355
Lord George Gordon marched at the head of 50,000 protestors to the House of Commons, to demand that George III’s England did not become like Louis XVI’s France.
The ‘Gordon Riots’ of 1780 were a protest against the Papists Act (1778), which eased the ban on Roman Catholics in Government. Fearing the Pope would meddle in English politics as he apparently meddled all over Europe, Lord George Gordon MP led an unruly mob to the Commons with a petition for repeal. In Barnaby Rudge, Charles Dickens dramatised what unfolded on the stairs up to the Visitor’s Gallery.
Picture: Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827), Public domain.. Source.
Posted November 8 2021
356
In 1657, Sir John Evelyn celebrated Christmas in a church for the first time in years. Unfortunately, someone told the authorities what he was doing.
In 1649, the execution of King Charles I left England in the hands of a Parliament of hardline Protestants determined to purge the Church of superstitious mumbo-jumbo. On Christmas Day 1657, Sir John Evelyn avoided the now dirty, unloved churches, clumsily improvised prayers and muddle-headed preachers, and found an old-fashioned Prayer Book service; but he did not enjoy it in peace.
Picture: After Samuel Cooper (1609–1672), via the National Portrait Gallery and Wikimedia Commons. Licence: ? Public domain.. Source.
Posted November 5 2021
357
Mary I’s fear for her throne had risen to such a pitch that her Chamberlain felt threatened by a three-year-old child.
In the Spring of 1554, Queen Mary I was in tense negotiations to marry the King of Spain. Edward Courtenay, Earl of Devon, had been widely expected to wear the crown beside her, but now she charged him with conspiring with rebel Sir Thomas Wyatt and threw him in Tower; and on March 17th, he was joined by Mary’s half-sister Elizabeth, rumoured to be Edward’s new love. Yet Mary’s minders did not feel safe.
Picture: By an anonymous artist of the English School, circa 1560, via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted November 5 2021
358
Sir Nicholas L’Estrange recalls two astonishing eyewitness accounts of the resourcefulness the fox.
The following two tales are given to us as eyewitness accounts of the astonishing resourcefulness of the fox, using careful planning and employing tools to get what he wants. Author Sir Nicholas L’Estrange found such tales of foxy ingenuity difficult to believe, but King James I (r. 1603-1625) was altogether less suspicious.
Picture: By Bruno Liljefors (1860–1939), Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public domain.. Source.
Posted November 3 2021
359
When William Shakespeare agreed to be godfather to Ben Jonson’s baby boy, he forgot that he would have to think of a gift for his christening.
The Englishman of the sixteenth century enjoyed a good pun (and many a bad one). This particular example doesn’t work unless you know beforehand that ‘lattin’ or ‘latten’ is an alloy of copper and zinc resembling brass, used to make affordable tableware; and also that it was customary to give babies at Baptism twelve silver spoons, with handles in the shape of the Twelve Apostles.
Picture: © HoppyH, Wikimedia Commons. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.. Source.
Posted November 2 2021
360
A prophet-for-hire agreed to help Balak, King of Moab, try to do something about the flood of Israelites pouring into his kingdom.
The story of Balaam and his ass, told in the Book of Numbers, is set in the late thirteenth century BC, some forty years after the Israelites escaped slavery in Egypt. Now they were massing in Moab on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, ready to cross the River Jordan into their Promised Land; but Balak, King of Moab, was feeling far from hospitable and already had a plan for moving them on.
Picture: By John Linnell (1792–1882), via Wikimedia Commons. Licence: Public Domain.. Source.
Posted October 29 2021