Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2017 i History Extra

“Popular interest in Richard III seems to show little sign of abating, as his first place in our recent History Hot 100 poll confirmed. But is there really anything more to say about him? Well, according to Chris Skidmore, author of this month’s cover feature, there certainly is. For his piece on page 27 he tackles one of the thorniest issues of all: Richard’s dramatic and violent path to power. Was he an evil schemer or did events propel him in a direction he’d never intended to go? Also this month we’re covering two of the biggest anniversaries of 2017: the centenary of Russia’s communist revolution and the quincentenary of the European Reformation. On page 20, a panel of distinguished experts discuss the birth of the Soviet Union. Then turn…

On the morning of 16 November 1632, fog hung over the fields of Lützen. For more than a decade, central Europe had been torn apart by war, with rival Protestant and Catholic armies tramping back and forth amid scenes of appalling slaughter, hunger and devastation. Now the great Protestant hero, Sweden’s king Gustavus Adolphus, was poised to pull off another stunning military coup. For days he had been secretly tracking the Catholic imperial general Count von Wallenstein, as the latter fell back to his winter quarters. Now, peering through the thick autumn mists, the Swedes prepared for battle. For the next few hours, blood flowed across the fields of Saxony. Thousands died in the hail of musket balls and cannon fire, but the Swedes inched their way through the mud,…

“Chartism was effectively 19th-century Britain’s civil rights movement and the Newport Rising was originally conceived as part of a nationwide series. That ambitious project was abandoned at the end of October, but the rising in the ‘black domain’ of south Wales’s collieries and ironworks had developed an unstoppable momentum. The tragic consequence was the largest number of fatalities of any civil disturbance in modern British history. “I shall this night be engaged in a struggle for freedom,” wrote 19-year-old George Shell of Pontypool to his parents. “Should it please God to spare my life, I shall see you soon; but if not, grieve not. I shall fall in a noble cause.” Inside the Westgate Hotel, Shell managed to confront the mayor of Newport before being shot three times. The teenager…

‘Devil letter’ translated Scientists believe they have cracked a 300-year-old coded letter written by a Sicilian nun who believed herself possessed by the Devil. It was translated with the help of computer software, which used Latin, ancient Greek, the runic alphabet and Arabic to decipher the text. Viking ‘warrior’ was a woman DNA analysis of a 10th-century skeleton discovered in Sweden in the 1880s, and thought to have been that of a warrior, has revealed the remains to be those of a female. However, Viking expert Judith Jesch has argued that the skeleton may not have been a warrior at all. Bronze Age women may have travelled the world... leaving the men at home Analysis of the remains of 84 people buried between 2500 and 1650 BC has led experts…

Staffordshire Sentinel 15 May 1874 The 1870s showcase the height of Victorian decadence, as British society was captivated by the stories of ‘Fanny and Stella – the Men Who Dress as Women’, and Cora Pearl, the London Cockney Queen, who now ruled the demimonde in Paris. The press’s fascination with scandal and rumour from high society grew with every visit by foreign kings and queens. In 1874, the Staffordshire Sentinel reported a “very funny accident” from Dover, where it was well known that the Russian tsar, Alexander II, had lost his ships’s pilot. En route to England, the imperial vessel had accidentally become stuck in the mud, and the tsar was extremely annoyed at the time it had taken for it to be refloated. On reaching Dover, it was said…

Polish pride A very dear friend bought your magazine and on reading the article Captured, Deported, Humiliated, Victorious (July) contacted me and said “It’s your father’s story!” On reading it, it was about my late father Julian Bester, born in Lvov (Polish Ukraine) on 15 March 1925. The words in the article brought tears to my eyes as I could hear my dad’s voice telling me how he survived being taken away, with his family, by the Russians and working in the Siberian forest chopping down trees. I never knew all the details of his life until we thankfully managed to persuade him to write it down. Through Hell to Freedom was published about his incredible efforts to survive. I could go on for much longer, but my dad wouldn’t…

