English is a rich language not only because of an immense vocabulary, but also because many words in daily use have another, purely historical meaning. Take for example:
Author: Dean Swift
‘Dean Swift’ is a pen name: the author has been a soldier; he has worked in sales, TV, the making of films, as a teacher of English and history and a journalist. He is married with three grown-up children. They live in Spain.
The Anglo-Dutch Wars, Maarten & Cornelis Tromp, Michiel de Ruyter & Robert Blake
In the seventeenth century two dominating naval powers emerged, following the reduction of the great Spanish Empire and her navy. They were Holland and Britain: commercial and colonial…
Nine kings at Buckingham Palace
The photograph, still in pristine condition, obviously made by a master photographer, is historic in that it shows no less than nine holders of European thrones, some stable,…
The Two Koreas
The Korean Peninsula is divided into two, the northern part is officially called The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, while the southern part is simply The Republic of…
Discovery (Part II)
Columbus started his working life travelling in his father’s business. The first long trip was to Chios in the eastern Mediterranean, but he also sailed to London. It…
Brief stars in the firmament
There might have been others, and we will look for them, but the shortest period as a ‘star’ in Hollywood I can discover so far was Roger Herren’s….
Discovery (Part I)
The Crusades had not achieved very much, had cost a great deal in money and lives, but had at least one merit: they introduced the idea of travel…
General History – the first volume
The first Volume of General History as a book is on Amazon For those who are interested the first volume of my 3-volume printed version of articles from…
Balliol, John and Edward
John Balliol was born in his native Scotland around 1250, the exact year is uncertain, because of faulty records. When Margaret ‘The Maid of Norway’ died in 1290,…
Augsberg (Interim, Confession, League of & Peace of)
On the northern tip of the Lechfeld plain in Bavaria, two rivers meet and conjoin – the Lech and the Wertach. Here an occupying Roman called Nero Claudius…