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Charles Esdaile

@charlesesdaile.bsky.social
337 followers 217 following 198 posts

Emeritus Professor of History (University of Liverpool) living on the Isle of Man; veteran wargamer; long-term member of the Sealed Knot; specialist in Revolutionary and Napoleonic history, especially Spanish; strong supporter of Ukraine.

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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
So sorry: I completely lost track of this exchange. Re my reading on LA, my chief sources were the monographs by Timothy Anna & Michael Costello (can't remember the titles, but they're in the bibliography of 'The PW').
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Hope all this helps. Meanwhile, the very best of your luck with your studies. Lesh yeearreeyn share, CJE.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Cont. ... of power & thereby secure the power to defend themselves (which is not to say that other factors weren't present too). For what it's worth, what my own research has shown is that, until the end of the war, there was no chance of Spain sending any significant help to the loyalist cause.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Cont. ... just two weeks to a massive French offensive in January 1810 that elicited virtually nothing in the way of resistance. The criollos fearing that this presaged the complete collapse of Patriot Spain and possibly even a French invasion, they therefore rushed to secure the levers ... TBC.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 30/06/2025
Fastyr mie voish Ellan Vannin! Thank you for this kind enquiry. In brief, the answer is that I am no Latin-Americanist and therefore was guided by the secondary sources I had read, all of which were agreed that the Latin-American revolutions were sparked off by the loss of Andalucía ... TBC.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 22/05/2025
Dusk over Peel.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Douglas harbour this afternoon: move over San Tropez!
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 21/05/2025
Now why don't I have much faith in this book as a work of history?
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
As many people know, I don't do messing about in boats, but look what I was greeted by when I went to catch the bus from the end of my street the other morning! Atmospheric or what?
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
And this is a very hot and sunny Peel the other day: here's hoping that the sun continues to shine all summer!
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 16/05/2025
Douglas marina this afternoon- eat your heart out Saint Tropez!
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
To anyone conversant with Catholic history, the reference to Leo XIII was blindingly obvious from the very start. Meanwhile, it is an excellent choice as a subtle statement that Leo will follow in Francis' footsteps, while yet not simply cloning him. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Pope Leo XIV: What is behind the name Robert Prevost has chosen?
Due to a longstanding tradition, newly-elected popes are asked to change their names.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Re yesterday's events in Rome, as somebody whose birthday is 12 August, I have always believed that the best people are Leos!
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
www.bbc.com/news/article... Once again, all very positive. For all that I myself liked him,Papa Francesco was in some respects a divisive figure, so it is good to see that his replacement has such widespread support, while yet clearly standing for precisely the same values
bbc.com
Pope Leo XIV: Continuity the key for Pope seen as unifier
The new Pope is seen as someone who could unite traditionalist and progressive within the Church, writes the BBC's religion editor.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 08/05/2025
Habemus Papem: Deo gratias! I'm much heartened by the election of Cardinal Prevost. As for the title he's chosen, it's a gesture in the direction of Rerum Novarum, the great statement of Catholic social policy promulgated by Leo XIII in 1890. All very positive!! www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Who is Robert Prevost, the new Pope Leo XIV and first American pope?
After a conclave that lasted only three sessions and 24 hours, 133 cardinals have elected Robert Prevost, now known as Pope Leo XIV.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 02/05/2025
www.bbc.com/news/article... While most people on here would never eat at McDonald's, many of us have children & grandchildren who like doing so. Can I therefore humbly suggest that folks find an alternative venue for family outings? Americans need to learn that actions have consequences.
bbc.com
McDonald's loses US diners as they 'grapple with uncertainty'
The burger chain says its US customers are "grappling with uncertainty".
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
www.bbc.com/news/article... Fearing the Greeks even when they bring gifts seems an excellent maxim here!
bbc.com
Ukraine war: Putin suggests Russia open to direct talks with Kyiv, as strikes continue
Moscow launched strikes across Ukrainian cities hours after Putin said he was considering a pause on civilian targets.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Running a boarding house was, I suspect, the upper end of a pretty common way poorer women got by: there must have been many widows living in tiny terraced houses who took in lodgers.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Good point! In the case of the pubs I have been looking at, the women concerned would have had to be pretty formidable (something that is certainly true of one of the women concerned, namely my great-grandmother!
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Yes: I am genuinely puzzled how the set-up worked in financial terms. The women were tenants, of course, but I have no idea how they obtained their positions or how the proceeds were divided up.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
A very balanced analysis: while his papacy had its faults, Francis I was yet one of the greater popes of my lifetime. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Pope Francis was a vocal critic of the powerful with a profound influence
The informal Pope aimed to shift influence from Rome into hands of the faithful, the BBC's Aleem Maqbool writes.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
A humble question to folk interested in Victorian and Edwardian social and/or women's history. In brief, no fewer than four female connections of my family were pub landladies in poor areas of Southampton in the period 1870-1914. Was tavern keeping, then, a common profession for lower-class women?
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Owen From Ohio @owenfromohio.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 21/04/2025
Like millions of fellow Catholics, I was deeply saddened to wake up this morning to the news of the death of Papa Francesco. Eternal rest grant unto him, oh Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him; may he rest in peace, amen.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 18/04/2025
