Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2018 i History Extra

“Narratives of Anne Boleyn’s life tend to focus on her relationship with the man who married and subsequently beheaded her, Henry VIII. But there is another figure whose influence on the Tudor queen shouldn’t be underestimated, and that is her father, Thomas Boleyn. A leading light in Henry’s court, Thomas’s actions were instrumental in moulding Anne into the woman who would catch the king’s eye. In this month’s cover feature, on page 26, Lauren Mackay explores the family dynamics behind one of English history’s best-known dramas. Elsewhere, we are exploring two crises – 70 years apart – that both led to tremendous tensions in the UK. On page 20, Robert Crowcroft shows how Chamberlain’s attempts to placate Hitler at Munich in 1938 nearly brought down his government. Then, on page…

Derby Day, and Melbourne was agog. The Victoria Racing Club had started a ‘Fashions on the Field’ event to attract younger visitors, and in 1965, they had pulled off a coup. At a cost of £2,000, textile firm DuPont persuaded Jean Shrimpton to fly from London to judge the fashion show. To many in 1965, the 22-year-old Shrimpton was not just the world’s most celebrated model. She was a symbol of modernity itself, the embodiment of Swinging London. No wonder the Australian press were excited. Shrimpton and her dressmaker, Colin Rolfe, designed a white shift dress using DuPont’s new acrylic fabric, Orlon. But they did not have enough so Rolfe had to cut it short, about four inches above the knee. Also, the day of her appearance was hot. Shrimpton…

“The fight against the Boer republics was, wrote one historian, “Britain’s last major war of imperial expansion and it provided humiliating evidence of physical decrepitude as well as moral turpitude”. This is fair. Britain’s initial strategy was to divide their forces and invade Boer territory from three directions. But three disastrous defeats in the ‘Black Week’ of December 1899 resulted in a change of strategy. Forces were then concentrated for the relief of the besieged city of Kimberley – achieved in February 1900. The Boer capitals of Bloemfontein and Pretoria fell in March and June respectively. Yet British forces had failed to trap and destroy any significant Boer army or to inflict a major defeat in the field, and the enemy simply switched to guerilla warfare. The British responded by…

MUSIC BUFFS Armand D’Angour, associate professor in Classics at Oxford University, believes he has solved the mystery of how ancient Greek music was once performed. Part of the project involved designing a replica of an ancient Greek aulos (two double-reed pipes played simultaneously). BOOK LOVERS Archaeologists in Cologne have unearthed the foundations of what could be the oldest known library in Germany. Dating to the second century AD, it is thought the building once contained up to 20,000 scrolls.…

“I’m just back from China. It is always instructive, and often challenging, to contemplate our world from what the great Sinologist Simon Leys called “the other pole of the human experiment”, and especially so in the era of Trump, Brexit and global wobbles of liberal democracy. Listening to China is the new necessity for political and economic thinkers, but also historians. In Shanghai, I spent a morning with scholar diplomat Zhang Weiwei: one-time interpreter for Deng Xiaoping, doyen of Fudan and Geneva universities, National Think Tank member, and bestselling author of books on the New China. Our conversation came round to Francis Fukuyama’s The End of History and the Last Man. Fukuyama’s 1992 book was a grand-sweep historical generalisation of a kind beloved of the US intelligentsia, from Samuel Huntington’s…

@Diane_toller I don’t think their work should be erased. It’s history. We need to learn from it. Kipling came from a different era. Places of learning should stop putting the written word, by anyone, on walls. @ShahidMohmand79 Kipling, like all of us, was a product of his time. Trying to re-invent him or his work as per today’s requirements would be atrocious and an utter travesty. @humanisthobbit It is impossible to take any artist, scientist, writer and leader out of their time to choose what we find palatable without dealing with their generation’s prejudices, racism and gender stereotypes. We must see them in their historical context. @maddie_foster98 It isn’t erasing history. The poem still exists. There is a difference between acknowledgement/representation and celebration. Students have a right to choose what…

George Boleyn remains elusive through the distant mirror of the centuries, often pushed to the sidelines. For 500 years he has lived in the shadows of his more glamorous sisters – and, until his arrest for treason in the spring of 1536, he did exactly the same in his own lifetime. As a young man, George sought to carve out a career as a diplomat – with help, no doubt, from his father – but struggled to be taken seriously. Every advance he made in his career was attributed, not to his own merits, but the influence of his royal sister. In fact, George was an intelligent, literate and artistic young man with a flair for languages and a charismatic personality. He loved jousting and hawking, and cultivated a reputation…

