Desmond Seward > Quotes

“Throughout the history of the Deutschritter the German genius is very evident, romantic idealism implemented with utter ruthlessness.”
― Desmond Seward, The Monks of War: The Military Religious Orders

“And though Hitler ruined Europe, destroying its dominance, he did at least demolish some of the obstacles which stood in the way of a united continent. Napoleon called the continent ‘a rotten old whore whom I shall treat as I please’, while in 1943 Goebbels recorded the Führer’s ‘unshakeable conviction that the Reich will be master of all Europe’ – two years later, just before his death, Hitler said of the continent, ‘I had to rape it in order to possess it.”
― Desmond Seward, Napoleon and Hitler: A Comparative Biography

“I certainly deprecate any comparison between Herr Hitler and Napoleon: I do not wish to insult the dead. Winston Churchill, speech at Harrow in December 1940”
― Desmond Seward, Napoleon and Hitler: A Comparative Biography

“Robert was found guilty of her murder, condemned to death and ‘chased out of the realm of France’ as Froissart puts it; there were allegations, probably justified, of witchcraft.”
― Desmond Seward, A Brief History of the Hundred Years War: The English in France, 1337-1453

“A certain Roland le Fartère was given a small manor in Suffolk by the king on condition that every Christmas he gave a jump, a whistle and a fart before Henry and his courtiers. (Unum saltum et siffletum et unum bumbulum.)”
― Desmond Seward, The Demon's Brood