The Battle of Valmy
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most consequential battles of recent centuries. On 20th September 1792 at Valmy, 120 miles to the east of Paris, the army of the French Revolution faced Prussians, Austrians and French royalists heading for Paris to free Louis XVI and restore his power and end the Revolution. The professional soldiers in the French army were joined by citizens singing the Marseillaise and their refusal to give ground prompted their opponents to retreat when they might have stayed and won. The French success was transformative. The next day, back in Paris, the National Convention abolished the monarchy and declared the new Republic. Goethe, who was at Valmy, was to write that from that day forth began a new era in the history of the world.
→ Listen on BBC Sounds website
Guests
- Michael Rowe
3 episodes
Reader in European History at King's College London -
Heidi Mehrkens No other episodes
Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Aberdeen -
Colin Jones No other episodes
Professor Emeritus of History at Queen Mary, University of London
Reading list
-
The French Revolutionary Wars, 1787-1802
T. C. W. Blanning (Hodder Education, 1996) Google Books → -
The Myth of the Foreign Enemy? The Brunswick Manifesto and the Radicalization of the French Revolution
Elizabeth Cross (French History 25/2, 2011) -
The Wars of the French Revolution, 1792-1801
Charles J. Esdaile (Routledge, 2018) Google Books → -
Valmy
John A. Lynn (MHQ: Quarterly Journal of Military History, Fall 1992) -
The Fall of the French Monarchy: Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the baron de Breteuil
Munro Price (Macmillan, 2002) Google Books → -
Citizens: A Chronicle of the French Revolution
Simon Schama (Penguin Books, 1989) Google Books → -
From Yorktown to Valmy: The Transformation of the French Army in an Age of Revolution
Samuel F. Scott (University Press of Colorado, 1998) Google Books → -
From Valmy to Waterloo: France at War, 1792-1815
Marie-Cecile Thoral (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) Google Books →
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Programme ID: m0026vs5
Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0026vs5
Auto-category: 944.04 (France - Revolution, 1789-1799)