“An intriguing idea is that the divine can only be reached when the whole community is involved” What can objects tell us about different belief systems through time? The exhibition and radio series Living with the Gods is not about individual faith. It is about the shared beliefs of whole societies, the narrative of their place in the great scheme of things – and how those beliefs are then expressed in rituals designed to bind the societies together. We shall be looking at how both dead and living religions have tried to do this. Examining objects in the British Museum will help us explore practically what people really did, and do. The objects allow you to ground religious beliefs in the practicalities of daily life: how do people actually live,…

The Popes and Britain by Stella Fletcher IB Tauris, 320 pages, £25 The funeral of Pope John Paul II in 2005 was attended by the Prince of Wales, the British prime minister and the archbishop of Canterbury. As Stella Fletcher comments, “the establishment of a previously anti-papal nation could hardly have turned out in greater force”. When considering the long history of relations between Britain and Rome, moments of antipathy understandably attract the most attention. The cradle of modern British identity was the Reformation – a Tudor schism that cast off papal authority and provoked three centuries of vicious anti-Catholic rhetoric. Fletcher does not neglect this crucial part of the story, but reminds us that an “even longer history of co-operation between Britain and the papacy” warrants close attention. Her…

Queen Elizabeth I’s Secret Agents TV BBC Two Scheduled for late October In the late 16th century, England was a Protestant state on the northern edge of a Catholic continent, a pariah nation where there were countless plots against Elizabeth I. Two civil servants did more than anyone to counter these threats: William Cecil and his son, Robert. Over three episodes, this new series traces how the duo ran a secret state and introduced the nation to the art of ‘spyery’. William, we learn, plotted to have Mary, Queen of Scots executed, while Robert oversaw the passing of the throne to Mary’s son, James.…

Churchill DVD (Lionsgate Home Entertainment, £9.99) It’s 1944 and, as the Allies prepare to invade Normandy, Winston Churchill (Brian Cox) is beset by doubt. He worries that he’s sending young men to their deaths when it would be better to focus on the Italian campaign and Europe’s ‘soft underbelly’. Quarrelsome and fretful, he clashes with Generals Eisenhower (John Slattery) and Montgomery (Julian Wadham). Did this actually happen? That was a matter of some controversy when Churchill was released at the cinema, with Andrew Roberts lambasting the script by historian Alex von Tunzelmann. In particular, he challenged the idea that Churchill was opposed to Operation Overlord. All of which makes it tricky to know how to assess Churchill, directed by Jonathan Teplitzky (The Railway Man). As a piece of drama, it’s…

1 Old Vic Theatre LAMBETH, SOUTH LONDON Where opera reached the public In 1880 social reformer Emma Cons reopened the Old Vic as a temperance music hall, staging scenes from operas every Thursday night. Under Cons and her niece Lilian Baylis, the site’s opera provision gradually expanded into full-scale productions. Baylis later founded the Sadler Wells opera company that would eventually evolve into the English National Opera company. oldvictheatre.com 2 Her Majesty’s Theatre HAYMARKET, LONDON Where 18th-century opera thrived Her Majesty’s Theatre (whose name changes with the monarch) is the second oldest such site in London that remains in use – the earliest being Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. The first of four theatres here was built by dramatist and architect John Vanbrugh and premiered more than 25 operas by Handel…

BEST TIME TO GO October to March. The Jaipur Literature Festival is held in January. GETTING THERE By air from Delhi (an hour’s flight), or take the double decker train from Delhi and get there in four and a half hours. Driving from Delhi to Jaipur can take 5–6 hours, depending on traffic. WHAT TO PACK In winter the days are warm, but the nights can get chilly. Light cotton clothing for the day and a warm shawl, jumper or jacket for the night. WHAT TO BRING BACK Kurtas (a loose shirt), skirts, light Rajasthani quilts, bedspreads, cushion covers, silver jewellery, pottery and colourful Rajasthani puppets. READERS’ VIEWS Where to start? Next to Kolkata the best city in India. Check out city walls and gates especially at night, the Jal…

