar of Northumbria and Edwin of Mercia, raised armies and met the Norwegians at Fulford near York, where they were soundly defeated on 20 September.

York, the old Viking capital, then fell, leaving the north of England conquered.

The Earls and their men fought bravely at the Battle of Fulford, but were hopelessly outmatched. But then Hardrada made his fatal mistake. In keeping with the practice of Viking raiders in the past, he withdrew from York and waited for the hostages and ransom he had been promised. This withdrawal gave Harold his chance.

On 25 September Hardrada and his men went to receive York’s leading citizens, lazy, confident and wearing only the lightest of armour. Then, suddenly, at Stamford Bridge, Harold’s army fell on them, having undergone a lightning-quick forced march to surprise Harald’s forces.

Fighting without armour, Hardrada was killed – along with Tostig, at the beginning of the battle and his troops quickly lost heart.

The remnants of the Viking army got back into their ships and sailed home. For the Vikings, this marked the end of an era of great Viking raids on the British isles; for Harold however, his struggle was far from over.

Following his victory at Stamford Bridge, Harold’s exhausted, bloodied men then heard terrible news to cut off any thoughts of celebration. Hundreds of miles to the south William – a man who combined French discipline with Viking savagery, had landed unopposed.

As for Harald, a year after Harold’s death at the battle of Hastings, Harald’s body was finally returned to Norway, where it still rests.

This article was co-authored by Craig Bessell.

From the ashes of World War One

In the aftermath of World War One, the defeated Germans were subjected to a series of humiliating terms in the Treaty of Versailles, including the loss of much of their territory. One of the new states created by the treaty was Czechoslovakia, which contained an area inhabited by large numbers of ethnic Germans which Hitler termed the Sudetenland.

Hitler rose to power on a wave of ill-feeling generated by the treaty, which had always been considered too harsh in Britain. As a result, British governments largely turned a blind eye to Hitler’s promises to undo much of the treaty after he was elected in 1933.

By 1938, the Nazi leader had already re-militarised the Rhineland, which was meant to be a buffer zone between historic enemies Germany and France, and incorporated Austria into his new German Reich.

Hitler eyes the Sudetenland

After years of appeasement, Hitler’s aggressive stance towards his neighbours was finally beginning to cause concern in Britain and France. However, Hitler was not finished. He had his eyes set on the Sudetenland, which was rich in the natural resources necessary for war and was conveniently populated by ethnic Germans – many of whom genuinely wanted to return to German rule.

Hitler’s first move was to order the Sudeten Nazi Party to demand full autonomy for ethnic Germans from Czech leader Benes, knowing that these demands would be refused. He then circulated tales of Czech atrocities towards Sudeten Germans and emphasised their desire to once again be under German rule, in an effort to legitimise his annexation of the territory.

If his intentions weren’t already clear enough, 750,000 German troops were sent to the Czech border, officially in order to carry out manoeuvres. Unsurprisingly, these developments greatly alarmed the British, who were desperate to avoid another war.

Hitler’s Wehrmacht on the march.

Appeasement continues

With Hitler now openly demanding the Sudetenland, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain flew out to meet him and Sudeten Nazi leader Henlein, on 12 and 15 September. Hitler’s response to Chamberlain was that the Sudetenland was refusing the Czech Germans the right to self-determination, and that British “threats” were not appreciated.

After meeting with his cabinet, Chamberlain met with the Nazi leader once more. He stated that Britain would not oppose a German takeover of the Sudetenland. Hitler, aware that he had the upper hand, shook his head and told Chamberlain that the Sudetenland was no longer enough.

He wanted the state of Czechoslovakia to be carved up and shared between various nations. Chamberlain knew that he could not possibly agree to these terms. War loomed on the horizon.

With hours to go before Nazi troops crossed the border into Czechoslovakia, Hitler and his Italian ally Mussolini offered Chamberlain what appeared to be a lifeline: a last-minute conference in Munich, where French Prime Minister Daladier would also be in attendance. The Czechs and Stalin’s USSR were not invited.

