Innholdsfortegnelse for May 2021 i History Extra

“Who were the rebels of 1381? Though the uprising is popularly known as the Peasants’ Revolt, historians have long been aware that it encompassed a broader swathe of the population than just rural labourers. Now, a new research project has revealed that a sizeable proportion of the rebels had a military background. In their cover feature, on page 20, the project team consider how their evidence should change our understanding of one of the defining events of England’s medieval history. One of the defining events of recent years has been Britain’s departure from the European Union, and plans have long been afoot to mark the occasion with a Festival of Brexit. What this will entail remains somewhat unclear, but the organisers might well take inspiration from another great national celebration:…

1 MAY 1169 Anglo-Normans land in Ireland for the first time Troops cross the Irish Sea to help a disgraced king regain his throne Dermot MacMurrough, king of Leinster (shown below) has not had a good press. According to the historian Gerald of Wales, he was “a man who liked better to be feared by all than loved by any. One who would oppress his greater vassals, while he raised to high station men of lowly birth. A tyrant to his own subjects, he was hated by strangers; his hand was against every man, and every man’s hand against him.” Dermot was even accused of kidnapping the abbess of Kildare and killing more than a hundred people who tried to stop this “wanton and sacrilegious outrage”. In 1166 an alliance…

The history of the British prime minister, 300 years old this April, is riddled with mysteries, in large part because no one has joined together all the dots. It is nearly 50 years since someone tried, when historian Robert Blake wrote a book that discusses the office and its holders going back to the beginning. We have biographers who dive down deep shafts into the ground to mine everything about an individual prime minister, but sometimes know little about who came before and after. History has become segmented by period and specialism. Some know a great deal about the early 18th century, or the mid-19th century, about economic or cultural history, but few take the long view. Rare are historians like Jeremy Black, or journalists like Daniel Finkelstein, who have…

March 1340 John of Gaunt is born to Philippa of Hainault and King Edward III of England at the Abbey of Saint Bavon in Ghent. 1361 John takes control of the duchy of Lancaster – and, in doing so, becomes the wealthiest nobleman in England. 1367 Alongside his brother the Black Prince, John leads a campaign into Castile, in order to restore the throne to an English ally, Pedro I (AKA Pedro the Cruel). This results in the decisive Anglo-Gascon victory at the battle of Najéra. 1368 Blanche, John’s first wife, dies at Tutbury Castle, possibly from complications following childbirth. 1370 John becomes lieutenant of Aquitaine, as ill health forces the Black Prince back to England. 1371 John marries Constance, the daughter and heir of the now deceased Pedro I.…

@rescuedaugust Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser. I went from thinking of her as a villain to seeing her as a misunderstood queen. @Domandrewauthor King of the North Wind by the amazing Claudia Gold – a really well-written and insightful book that provides a fantastic summary of who King Henry II was and how he worked. @Svetka in Troy Bettany Hughes’ moving biography Helen of Troy. It inspired me to believe that, even if the literary Helen didn’t exist, a powerful Spartan queen much like her probably did! Richard James Keane Napoleon the Great by Andrew Roberts convincingly portrays the subject as a great leader and reformer, and questions commonly held myths. Ado Mohammed Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar by Simon Sebag Montefiore. It shows that Stalin was indeed…

What was the Great Flood of 1607 and how has it inspired your novel? In January 1607, a storm surge or tsunami swept up the Bristol Channel, killing 2,000 people. Travelling at about 38mph, the wave reached a height of around 7.5 metres (25 feet), surging inland as far as Glastonbury Tor. January 1606 had witnessed the brutal execution of the gunpowder plotters, including a Jesuit priest. I realised that the natural disaster, striking a year later, would have stirred up the cauldron, with some claiming it was God’s retribution, others that vengeful Jesuits had conjured up the wave. What happened in the aftermath of the flood in Bristol? Homes and workshops in low-lying areas were destroyed, whereas buildings in streets on higher ground escaped. The honeycomb of cellars beneath…

