Short passages for reading, drawn from history, legend, poetry and fiction.
Attributed to Reginald Grenville Eves (1876–1941), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Britain’s first qualified female doctor, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, had a message for the first women to study for London University’s degree in medicine.
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© CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Only months after kidnapping the Duke of Ormond, Irish radical Thomas Blood was at it again, this time attempting to steal the Crown Jewels.
By Isaac Robert Cruikshank (1789–1856), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
Karl Philipp Moritz described three kinds of criminal in Georgian England, from the gentlemanly cutpurse to the deadly footpad.
From the British Museum, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.
King Edmund Ironside’s courageous defence of his crown against the invading Danes was undermined by treachery at home.
By Matthew Paris (1200-1259), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence Public domain.
The invading Danes fought so fiercely that Edmund Ironside, the young English king, threw all caution to the wind.
© Jakub T. Jankiewicz, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
Edmund Ironside, King of England, and Cnut the Great, King of Denmark, fought hand-to-hand for one of European history’s richest purses.