Elizabeth’s love rival Nicola Tallis on the battle for Robert Dudley’s affections A king in hiding Charles Spencer and Charlotte Hodgman trace the future Charles II’s attempts to evade capture during the Civil War era Blitz survivors Daniel Todman looks at how British people rebuilt their lives after the devastation of the Second World War raids Africans in Tudor England Miranda Kaufmann reveals the forgotten black presence in the 16th century…

Richard III’s ascent to the throne is usually regarded as a calculated Machiavellian plot, cementing his reputation as the personification of evil. But could Richard really have planned to seize the crown? • Chris reassesses the pressures that forced Richard’s hand on page 27 We ‘remember the 5th of November’ on bonfire night, but how much do we actually know about the Gunpowder Plot? Advising the forthcoming BBC drama allowed me to revisit the dramatic reality behind the myth. • Find out how the plan to destroy parliament fell apart on page 50 History demonstrates that heavily interconnected societies are inherently inclined to provide a polarisation of views, and that can cause problems. • Niall discusses social networks through the ages on page 65 *Subscribers to BBC History Magazine receive…

For the daughters of Henry VIII, 17 November 1558 was a day of tragedy and apotheosis. For months, Mary I, England’s first undisputed reigning queen, had been ailing. After a controversial five-year reign, she was suffering from ‘dropsy’ (possibly uterine cancer). Reporting to her husband, Philip II of Spain, one observer warned that there was “no hope of her life”. Early on the 17th, in bed at St James’s Palace, Mary was given her last communion. Moments later, she lost consciousness. By midday she was dead. Legend has it that Mary’s half-sister, Elizabeth, was reading beneath a tree at Hatfield House, in Hertfordshire, when the council arrived with the news. Just 25 years old, she had recently spent months under house arrest. Now she was queen. According to one account,…

What have you discovered about rates of venereal disease in early modern Chester? My research focuses on Chester between 1773 and 1775. My investigations into the rate at which adult residents were admitted to Chester’s infirmary for treatment of the ‘pox’ (what we now know as syphilis) suggest that, by age 35, almost exactly 8 per cent of the city’s population (which numbered 14,713 in 1774) had contracted the infection. By comparison, less densely populated rural settlements within a 10-mile radius of the city, in west Cheshire and north-east Wales, had a rate of just under 1 per cent. This is the first time anyone has been able to make quantitative estimates of the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) for any period before the late 19th century. The research…

A collection of nearly 150 pieces of correspondence belonging to the computer scientist and cryptanalyst Alan Turing has been found in a filing cabinet in a storeroom at the University of Manchester. Written between 1949 and 1954, the cache includes a letter from GCHQ, a handwritten draft BBC radio programme about Artificial Intelligence, and invitations to deliver lectures at American universities. The letters reveal little of Turing’s code-breaking work at Bletchley Park or his personal life, such as his conviction in 1952 for ‘gross indecency’ with another man. But they do shed light on his daily working life, including his groundbreaking research into mathematics and computing. Professor James Miles of the School of Computer Science, who found the letters, says: “They provide a wealth of information about Turing’s research during…

In response to RT Britnell’s letter on statues (October), the arguments in favour of these public monuments can be summarised as follows: 1) they convey valuable lessons on history; 2) they are reminders of the uncomfortable aspects of our past; 3) they somehow symbolise who we are and where we’ve come from, and 4) they are celebrations of specific aspects of a person’s history, for example their military genius or subsequent philanthropy. I would argue that statues do none of these things effectively. A statue cannot convey complexities, subtleties or multiple viewpoints. A statue is virtually useless as a history lesson and too simplistic as a moral lesson. Many of those who oppose certain controversial statues are not doing so out of a lack of historical understanding, nor because they…

