163
The Despensers ensured that King Edward II never left their sight, but it was what Queen Isabella was doing that should have worried them.
Throughout his calamitous reign, Edward II relied on others to do his thinking for him. First there was Piers Gaveston, who thought seriously about very little. Then there was Hugh Despenser (here named Spencer) and his father, more intelligent but just as ambitious. As for entrusting the affairs of State to his beautiful, neglected wife Isabella, that never occurred to him; but it did occur to Isabella.
Posted November 20 2022
164
Edward II hoped to outshine his famous father by bringing Scotland under the English crown, but Robert the Bruce was ready for him.
In June 1306, Robert I of Scotland was driven from his throne by Edward I of England. Edward’s persistence earned him the name ‘Hammer of the Scots’, but it was Robert’s persistence that told in the end. Tradition says he had learnt it from watching a gutsy spider; but Edward’s death on July 7th, 1307, must have played a part, for Edward II was nothing that his father had been.
Posted November 18 2022
165
Edward II was given the crown of England on condition that he had nothing more to do with Piers Gaveston, and he did not keep his word.
Edward II succeeded Edward I in 1307, and was nothing like his father. Edward ‘Longshanks’ had been a man of determination, firm in governance at home, single-minded in his campaign to bring Wales and Scotland to heel. His son, though ‘fair of body and great of strength’, could govern neither England nor himself.
Posted November 17 2022
166
The Victorian working man had John Bright’s respect and unwavering support, but he could expect no special favours.
On January 28th, 1875, John Bright MP gave a speech in Birmingham during which he regretted the pressure put on voters in manufacturing towns to elect working-class candidates. A Mr Joseph Hulme of Burslem (part of Stoke-on-Trent) wrote to express surprise at this seeming prejudice, drawing the following reply.
Posted November 13 2022
167
For George Stephenson, the motto of the Stockton and Darlington Railway was a code to live by.
However pure Science may be, a scientist’s head may be turned by ambition, politics or gain, resulting in great harm to social and economic progress. Happily, George Stephenson was not such a man, as Michael Longridge of Bedlington Iron Works testified in a letter (here abridged) to Edinburgh engineer George Buchanan in January 1832.
Posted November 10 2022
168
A dinner host enthralls his guests with an extraordinary scientific experiment.
HG Wells’s The Time Machine (1895) opens with ‘the Time Traveller’ holding forth over the dinner table on the subject of Time as the fourth dimension, and the possibility of time travel. His guests are reluctant to follow where he leads, so he runs to his workshop and returns with a tiny, intricate mechanism in brass and ivory.
Posted November 9 2022