August 10 in Military History — On This Day

Battle of St. Quentin

By now the war had left Italy entirely. Philip II's Spanish army, with English support, destroyed a French relief force in Picardy and captured the Constable of France. The road to Paris was open and Philip did not take it — he had no money to continue.

The battle that ended the wars by proving both sides were finished. Philip could not exploit the greatest victory of his reign because Spain went bankrupt in 1557; France went bankrupt the same year. Two monarchies with an entire hemisphere's silver and the richest kingdom in Europe between them had spent themselves into insolvency over Italy. Philip built the Escorial to commemorate St. Quentin, which is the only lasting thing it produced.

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⚔️📍 Portsmouth, England1628

Duke of Buckingham Assassinated — English Military Crisis

George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham — Charles I's favorite and Lord High Admiral — was assassinated by a disgruntled officer. Buckingham had led two disastrous military expeditions to France and was despised for his mismanagement of English forces.

Buckingham's assassination removed the main target of Parliament's grievances against Charles I but left a military leadership vacuum that contributed to England's weak position in European affairs.

Outcome

Buckingham killed; English military reform begins; English Civil War looms

Treaty of Bucharest

The Treaty of Bucharest, signed August 10, 1913, ended the Second Balkan War and established the borders that would define the region until after World War I. Bulgaria was stripped of most of its gains from the First Balkan War. Serbia received most of Macedonia including Skopje and Monastir. Greece retained Thessaloniki and won Kavala on the Aegean coast. Romania, which had entered the war at the last moment without firing a shot, received southern Dobruja from Bulgaria. The Ottoman Empire reconquered Adrianople (Edirne) and eastern Thrace in a separate Treaty of Constantinople signed September 29. Bulgaria retained only Pirin Macedonia and a short Aegean coastline around Kavala — far less than its military contribution to the First Balkan War seemed to justify.

The Treaty of Bucharest created the basic map of the southern Balkans that persists to the present. It also condemned Bulgaria to revanchist politics — its sense of having been robbed of rightful gains drove it into the Central Powers in WWI, into the Axis in WWII, and poisoned Balkan regional relations for generations.

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