In the early hours of 30 September the Munich Pact was signed, and the Nazis gained ownership of the Sudetenland, which changed hands on 10 October 1938. Chamberlain was initially received as a heroic peacemaker upon returning to Britain, but the consequences of the Munich Pact would merely mean that the war, when it did begin, would start on Hitler’s terms.

Chamberlain receiving a warm reception upon returning home.

War on the horizon

The loss of the Sudetenland crippled Czechoslovakia as a fighting force, with most of their armaments, fortifications and raw materials signed off to Germany without them having any say in the matter.

Unable to resist without French and British support, by the end of 1938 the whole of the country was in Nazi hands. Even more importantly, the pointed exclusion of the USSR at the meeting convinced Stalin that an anti-Nazi alliance with the western powers was not possible.

Instead, a year later he signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact with Hitler, leaving the road open for Hitler to invade eastern Europe knowing that he could count on Stalin’s support. From the British point of view, the only good to come out of Munich was that Chamberlain realised that he could not appease Hitler any longer. If Hitler invaded Poland, Britain and France would have to go to war.

The husband of the formidable Eleanor of Aquitaine and father of John and Richard the Lionheart, Henry’s action-packed reign gave rise to England’s position as a European power to be reckoned with.

Henry was a very young man when he was crowned, having been born just twenty-one years earlier in 1133. He was the son of Empress Matilda, William the Conqueror’s granddaughter, and Count Geoffrey Plantagenet of Anjou, and had a legitimate claim to the throne of England through his mother’s line.

Stephen and Matilda

In fact, when her father Henry I died in 1135 Matilda vociferously voiced her own rights to the throne, only to see her cousin Stephen seize it for himself. Though no woman had ever ruled England, she refused to give up and launched a civil war to claim her birthright.

The reign of the unfortunate Stephen was dogged by the internal fighting known as “The Anarchy” and England was economically ruined by the constant ravages of war.

Much of Matilda’s support came from the south-west, and the young Henry was given his first taste of life in England in 1142 when he was sent to be tutored in Bristol. Meanwhile, his mother fought on, and famously escaped from the besieged castle of Oxford in 1141.

Henry’s first military escapade came at the staggeringly young age of 14, when he lead a band of mercenaries to ravage England’s east coast. It would be the first step of a long and illustrious military career.

Contemporary miniature of Henry’s mother, Empress Matilda, from the ‘Gospels of Henry the Lion’

Image Credit: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Chroniclers describe Henry as red-haired, and handsome despite being short and famously scruffy. Though a highly intelligent and learned man, he was infamous for his terrible rages and even more threatening silences if things didn’t go his way.

Despite this, his charm and good humour are equally well attested, and even in his teens he had all the attributes to become an exceptional leader of men.

Henry and Louis

Geoffrey, an ambitious father, made Henry the Duke of Normandy in 1150, beginning a lifelong enmity with Louis, the King of France, a man who resented the growing power of Geoffrey’s Plantagenet dynasty. To add insult to injury, after Geoffrey died a year later the eighteen year-old Henry began an audacious marriage.

Louis’ Queen was the beautiful and intelligent Eleanor of Aquitaine, a woman whose dowry included huge swathes of land in what is now southern France. After she failed to give him any children, the French King had the marriage annulled.

Just eight weeks later, however, the teenage Henry had seduced Eleanor and married her, in a move that was both shocking in its rudeness and its aggression, for Henry was now the owner of more French land than the King of France himself. And his ambitions, spurred on by his wife and mother, were only just beginning.

Coming to power and consolidation

1153 would prove to be the decisive year in Henry’s life, as he set sail through winter storms to England.

Though he could only spare a small force of mercenaries, his forces danced around King Stephen’s larger army until worsening weather caused a temporary truce. In that time Henry consolidated his hold on the north and enjoyed playing the part of King while the ageing Stephen fretted.