Journalist MICHAEL SEGALOV tells us about a new BBC radio documentary that sees him journey into his family’s Second World War history – and explore his connections to the Free City of Danzig Your documentary tells a personal story about the lives of various members of your family in what was then the Free City of Danzig, now Gdansk in Poland, but which historically has been part of Germany too. What happened there between the two world wars? Danzig was under the protection of the League of Nations, which to my mind always meant that people were somewhat protected from what was happening in Germany. Making this documentary, [however], I have come to realise the Nazis were in the majority in the local parliament from the early 1930s. My late…

Nathen Amin Henry VII came to the throne an unknown, and fought throughout his reign to keep hold of the crown he had usurped. If he had failed, there would have been no Henry VIII or Elizabeth I. Nathen looks at Henry VII’s battles with rival claimants to his throne on page 36 Helen Carr John of Gaunt was a man central to English and European politics in the 14th century. He was at the very forefront of the dynastic ambitions of the Plantagenets. Helen chronicles John of Gaunt’s audacious bid to seize the throne of Castile on page 63 Harriet Atkinson I became interested in the Festival of Britain in the year 2000, when people regularly drew comparisons with the newly opened Millennium Dome, and I started to question…

Historian and TV presenter Dan Snow (@the historyguy) recently turned to Twitter with a request. “I have been asked to recommend history books for prisoners in the UK,” he wrote. “Can you recommend please?” The resulting conversation yielded an interesting mix of suggestions well worth a read for anyone. Nigel Baker (@NigelMBaker1) suggested children’s historical novelist Ronald Welch. “His books cover a broad period of history, include saints and sinners, are well written and you can learn a lot,” he wrote. Philip (@ HArrisonPE) added: “Tom Holland is fairly accessible. James Hawes’ The Shortest History of Germany is good too. Stephen Fry’s Greek mythology series is great.” Nikki Carter (@CartnerNI) offered the perspective of a history teacher, noting that “My students find Robert Service, Simon Sebag Montefiore and Simon Schama…

We woke in the reign of Edward VIII and went to bed in that of George VI.” The remark by Sir Henry “Chips” Channon, a close associate of Edward, summed up the general sense of disbelief at his decision to abdicate the throne in 1936. The parallels with a more recent royal prince are striking. Like Edward VIII, Prince Harry had enjoyed huge popularity thanks to his informal style, which brought a welcome modernity to the royal family. Then without warning, he gave up his royal duties for the woman he loved – his wife Meghan Markle who, like Wallis Simpson, is an American divorcee. Even though Prince Harry had little prospect of ever inheriting the throne, the sense of shock sparked by his sudden departure was just as great,…

Robert Hull was accused of joining the rebels who entered the abbey of St Mary Graces near the Tower of London. They assaulted the abbot and forced him to give up possession of their London properties. They also tore up books, charters and muniments. Back in 1355, Hull had been the master of the king‘s ship La Isabelle, based in King’s Lynn. He was authorised to impress 30 mariners and sail for Gascony. Over 20 years, Hull travelled numerous times in royal service. It seems that he was motivated to join the rebels because his lands were close to the abbey of St Mary Graces and he resented its property acquisitions. The Stathums, from Morley in Derbyshire, came from a gentry family headed by a powerful woman, Goditha Stathum. On…

Medieval maps are often illustrated with strange sea creatures. What are they supposed to represent? Medieval European maps differ from modern charts in several significant respects. They’re rarely orientated north-south – most have east at the top. Their descriptions of landmasses and their sense of scale are also different yet, curiously, not entirely dissimilar to the northern hemisphere as seen on Google Earth. And the oceans, too, look unfamiliar, often populated with extraordinary creatures. On the world map in the 11th-century manuscript Saint-Sever Beatus, for example, the ocean that encircles Asia, Africa and Europe teems with giant fish. And on the 14th-century English Gough Map, fish as large as Orkney swim off the coast of Scotland. More than merely helping the viewer to distinguish between land and sea, these creatures…

