English History – Page 11 – General History

The Percy family, marching with English history

Alnwick Castle in Northumberland / tumblr.com

This is more usually a first or Christian name, and sometimes encourages unfair laughter: “Come on Percy, show ‘em wot you got!” As a surname or family name it should inspire respect, possibly awe because the Percy family have figured in British history almost since the damp mists of Time.

The Percys were marcher lords (q.v.) in the far north-east of England. A William de Percy was given vast lands by William the Conquerer in return for helping him conquer England. He fought beside Duke William the Norman bastard at the Battle of Hastings (1066). (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-01-23T12:18:57+00:00 January 23rd, 2013|British History, English History, History of the Cinema, Scottish history, Today, World History|7 Comments

The Home Guard (a.k.a.Dad’s Army)

The Home Guard in training / dacorumheritage.org.uk

Thanks to a BBC-made TV series stretching from the early Sixties to the late Seventies, a phenomenon from the Second War has become memorable. The series was written about a force of elderly men and teenage boys raised in Britain as a home defence organisation, in case of invasion by Nazi hordes. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-01-19T12:11:37+00:00 January 19th, 2013|British History, English History, German History, History of the Cinema, Scottish history|0 Comments

The Hohenzollern family

William ! of Prussia / en.wikipedia.org

Of all the great and influential German families, descending from the mists of time, always involved in something – providing kings, making a nuisance of themselves, being or not being involved in charitable causes etc., the Hohenzollern top the list. There are still plenty of them around, but their power has waned. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-01-18T12:46:45+00:00 January 18th, 2013|Austrian history, British History, English History, German History, Greek History, Russian history, Scandinavian history, Spanish History, Today, World History|0 Comments

Archers and Archery

English and Welsh bowmen (and King Henry V) at Agincourt / lookand learn.com

An archer was a soldier, usually professional, armed with a bow and a quiver full of arrows. It would be difficult to estimate how long this lethal weapon has been in use, but woodcuts exist of Scythian archers employed by the Romans. The bow was not long, because the Scythians fought on horseback, but the arrow seems to have been at least two and a half feet long from goosefeather guide to the iron arrowhead. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-01-14T06:49:04+00:00 January 14th, 2013|A History of North America, British History, English History, French History, German History, History of the Cinema, Today, US History, World History|0 Comments

Two Hawkins, father & son, both ‘pirates’

Sir Richard Hawkins / thebiggeststudy.blogspot.com

Sir John and Sir Richard Hawkins or Hawkyns would have preferred to be called seamen, or navigators, or simply sailors. That is how British history books describe them. French, Dutch and especially Spanish historians prefer to say corsarios or piratas. But then most European historians describe any man (or woman) who sailed across the seven seas with a crew and attacked other shipping or a passing port – as long as they were British – as pirates or corsairs. The Spanish even call Admiral Lord Nelson a pirate, despite the awkward fact that he was a professional navy man who assaulted Spanish-held ports or Spanish ships when England was officially at war with Spain (or France for that matter). One could claim that that was his job. Hawkins however was by no means indefatigable, losing a sea battle to the Spanish at San Juan de Ulúa (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-01-12T07:41:55+00:00 January 12th, 2013|British History, Dutch History, English History, French History, South American History, Spanish History, World History|0 Comments

King Canute, Knut or Cnut

Canute was King of England, Denmark and Norway. There are various distinct ways of spelling his name, but he will always stay in the memory because of something he did which has either been misconstrued intentionally by historians and jesters, or properly interpreted, which I hope we will do here. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2019-03-29T20:08:37+00:00 January 7th, 2013|British History, English History, Scandinavian history, World History|0 Comments

The Intelligence Services

The new SIS headquarters on the Embankment, London / en.wikipedia.org

Where dictators or democratically elected governments rule, they need organisations dedicated to the gathering and evaluation of information, mainly concerning the intentions of other states that may not have their best wishes at heart. These are the intelligence services, and they have been in active operation for much longer than many students think.

Some historians insist that it was Queen Elizabeth I, with her faithful Walsingham and his ring of spies, who was the first absolute ruler to insist on full intelligence gathering. This is patently untrue. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-01-03T13:31:37+00:00 January 3rd, 2013|A History of North America, British History, English History, French History, Greek History, History of the Cinema, Russian history, The Arab races, Today, US History, World History|0 Comments

All-time mysteries: Roanoke Island & the Marie Celeste

Roanake: what happened to the settlers? / sonofthesouth.net

In Albemarle Sound off the northern coast of North Carolina there is an island which was the first English colony in North America. This is Roanoke, where a small group of settlers financed by Sir Walter Raleigh had tried to establish themselves in 1585. The local natives had had other ideas, and the beleaguered settlers were ‘rescued’ by Francis Drake, who had been engaged in one of his buccaneering expeditions in the Caribbean. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-01-02T10:39:57+00:00 January 2nd, 2013|A History of North America, British History, English History, Today, US History, World History|0 Comments

Serfs

As villeins or servants of a medieval lord serfs were not actually slaves, though many writers of historical novels would have them so. Peasants they were, and by no means free. They were there to work the land of the lord (from which comes the more modern expression ‘landlord’). Serfs represented the lowest possible level of society. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2013-01-02T08:58:08+00:00 January 2nd, 2013|Austrian history, British History, English History, French History, German History, Philosophy, Russian history, Today, World History|0 Comments

Dr. Beeching & the British railways (1960s)

Dr. Beeching: not even Hitler could have done so much to change the face of Britain / mirror.co.uk

One of the greatest achievements of the Victorians took place in the home country, not abroad somewhere in the over-large Empire. A railway network second to none, not even the massive transcontinental railroads of the United States, sprang up linking every part of the United Kingdom. Just before the First War there were over 20,000 miles of railway in Britain.

As part of the great nationalization craze after the Second War under Clement Atlee, great names of railway companies vanished: GWR, LNER, LMS and other acronyms for rail companies were not to be heard again, though with the de-nationalisation at the end of the 20^th century, old companies were revived under new names. (more…)

By Dean Swift| 2012-12-28T12:46:49+00:00 December 28th, 2012|A History of North America, British History, English History, Scottish history, Today|0 Comments