It’s now 1709, and there’s so much going on that the affairs of Europe cannot be contained in two half-hour podcasts. Four, if we’re lucky, might be enough. In 1709 Part 1 we look at war and peace; the preparations for the former, the efforts made to secure the latter. The continent reels from the effects of a brutal winter, and weary combatants consider the relief offered by peace. But Mars is not subdued in all quarters, as in Spain a story of brave and heroic defeat develops, and completes a reconquest whose effects remain evident and, to some, contentious, even today. .