Charlemagne and his Grandfather
Charlemagne / looking very like Christopher Lee) Charlemagne, a.k.a. Carlomagno, was the son of Pepin II, known as The Short, and grandson of Charles Martel. As King of the Franks he reigned at [...]
Three newspaper tycoons
Lord Beaverbrook Two of our three subjects were lords as well as tycoons. Beaverbrook and Northcliffe. That was because though one was Canadian and the other Irish, their press empires were British. The [...]
Democracy: what it should be and what (in practice) it is
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 [...]
Declarations (of Independence and Indulgence)
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. […]
Father & Son: Two Prime Ministers
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 [...]
Snakes and Ladders in the English ‘ruling classes’
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 [...]
The (Iron) Duke of Wellington
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, [...]
Catherine (the Great), Empress of Russia
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 [...]
Three medieval Richards
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, [...]
The myth of the rustic yokel
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 [...]
The Importance of an Apple
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 [...]
The British Empire in 1920
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 [...]
The Mutiny on the Bounty
Capt. Bligh and his few loyal men set adrift in an open boat / en.wikipedia.org Hollywood has attempted, once rather expensively, to tell us what happened on His Majesty’s warship Bounty in 1789. [...]
American assassins
Booth, an undistinguished actor / findagrave.com John Wilkes Booth Acting professionally on the stage is not a normal introduction to the art of murder, but Wilkes is the man who killed President Abraham [...]
Cataluña and the Spanish language
The news from Cataluña is electrifying. A pride of politicians at the peak of politics have decided that education in Catalan schools shall be conducted in their regional language – Catalan or Catalá. Reading, writing [...]
Useful Latin tags
Rome, where all this came from… From: John Charity Spring, Fellow of Oriel College, and Captain Harry Paget Flashman Esq, poltroon and coward, aboard the “trader” the Balliol College, as recalled in [...]
The British Parliament
The Palace of Westminster Senior legislature in Great Britain and Northern Ireland in the Houses of Parliament comprises the Sovereign (Head of State), and the Lower and Upper Chamber, known as the House [...]
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