The wit of two conductors
Sir Thomas Beecham / dailymail.co.uk It is possible that many players in orchestras have heard very funny comments made to them during rehearsal, or even during the actual performance of an orchestral piece. [...]
The demise of the Church of England
Dr. Michael Ramsey A distinguished elderly gentleman on a professional foreign tour, lay on his hotel bed waiting for news of a cancelled flight. His press secretary found him there, hands clasped behind [...]
Four Sforzas
Carlo Sforza / en.wikipedia.org It would be hard to think what the history of Italy would have been without the Sforza family. We have already studied the Visconti, the Medici, the Este and [...]
The Girondins
Jacques Brissot / en.wikipedia.org In the General History blogsite many posts have appeared dealing with different aspects of the French Revolution; there will have been many references to Jacobins and Girondins, both being [...]
An error in author names
Our editor has noticed that on Wikipedia, one of the pieces on Winston Churchill originally appeared, with a new link, under the author name of JAMES DEAN instead of DEAN SWIFT. In case this error [...]
Errata in the printed version of General History
After the successful publication of three edited volumes of General History, we have discovered to our astonishment that errors abound! Prepositions and full stops have vanished. There are unwanted spaces between words. In Volume Three [...]
Fascism – a dreaded word
Fasci or Fasces / britannica.com Fasci, literally meaning ‘bundles’, and perhaps descending from the fasci of thin staves of wood carried by Roman officials as symbol of authority, were established in Sicilian towns [...]
William the ‘Sailor King’
/ paranormalx.yolasite.com William IV King of Great Britain and Ireland was born in the eighteenth century (1765) and died seventy-two years later. He was also King of Hanover from 1830 to 1837, because [...]
Henry VI of England, sad man and king
/ en wikipedia.org Henry was born in 1421, and became King of England at the age of one. He had two reigns, due to the Wars of the Roses. The first lasted from [...]
Latest news on the books
/thehealthjunction.wordpress.com Oyez! Oyez! Latest news on the books! All three volumes of Jeremy Taylor's brief chapters on world history, written under the name of Dean Swift for the website www.general-history.com and now in [...]
Who said it?
An auctioneer / joystiq.com Our first slightly intellectual quiz for the year 2015 presents the published words of an eccentric and wit, male, and the only clue to his identity is that he [...]
The army of British India
/ masterdraper.blogspot.com Also known as the ‘Indian Army’, this was a British – officered military force in India; the other ranks, corporals, sergeants and warrant officers were recruited from the native population. Even [...]
Hohenstaufen & Hohenzollern Dynasties (further notes)
What remains of the castle at Staufen / flickrhivemind.net Brief details of these two important German dynasties have appeared before on in General-History.com. Here are some additional notes: The Hohenstaufen royal dynasty got [...]
Some Alexander Popes
Alexander VI / listverse.com These four Italians and one Spaniard made a contribution to the history of the Catholic Church, positive or negative according to your view and that of historians. Each chose [...]
Some Clement Popes
Clement XIV suppressed the Jesuits / en.wikipedia.org Six Italian and one French, the following pontificates flourished (or not depending on their history) during the fourteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: Clement V (Bertrand [...]
Some Urban Popes
Maffeo Barberini painted by Caravaggio / en.wikipedia.org Three French popes and one Italian, dating from the eleventh century, the thirteenth, fourteenth and finally the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, form up for inspection in [...]
Some Innocent Popes
Innocent IV / ztopics.com From the twelfth century to the eighteenth century several Popes called Innocent stand out: they are:- Innocent III (Lotario dei Conti di Signi). He was Pope from 1198 to [...]
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