Luck would favour the younger man when Stephen’s eldest son Eustace suddenly died of an illness, and after the two rivals’ armies faced each other at Wallingford Castle, the exhausted King of England met with Henry and confirmed him as his heir.

Though the peace was precarious and there are theories of an attempted plot to murder Henry and put Stephen’s second son on the throne, the Plantagenet luck stayed with the young invader, for in October 1154 the King died aged 62.

Henry still had a huge amount to do, however. In England at that time much of the power rested with the Barons who had their own castles and private armies. In the lawless years of the anarchy many of them had declared de facto independence and began building new fortresses without royal permission as bases for their armies to harass rivals.

In addition, much of the country’s economy was in ruins and few expected the new and inexperienced King to adequately deal with the situation when Stephen had so conspicuously failed to do so. Henry however set about the kingship with a youthful energy which quickly healed his new kingdom.

King Stephen standing with a falcon, and King Henry II seated on his throne

Image Credit: British Library, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Holding court and smashing the Barons’ illegal castles with glee, Henry quickly became a popular monarch, particularly after forcing the Scottish and Welsh out of their English possessions which they had taken during the chaos of the Anarchy.

Unlike his mother, who had been often-derided for her arrogance, Henry took care to listen to the advice of the English Barons, ensuring that he had enough loyal men doing his bidding to keep the country in check.

He needed them. For Henry did not see himself as an Englishman. Less than a hundred years after the Norman Conquest, to him the English were an alien people to be ruled by their Norman-French overlords.

Though Henry was a fairly benign monarch, he believed that his destiny lay on the continent, the land of his ancestors and the scene of his endless quarrels with France.

One modern French historian has compared the situation in the 1150s with the Cold War, in that Henry and Louis were constantly meeting face to face in order to try and resolve the rowing tensions between them, whilst secretly trying to shift the balance of power in a favourable way.

Henry’s forays into semi-independent Brittany and Tolouse met with success, and in 1161 his rivalry with Louis finally exploded into fighting. After taking the city of Blois in an impressive siege, the King of England was in the ascendancy, and it took the intervention of the Pope to prevent further fighting.

Twenty years into his reign Henry would rule over England, much of Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and almost all of the west of modern France. It is not for nothing that historians have come to christen his lands the “Angevin Empire.”

Empires, however, are notoriously difficult to run, and Henry’s dealt with the problem of ruling his extensive lands in a number of ways. Firstly, like the Romans before him, he took a relaxed approach to central control and generally allowed local feudal lords to do the hard business of ruling for him.

The House Plantagenet

Secondly, the governance of the Empire has been described as a “family affair,” with Matilda and Eleanor wielding huge influence. The later was left in charge of England on numerous occasions while the King was away, and was entrusted with much of the responsibility for her homeland of Aquitaine in the south of France.

Having such an ambitious and talented family was seen as a strength initially, particularly after Eleanor gave birth to a host of sons, but it would eventually prove to be Henry’s undoing.

The early years of the 1170s were eventful for the now middle-aged King. By 1173 he had already invaded Ireland, divided up his Empire between his sons and arranged the infamous murder of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. That year, however, everything fell apart, and family was at the center of it.

Henry’s eldest son of the same name had been chafing for years under his father’s rule, and when some of his castles in France were given to the King’s youngest son John his resentment burst into open rebellion.

Supported by a formidable coalition of France, Scotland, Flanders, his brothers and even his mother – whose relationship with the King had disintegrated – the younger Henry waged war on his own father for over a year.

13th-century depiction of Henry and his legitimate children: (left to right) William, Young Henry, Richard, Matilda, Geoffrey, Eleanor, Joan and John

Image Credit: Anonymus, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Later years and downfall

Few Kings have ever had to face a bleaker situation with his own family against him and invasions on all sides, but Henry held off despair for long enough to defeat all the rebellions and reclaim his lordship over the Empire.

His life, however, could never be the same again. Eleanor was imprisoned, and all the King’s sons but his youngest John could never be fully trusted.

Embittered and resentful, the final years of his reign had him in a strong position but a state of acute misery and mistrust.

