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Contents
Marathon (490 B.C.) 1At odds of ten to one, the Athenians met the all conquering hosts of Darius, beat them, drove them back on their ships and changed the destiny of the world.
Trasemenus (217 B.C.) 7
After a terrible passage across the Alps, Hannibal, the great Carthaginian, met and almost annihilated the Romans under the Consul Flaminius.
Tours (732) 18
The great and decisive victory of Charles Martel over the conquering Saracens, who, but for this crushing defeat, would have overrun Northern Europe.
Maldon (991) 22
Across the North Sea came the pillaging Danes, who, laying Ipswich in ruins, marched inward, met the English at Maldon, and routed them after a vigorous sanguinary battle; and for the first time exacted tribute.
Hastings (1066) 27
The last fight of the last Saxon King. Hastening from his victory at Stamford Bridge, Harold met the Norman William, who, coming to claim the throne of Edward the Confessor, upheld his claim by might of arms; and won.
Damme (1214) 38
England’s first great naval battle; her first pitched fight with France for the supremacy of the seas; and England won.
Bannockburn (1314) 42
Where Edward II met King Robert Bruce, who cast off the English yoke and won for Scotland her independence.
Agincourt (1415) 51
The battle of the English archers, who turned back the overwhelming host of French, and cleared the way for Henry V’s march through North-West France.
Caxamalca (1531) 62
In the fight against the Inca Atahualpa and thirty thousand Peruvians, Pizarro and less than two hundred Spaniards achieved a great victory – but a shameful one.
The Spanish Armada (1588) 73
Chased by the sea-kings of Britain, worried by fireships, scattered by the winds of heaven, wrecked on Scotland’s iron-bound coast, Philip’s great Armada perforce abandoned the invasion of England.
Edgehill (1642) 85
Here Charles I raised the Royal Standard, and so began the first battle of the great Civil War, which cost the King his head.
When Blake Whipped the Seas (1653) 91
Van Tromp refused to salute the English Flag, beat Blake off the Goodwins, and, as a crowning insult, vowed to sweep the English from the seas. Blake showed him that an English whip was better than a Dutch broom.
Plassey (1757) 97
Where Clive with a handful of men defeated Surajah Dowlah and his hosts.
Quebec (1759) 104
Sealing the Heights of Abraham, where the French imagined themselves impregnable, the gallant Wolfe drove back on Quebec, which was evacuated three days later; and Canada became British.
Saratoga (1777) 115
Where Burgoyne, at odds four to one, attacked the Americans, was repulsed, harassed in his retreat, and finally compelled to surrender.
Trafalgar (1805) 130
The story of the battle which England won at the cost of her idol – Nelson.
Waterloo (1815) 146
Where Napoleon fought against Fate – and Wellington; and lost an empire and liberty.
Boyaca (1819) 165
Emulating Hannibal and Napoleon, Simon Bolivar, the South American Patriot, crossed the Andes, the Alps of South America, and inflicted a crushing defeat upon the Spaniards.
Balaclava (1854) 174
The battle of gallant charges.
The Battle at the Eureka Stockade (1854) 182
The story of the only battle fought in the land of the Southern Cross.
Delhi (1857) 189
The victory which put the seal on Britain’s supremacy in India.
Solferino (1859) 206
Napoleon III, at the head of one hundred and fifty thousand men, drove back an equal number of Austrians after fierce fighting and fearful slaughter on both sides.
Palermo (1860) 215
With seven hundred and fifty of the famous “Thousand Volunteers” and the assistance of the inhabitants, Garibaldi, the Italian Patriot, took the town from a Neapolitan garrison of eighteen thousand.
Gettysburg (1863) 225
Where the Federals under Meade inflicted on the Confederation under Lee a blow from which they never recovered.
Königgrätz (1866) 234
The decisive battle of the Seven Weeks’ War, when Prussia asserted her right to first place amongst the German-speaking nations.
Vionville – Mars-la-Tour (1870) 243
Marshal Bazaine wanted to leave Metz, Moltke wanted him to stay there, and so, the Frenchman sallied forth, the Prussians pounced upon him and drove him back on Metz.
Isandhlwana and Rorke’s Drift (1879) 253
At Isandhlwana a host of Zulus entrapped and massacred a small British force, and the same day at Rorke’s Drift tackled one hundred and thirty British, who, with biscuit tins and bags for barricades, held the Zulus off till next morning.
Kassassin and Tel-el-Kebir (1882) 269
Night battles in the Soudan Desert, where the British defeated Arabi Pasha and his Egyptians.
Omdurman (1898) 285
Where Kitchener beat the Khalifa and his Dervish horde.
Tsushima (1905) 299
The greatest naval battle of modern times, where Togo, the Nelson of Japan, inflicted a crushing defeat upon Russia’s Baltic Fleet.