The Copybook

Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.

325

© Kresten Hartvig Klit, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.

A Matter of National Security King Edward III of England

As various ball sports began to take hold in England, King Edward III became convinced that Government action was required.

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326

Grigoriy Myasoyedov (1834–1911), via the National Museum of Warsaw and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Thrice-Holy Hymn St John Damascene

When the capital of the Roman Empire was in the grip of a violent earthquake, it fell to one small child to save all the people.

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327

From a manuscript of Froissart’s ‘Chronicles’ (?1470-72), via the British Library and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.

The Coronation of Henry IV Jean Froissart

On October 13th, 1399, Henry Bolingbroke was crowned King Henry IV of England in Westminster Abbey.

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328

© Michael Beckwith, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Sanctuary! Temple Chevallier

As late as the fifteenth century, criminals on the run could find refuge in the precincts of England’s great churches.

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329

© Mike Cattell, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Poisoned Chalice Temple Chevallier

Scientist and clergyman Temple Chevallier believed that the fast pace of recent discoveries in astronomy risked substituting a new superstition for an old one.

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330

Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain image.

The Shimabara Rebellion Joseph Longford

Forty thousand men, women and children, the last survivors of Japans’s persecuted Christian population, took refuge without earthly hope in a seaside castle.

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