Clay Lane

The Copy Book

A Library of History and Literature in English

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703

The Adventures of Lord Forbes of Pitsligo

At sixty-seven, Alexander Forbes rode to war with Bonnie Prince Charlie, and over a decade afterwards was still a hunted man.

In 1688, King James II (who was also James VII of Scotland) unwillingly abdicated in favour of his daughter Mary and her Dutch husband William, Prince of Orange. Many who had sworn loyalty to James felt obliged to support the Jacobite Rebellions of 1715 and 1745, and at the age of sixty-seven Alexander, 4th Lord Forbes, of Pitsligo in Aberdeenshire, found himself a fugitive from justice.

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Picture: By Alexis Simon Belle (1674–1734), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.

704

The Holy Table of St Sophia

According to legend, when the Venetians tried to kidnap it the Holy Table of St Sophia in Constantinople made a dramatic escape.

In 1204, Crusaders sacked and desecrated Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire and most honoured See of the Greek Orthodox Church. For almost sixty years thereafter, the communion Table in the grand basilica of Holy Wisdom (Agia Sophia) suffered itself to be used for Roman Catholic services, but in 1261 the retreating Latins tried to carry it away with them to Italy, and enough was enough.

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Picture: © FaceMePLS, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0 generic.. Source.

705

Yoritomo and the Doves of War

Japan’s first Shogun owed his life and his rise to power to a spider and two harmless doves.

This tale from Japanese history tells how Minamoto no Yoritomo (1147-1199), a contemporary of Henry II and Richard the Lionheart, rose to power and became the first of the Shoguns, military dictators who sidelined the Emperors and wielded supreme authority in Japan until 1868.

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Picture: © 掬茶 (Kiku cha), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 3.0.. Source.

706

The Battle of Thermopylae

In 480 BC Leonidas, King of Sparta, frustrated the advance of Xerxes the Persian just long enough to change the course of the war — and history.

In 480 BC, the Persian King Xerxes (r. 486-465 BC) led a campaign to punish the sovereign city-states of Greece for their refusal to join his vast and dictatorial empire. An enormous Persian army recruited from all over Asia reached the eastern mainland late in August, only to find four thousand preening Greeks barring the way.

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Picture: © Davide Mauro, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.

707

The Battle of Hastings

After King Edward the Confessor died childless, Europe’s princes stepped forward to claim the prize of England’s crown.

When King Edward the Confessor died in 1066, he left no clue as to who was to succeed him; or rather, he left too many. Within months, no fewer than four credible claimants had presented themselves, and two were formidable foreign lords, King Harald of Norway and William, Duke of Normandy.

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Picture: © Antonio Borrillo, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 3.0.. Source.

708

The Luck of the Draw

Harald Hardrada made sure that his fate was never out of his own hands.

For a time, exiled Norwegian prince Harald Hardrada captained the Varangian Guard, Scandinavians in the service of the Roman Emperor. In 1038, he helped General Giorgios Maniakis win back Sicily from the Arabs, yet it annoyed Giorgios that Harald’s men always picked the best places to camp, and the matter nearly came to blows.

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Picture: From the twelfth-century Madrid manuscript of the History of John Skylitzes (?1040-?1101). Via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.