Musk won't last beyond Easter. Patton of course never lived to see the post-war reconstruction, a "suspicious" car accident. 

Communication was very slow back then. It took weeks or months for news to reach

the western states. This includes the murder of Abraham Lincoln. 

10 April 1814 - The Battle of Toulouse.

As the Allied armies of Russia, Prussia and Austria closed in on Paris in the north the British and Portuguese led by the Marquess of Wellington were fighting their way through Spain crossing the Pyrenees into southern France in November 1813. 

On home territory the French put up a stiff resistance so it was not until April 1814 that the Wellington reached the city of Toulouse. As he prepared for an assault he and the French commander Marshal Soult, Duc de Dalmatia were unaware that Paris had surrendered and Napoleon had abdicated (see 31 March). 

The assault took place on 10 April and after a bitter fight Wellington's men succeeded in overrunning the outer defences while the surviving French retreated inside the city itself. The following day Soult observed more Allied troops arriving so decided to evacuate Toulouse and head north, then on 12 April news reached both Soult and Wellington that the war was over.

On Shula's birthday let's all commemorate a long forgotten battle -

11 April 1241 - The Battle of Mohi.

The last pitched battle of the Mongol Invasion of Europe, but not the end of the Mongols rampaging across eastern Europe. 

Coming in from the east with three armies the Mongol hordes swept everything aside as they rampaged relentlessly westwards reaching Poland, Bohemia and Hungary over the winter 1240/41.

Two of their armies, just two days apart, won huge victories over the Poles at Legnica on 9 April and at Mohi against the Hungarians on 11 April. In the latter battle at least 20,000 Mongols led by Batu Khan sought to cross the river Sajó by constructing pontoon bridges. Awaiting them was an army of 25,000 under King Béla IV. Although the Mongols prevailed and destroyed the Hungarians they too suffered heavy casualties resulting in a feud between commanders as to who was to blame. 

No European nation was in a position to mount a defence against the Mongols, so no more pitched battles were fought, instead the invaders concentrated on pillaging the entire countryside and capturing undefended towns leaving fortified locations untouched. The threat only came to an end in the spring of 1242 when news reached the supreme Mongol commander Subutai that the Great Khan Ögedei had died the previous winter (December 1241) and that a succession crisis required the presence of the Mongol leaders currently in Europe.      

12 April 1204 - The Crusaders captured Constantinople.

The Fourth Crusade was the most unusual of the Nine Crusades in that it never actually reached the Holy Land but spent its time in conflict with the Byzantine Empire.

Short of ships and gold the men of the Fourth Crusade were persuaded to divert to Constantinople in 1203 to restore the deposed Emperor Isaac II in return for his funding of the Crusade. This was quickly achieved, but Isaac refused to uphold his part of the bargain. With the Crusaders camped outside the city and their ships in the harbour a revolt overthrew Isaac early in 1204 to be replaced by a leading nobleman Alexius Doukas as Emperor Alexius V. 

The new Emperor was even less inclined to fund the Crusaders so, losing patience they decided on a drastic course of action. To take Constantinople for themselves. On 9 April they attacked the city, three days later it fell and Alexius fled. The Crusaders installed one of their own, Baldwin, Count of Flanders as Emperor thus beginning a 57 year occupation of Constantinople. 

The Fourth Crusade never reached the Holy Land. 

The Byzantine Emperors were all Christians but Eastern Orthodox, in fact one of Isaac's promises to the Crusaders to gain their support was to bring the Empire under the Pope in Rome, of course he did no such thing once he'd got his Crown back.

Alexius Doukas (Alexius V) reigned for just 2½ months before the Crusaders decided to get rid of him. 

Baldwin of Flanders was a Roman Catholic and his successors, who reigned until the original line of Byzantine rulers was restored in 1261, were all Catholics under Rome, they were known as the Latin Emperors.

Between 1204 and 1261 the Eastern Orthodox Emperors ruled in the province of Nicaea east of Constantinople. The Latin rulers didn't have the power to extend eastwards and it was not until 1261 that the Emperor in Nicaea was strong enough to reclaim the old capital of Constantinople lost 57 years before. 

The First Crusade succeeded in setting up Christian Kingdoms/Principalities in the Holy Land. The next eight were attempts to halt the gradual loss of territory to the advancing Muslims. Some managed to restore a little land and buy time, but all was lost in 1291.    

It wasn't long after that the Pope outlawed the Knights Templars, with the Holy Land lost they served no obvious purpose but remained wealthy, a prime target for avaricious rulers jealous of their wealth. 

13 April 1868 - The Storming of Magdala.

The climax of the most extraordinary war of the Victorian era.

By the early 1860s the Emperor of Abyssinia Theodore III was faced with mounting discontent and uprisings across his country plus encroachments by Egypt. He sent a number of letters to European powers requesting assistance and friendship, most of all he wanted British help. However the Foreign Office failed to respond, so in 1864 in a fit of temper Theodore imprisoned the British Consul and his staff later to be joined by all the Europeans in Abyssinia. 