Asset markets refer to classes of assets – houses, equities, bonds – each of which is traded with similar regulations and behaviour. Debt-deflation is the process by which, in a period of falling prices, interest on debt takes an increasing share of declining income and so reduces the amount of money available for consumption. The Gold Standard fixed exchange rates by the amount of gold in their currencies. As a result, it was not possible to vary exchange rates to solve a balance of payments (the difference between payments into and out of a country) deficit, and instead costs were driven down and competitiveness restored by deflationary policies. The International Monetary Fund is an organisation created in 1944 which now concentrates on structural reform of developing economies and resolving crises…

Katie Fry FROM: Sydney, Australia STUDIED: BA (Hons) History at University of York “I love the Tudor period, so studying in York meant I was able to access sources that would not have been available to me in Australia. Living in such a historical city gave me a greater appreciation for what I was studying. Walking through York Minster where Henry VIII walked, or visiting Clifford’s Tower where the Jewish massacre of 1190 occurred definitely brought history to life for me. Studying in the UK took me outside my comfort zone and developing my independence was one of the benefits of moving abroad. The downside for me was the homesickness – January blues being a real thing, as Sydney is a long way from York. The financial implications were also…

The Victorian era still exercises a compelling fascination for a people and a nation so like ourselves Dominion: The History of England Volume V By Peter Ackroyd Macmillan, 416 pages, £25 Just as it is said that there has been a book published about the American Civil War every day since it ended, surely the same must apply in spades to the Victorian era. The day before the day before yesterday still exercises a compelling fascination for a people and a nation so like ourselves – living in many of the same houses, walking down the same streets – and yet so different. We know a huge amount about the period, and many of us have known, not so long ago, people who were born then. Some of their attitudes…

Stratton’s War Laura Wilson (2008) In the summer of 1940, the body of silent-movie star Mabel Morgan is found impaled on railings beneath her flat in London’s Fitzrovia. The coroner decides it is suicide but DI Ted Stratton is not so sure. His investigations lead him into a world of Soho gangs and wartime spy rings, and unearth some truths which are uncomfortably close to home. The first of Laura Wilson’s ‘Stratton’ novels is a stylish and well-written thriller. A Commonplace Killing Siân Busby (2014) London in the aftermath of the Second World War is brilliantly evoked in this atmospheric crime novel which opens with the discovery of a woman’s body amid bombed-out ruins. DI Jim Cooper makes his way slowly but doggedly towards the truth about the body found…

In 1975, Britain and Iceland came to blows for a third time over fishing rights in the Atlantic. By the time the dispute was over, Britain had conceded 200 nautical miles of territory, accelerating the decline of the nation’s fishing industry. In The Cod Wars Revisited (Radio 4, Saturday 29 September) Julia Langdon recounts events and considers the lessons to be learnt. In Ancient Invisible Cities (BBC Two, from Friday 7 September), Dr Michael Scott heads off to Cairo, Athens and Istanbul to uncover what underground laser-scanning can reveal about the cities’ unseen architectural secrets. Scott explores an ancient Egyptian pyramid, investigates the Hagia Sophia and discovers how silver mines fuelled economic growth in ancient Greece. (See our feature on page 54). Also on BBC Two, the two-part series Princess…

1 Abdullah Quilliam Mosque LIVERPOOL Where Britain got its first mosque Liverpudlian solicitor William Quilliam converted to Islam in 1887, changed his name to Abdullah Quilliam and turned a terraced house in the city into Britain’s first mosque. It predated the Shah Jahan Mosque, the first purpose-built mosque, by a handful of months. • abdullahquilliam.org 2 Aziziye Mosque STOKE NEWINGTON, LONDON Where films gave way to worship This building in north-east London was the Astra Cinema, famous for showing kung-fu movies, but its conversion into a mosque commenced in the early 1980s, funded by the UK Turkish Islamic Association. Its past as a picture house is still discernible in its façade. • aziziye.org.uk 3 Ghamkol Sharif Mosque BIRMINGHAM Where thousands can worship Located on a main arterial route out of…

