1351
Abdul Karim’s rapid rise in Victoria’s household made him enemies.
When Queen Victoria (r. 1837-1901) acquired a motherly affection for a lowly Indian clerk, her servants and her ministers were united in their resentment. But for a lonely widow weary of the flattery of courtiers and fascinated by the ‘jewel’ in Britain’s crown, Abdul Karim was a godsend.
Picture: From Wikimedia Commons. Public domain image.. Source.
Posted June 12 2016
1352
The grand-daughter of Queen Victoria was as close to the poor of Moscow’s slums as she was to the Russian Tsar.
Elizabeth (1864-1918) was the grand-daughter of Queen Victoria. Her husband Sergei was Tsar Nicholas II’s uncle and the Governor-General of Moscow; her younger sister Alix was the Tsar’s wife. Steadfastly opposed to violence and the abuse of power, she dedicated her life to peace-making and charity.
Picture: Photo by Hayman Selig Mendelssohn, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted June 11 2016
1353
King Philip V of Spain sent a second Spanish Armada against Britain, but it suffered much the same fate as the first.
The Treaty of Utrecht in 1713 forbade Philip V of Spain, grandson of Louis XIV of France, to claim the French throne. But his chief minister, Italian cardinal Giulio Alberoni, egged him on, triggering the ‘War of the Quadruple Alliance’.
Picture: © Nigel Brown, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted June 10 2016
1354
Lady Blakeney agrees to spy for the French Revolutionary government in return for her brother’s life.
In exchange for her brother Armand’s life, Marguerite, Lady Blakeney, is reluctantly playing the spy at a society ball. Citizen Chauvelin, of the French Revolutionary government’s secret police, wants her to find out what she can about the mysterious ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ who has been rescuing prisoners from the guillotine.
Picture: © David Dixon, Geograph. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted June 9 2016
1355
British sympathy for Roman imperial progress evaporated when officials began asset-stripping the country.
In AD 60, corrupt Roman officialdom pushed the dowager queen of the Iceni, in what is now Norfolk, too far. But Britain’s military Governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, was far away in Anglesey (dealing, as he supposed, with the last British resistance) when he learnt of it.
Picture: © Carole Raddato, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 2.0.. Source.
Posted June 8 2016
1356
The Scottish missionary and medic believed that slavery could better be eradicated by trade than by force.
By the 1840s Britain had so repented of her involvement in slavery that she was the leading force in worldwide abolition. One of the most beloved anti-slavery campaigners was Scottish missionary, Dr David Livingstone.
Picture: © Wellcome Trust, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC-BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted June 8 2016