Lord Randolph H.S. Churchill was born in 1849, the third son of the then Duke of Marlborough. In character more similar to his grandson Randolph than his son…
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.
Another figure from the French Revolution: Danton
Georges-Jacques Danton was another of those middle-class Frenchmen, trained as a lawyer like Robespierre, who flourished in what we are supposed to believe was a rising of the…
The Ashanti Wars (also ‘Asante’ & Asanti’)
Much of the 19th century in Africa was spent in wars between the Ashanti and an enemy tribe, the Fante, and the British, who made up in ferocity…
The Battle of the Atlantic (1939 – 45)
Lasting in effect the whole of the 2nd World War, this was a bloody struggle between the Allies and the German Navy and included airpower on both sides….
French Revolution (amended)
When Louis XVI was enthroned in 1774, the currents of European favour were running fresh and strong for ‘enlightened despotism’. France had nearly three times the population of…
A Pair of Pious Popes (amended)
Pius XI was born in 1857 and was Pope from 1922 for eighteen years, during which he inadvertently caused the collapse of the Catholic Popular Party. He did…
Hyde Park on the Hudson: all topsy-turvy
Kind friends at Amazon sent me the DVD of a newish British film which originally had a load of promise. Last year we first heard about the idea…
The dashing Prince Rupert (amended)
He might have been invented by Daphne du Maurier or Rafael Sabatini. He was outlandishly handsome and a lover of women; he was an aristocrat of the best…
The Mexican-American War
In 1845 the United States, in a fit of muscular expansionism, annexed the Mexican state of Texas which caused hostilities between the two countries, and a fair amount…
The Empress Matilda a.k.a. Maud
Even the best examinees in the History papers can become mixed up because of Empress Matilda. She was the English princess, daughter of Henry I, his only legitimate…