Helsingborg

Image from here. Fought today in 1710. Wiki here. Go here to see the League of Augsburg's refighting in miniature. Go here to see Marc Grieves painting of the battle

Marc Grieves

Artist who has done a number of excellent paintings for this era. This one is Lund 1676 - there are some more including Great Northern War at his site here

Soldiers in the Field

Image from this blog 'the 1640s Picturebook; Costume & Stuff from the English Civil War '. It's well worth a look. It says
Drawing by Thomas Neale, dated 1657-1659. An unusual view in its rarity. There are precious few images of English ordinary troops from this period.

Williamite conference

Thanks to Rampjaar 1672 for this:
The Williamite Universe co-organises an upcoming conference in Maison française d’Oxford, 3-4 May 2012, entitled

“Louis XIV: Outside In: Reactions and Responses to the Sun King beyond France.”

The conference map the variety of ways reactions to Louis shaped discussion and action across Europe and the globe; and will provide a forum for stimulating comparative history.

Plenary speakers include:

Professor Tim Harris (Brown, Providence RI, US),‘Francophobia in late Stuart England’
Professor David Hayton (Queens, Belfast, UK), ‘Louis XIV, James II, and the conflict in Ireland’
Professor Henk van Nierop (Amsterdam, NL), ‘Romeyn de Hooghe’s Louis XIV’
Professor Hendrik Ziegler (Hamburg, D),‘Image battles under Louis XIV’

For more information, check the conference website:

http://www.bangor.ac.uk/history/conferences/louisXIV/index.php

or the Williamite Universe website:

http://www.let.uu.nl/ogc/William/

or contact the organisers

Tony Claydon (t.claydon@bangor.ac.uk) or Charles-Edouard Levillain (charles-edouard.levillain@iep.univ-lille2.fr)

Best wishes,

WU secretary

Siege of Wells 1978

This is interesting - footage of the Sealed Knot reenacting the siege of Wells.

Seven Years War at Terezin

Here's a cool video of the event in the Czech Republic set to some tidy Folkrock.

A Bit Of A Departure...

In a bit of a departure from our usual fare here on "Wars of Louis Quatorze", I hope our readers will indulge me a slight diversion. Both Ralphus and I are major fans of the 1950's to 60's Chicago Blues genre, and this past week we lost a legend.

Hubert Sumlin is a name that many, if not most, outside of the Blues world do not know. However, read any in-depth interview or biography of the guitarists that you may be more familiar with and you will often find Hubert's name mentioned. He has been named as a major influence by Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Keith Richards and many, many others. His signature guitar riffs have been "borrowed" by guitar players from James Burton and Steve Cropper in the late 50's to all of those named above in the late 60's and early 70's, and are still being "borrowed" by many of today's top guitarists. Hubert attained his fame as a guitarist playing alongside the legendary Howlin' Wolf until Wolf's death in 1976. He did periodically get "fired" by Wolf after a blow-up, and played with Muddy Waters for a brief time. He also did session work at Chess Records and has recorded with many of the pioneers of "Modern Blues" as well as with a multitude of members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

I won't try and do Hubert's entire biography here, it has already been done on many other sites, even the Wikipedia version is pretty good. Hubert was born in the Mississippi Delta on November 16, 1931 and passed away this past Sunday, December 4, 2011, at the age of 80. He will be missed by many in the music, and specifically the Blues, community. I will miss him. I was fortunate enough to see the Howlin' Wolf Band in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area in 1970 and again in New Orleans in about 1972. I was also fortunate to see Hubert at Eric Clapton's first Crossroads Guitar Festival in Dallas in 2004, and he could still play with the best, and did. Anyone out there who has seen the DVD's of any of Eric's 3 Crossroads Festivals, or the DVD "10 Days on the Road" by Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Double Trouble, will have seen Hubert play. His distinctive finger-picking style and infectious smile always stand out on the stage.


RIP Hubert, you will be missed and remembered by many. I thank our readers for their indulgence, and will now return you to regular programming.

Bill