Historyzine 015: Winter Diplomacy in 1705

Historyzine follows the Duke of Marlborough as he conducts an epic journey of almost 2000 miles by carriage and barge during the fierce winter months in order to soothe and cajole the various allies. The Duke visits the Elector Palatine, The Margrave of Baden, the King of Prussia and the Electoral Prince of Hanover and then returns to the Hague in the Netherlands to sort out the paperwork for the forthcoming campaign. This isn’t the most dashing and exciting of the stories surrounding the Duke and the War of the Spanish Succession but it is, I feel, a fascinating insight into the multiplicity of roles the Duke of Marlborough was expected to fulfil. Here’s a map of Europe and I’ve drawn a little red line showing aproximately the route he’s taken. click to enlarge We also take a brief look at the gains made by the Austro/Dutch/English alliance in Spain and the dashing but frustrating Earl of Peterborough. In this episode Historyzine also reviews the book, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher by Kate Summerscales and the podcast, ‘The Jefferson Hour’ which can be found at If you wish to leave feedback on the podcast then do so through the site or use the contact page to send a form email

You can listen to Historyzine 015: Winter Diplomacy in 1705 online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Historyzine 015: Winter Diplomacy in 1705 is an episode from Historyzine: The History Podcast by Jim Mowatt.

This episode is 26:52 long.

This episode was published on Sep 8, 2009.

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