In his desire to obtain the protectorate, something he believed was his right, Richard had potentially engineered his own downfall Westminster, February 1483. Richard, Duke of Gloucester was a man who seemed to have the world at his feet. Now aged 30, he had managed to transform his position as a younger brother of the king with few prospects to become the most powerful nobleman in the realm. Thanks to his loyalty to his elder brother, King Edward IV, whom Richard had fought for valiantly at Barnet and Tewkesbury – decisive battles in the Wars of the Roses – Richard had been richly rewarded with vast estates, allowing him to establish himself as ‘Lord of the North’. Only the summer before, in August 1482, Richard had demonstrated his military credentials,…

Charles spent 43 nights on the run, successfully evading capture To Catch a King: Charles II’s Great Escape by Charles Spencer William Collins, 336 pages, £20 In one of the 20th century’s most memorable funeral eulogies, Charles Spencer rued the irony that his late sister, Diana, Princess of Wales – “a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting” – became “in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age”. Two decades later, Spencer’s latest book reconstructs the massive manhunt mounted for another illustrious royal, Charles II. He spent 43 nights on the run, successfully evading capture by his parliamentarian enemies, after suffering a crushing defeat by Oliver Cromwell’s forces at the battle of Worcester in September 1651. Famously spending a day hiding in an oak…

Plague Land SD Sykes (2014) Oswald de Lacy survives the Black Death but his life is irrevocably changed by it. The deaths of his father and older brothers mean that the young man must take charge of the family estate. No sooner has he done so than a woman is murdered and the village priest begins to spread stories about demonic, dog-headed killers. In Sykes’s clever and intriguing historical crime novel, Oswald needs to overcome superstition and reveal the truth. Now Is the Time Melvyn Bragg (2015) This story of the 1381 Peasants’ Revolt by novelist and broadcaster Melvyn Bragg focuses on its two leaders. Visionary priest John Ball is convinced that God is on the side of the rebels, while charismatic ex-soldier Wat Tyler is determined to present his…

“Every man, woman and child listened to these texts for all the big moments in their lives” England’s Reformation: Three Books that Changed a Nation TV BBC Four Scheduled for October For more than four centuries, a trio of books shaped British life profoundly. Tyndale’s New Testament, The Book of Common Prayer and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs were, points out historian Janina Ramirez, “in every church – and every man, woman, child listened to these texts for all the big moments in their lives: births, deaths, marriage”. Half a millennium on from Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and the dawn of the Reformation, it’s easy to overlook just what a profound break with the past these books represented. Rather than the mass being given in Latin, here was religion in the…

In 1967, following the Six-Day War, two distinct visions for Israel emerged. One was of settlements and the annexation of territory. But there were also dissenting voices. One such was that of painter, satirist and writer Shimon Tzabar, who was among 11 signatories to a declaration that: “Occupation entails foreign rule. Foreign rule entails resistance. Resistance entails repression. Repression entails terror and counter-terror.” In Another Israel (Radio 4, Sunday 15 October) Shimon’s son, Rami Tzabar, considers whether there might have been a different outcome for the country if this warning had been acted upon. From the colonial era to the present day, Marxism has exerted a powerful influence on the development of many African nations. In What Happened to Africa’s Revolutions? (Radio 4, Friday 3 November), Ben Shepherd considers how…

1. What was unusual about Guinefort, an inhabitant of the diocese of Lyon who was venerated as a saint by the local population following his death in the 13th century? 2. How did Emily Roebling help finish what her husband and father-in-law had started? 3. On 16 March 1935 Mr R Beere (left) took the first one and passed. What was it? 4. How did Peter Mews, bishop of Winchester, help win the battle of Sedgemoor? 5. Upon which king did English anatomist Douglas Derry conduct an autopsy in November 1925? 6. What links the picture below to St Faith’s Church in Bacton, Herefordshire? QUIZ ANSWERS 1. He was a dog. 2. Between 1872 and 1883 she oversaw the construction of Brooklyn Bridge after the illness of her husband, Washington.…