Having spent much of the 1980's shuttling to and fro between the University of Southampton and Florida State University working on the link that produced the Wellington Congress, I was horrified to read this news. Best wishes to all concerned. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Florida State University: Man used police officer mum's gun to kill two at campus police say
The 20-year-old alleged gunman began shooting at around lunchtime near the student union building.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
This is a horrible decision that is the product of ignorance and prejudice, not to mention an attack on a small, vulnerable and defenceless minority which wants nothing other than life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. As ever, hard cases make bad law. www.bbc.com/news/article...
bbc.com
Supreme Court backs 'biological' definition of woman
The landmark ruling could have major implications for how sex-based rights apply across Scotland, England and Wales.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 12/04/2025
Hi @historicalsoton.bsky.social! Can you help? In brief, my gt-gt-g'father, Edmond Abraham, was the Capt. of the Vol. Fire Bgde that served Soton docks. Acc. to my Mum, his death in 9/1877 was brought on in consq. of a terrible fire he was called out to fight. Do you know anything re such an event?
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
So sad not to have been able to make this event (the only one in the long series stretching back to 1997 I have ever missed), but travel is not a runner for me at the moment. How good was 'good'?
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 10/04/2025
Who needs the opening scene? What about the sub-titles??
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Very much so! I think I was given a sentence or two to look at in a Manx class a while since!! I bet Clare (a very nice person, by the way) is making a better job of it than I did
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
To this day the funniest film I have ever seen! www.bbc.com/culture/arti...
bbc.com
'It was a magical chemical balance': How Monty Python and the Holy Grail became a comedy legend
Fifty years after Monty Python and the Holy Grail redefined comedy, stars Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam look back on the freedoms – and limitations – that shaped the film.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
Well said that man!
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Gerry Joyce-Magladene @deaconbluesky.bsky.social · 09/04/2025
War hero schools a chickenhawk.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Sent you an e-mail last night: hope all well (and that you enjoyed all the nefarious stories therein!).
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Yes: this was my take on it, but, like you, R Corps means nothing to me. It might help if I knew where the concert took place, but all the leaflet says is 'somewhere in France'!
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Yes, I know what you mean. I am retired but I am still very active academically, but, useful a temporary distraction though this can be, it does all feel rather irrelevant. I do what I can to hit back on Twitter, but I feel both utterly despairing and utterly powerless.
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Ursula von der Leyen @vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu · 26/03/2025
Radio Free Europe provides independent reporting to many countries where media freedom is threatened. We‘ll work with partners including 🇨🇿 🇦🇹 🇧🇪 🇱🇹 🇱🇻 🇪🇪 🇩🇪 🇳🇱 🇸🇪 🇸🇮 to support RFE's award winning journalism. The world needs media freedom.
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David the Trifecta: Fatty, Beardo, Weirdo @coldwarhost.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
FFS, I keep seeing people indicating they believe that Trump has ended the war in Ukraine. No such thing has happened. A dodgy agreement to stop striking specific targets is not a stop to the war. People have no damned idea how to read for details.
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The Lincoln Project @lincolnproject.us · 25/03/2025
Hegseth, Waltz and company texting war plans to a reporter on signal is just the tip of the iceberg. This whole administration is full of incompetent, inexperienced, and unqualified clowns. Our national security is compromised in ways we’re just beginning to understand.
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MeidasTouch @meidastouch.com · 25/03/2025
🚨 CBS News has received an internal NSA bulletin from Feb 2025 warning staff NOT to use Signal app for sensitive info, citing vulnerabilities to Russian hackers. These docs were sent pre-Houthi chat scandal with Jeffrey Goldberg.
cbsnews.com
NSA warned of vulnerabilities in Signal app a month before Houthi strike chat
The National Security Agency sent a bulletin in February warning of Russian hackers trying to access encrypted conversations on Signal.
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Fred Wellman @fpwellman.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
According to a source I have at the CIA, Director Radcliffe lied today under oath. Signal is absolutely not loaded on agency computers. As a matter of fact it’s specifically prohibited as an outside app. Skype is allowed for conference calls but not Signal. He’s lying. @markwarner.bsky.social
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Garrett M. Graff @vermontgmg.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
It’s worth stating this simply: For literally anyone in the US Govt from 1945 to 2025, Signalgate would require an instant resignation—and a criminal investigation. It would be a matter of personal *honor* to resign. The fact Mike Waltz & Pete Hegseth are choosing to fight it out is a terrible omen.
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Hakeem Jeffries @hakeem-jeffries.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
Pete Hegseth must resign or be fired immediately.
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Tristan Snell @tristansnell.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
This is what happens when you have an entire cabinet full of folks who would NEVER pass a regular security clearance. Led by a president who would never be able to pass one either.
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Kara Swisher @karaswisher.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Complete nonsense from Mike Waltz who knows better. He likely thought he was inviting someone else with same initials and fucked up. Every 13 year old can grok this idiotic move.
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Charles Esdaile @charlesesdaile.bsky.social · 26/03/2025
Could not agree more: just disgusting.
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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 25/03/2025
I'm not saying anything novel here but it really is just truly despicable to watch them use THEIR OWN COLOSSAL SCREW UP to slander the reporter THEY INCLUDED ON THEIR CLASSIFIED GROUP CHAT
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