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It was during the troubled reign of Charles I that the very first bananas seen in Britain went on display.
The runaway success of Alicia Amherst’s History of Gardening in England (1895) surprised nobody more than its modest author. Plenty of horticultural manuals offered practical advice but Amherst and her contemporary Gertrude Jekyll helped put gardening into its wider social context. In this passage, she records the first appearance of a much-loved fruit but also gives us a glimpse of a courageous man.
Posted April 6 2021
434
A year into his reign as Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte had much of Europe under his government but the United Kingdom still eluded him.
Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned Emperor of the French on December 2nd, 1804. He dreamt of a European empire, and as Jawaharlal Nehru recalls here on land none could resist him. On the seas, however, it was another story. Barely a year into his imperial reign Napoleon was forced to accept two facts: he would never command the seas, and he would never conquer Britain.
Posted April 4 2021
435
Two former soldiers in India find British bureaucracy cramps their style, so they set off to become kings of their own land.
It is the days of the British Raj, and the editor of a newspaper in Lahore has done a favour for fellow freemasons ‘Peachey’ Carnehan and his inseparable companion Daniel Dravot. Now the two ex-army men have crammed themselves into the paper’s tiny, stuffy office to share with him a resolution. “We have decided” said Carnehan “that India isn’t big enough for such as us.”
Posted April 2 2021
436
Walter Raleigh had many grievances against James VI and I, but for peace with Scotland he was willing to forget them all.
When James VI of Scotland became also James I of England in 1603, Walter Raleigh responded by trying to put James’s cousin Arabella Stewart (1757-1625) on the throne instead. His reasoning had nothing to do with the union of Scotland and England. Now confined to the Tower for an indefinite stay, Raleigh occupied himself in writing a History of the World and declared the Union the best thing James had done.
Posted April 1 2021
437
As Napoleon Bonaparte swept from victory to victory in Europe, he began to think he might add the East to the possessions of the French Republic.
In 1793, the new French Republic began exporting her political ideals across Europe through the French Revolutionary Wars. By 1798, policy was dominated by Napoleon Bonaparte, a brilliant general who made breathtaking gains across southern Europe; but as Jawaharlal Nehru explains, when Napoleon’s eyes strayed towards India he awoke an altogether more formidable enemy.
Posted March 31 2021
438
King Charles I ended two years of uneasy peace with his Parliament by bursting into the Commons with a heavily-armed tactical unit.
For eleven years, King Charles I did not consult his Parliament at all, turning a deaf ear to their ever louder complaints about the country’s finances and about religious and civil liberties. In 1640 he relented, acceding to most of their demands; then on January 4th, 1642, Charles burst into the Commons to arrest in person five MPs on a charge of treason. It was to prove the opening shot of the Civil War.
Posted March 30 2021