Hello and welcome history friends and welcome to When Diplomacy Fails a series on the 30 Years' War.

I'm Zach Twomley and it's been a while since we last spoke. Basically,

between moving house and finally getting settled in, my body decided it was finally time to get

COVID and see what the fuss was all about. And then I was a bit miserable for a while and now

I'm finally better, but still a bit of COVID brain

left over so if you notice some weird terms or anything maybe my speech sounds a bit odd then

that would be why thank you very much for your well wishes and everything when I let you guys

know on Twitter and Facebook and everything else.

It's been really appreciated.

Sometimes you just need to let yourself rest and wait to get over it.

I tried to go for a run the other day and my legs are still sore,

so maybe these things will just take longer than I want them to.

Patience is never really been my strong suit suit but I'll do my best.

Two quick things before we get started.

The first thing you should know is that on Saturday, the 25th of June,

I will be taking part in the Intelligent Speech Conference.

It's all online and there's going to be some really good podcasters and historians and other public figures there. So I'll put a

link in the description for you to get tickets and you can join many, many others who signed up at the

last minute. The second thing you should know is that Matchlock and the Embassy now officially

has a sequel, Matchlock and the Rebel and Matchlock and the rebel is out now so i'll put the link in

the description where you can get that on your favorite places whether it's on amazon or apple

or barns and noble or wherever else the google link is on the way so a little bit of patience if you do

...