Friends Though Divided:

A Tale of the Civil War

by G. A. Henty

England is torn by a great conflict between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads. The two heroes, Harry Furness and Herbert Rippinghall, are on opposite sides of the struggle, with adventures that spread to Ireland and Bermuda and the efforts of Charles II to regain the throne.

  

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 PREFACE.

MY DEAR LADS: Although so long a time has elapsed since the great civil war in England, men are still almost as much divided as they were then as to the merits of the quarrel, almost as warm partisans of the one side or the other. Most of you will probably have formed an opinion as to the rights of the case, either from your own reading, or from hearing the views of your elders. For my part, I have endeavored to hold the scales equally, to relate historical facts with absolute accuracy, and to show how much of right and how much of wrong there was upon either side. Upon the one hand, the king by his instability, bad faith, and duplicity alienated his best friends, and drove the Commons to far greater lengths than they had at first dreamed of. Upon the other hand, the struggle, begun only to win constitutional rights, ended owing to the ambition, fanaticism, and determination to override all rights and all opinions save their own, of a numerically insignificant minority of the Commons, backed by the strength of the army in the establishment of the most complete despotism England has ever seen. It may no doubt be considered a failing on my part that one of my heroes has a very undue preponderance of adventure over the other. This I regret; but after the scale of victory turned, those on the winning side had little to do or to suffer, and one's interest is certainly with the hunted fugitive, or the slave in the Bermudas, rather than with the prosperous and well-to-do citizen.

Yours very sincerely,

G. A. HENTY.

Won by the Sword: The Thirty Years' War

By G.A.Henty

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PREFACE.

In my preface to the Lion of the North I expressed a hope that I might some day be able to continue the history of the Thirty Years' War. The deaths of Gustavus and his great rival Wallenstein, and the crushing defeat of the Swedes and their allies at the battle of Nordlingen, brought the first period of that war to a close. Hostilities, indeed, never ceased, but the Swedes no longer played the leading part on the Protestant side that they had hitherto occupied. Oxenstiern, the great chancellor of Sweden, saw that the only hope of eventual success lay in engaging France in the struggle, and he and the Duke of Weimar went to Paris and pointed out to Richelieu that unless France intervened, Austria must become the master of all Germany, and as the ally of Spain would have it in her power to completely dominate France. Richelieu perceived the opportunity, made a treaty with the Swedes and Weimar, and engaged to grant large subsidies to the former, and to send an army to co-operate with the latter. Then began the second period of this long and terrible struggle, France now taking the place that Sweden had hitherto occupied, and bearing the brunt of the conflict. She emerged triumphant, with her territories largely increased, while Austria was crushed and humiliated, and Spain was dethroned from her position as the dominating power of Europe. The success of France was greatly due to the fact that her armies were led by two of the greatest military geniuses of all times, viz. Conde and Turenne, men of very different types, but equally great as commanders, and equally, at the time of which we are speaking, devoted to the cause of France. Both were men of extraordinary personal courage, and although one was as prudent and careful of the lives of his troops as the other was impetuous and careless at what cost he won his victories, they worked together with a harmony that could have hardly been expected among men so differently constituted. Although in the subsequent wars of the Fronde they took different sides, their friendship, except during a short period of alienation, was never shaken, and their admiration for each other's genius never abated.

G. A. HENTY.

Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings

MAPS OF THE ANCIENT SEA KINGS by Charles Hapgood


I have Maps of the Ancient Sea Kings by Charles Hapgood in my library – fantastic book. I like this youtube but I believe the conclusions and illusions are wrong.
We have been brainwashed to believe in evolution – that man has “developed”. I don’t believe that at all.
Our entire outlook changes when we look at history from the opposite point of view. The Egyptians were consumed with “death” because, let us believe, it was a new occurrence for the age. Man before them lived long, long enough to do very incredible things like create fantastically technical structures and maps.