Gertrude Bell was a writer, traveller, linguist, archaeologist and probable spy. She explored and mapped parts of the Middle East, influenced British imperial policy-making in the region and played an important part in the founding and administration of modern Iraq after the First World War. She died in her sleep in 1926 of an apparent overdose. When did you first hear about Gertrude Bell? I was introduced to her by Sir Richard Branson’s aunt, Clare Hoare, who sent me Georgina Howell’s book Daughter of the Desert just before I went to report from Iraq. She said I needed to know about this woman [Bell] – in her time one of the most powerful women in the British empire and the driving force behind the creation of modern-day Iraq. Howell’s book…

1 The Armistice was agreed at 5.12am Although the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month was agreed as the time the conflict would officially end, the Armistice was actually signed six hours earlier. 2 It was signed in a railway carriage near Paris In the Forest of Compiègne, 37 miles north of Paris, the Armistice Treaty was signed in a railway carriage belonging to Allied commander-in-chief Ferdinand Foch. In June 1940, Adolf Hitler ordered that France’s surrender to Germany be signed in the same railway car at the same site. 3 War was waged until the very last minute Fighting continued in the six hours between the signing of the Armistice and the war’s end at 11am. Artillery captain and future US president Harry S Truman…

“For many white Americans, moves towards an interracial democracy in the late 19th century represented a world turned upside down”PROFESSOR MANISHA SINHA The notion that Confederate monuments and the Confederate flag itself are innocuous symbols of southern history and heritage in the United States is simply not true. Not only was the Confederacy founded on the idea of racial inequality, but monuments to it arose especially at moments in American history when southerners sought to defend white supremacy. After the US Civil War, African-Americans and their allies made an attempt to establish black citizenship and found an interracial democracy during the period known as Reconstruction. Unlike Britain, the United States government did not compensate former slaveholders, a majority of whom had committed treason in taking up arms against it. What…

 “I’ve become very conscious of statues recently. They are everywhere, once you look. The Victorians were especially keen on erecting memorials to any old general who had bloodied the natives in Sudan or the Punjab. We walk past them without a second glance. But now they provoke questions. Who was this person? What did they do to deserve a statue? When was it put up, and by whom? “Statues can be filled with meaning, and then emptied of it” In Gloucester they’re planning a new statue. Next year is the 1,100th anniversary of the death of Æthelflæd, ‘Lady of the Mercians’, the daughter of Alfred the Great, who ruled Mercia for 25 years, the last eight as sole ruler. There have been discussions about how she might be represented: a…

As Victoria and Abdul and The Limehouse Golem arrive in UK cinemas, what’s your favourite film about the Victorians and why? John Dakin The Charge of the Light Brigade – the Tony Richardson film (1968), not the Michael Curtiz one. A brilliant satire, very much of its time, of the 1850s army and that famous charge, with wonderful performances (John Gielgud, Mark Dignam, Trevor Howard, Harry Andrews, David Hemmings, and others) and animations. British films had bite in those days Denise Hansen The French Lieutenant’s Woman. Visually stunning and it inspired me to visit Lyme Regis Delia Martland Broken Blossoms, starring Lillian Gish Mark James Harrison Captain Boycott, with Stewart Granger Godfrey Russell Zulu, showing British resilience,…

1 Mussolini goes on the attack The Italian leader declared war on Britain in June 1940 and began desultory attacks on the British island of Malta lying at the heart of the Mediterranean. On 4 July the British destroyed the French fleet at Oran on the coast of French Algeria – to prevent it from falling into German hands – and on the 9th the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean fleet fought the Italians at the battle of Calabria. 2 The Italians are put to flight In September 1940, the Italian Tenth Army advanced into Egypt. In October, the Italians also invaded Greece, but were swiftly repulsed. On 9 December, the 36,000-strong Western Desert Force under General Richard O’Connor counterattacked in Egypt and over the next three months routed Tenth Army and…

Westad emphasises the truly global nature of the struggle between capitalism and communism The Cold War: A World History by Odd Arne Westad Allen Lane, 720 pages, £30 A great deal of books about the Cold War already exist, and there are plenty of well-written overviews on the market. But Odd Arne Westad’s important new volume not only makes accessible to the general reader the very latest academic research into the many facets of the east–west conflict, but also emphasises more effectively than any previous survey the truly global nature of the struggle between capitalism and communism. In other words, it fully lives up to its title. Its originality is evident from its starting point. The traditional debate about the beginning of the Cold War focuses on the latter stages…

