‘Benedict’ popes before Benedict XVI
Benedict XIV, from a painting by Benoit / en.wikipedia.org Pope Francisco recently reached the throne of Peter because his predecessor decided, wisely perhaps, to retire from the Papacy before his death – a [...]
Bundeswehr
/ elrobotpescador.com After Federal Germany’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in May, 1955, the Federal German Armed Forces came into being under the name Bundeswehr. At first, it consisted of [...]
Burgundy: Kingdom,Duchy and House
An artist’s impression of Burgundian knights in gothic armour / pinterest.com Burgundy, a region of France, was first a kingdom after the collapse of the Roman Empire, roughly speaking the fifth century. It [...]
The reputation of Benedict Arnold
/ popscreen.com Even in 2015, some two hundred and fourteen years after his death, the name Benedict Arnold can inspìre in thinking Americans either an adverse or admiring reaction. “Traitor!’ “Outcast!” some will [...]
Further thoughts on American colonial independence
1774: hundreds of anti-Revolution families leave the Colonies for Canada / travelanguist.com The war that established the independence from Britain of the thirteen American colonies took place between 1775 and 1783, and is [...]
That’s Hollywood!
During the 1980s and 90s of the last century a giant crop of young, or very young male actors began appearing in major films made in Hollywood, or on location by Hollywood. They were the [...]
Nikolai G. Chernyshevsky
/ goodreads.com The name is unknown to most of us in the 21st century, and seems to be in a state of banishment from the minds of some of today’s historians too. Yet [...]
Further thoughts on the Ardennes Offensive
US soldiers fighting in typical Ardennes winter weather /warfarehistorynetwork.com Shakespeare has generals dancing together in a suitably stately manner, on board ships in his play Antony and Cleopatra. The Battle of the Bulge, [...]
Alsace/Lorraine & Schleswig/Holstein
These two tongue-twisters used not only to twist tongues, but eject furious spittle from the pursed mouth of European statesmen and politicians. The problem is not only of dual nationality and two different languages, but [...]
Queen Elizabeth I (the ‘Virgin Queen’)
The queen in ‘the Armada Portrait’, note the right hand resting comfortably on the globe /en.wikipedia.org The only half-decent member of the infamous Tudor dynasty was Elizabeth, born in 1533. She was the [...]
The importance of being Okinawa
Yamato goes to war! / tamiya.com In April, 1945, the 2nd World War was very far from over. A huge invasion of the French mainland was planned for June. Japan, however, was seen [...]
The ‘White Terror’
Jean Cottereau, leader of the ‘Chouans’ / en wikipedia.org It is a common misconception that the French Revolution (q.v.), the ‘Terror’ and the fall of Robespierre and other leading Jacobins, led immediately to [...]
The dry martini cocktail
The green olive properly speared / noilly prat.com The history of this cocktail is not without incident. It is a potentially lethal mixture of a raw spirit – gin – with a distillation [...]
A seventeenth century diarist – Samuel Pepys
/ en.wikipedia.org History too is re-cycled, like glass, water, paper and other essenials. A history book is nothing more than a re-thinking, in some cases revising as well, of what an earlier historian [...]
Some ineffectual prime ministers
Britain has had some seventy-five prime ministers since the year 1721. Many in the earlier days came from the higher aristocracy, were landed and naturally unpaid. Many, but by no means all, had been to [...]
Further thoughts on John of Gaunt & his son Henry Bolingbroke
The old Palace of the Savoy / freegaes.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com In early February, 1399, John of Gaunt died in Leicester. He was fifty-eight years old – not a bad age-scale for the fourteenth century. His [...]
Further thoughts on Edward I of England
Artist’s impression of King Edward / genial.net On the afternoon of 7th July, 1307, the Plantagenet king of England Edward I died on his way north with a huge army. His intention had [...]
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