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…
Category: Today
The Passive Voice & the use of the Double Negative
The passive voice is most popular with writers and speakers in the Anglo-Saxon world. It is rarely used in Latin countries. It is formed by inverting the subject…
Monks, Friars & Orders
Men who renounced a worldly life in order to enter a monastery were many in medieval times. They are few and far between now, but the three most…
The Fuggers
Now before the bloodhounds of Google get hot about the collar and assume I am using a form of Anglo-Saxon four-letter-word in the plural, give me time to…
The Intelligence Services
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…
All-time mysteries: Roanoke Island & the Marie Celeste
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…
Dr. Beeching & the British railways (1960s)
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…
Special Note to followers of General-History
From today we shall take a short break, for travel, research and the Christmas holidays. Apart from the occasional Humour or ‘Quis?’ posts which will appear during the…
The end of the British Empire and imperialism
It is barely seventy-two years since a quarter of the human race lived, toiled, danced and finally died under the Union Jack. It is a very short…