Savitri Devi: In Search of Aryans RADIO BBC Radio 4 Scheduled for Friday 27 October In an age when the far right is resurgent, the notion of a superior Aryan race, an idea allied to an apocalyptic worldview based on Hindu mythology, is once again loose in the world. It’s by no means the first time this has happened. By charting the life of Nazi activist and writer Savitri Devi, journalist Maria Margaronis explores how these ideas were propagated. Devi believed the ancient Greeks were Aryans, as were Hindu Brahmins. The documentary also considers the extreme Hindutva movement, which seeks to banish Muslims from India. FIND WEEKLY TV & RADIO UPDATES AT historyextra.com /tv-radio…

The jewel in the Royal Opera House’s crown is – unsurprisingly – its magnificent Grade I-listed auditorium Just around the corner from the lively string quartets and noisy chatter of London’s Covent Garden stands the magnificent portico of the Royal Opera House: a beacon of culture to opera buffs across the centuries. On today’s visit, the usual daytime hush of the foyer has been replaced by a hubbub of activity. Tonight, the opera season launches with a much-anticipated new production of Puccini’s passionate opera, La Bohème. The 10 floors of the current Victorian opera house, the third to be built on this site, would have dwarfed its two predecessors. The original theatre was founded in 1732 by theatrical manager and actor John Rich, but this burned to the ground in…

“Jaipur is known for its palaces, forts, slow-moving elephants, and vibrant bazaars ” Though it is no longer a seat of power, royalty still defines Jaipur, a city known for its palaces, forts, slow-moving elephants, colourful puppets and vibrant bazaars. The Rambagh Palace, once the formal residence of the maharaja, is now a luxury hotel, but on a wall hangs a painting of the late Maharani Gayatri Devi, described by Vogue in 1940 as one of the 10 most beautiful women in the world. Born Princess Ayesha, her grandfather was one of Queen Victoria’s favourite maharajas. Less than 200 miles from my home town of Delhi, Jaipur was a favourite long-weekend holiday destination for my family when I was growing up. Not for us though, the luxuries of the Rambagh…

1. CALKE ABBEY Uncover the rainbow of colour at Calke this autumn across the ancient parkland and through the gardens – don’t miss the clashing of antlers among the stags as rutting season begins. nationaltrust.org.uk/calke-abbey 2. DERBY MUSEUM Joseph Wright was one of the most important painters of the late 18th century. Comprising paintings, drawings, archives and objects, the Joseph Wright collection at Derby Museums was designated as being of National Importance by Arts Council in 2011. derbymuseums.org | 01332 641901 3. POLESDEN LACEY Beer to Champagne: the rise of a sparkling socialite. This autumn, discover the story of Maggie Greville’s rise from illegitimacy to become one of the most well-loved socialites of the Edwardian era, and the men who made it possible. polesdenlacey@nationaltrust.org.uk 4. ISLE OF WIGHT STEAM RAILWAY Join…

Cabbage pudding If you’ve fallen out of love with cabbage, try this hearty and rustic winter recipe for cabbage leaves filled with stuffing meat. Inspired by the French term for meat stuffing (farcie), the dish is also known as ‘cabbage forced’ or ‘cabbage farce’. Examples of these recipes can be found in several 18th-century cookbooks, including The Compleat Housewife, The Ladies Handmaid (1758) and The English Art of Cookery, According to the Present Practice (1788). These Georgian recipes suggest a whole variety of intriguing additions to the stuffing, including gooseberries, grapes, anchovies, bacon and hard-boiled eggs. Some sound more appetising than others! INGREDIENTS 1 small savoy cabbage 450g (1lb) minced veal, beef or pork 150g (5.5oz) shredded suet 1 tsp ground nutmeg 1 tsp ground mace 1 tsp salt 4…