BEST TIME TO GO All year round, really. Vienna can be sultry in summer, but its many parks and spa pools offer a refreshing escape. Many people choose to visit in winter, when Christmas markets abound. Autumn and spring are also delightful times to visit. GETTING THERE Vienna has superb transport links by road, rail and air. The city’s international airport is a two-hour flight from London, and non-stop trains, scheduled every half hour, will get you to the city centre in just 20 minutes. Purchase a tourist ticket at the airport for unlimited city transport by trams, U-bahn or bus. WHAT TO PACK Comfortable walking shoes, a German language phrase book (though most people speak English), and a couple of the many excellent histories of Austria and Vienna available…

Boxty A cross between a rosti, a pancake and a hash brown, a boxty is a griddled or fried cake made from potatoes – a staple crop in Ireland since the 18th century. Boxty’s name is thought to originate from arán bocht tí, the Irish for ‘poor house bread’. Because they are so simple, boxties come in many different shapes and sizes and can be served in all sorts of ways. They make a perfect hearty side for sausages, or can be made into a tortilla-style wrap and stuffed with fillings. Dip them in apple sauce or drizzle them with maple syrup and load with bacon for a delicious and filling breakfast. INGREDIENTS 250g raw potatoes, peeled and grated 250g cold mashed potato 200g plain flour 1/2 tsp baking powder…

Robert Crowcroft The Munich agreement of September 1938 was a seminal moment in 20th-century diplomatic history, but much less well known is the domestic political struggle in Britain sparked by the crisis. • Robert describes how the Munich crisis almost brought down the British government on page 20 Lauren Mackay Thomas Boleyn enjoyed a career spanning 40 years as a courtier, ambassador, parliamentarian and patron, but this is often forgotten. My research seeks to rehabilitate his image and restore him to his rightful place in Tudor history. • Lauren tells the story of Anne Boleyn’s controversial father, Thomas, on page 26 Meleisa Ono-George Choosing the right history degree can seem daunting. However, with a little bit of research you can find the degree, department and university that is best suited…

Privates Johnny Heawood and Bill Dunstan of the Canadian army get into character as drag queens ‘Trilby’ and ‘Trixie’ of The Tin Hats, a cabaret troupe created to entertain soldiers during the Second World War. This is one of several images taken by photographer John Topham during a visit to the base of the Royal Artillery Coastal Defence Battery – at Shornemead Fort, near Gravesend, Kent. The photos were banned from publication by the Ministry of Information and have only now come to light.…

Elizabeth ’s I secret friendship Newly uncovered letters in the National Archives and French records have revealed the Tudor monarch was a trusted confidante to King Henri III of France. Discovered by Dr Estelle Paranque, one letter, written in 1584, warned the French king of attempts to usurp him. New sphinx found in Egypt? A statue boasting a lion’s body with a human head has been discovered on Al-Kabbash Road, which connects the two temples of Karnak and Luxor in Egypt. Unearthed by construction workers, the statue has yet to be lifted from the ground. WWII female pilot dies Mary Ellis, one of the last living female Second World War pilots, has died at the age of 101. Ellis joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) in 1941 after hearing an…

On 30 September 1938 the British prime minister Neville Chamberlain climbed out of an aeroplane at Heston aerodrome in London. Waiting for him on the tarmac were journalists and photographers. Chamberlain had just returned from a summit with Adolf Hitler in Munich, and his mood was one of triumph. The prime minister believed he had pulled off a diplomatic coup that would prevent a devastating European war. He brandished a piece of paper bearing Hitler’s signature, an image captured by the photographers and destined to become one of the iconic visual records of the century. Later, in Downing Street, Chamberlain boasted that the settlement he negotiated represented nothing less than “peace for our time”. September sees the 80th anniversary of the infamous Munich agreement. It was reached in response to…

“You’re considering a degree in history, but how do you choose the right course, at the right university? Over these 14 pages we offer a series of articles designed to help you get the most out of your studies, and find out what a degree in history can do for you. You will find information and advice on how to choose the right course, as well as details on some of the skills and qualities that history graduates can bring to the workplace. We’ve also spoken to a selection of current and former students to discover what they learned from studying abroad, as well as the benefits of taking a history degree in the UK. We hope you’ll ›ind this a useful guide to help you plan a fulfilling and…