By the end of his life his eldest son, Richard, was once again in open rebellion. In hot French weather in 1189 the tired and ailing King met his son and acknowledged him, with some bitterness, as his heir.

Sick and perhaps tired of life, he died shortly after, to be succeeded by the man who would one day be known as the Lionheart, but who had showed little courage in his treatment of his own father.

Henry was not a perfect man. His temper, odd ways and distance as divinely ordained monarch ultimately turned his family against him, but few historians can contend that he was a fine King.

By the end of his reign, his more famous heir was able to leave a stable and prosperous Kingdom and lead the forces of England east to face Saladin and win renown across the world.

Fully aware of the momentous nature of his decision, Caesar ignored the warning and began to march south on Rome. To this day, the phrase “to cross the Rubicon” means to undertake an action so decisive that there can be no turning back.

The civil war that followed this decision is seen by historians as the inevitable culmination of a movement that had begun decades prior.

The crumbling of the Republic

Since the celebrated general (and major influence on Caesar) Gaius Marius had reformed the Roman legions along more professional lines by paying them himself, soldiers had increasingly owed their loyalty to their generals rather than the more abstract idea of a citizen republic.

As a result, powerful men became more powerful still by fielding their own private armies, and the last troubled years of the Republic had already seen the Senate’s power crumble in the face of the ambition of Marius, and his rival Sulla.

The pair were followed by the still-more formidable Pompey and Caesar. Before his military exploits in Gaul, Caesar was very much the junior of the two, and only rose to prominence when elected consul in 59 BC. As consul, this ambitious man of a minor noble family allied himself with the great general Pompey and the rich politician Crassus to form the First Triumvirate.

Bust of Julius Caesar. Image credit: Museum of antiquities, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image Credit: Museum of antiquities, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Caesar in Gaul

These powerful men had little need of the senate, and in 58 BC Caesar used their influence to secure a command in the Alps which, by giving him years of freedom and 20,000 men to command, broke every law of the Senate.

Caesar used the following five years to become one of the most brilliant and successful commanders in history. The huge, multi-racial and famously fearsome territory of Gaul (modern France) was conquered and subdued in one of the most complete conquests in history.

In his reflections on the campaign, Caesar later boasted that he had killed a million Gauls, enslaved a million more, and left only the remaining million untouched.

Caesar made sure that detailed and partisan accounts of his exploits made it back to Rome, where they made him the darling of the people in a city beset by infighting in his absence. The Senate had never ordered or even authorized Caesar to attack Gaul, but were wary of his popularity and extended his command by another five years when it ended in 53 BC.

When Crassus died in 54 BC, the Senate turned to Pompey as the only man strong enough to withstand Caesar, who now controlled huge swathes of land in the north without any senate support.

While Caesar mopped up his remaining foes, Pompey ruled as sole consul – which made him a dictator in all but name. He too was a famously brilliant commander, but was now ageing while Caesar’s star was in the ascendancy. Jealousy and fear, combined with the death of his wife – who was also his Caesar’s daughter – meant that their formal alliance broke down during the latter’s long absence.

‘Vercingetorix throws down his arms at the feet of Julius Caesar’ by Lionel Royer. Image credit: Lionel Royer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

‘The die is cast’

In 50 BC, Caesar was ordered to disband his army and return to Rome, where he was banned from running for a second consulship and would be on trial for treason and war crimes following his unlicensed conquests.

With this in mind, it is hardly surprising that the proud and ambitious general, who knew that he enjoyed the adulation of the people, decided to cross the river Rubicon with his armies on the 10 January 49 BC.

The gamble paid off. After years of war in Rome and across the provinces on a scale never before seen, Caesar was victorious and ruled supreme in Rome, with Pompey now dead and forgotten.

Without any remaining enemies, Caesar was made dictator for life, a move which culminated in his assassination by a group of senators in 44 BC. The tide could not be turned back however. Caesar’s adopted son Octavian would complete his father’s work, becoming the first true Roman Emperor as Augustus in 27 BC.