Same as it ever was

So it turns out the 101st Flying Keyboard Division is off all times, as Joseph Addison could already satirise their breed in 1709:

…More hard than that of the soldiers, considering that they have taken more towns, and fought more battles. They have been upon parties and skirmishes, when our armies have lain still; and given the general assault to many a place, when the besiegers were quiet in their trenches. They have made us masters of several strong towns many weeks before our generals could do it; and completed victories, when our greatest captains have been glad to come off with a drawn battle… It is impossible for this ingenious sort of men to subsist after a peace: every one remembers the shifts they were taken to in the reign of King Charles the Second, when they could not furnish out a single paper of news, without lightening up a comet in Germany, or a fire in Moscow.

As quoted in Brendan Simms’ Three Victories and a Defeat: the Rise and Fall of the First British Empire, a military/political history of Hanovarian Britain from the ascent of George I up to the defeat in the American Revolution. A good read so far, very traditional in its narrative and focus which unfortunately does mean a lot of “Britain is propping up Austria to counter France and so keep the Balance of Power in Europe but oh no, now Austria is too powerful and Britain needs to swing behind Spain to counter Austria and so keep the Balance of Power”.