Robert Graves: From Great War Poet to Good-bye to All That 1895-1929 by Jean Moorcroft Wilson Bloomsbury Continuum, 480 pages, £25 In this centenary year of the end of the First World War, Jean Moorcroft Wilson, veteran biographer of the war poets, has turned her attention to Robert Graves, who celebrated the coming of peace and the ending of the ‘horror’ by recognising that he would never be truly free of all the associations and memories of his wartime experiences. Graves, she argues, is now most famous for Good-bye to All That, the outspoken, at times fanciful, but endlessly re-readable autobiography with which he drew a definitive line under the story of the first half of his life. Graves’s war poetry was often suppressed by Graves himself during his long…

GALLERY OPENINGS / FREE ENTRY New galleries National Maritime Museum, Greenwich From 20 September - 020 8858 4422 • rmg.co.uk/whats-on/four-new-galleries With the completion of a £12.6m redevelopment project, more than 1,100 historical objects have now gone on display across four new galleries at the National Maritime Museum. Between them, the galleries examine British and European exploration from the late 15th century through to the present day, highlighting, among other things, Britain’s relationship with the sea and its long role as a maritime power. The Tudor and Stuart Seafarers gallery uses 120 objects – such as astrolabes, compasses and telescopes – to illustrate how England emerged as a maritime nation between 1500 and 1700. The Pacific Encounters gallery continues this story by examining how European travellers turned their attention to the…

William Beveridge was an economist and social reformer, best known for his 1942 report ‘Social Insurance and Allied Services’ (the Beveridge Report), which formed the basis for the post-Second World War welfare state. In 1908, he had joined the Board of Trade and helped implement the Liberal government’s national system of labour exchanges, as well as a National Insurance scheme designed to combat unemployment and poverty. He was director of the London School of Economics from 1919–37 and served briefly as a Liberal MP from 1944–45. When did you first hear about William Beveridge? A conversation with my nan made me think about what he had achieved. She explained that she and my father might not have survived his birth had it not been for the brand new National Health…

When were fathers legally required to provide financial support for their illegitimate children? Legislation passed between 1576 and 1810 established and strengthened the legal links between children and their reputed fathers. An act of 1576 specified that parents of ‘Bastards now being left to be kept at the Charge of the Parish where they be born’ were financially responsible rather than the parish ratepayers. This changed in 1733 to say that “any Single woman [who] shall be delivered of a Bastard Child which shall be chargeable or likely to become chargeable” was to be brought by the parish to be examined on oath before two magistrates in order to prove the child’s paternity. She would then be required to “charge any person with having gotten her with child” and the…

I enjoyed your recent cover story (Medieval Medicine: Killer or Cure?, September 2018) and would like to draw your attention to the stained glass in York Minster. I refer here to a small detail in the border of one of the Minster’s medieval stained glass windows. This shows a doctor holding up a flask of urine to help him diagnose the condition of the patient in front of him. It closely echoes your main picture for the article and I attach a photo of the detail (below left). The doctor and patient shown in this window are both portrayed as monkeys and I understand that the use of monkeys in medieval iconography indicates that what is shown is intended as a parody. If that’s correct, then the makers of the…

“In no country but England,” wrote the historian TL Kington Oliphant, “could a race of merchants have risen in the feudal times to the highest rank under the crown… and have wedded ladies of the blood.” This is the story of many great English families, but it has particular resonance for the Boleyns. Through their industry and talents, they accrued great wealth and influence, entwining themselves with some of the mightiest families in the realm. They rose to such heights that two of their own came to be queens of England: Anne Boleyn and her daughter, Elizabeth I. But this is also a story with a dark side. Anne was famously – infamously – beheaded for treason, the first English queen to be publicly executed. Her brother, George, fared no…

Martin Daunton is emeritus professor of economic history at the University of Cambridge and co-editor of The Political Economy of Public Finance (Cambridge, 2017) Scott Newton is emeritus professor of modern British and international history at the University of Cardiff and author of The Reinvention of Britain 1960–2016: A Political and Economic History (Routledge, 2017) Dr Linda Yueh is an economist at Oxford University and London Business School and author of The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today (Viking, 2018)…