Negotiations for their release failed and pressure at home over British pride and prestige meant that a rescue mission was planned. using troops from India led by Sir Robert Napier. The expedition was huge requiring firstly the construction of a harbour at Zula to enable the landing of the men and equipment, then a railway was built into the desert to get the army as close as possible to the fortress of Magdala 400 away miles in the mountains.

The total force numbered over 40,000 mostly labourers with 37,000 animals including elephants to haul the supplies over the final miles of mountain and desert. Beginning in January 1868 Napier's army took three months to reach Magdala after first defeating an army sent out to oppose him at Arogee on 10 April. Panicked by the size of the approaching force Theodore released the hostages but refused to surrender. So on 13 April the British stormed the fortress. Despite its natural defences it fell quickly with little resistance, 65 Abyssinians were killed, the British did not lose a single man. Once inside they found Emperor Theodore dead, he had shot himself rather than be captured.

Two months later the entire expedition had gone leaving little trace of the huge effort made to rescue a handful of captives.     

Yes, think of the last Emperor of Ethiopia (Abyssinia) Haile Selassie, that type of appearance. 

His son Prince Alemayehu who was just seven at the time, was brought to England after his father's death and raised in the care of an Army Captain. He went to school in Cheltenham and Rugby and it was intended that he would go to Sandhurst to be trained as an Army Officer. He didn't do well there however and moved to Leeds where he lived with a former tutor. Sadly he died of pleurisy aged just 18 in 1879 and is buried alongside British Royals at Windsor. 

Does "leaving little trace" mean they dismantled everything and took the materials and animals back to England?  If so, that's efficiency in motion.

Some railway track remains but unused I suspect. Not sure about the port facilities. Most of the animals either died or were shot.

" Englishmen are not usually softened by appeals to the memory of their mothers."  Rudyard Kipling.

Say it ain't so.

Mine is still going at 86. 

14 April 1471 - The Battle of Barnet.

Edward IV, who had been deposed and forced into exile in October 1470, returned to England the following March and entered London on 12 April to find that Parliament had restored him to the Throne.

On his rapid march south to London he had been followed by a Lancastrian army under the Earl of Warwick who halted north of the capital to await news from London expecting to learn that Edward had been denied entry. Upon hearing that Edward had been warmly welcomed and his Crown restored Warwick took up positions at Barnet to await Edward's inevitable arrival. With fewer men than Warwick (estimated 10,000 to Warwick's 15,000) King Edward decided on a dawn attack. 

Warwick's right flank under the Earl of Oxford pushed the King's left under Baron Hastings back into the town of Barnet which they began to loot. Oxford eventually regrouped his men and headed back to the battlefield, but in a tragic misunderstanding in the chaos of battle his arrival from the south was taken by Warwick's men as them having defected and joined the King and were fired upon by their own side. With this most broke and fled crying "treason". Sensing chaos in the Lancastrian ranks Edward gained the upper hand and routed the enemy. The Earl of Warwick himself was unhorsed and killed as he sought vainly for a mount on which to escape. 

With his death only an army led by Queen Margaret and the Prince of Wales, wife and son of the deposed Henry, remained, the final showdown would be fought a few weeks later.  

Henry VI was King from 1422 until 1461 when he was deposed by Edward, Duke of York who became King Edward IV. Henry returned nine years later in 1470 when it was Edward who was deposed. However Henry's second reign didn't last long. In March 1471 Edward returned as mentioned above and regained the Throne. Messages 350-355 last month explain much of this. 

Queen Margaret was Henry VI's wife, while her husband was either Edward's prisoner or incapacitated with mental problems she led the campaign to see him restored. Next month sees the end of Henry and his family, if you can wait until then.   

15 April 1450 - The Battle of Formigny.

One of the last battles of the Hundred Years' War with the English defeat leading to the French regaining Normandy.

By 1449 the French had retaken much of Normandy from the English, most notably the capital Rouen. In January 1450 the strategic port of Caen was placed under siege. An army of 2500 under under Sir Thomas Kyriell landed at Cherbourg and after collecting a further 1900 from English garrisons across Normandy Kyriell with 4400 men marched on Caen. 

After an early victory in capturing the castle of Valognes the English reached the village of Formigny on 14 April where the following day the French numbering around 3300 appeared led by Jean, Duc de Bourbon. Kyriell had the advantage of position and a large body of archers, a situation that had served the English well over the years against the French.

All went to plan at first, a French cavalry charge was repulsed by a volley of arrows but the arrival of an extra 1200 French and tactics learnt after previous losses resulted in a victory for the French. Over half of the English were killed and all but a few hundred captured, Kyriell was among the prisoners.

With no army left in the field the English garrisons in Normandy fell over the summer, by August the French had retaken all of Normandy.       

Always painting us as the bad guys.