On wresting the crown from Richard III at Bosworth in 1485, Henry VII sought to present himself as the unity candidate – the man chosen by God to reconcile the houses of York and Lancaster. Three decades of chaos and bloodletting were over –or so Henry hoped. The new king even adopted as his emblem the red rose, a little-known Lancastrian badge. This was combined with the white rose of his Yorkist-descended wife, Elizabeth, to create a double rose – a very visual symbol of reconciliation, peace and harmony. Yet victory at Bosworth in 1485 did not bring to England “smooth-faced peace, with smiling aplenty and fair prosperous days”, as Shakespeare would later claim. Before the Wars of the Roses could truly be brought to a close, Henry had to…

Julia Laite on a trafficking scandal from 1910 “At the heart of this case is Lvdia Harvey – a young woman who wanted more, and took a great risk to try to find it. She dreamed of travelling, and possibly even a life on the stage. She was really stepping outside those boundaries that her social class – and the time in which she lived – had set for her. That was a major risk she took, and it ended up being a very difficult and dangerous journey.” Jennifer Higgie on self-portraits by women “One of the really interesting things about self-portraits that all you need to paint yourself is a mirror and a palette. Throughout history, women were barred from art academies and life-drawing rooms, and weren’t allowed to…

Beyond: The Astonishing Story of the First Human to Leave our Planet and Journey into Space by Stephen Walker William Collins, 512 pages, £20 On the morning of 12 April 1961, a 27-year-old Soviet Air Force lieutenant stood on the threshold of immortality. As the cosmonaut aboard the Vostok 1 spacecraft, Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin would became the first person in history to orbit the Earth. During his 106-minute journey, he would fly higher and faster than anyone before him, only narrowly avoiding disaster. He returned to Earth a hero – living, breathing proof, according to Soviet propagandists, that communism was the future. Sixty years later, with crewed flights to and from the International Space Station barely making headlines, the heady days of the early space age seem as remote as…

FICTION The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex (Pan Macmillan, 368 pages, £14.99) Vanishing act In 1972, three lighthouse keepers vanish inexplicably from their post on the Cornish coast, leaving a clutch of confused and grieving loved ones behind. Emma Stonex’s evocative novel is inspired by the disappearance of three men from a remote lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides in 1900. You can hear her discuss the book on our podcast at historyextra. com/lamplighters-podcast MEMOIR The Lost Cafe Schindler by Meriel Schindler (Hodder & Stoughton, 432 pages, £20) Family secrets In this moving memoir, Meriel Schindler unpicks truth from fantasy in the tangle of stories related to her by an immensely unreliable narrator her father, Kurt. Centred on the family business – the titular Cafe Schindler in Innsbruck – the story that…

Acquacotta Some recipes don’t go out of their way to advertise their deliciousness – and the title of this traditional Tuscan soup, which literally translates as “cooked water”, does itself few favours. It originates from the Maremma region of central Italy and reflects the region’s historical poverty – indeed, legend tells of a nomad being given shelter by a peasant woman and rewarding her kindness with a dish prepared, as if by magic, from meagre ingredients. This updated version adds richness with eggs and cheese, producing an easy-to-prepare dish that can be left to simmer comfortingly away for a few hours. Difficulty: 2/10 Cooking time: Three hours INGREDIENTS Four tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil One clove of garlic, peeled and lightly crushed Three stalks of celery, chopped Two onions,…

IN PROFILE Emily Hobhouse was a welfare campaigner, feminist and pacifist best known for exposing the terrible conditions in the concentration camps in which Boer civilians were incarcerated by the British during the Second Boer War. Born in Cornwall but granted honorary South African citizenship for her humanitarian work in that country. Hobhouse later protested against the First World War. After her death in London, aged 66, her ashes were interred in the National Women’s Monument in South Africa. “Her revelations prompted the creation of a parliamentary commission to investigate the shocking conditions in the camps” When did you first hear about Emily Hobhouse? About 15 years ago, while researching my first book, about the Sikh princess Sophia Duleep Singh. Like Sophia, Emily believed in women’s suffrage – and, also…

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Documents charting the origins of a Cold War intelligence pact between Britain and the USA have been released for the first time. The records detail wartime meetings between US and British officials at Bletchley Park, which led to the signing of the “UKUSA deal” in March 1946. That deal itself eventually evolved into the “Five Eyes” pact between the UK, US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand – which remains in force to this day. The documents, released by Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) to mark the 75th anniversary of the UKUSA deal, include diary entries written by Alastair Denniston, then head of codebreaking site Bletchley Park. One entry from February 1941 – “The Ys are coming!” – indicated that he was preparing to welcome the first delegation of American, or…