1 The prim power broker Livia (58 BC-AD 29) somehow pulled off the trick of being enormously powerful while posing as the model of Roman female propriety. Augustus’s empress once chanced upon some innocent naked men, who were instantly condemned to death as a result. According to historian Cassius Dio, she saved them by primly announcing that “to a chaste woman of restraint naked men are of no more significance than statues”. Tacitus believed Livia was determined to see her son Tiberius succeed Augustus, whatever the price, and blamed her for murdering any rivals. 2 The dynastic tool Poor tragic Octavia (69–11 BC). Used by her brother Augustus as a dynastic tool, she was expected to produce heirs and live up to the exacting moralising standards of the regime. Octavia…

1 Check the modules Whether entering an undergraduate or postgraduate programme, you need to consider the specialism of the department. Have a look at the modules on offer to determine what they teach and general expertise. For undergraduates, it’s good to look for a department that offers a wide range of global modules. Though you may have loved a certain subject during your A-levels, having a broad range of modules on offer will allow you to explore areas of history you may not have considered, before specialising in your final year and potentially into postgraduate studies. Consider whether the subject material is current. Are those teaching also actively involved in research? If teaching staff do not specialise in the areas they teach, you may find the material taught to be…

Henry’s sons were just as ambitious as himself, and frustrated by their lack of real power The Restless Kings: Henry II, His Sons and the Wars for the Plantagenet Crown by Nick Barratt Faber, 336 pages, £20 As an expert on family history, with training as a medieval historian, Nick Barratt is well placed to consider the most notorious royal family in English history – that of Henry II. Henry was remarkably successful in assembling a vast array of territories: his rule, direct or indirect, extended from Scotland almost to the Mediterranean, and was put together in only a couple of decades. The lands he ruled have often been described as an empire: Nick Barratt shrewdly likens them to a family firm. What he doesn’t add is the saying that…

The Death of Hitler: The Final Word on the Ultimate Cold Case By Jean-Christophe Brisard and Lana Parshina Hodder & Stoughton, 336 pages, £25 Around 3.30pm on 30 April 1945, Adolf Hitler, a cornered rat in a trap, sat on a sofa in his Berlin bunker and put a bullet through his head. His bride, Eva Braun, seated next to him, bit down on a cyanide capsule. His staff carried their bodies to the surface, placed them in a shell hole, doused them with petrol and imperfectly cremated them. These facts have been known for decades, but, like Elvis, the fallen führer has lived on in many people’s imaginations. The myth of Hitler’s survival – that he enjoyed a long and uncharacteristically quiet retirement in South America after arriving there…

Peacekeepers The Dream of World Government RADIO Radio 4 Saturday 8 September As the world stood in ruins at the conclusion of the First World War, an idealistic proposal was put forward – for a new world order that would work together to maintain peace and prevent another global conflict. With hindsight, the formation of the League of Nations in 1920 may seem naively utopian – it failed to dampen the flames when world war reignited just two decades later. However, is it fair to dismiss the project as always doomed to fail? Former foreign secretary David Miliband investigates whether a system of collaborative world government could ever overcome national agendas. War stories Home Front RADIO Radio 4 from 24 September Over the course of the past four years (and…

“ Vienna was once the most vibrant cultural and political centre in Europe ” I view Vienna not through a visitor’s eyes, but those of a former resident. I spent four years there as a journalist in the 1990s, have a Viennese son, and often revisit the city. Therefore, if not exactly my favourite place, I certainly know Vienna well enough to pronounce it near the top of European cities for its quality of life, its culture and, of course, its history! Vienna today gives the impression that history has passed it by since c1900, when it was the most vibrant cultural and political centre in Europe. It was home then to such varied personalities as psychologists Sigmund Freud and Alfred Adler, composer and conductor Gustav Mahler and his wife…

1. With which major archaeological discovery would you associate Edith Pretty and Basil Brown? 2. Which English head of state is buried in Hursley in Hampshire? 3. Who behaved “impeccably” at Queen Victoria’s deathbed? 4. Which poet enlisted in the British Army under the name Silas Tomkyn Comberbache? 5. Which women’s political organisation first met in July 1908 with Lady Jersey in the chair? 6. Where is this, who does it commemorate and how did George Kemp, its designer, meet his death? QUIZ ANSWERS 1. The Anglo-Saxon burials at Sutton Hoo. 2. Richard Cromwell. 3. Kaiser Wilhelm II. 4. Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 5. The Women’s National Anti-Suffrage League. 6. Edinburgh. Sir Walter Scott. Kemp fell in the Union Canal and drowned. ONLINE QUIZZES historyextra.com/quiz GOT A QUESTION? Write…