William Wyndham Grenville
William Wyndham Grenville, son of Prime Minister George Grenville, and a first cousin of the Younger Pitt was born in 1759. He went to Eton and Oxford (as do and did so many PMs), and was sitting in the House of Commons as a Member for a Buckinghamshire constituency for only eight years before being raised to the peerage as a Baron in 1790 when he was 31.
One year before becoming a Baron he was Home Secretary, and became Foreign Secretary during crucial years for the British Empire – 1791 to 1801.
During cousin Pitt’s second administration Grenville chided him not very gently for his policies at home, which kept him out of the Cabinet, but Young Mr Pitt could not ignore Grenville’s immense popularity both inside the House and out of it.It was just as well that after Pitt’s premature death, Grenville was personally invited by George III to form a coalition government. For those students who are not quite certain what a ‘coalition government’ is, Britain has one now. Mr Cameron (Conservatives) and Mr Clegg (Liberal Democrats) are joint prime ministers, and the Cabinet contains officials from both parties. Another famous coalition was in action throughout the Second World War, with Clement Atlee as Deputy Prime Minister to Winston Churchill.
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Mary I, Queen of England
Biographers have already used hundreds of pages to describe the life of this daughter of Henry VIII. In a super-brief page on a website the writer must keep things down to a bare minimum. Mary I was the first ruling queen in England since the Empress Matilda (1102 – 67). She was born into the terrible but brilliant sixteenth century in 1553, the only surviving child of Henry VIII and the Infanta Catherine of Aragón.
Sick and subject to migraine from birth, she had to suffer the indignities of her dreadful father’s attempts at divorce from her mother in order to marry another woman (Anne Boleyn). During these goings on Mary was separated from her mother and never saw her again. She was a teenager of fifteen.
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Hundreds of comments have been posted on General-History following publication last year of the article on The Holocaust. Some comments are learnéd, some are not. Many are openly anti-Semitic. A few show sympathy with the victims. Some question the figures quoted. Anyone can find out the figures for themselves simply by making enquiries in any office of records in any of the countries I am about to list, or simply asking for statistics in Tel Aviv. For those commentarists who claim the Holocaust did not actually happen one feels sorry for those who must endure life near them.
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The bright young couple were proud of their beautiful Siamese cat, sitting observing the world at their feet one afternoon. The usual chorus of dogs in neighbours’ houses had just started, as it did twice or even three times a day, when sensible cats slithered or jumped into other people’s gardens, to kill a song bird here, lay a turd there, or moan in that particular way male cats have when another alpha draws near. Just then the Siamese said, rather surprisingly, “Miauw, miauw, wuff, wuff.” The couple looked at each other. “What did he say?” asked the wife. “Oh that,” replied the husband, “he’s practising; he’s going to be an instantaneous interpreter at peace conferences!”
Sean Connery
The admiral standing erect near the double entrance doors of the Connaught Hotel in Carlos Place is dressed as a doorman. No-one dares think of him as a doorman, for his majestic presence. Even his unbeatable calm is disturbed when a taxi stops outside the old-fashioned hotel and out step two gentlemen in their eighties. The admiral stares. One old man has bushy beard, moustache and white whiskers. The other, paying the taxi, has no facial hair but a massive double chin. He makes an affable “Good morning!” to the admiral and passes into the hotel followed by the six-footer who says, “Fine day my dear mun,” to him. It is an Edinburgh accent.
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Henry in the prime of life
Taken from the point of view of his victims, Henry VIII of England was (almost) the equal of Ivan the Terrible of Russia (1530 – 84). Both had a merciless way with opponents. Both had their closest confidants and advisors killed. Both are considered by many of their countrymen as great and powerful monarchs of whom one should be proud.
Henry was born in Greenwich, London in June 1491. As a young man he excelled in sports and music, spoke and wrote in French, Latin and English. He and friends invented the game of royal tennis which evolved into Lawn Tennis within four hundred years. He succeeded to the English throne at eighteen, after the death of his father, first of the Tudor dynasty, who had won it in battle against the crowned and annointed Plantagenet king Richard III.
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Now in 2012, they would be called ‘jalopies’, or ‘old crocks’, but in their epoch, some of the motorcars I have met driven were notoriously expensive, fast and comfortable. Some of the companies that made these treasures have gone bankrupt; two were swallowed by German groups which have maintained name and quality and even added some. BMW and Mercedes-Benz have full order books. Jaguar went through a shaky period owned by the Ford Motor Company, but has recovered its Englishness. The order book is full there too.
Silver Dawn (1950s)
My first fabulous car was a Rolls-Royce Silver Dawn (1952) owned by Kenneth Horne, a member of the governing board at my school.
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In August, 1819, a loud discussion which rapidly turned to unrestrained violence happened in Manchester, centre of the Industrial Revolution in England. As usual on these occasions, the row erupted between civilians and government forces in the form of local yeomanry.
A vociferous crowd, much larger than expected, had gathered in St. Peter’s Fields to hear celebrated orator Henry Hunt address them on what are these days called ‘liberal’ and ‘progressive’ issues. There were around 80,000 people at the rally, peaceful at first, but local magistrates, whose representatives were among the crowd, heard otherwise, and sent the constables to arrest Hunt.
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'Dean Swift' recommends plain English
What is plain English? What it is not is only too obvious, and can be read in all British bureaucratic communication, business letters, government departments, and sadly, much of modern English journalism – anywhere where there is linguistic contact with the public. Applications, safety instructions, official letters, licences, applications for licences or passports, insurance policies, hire-purchase documents, guarantees, instruction booklets for use of electric or other machinery etc. should be presented clearly, using language that people are certain to understand. With few exceptions, they are not:
Take, for instance, this real letter about house rents:-
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Now then . . .
This website is designed mainly for students of the subject of History. But it is followed enthusiastically by many thousands of people, especially young people, who are interested in general history, though not necessarily having to take examinations in it. From some of the recent Comments posted on the website, arises the feeling that we eliminate any criticism of the posts. This is untrue. We do have a policy over approval or disapproval of Comments, as follows:
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