In today’s world, where nothing is as it appears to be, and everything is found wrong by the masses and right by the few, democracy is associated with the Utopian idea of the people choosing governments by periodic free and multi-party elections. To put it another way, it is a system of government in which sovereignty is supposed to rest with the people, who either rule others directly, or through representatives. (more…)
The Declaration of Independence is the founding document of the United States of America, which unilaterally declared a separation from Britain, and was adopted by the Continental Congress on 4th July, 1776. (more…)
William Pitt (the Elder) / commons.wikimedia.org
William PItt, 1st Earl of Chatham, sometimes known as Pitt the Elder, was born in 1708, narrowly avoiding the tumultuous seventeenth century in Europe. He joins the brief list of brilliant orators and parliamentarians who rose to become Prime Minister (1756-61, 1766-68). Politically, he was Whig – a liberal of the original stamp who earned the mistrust of Hanoverian George II. (more…)
Archbishop Scrope came to a bad end / commons.wikimedia.org
Before anything else the careful writer must define the phrase ‘ruling classes’. In these peculiar days of forced equality, where the American rule of political correctitude insists on the total exclusion of old-fashioned terms such as ‘the lower, middle and upper classes’, the term ‘ruling classes’ is not elitist. It defines the kind of people who tend to make a career out of ruling over others – politicians for instance. (more…)
The Iron Duke, from the painting by Goya / 100swallows.wordpress.com
History embraces an Iron Chancellor (von Bismarck) and an Iron Duke (Wellington). Their descendents are still around, in the luscious form of Gunilla, and rotund form of the present Duke, formerly Marquess of Duero. (more…)
Despite being Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796, Catherine was not Russian. She was a German princess, Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst. She made a royal marriage of convenience in 1745 with the future Emperor Peter III. This prince seemed to be that usual lethal Russian cocktail of half-insanity mixed with extreme cruelty.
In 1762, only six months after he had succeeded as Emperor, Peter was murdered. As Catherine was proclaimed Empress by the soldiers who had formed his personal guard, historians have not found it difficult to attribute guilt for the assassination to Catherine herself. To judge by contemporary accounts and court diaries, it seems that the lady was well rid of her obnoxious husband.
Catherine ruled Russia for forty-four years. She was an intelligent, ambitious woman who corresponded with French philosopher and nuisance Voltaire. Amazingly for Russian royalty (even by marriage) she was considered a bit of a liberal, even enlightened. (more…)
Equestrian statue of Richard the Lionheart outside the Palace of Westminster / common.wikimedia.org
Though they were called Richard(s) I, II, and III none was father or son to another. If you like dates, remember these: Richard I, 1157 – 99: Richard II, 1367 – 1400: Richard III, 1452 – 1485. Not one of the three reached fifty years of age.
Richard I, known as ‘Lionheart’ was the third son of Henry II (qv) and Eleanor of Aquitaine. He was a duke at twelve years old, and a terrible nuisance to his father. He made a good soldier, however, which was an essential in the medieval epoch. In 1173 he joined his brothers Geoffrey and John in irritating conspiracies, and all three were banged up in gloomy prisons by Henry II for varying periods.
Richard only spent six months of his entire life in England, being much more of a French knight than an English one. Henry II at last died, having made the remarkable discovery that his sons were revolting. The king too had spent most of his life at his castle in Chinon, which history tourists might like to know is still there. Henry died in 1189, worn out by his clever, extremely rich and permanently scheming wife, and dissatisfied with his sons Henry, Richard, John and Geoffrey. (more…)
Smart city-dwellers fear their deluded vision of the countryside. Safe in the penthouse, their remembrance (if they have any) of staying in the country is of cold and discomfort in winter, sweating, mosquito-laden summers, fear of a dark, leafy lane walking back from the pub (if they can find a country pub that is still open). (more…)
Andromeda rescued by Perseus / antiqueart.tumblr,com
Some quotations: ‘An apple a day keeps the doctor away’; ‘Adam was but human – this explains it all. He did not want the apple for the apple’s sake; he wanted it only because it was forbidden’; ‘the apple of his eye’; ‘A goodly apple rotten at the heart’ ; ‘But I, when I undress me/Each night upon my knees/Will ask the Lord to bless me/With apple pie and cheese’.
Adam and Eve and an Apple
Utterly alone in a Garden, with only an apple tree and a snake for company, Adam was invited to invent original sin by his woman. She offered him an apple, not for God’s sake because He had said it was Forbidden Fruit; Adam took the apple with which the serpent had seduced Eve, and all Corruption since knows its source. What must Adam have thought as they were both driven from the Garden by an angel with a flaming sword? Is the treatment fair? What might have happened if Adam had said, “Apple? Faugh! Leave the fruit eating to bats man! Or Cain maybe?” (more…)
British Empire 1920s
The Empire was established over three centuries, and came about because of commercial and political motives. Enemies of colonial empires will disagree; they will shout that the motives were greed and expansionism. Whatever, the Empire was at its height in the late 19th and early 20th centuries comprising about one quarter of the world’s area and population. (more…)