Sad end of ‘Sissi’ / waymarking.com
The Emperor Franz-Josef of Austria and Hungary was one of the last really powerful heads of state in Europe who was not only a monarch but a statesman. He married a beautiful young German girl from Munich on April 24th, 1854, when she was just seventeen. (more…)
The Habsburg family tree drawn by Ed Stephen / paradocplace.com
I know that many people who should know better write the above name as Hapsburg. I am not among them, perhaps because I am a retired journalist, not a working one, and it is mostly journalists in Sunday Supplements who make this cardinal error. If you wish to avoid using either ‘b’ or ‘p’ you could call them The House of Austria . . . but that does not prevent them from being the most prominent, some would say enduring royal dynasty in history.
Habsburgs were royally installed on thrones from the 15th to the 20th centuries. The name itself comes from Habichtsburg (Hawk’s Castle) which actually is in Switzerland, not Austria, and has been since 1020. (more…)
The Romans believed in law, and tried to live by it, frequently failing when political necessities seemed more important, or integral to the purpose. Roman Law developed (in Rome) for around one hundred years before the birth of Christ, and continued after his death to circa. 220 AD.
Nevertheless, more centuries were needed before the Emperor Justinian (justly named: 482-565) codified it in his Corpus Juris Civilis which we translate as ‘Body of Civil Law’. Then, a long time after lawless Germanic bands had destroyed Rome itself and the remnants of its Empire (q.v.) Roman law emerged again in the 11th century as a popular subject for study in Italian universities. (more…)
In the same way as the British Army is divided into divisions (usually 3 in an army), battalions (any number), companies (4 in a battalion) and platoons (4 in a company), each with a commander of certain rank (general, colonel, major and lieutenant respectively), the Roman Army was divided too. The most important section was the legion, which itself derived from the citizen militia staying in permanent preparation for war in defence of the state.
During the 2nd Punic War (q.v.) it was the strategist Scipio who was responsible for re-organising the battle array, thus improving the army’s tactics and strength. (more…)
Take chicken or calves’ liver or some raw minced beefsteak, one large onion, olive oil, one level tablespoon of white flour, one third of a litre of recently made stock, a bouquet garni consisting of your favourite herbs, one teaspoon of tomato purée (or if you prefer raw tomato pulp with no skin), two large cloves of garlic (you don’t like garlic? Oh dear, what shall we do? Stop cooking? Live at the North Pole? No: FORGET the Mediterranean diet), and one table spoon of dry sherry. (more…)
A rather imaginative impression of Tiberius / biography.com
Publius Aelius Hadrianus was born just seventy-six years after the birth of Christ, his birthplace Spain, or what was then the Iberian Peninsula. Member of a patrician family, he was actually the ward of the Emperor Trajan. As Emperor he was a cultivated admirer of Greek civilization and tradition, which helped him unify and consolidate Rome’s enormous Empire. As a poet and writer he was prolific and talented, and his study of the science of architecture produced theories and practices which have endured. (more…)
Sicily is the biggest island in the Mediterranean Sea, in the southernmost part of Italy, opposite ‘the toe of the boot’. The island is separated from the Calabrian mainland by the Strait of Messina, which is only two miles wide. Most of the island is mountainous, with permanently snow-capped volcanic Etna dominating everything.
Wide plains are found in the south, though the region is still hilly in parts. Here vineyards, olive and almond trees are in abundance, though agriculture is difficult due to extremes of heat, damp and cold. To the north are the volcanic islands of Ustica and the Liparis, as well as Stromboli, the most continuously active volcano in Europe. (more…)
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. (more…)
Before the Second War a number of leading politicians and prominent people in society in Europe might have been suspicious of Hitler’s intentions, but preferred to come to terms with him, if they could. These were the Appeasers. They include Britain’s Prime Minister at the time, Neville Chamberlain, and his French colleague Edouard Daladier. But in Britain there were also Opposers, those who actively opposed the idea of going to war with Hitler at all.
The German Chancellor’s demands, made principally between 1936 and 1939, were exorbitant, and fuelled by his need for revenge against the Powers which had sentenced Germany to pay for the First World War, bringing about massive inflation and loss of national pride. The Appeasers seemed willing to accede to Hitler’s demands, much to the fury of Winston Churchill, a leading opponent of appeasement. For this stance he was (and still is), accused of warmongering. (more…)
Murat shot (by the French) after Waterloo / executedtoday.com
To reach the rank of Marshal in the French army before the Revolution (q.v.) was the highest achievement for a soldier. After the Revolution however, the rank was dismissed as ‘elitist’, only to be re-installed again in 1804 by Napoleon Bonaparte. It is said Bonaparte did this in an attempt to re-construct a system of honours (which was elitist) in France. The Emperor appointed 26 Marshals between 1804 and 1815. Where two of them are especially of interest to General – History, I have formed brief biographies. (more…)