1243
Henry VII’s great-granddaughter Mary never grasped that even royalty must win the people’s respect.
Perhaps it was spending her formative years in the French court that did it, but after the teenage widow came back to be Queen of Scots, she never seemed to understand that on this side of the Channel, people-power was on the rise, and royalty could no longer behave as they pleased.
Picture: From Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.. Source.
Posted December 10 2016
1244
The martyr St Euphemia played a vital role in preventing the message of Christmas from being watered down.
In 314, the Roman Empiror Costantine lifted all restrictions on Christianity, but intellectuals still held the philosophy of Plato in awe. Sometimes the Greek view of the Divine – remote, impersonal, unsullied by contact with Creation – tempted Christian clergy to back-peddle on the much more characterful God of Israel, who will dare all for love.
Picture: From Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted December 9 2016
1245
A professional journalist and author recognises that he has met his match
Bombay-born Rudyard Kipling’s first job was as a journalist in what was then the Indian city of Lahore. Kipling grasped the importance of sending his ‘honest serving-men’ out on duty in the search for accurate reports, but even the most investigative of journalists has to recognise that in certain company, he is a mere amateur.
Picture: Photo by Sgt Mike MacLeod, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted December 7 2016
1246
At twenty-five and owner of his own business, Walter Wilding thought his world was secure, but it was about to be rocked to its foundations.
‘No Thoroughfare’ came out in 1867 as both a novel and a play, and was co-authored by Charles Dickens and his friend Wilkie Collins. It is essentially a thriller, but it has some familiar Dickensian touches, such as the moral that character is what matters, not parentage or wealth.
Picture: © Roger Jones, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted December 6 2016
1247
One of the best-known of all battles in English history, but not because of the conflict of which it was a part.
Agincourt is not remembered today for its place in the Hundred Years’ War, a dispute over the royal family’s inherited lands in France, which England lost. Thanks to a 1944 movie version, it is remembered as a symbol of Britain’s backs-to-the-wall defence against Nazi Germany, which the Free French helped us to win.
Picture: © Penny Mayes, Wikimedia Commons. Licence CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted November 12 2016
1248
The textile moguls of Manchester and Liverpool engaged the Stephensons to complete their link to the capital.
After the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was linked to Birmingham by the Grand Junction Railway, it made sense for the business tycoons of the North West to extend this exhilarating new form of transport to London, and George and Robert Stephenson were given the job.
Picture: © Tony Hisgett, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted November 11 2016