Napoleonic legends, tested against the evidence.
The Napoleonic Wars Podcast treats period warfare as a living argument, not a dusty parade of dates. Episodes move quickly through doctrine, weapons, commanders, archives, novels, television, and the stubborn myths that still cling to Napoleon's age.
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The Napoleonic Wars Podcast is a specialist history show with the energy of a busy seminar and the looseness of a good pub argument. Its centre of gravity is the age of revolution and Napoleon, but the episodes rarely settle for simple biography or campaign summary. They ask how reputations are made, why certain units become legends, and what the sources actually support once the smoke clears. A discussion of the 95th Rifles becomes a test of myth against weapon design, training, memoir culture, and Peninsular War realities. A cavalry episode starts from Murat and Wellington's famous images of mounted war, then pushes into the practical uses and limitations of horsemen. The marshal series treats Napoleon's commanders as a varied, awkward group rather than a single heroic type. That gives the show a useful friction. It likes famous figures, but it likes complicating them more. The range is broader than tactics alone. Recent episodes move from Sean Bean and Bernard Cornwell reflecting on Sharpe, to Gareth Glover's work saving Napoleonic letters and diaries, to the political power and legacy of Louise in Prussia. The format is heavily conversational. Presenters and guests trade prompts, corrections, jokes, and detailed answers, with the occasional side road before the main question returns. The result is quick and crowded, but usually clear. It expects the audience to enjoy names, regiments, weapons, memoirs, and doctrine, while still making space for context. The show is especially good at showing how popular memory gets built: through novels, television, battlefield stories, archives, uniforms, and repeated half-truths. It is serious history without ceremonial stiffness. It can be nerdy, blunt, and cheerful in the same stretch. For listeners who want Napoleonic history as an argument with evidence attached, it has plenty to work with.
Made for: For military history listeners who enjoy fast, detailed conversations about tactics, commanders, weapons, archives, and historical reputation. It also suits Sharpe fans who want the fiction connected back to the period that shaped it.
What sets it apart: The show pairs deep Napoleonic expertise with a myth-busting interview style, moving easily from Baker rifles and light infantry doctrine to television legacy and endangered archival material. It makes the famous stories feel less settled, and therefore more interesting.
Who was Napoleon Bonaparte? What was his legacy on history? And why, more than 200 years later, does the conflict which he gave his name to still matter?Join award-winning Napoleonic historians Dr Zack White, Dr Luke Reynolds, and Liam Telfer as they host Europe's leading show devoted to the American War of Independence, French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars.From interviews with leading researchers, to deep dive debates on some of the big questions, this show is ideal for those who want to start building their knowledge or deepen their understanding of the period.
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Military reputations meet social history, source disputes, tactical detail, and energetic debate in this close study of the Napoleonic era.
The Napoleonic Wars Podcast turns military history into a sustained argument about how armies worked, reputations formed, and power operated. Zack White, Luke Reynolds, and Liam Telfer move between specialist interviews and lively debates, testing broad judgments against…
Wellington and Napoleon take opposing corners; you're invited to question both camps.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
The 95th Rifles' legend is measured against the Baker rifle, battlefield use and the realities behind its reputation.
The 95th Rifles comes through as a unit with a reputation strong enough to harden into legend: an experimental corps often recast as something close to Wellington's personal commando-style force.
Bernard Cornwell and Sean Bean revisit Sharp as a character shaped by page and screen.
Sharp's Confession frames the Napoleonic Wars through Bernard Cornwell and Sean Bean, returning to Richard Sharp as the rifle officer who moved from Cornwell's best-selling novels into a 90s TV series with Bean in the lead.
A marshal's victories, failures, and open questions are kept in view without forcing a neat verdict.
This episode treats Marshal Messina as a study in bright victories and awkward gaps, setting Switzerland and Italy against the harder problem of Spain.
A portrait of Queen Louise of Prussia that treats visibility, charity, and public approval as forms of power.
The piece treats Queen Louise of Prussia as a public figure whose power came from being seen. Her travel with her husband, charity work, and close public presence all support that reading.
A grounded, practical look at red-coated light infantry, their training, skirmishing role, and place in British doctrine.
Red-coated light infantry are framed around a useful practical problem: how troops in red uniforms, and not always carrying rifles, could do the work associated with light infantry.
A lively commander debate that keeps returning to Napoleon's Italy and stays strongest when it argues in detail.
The episode works as a commander face off, with Wellington's method set against Napoleon's audacity. It keeps the central campaign contrast in view, and that pays off most when it turns to Napoleon's early Italy operations, where he is outnumbered, starting from a weaker…
A clear look at how ordinary men entered and adapted to the British Army.
The discussion treats the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars as a social world as much as a fighting force. It follows who enlisted, how class could seem to flatten once men joined, and how soldiers learned to work as a unit.
Outnumbered units, remembered under fire.
Battle maps, war films, and patient context.
War news, tested against military reality.
Antique European history, read aloud.
Hosts Liam Telfer, Zach White, and Luke Reynolds debate Bernard Cornwell's claim that Wellington was a greater battlefield general than Napoleon.
The host introduces a special episode featuring composer Lee Boys, who created original music for the Napoleonic Wars podcast, discussing the art of composing for historical documentaries.
An interview with historian Alex Burns about his book on infantry tactics from 1733 to 1783.
Professor Kevin Lynch joins the Napoleonic Wars Podcast to explore recruitment in the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars.
A discussion of the Battle of Assaye, a key engagement in the Second Anglo-Maratha War, framed as the pinnacle of close combat during the Napoleonic era in India.
An expert interview debunking myths about the 95th Rifles' elite reputation during the Napoleonic Wars.
An interview with Sean Bean and Bernard Cornwell reflecting on the 45-year legacy of the Sharpe novels and TV series.
A discussion between two experts on what it takes to become a marshal of France under Napoleon, highlighting the diverse characteristics of these military leaders.
A discussion on the role, types, and misconceptions of cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars with experts Josh Proven and Liam Telfer.
Gareth Glover discusses his efforts to save Napoleonic-era memoirs, letters, and diaries from private collections and auctions for public preservation.
The Napoleonic Wars Podcast tracks Marshal Massena from a peasant family in Nice, born in 1758, to the 1817 memorial at Père Lachaise.
Baroness de Krudener had a direct door to Tsar Alexander I, and their prayer meetings shaped the Holy Alliance.
Army veteran and Rifles Museum curator Rob Yule traces the red-coated light infantry back to the 1755 massacre of General Braddock's column in North America, through Sir John Moore's Shorncliffe training system, to the regiments' defining test at Fuentes de Onoro in 1811.
This episode pits two of Napoleon's most distinguished marshals, Berthier and Davout, against each other in a final showdown to determine who was the greatest.
Two historians debate whether Napoleon or Wellington was the better commander, with both leaning toward Napoleon but acknowledging Wellington's strengths.