The War of the Spanish Succession has been raging since 1704, but will end with the last great French victory , July 24, 1712 during the Battle of Denain . A simple fight in four to five hours, a model of strategy admired in military schools, which had considerable results:this victory finally made
The Battle of Rocroi is a decisive French victory won by the young Duke of Enghien, future Prince of Condé, over the Spanish armies on May 18 and 19, 1643, in front of the stronghold of Rocroi. Philip IV of Spain, wanting to exploit the disappearance of Richelieu planned to invade the latter. The Sp
The Battle of Marignan is a famous victory won by Francis I on an army of Swiss mercenaries in the north of Italy, September 13 and 14, 1515. This military success will bring to the young king of France, dubbed knight on the battlefield by the lord of Bayard, a great popularity and a flattering repu
The Battle of Valmy was the first military victory of the French revolutionary army, won against an Austro-Prussian army (reinforced by French emigrants) on September 20, 1792. Against all expectations, after a heavy cannonade, a fine harangue from Kellermann near the famous mill of Valmy, a few bri
Decisive confrontation of the American Revolutionary War, the battle, or rather the siege of Yorktown illustrates the decisive role played by France in American independence. If we know especially the name of La Fayette, who left very early to help the Insurgents and commanding a light division in t
The Battle of Malplaquet , during the War of the Spanish Succession, took place on September 11, 1709 in the hamlet of Malplaquet, near Avesnes-sur-Helpe, in northern France. Appointed by Louis XIV at the head of the army of the Netherlands, Marshal de Villars faced the troops of the Grand Alliance
June 14, 1658 at the Battle of the Dunes took place the conclusion of a war which had lasted twenty-five years and opposed France to Spain. The French, commanded by Turenne and allies once is not custom to the English, confront the Spaniards there, one of whose commanders is none other than the Gran
The Battle of Lepanto is a naval battle that took place on October 7, 1571, in the Gulf of Lepanto (Gulf of Corinth) between the Ottoman fleet of Ali Pasha and a Christian coalition comprising Spain, Malta, Venice, Genoa and the Papal States. Placed under the command of Don Juan of Austria , the Chr
April 23, 1014, The Battle of Clontarf , near Dublin, opposed the armies of the Irish king Brian Boru and the men of Leinster associated with Vikings. We remember that the victory made Brian Boru a national hero having driven the Vikings out of Ireland. Is this really what happened? What is myth and
The Battle of Agincourt took place on October 25, 1415 near the village of Agincourt, in Pas-de-Calais, and opposed the French army to the English army of King Henry V. It is one of the most famous of the Hundred Years War between France and England (1337-1453). The French chivalry experienced its g
The Battle of Bouvines , which took place on July 27, 1214 in the North, opposed the army of the King of France Philippe Auguste to a German-Flemish coalition around Emperor Otto IV. The unexpected rout of the allies will offer a resounding victory to the Capetian, who will extend the royal domain a
The Battle of Manziker t (1071) pitted the Byzantine army of Roman Emperor IV against the Seljuk Turks commanded by Alp Arslan. Victorious, the latter seized almost all of Asia Minor. Among the reasons invoked to justify the First Crusade, the Turkish conquest in the East figures prominently. First
The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa , July 16, 1212, is a decisive step for the success of the Reconquista of southern Spain by the Christian kingdoms. After a first phase which culminated in the capture of Toledo in 1085, the Reconquista had to stop in the face of the counter-offensive of the Almorav
October 14, 1066 at the Battle of Hastings, William of Normandy wins a decisive victory over the troops of Harold II, Saxon king of England. Having become William I the Conqueror, the winner installed a Norman dynasty on the throne of England which would last a little less than a century. Founder o
The Battle of Poitiers (732) is part of the context of the Muslim expansion led in the West by Governor Abd al-Rahman of Andalusia, which is heading towards the Frankish kingdom and Tours. Its advance was stopped, near Poitiers, by the army of Charles Martel, mayor of the palace of Merovingian Gaul
Prelude to the Hundred Years War, the Battle of Crécy saw the defeat of the armies of the French King Philippe VI of Valois against those of King Edward III of England on August 26, 1346. This first major engagement of the war, which had the effect of a thunderclap in Christendom, took place on a ba
Last engagement of the Hundred Years War, the a Battle of Castillon (July 17, 1453) is a decisive victory for the French royal army won over an Anglo-Gascon army. Multiple defeats, humiliations and scuffles find their conclusion there on the banks of the Dordogne. In 1453, all that remained of the p
At the Battle of Hattin , on July 4, 1187, Saladin defeated the army of the king of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan, and his turbulent ally Renaud de Châtillon at a place called the Horns of Hattin, near Lake Tiberias. The king of Jerusalem surrenders, with some of his knights, and lives, but all the Tem
The Battle of Strasbourg (Argentoratum, 357) pitted the Roman army commanded by Emperor Julian the Apostate against a coalition of Alemanni barbarian tribes attempting to invade Gaul. During the 4th century AD, the Romans experienced a period of relative tranquility on their borders, in particular t
It is the epic and tragic story of a family hated then adored by the Romans, always victorious and finally exterminated on the battlefield during the battle of Crémère where 306 Fabii distinguished themselves in a vain but heroic defense … An atypical story that Livy chronicled like Dionysius of Hal
It must be admitted that the nudes went a surprising way from boudoirs and private rooms straight to museum rooms. And it is literally. Today, in austere spaces, they do not arouse such excitement anymore, but in the past they were a great excuse to show the beauty of the human body - so they were p
For anti-Semites, the Jewish origin of the Nobel Prize winner was a stone of offense. Jewish newspapers proudly indicated that Maria Skłodowska-Curie belonged to the Chosen People. But was the discoverer of radium and one of the most distinguished Polish women in history really Jewish? It is dif
Jump into a ditch and ... wait quietly - this is one of the advice given to US citizens half a century ago in the event of a nuclear attack. What were the US civil defense programs like in World War III? And could they help anyone at all? The destructive force that razed the Japanese cities of H
By Rainer Sousa Today, engineering is undertaking increasingly surprising achievements. Through the use of various resources and the refinement of techniques, the possibilities of working with shapes and dimensions promote increasingly daring architectural constructions. However, for this to be poss