“A hitherto unknown civilisation had suddenly come into the light of day” It’s a century ago this year that the first great discoveries took place at Harappa, a huge mudbrick mound south of Lahore in what is now Pakistan, to be followed the following year at Mohenjo-daro, more than 400 miles south-west of Harappa. The remains of ancient cities were unearthed at the two sites; both belonged to a hitherto unknown civilisation that had suddenly, unexpectedly, come into the light of day. I remember talking it over some years ago with the late Ahmad Hasan Dani, who worked on Mohenjo-daro with Sir Mortimer Wheeler. He said: “At that time the Indian subcontinent was under British rule. The Europeans saw India as a backward place... Few people suspected that India had…

Sticky fingers George Washington’s wallet was stolen in 1992 – nearly 200 years after the first president’s death. The brown leather wallet, which had a brass clasp inscribed “GW 1775”, was on display in the Old Barracks Museum in Trenton, New Jersey. At that time, security was possibly less than tight, and someone walked off with it. Three weeks later the wallet was returned, via a lawyer’s office – undamaged, but missing a 1779 dollar bill and a rare 66 cents bill from 1776. Rule Britannia Following the Royal Navy’s victory at the battle of the Nile in 1798, the sculptor John Flaxman proposed that the triumph be commemorated with a 70-metre (230-foot) figure of Britannia in Greenwich Park, London. His friend William Blake provided an illustration to show how…

On 25 July 1386, three young men disembarked from a Portuguese galley at the port of Corunna. Landing on the northwest Spanish coast were Ralph Bulmere, just old enough to receive his inheritance at home; Baldwin Saint George from Cambridgeshire; and Thomas Chaucer, son of writer and diplomat Geoffrey Chaucer. They had come to win their spurs in one of the most ambitious military campaigns of the late 14th century: the invasion of Castile by John of Gaunt. At that time, Castile was the largest of four Christian kingdoms in the Iberian peninsula. Sandwiched between Portugal to the west and Aragon and Navarre to the east, and with the Muslim emirate of Granada to the south, Castile also encompassed León and coastal Galicia, site of Corunna. And in the 14th…

“When I was reading the detail of people’s experiences, on both sides, I recoiled in horror” ROB ATTAR: The subtitle of your book is How Hitler Lost the War. Is it fair to say that these six months were the decisive episode of the entire conflict? JONATHAN DIMBLEBY: When you look at what happened in Barbarossa and see how the situation was by the end of the year, it is inconceivable that Hitler could have prevailed against the Soviet Union. The Wehrmacht was very effective and efficient but it did not have sustainable resources to last a long struggle. Conversely, the Red Army was very weak at the start – not in terms of numbers but in terms of efficiency, readiness and capability. But by the end of the year,…

The Ambassadors: Thinking About Diplomacy from Machiavelli to Modern Times by Robert Cooper Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 576 pages, £25 This book is not primarily about ambassadors; its subtitle is a much better guide to the contents. Cooper’s main interest lies at a higher level: in foreign ministers and their senior officials, and in how they think. He begins during the Italian Renaissance with a chapter on Machiavelli, then jumps forward to the French court and its ministers Cardinals Richelieu and Mazarin. The bulk of his case studies, however, are taken from the 20th century, as the great statesmen of the west steer their way through wars both hot and cold. For readers who want to get inside the minds of the policymakers at the top of western diplomacy, this is…

The Florentines: From Dante to Galileo by Paul Strathern Atlantic, 384 pages, £20 Anniversaries always spark book publications, and this year marks 700 years since the death of Dante Alighieri, author of the Divine Comedy and father of the Italian vernacular. It is with Dante that Paul Strathern starts his latest work, The Florentines: From Dante to Galileo, which presents slices of the history of Florence by studying the life and work of its illustrious citizens across four centuries. Florence, located some 60 miles from the sea, was not as cosmopolitan as port cities such as Venice: it attracted migrants, but mainly from the contado (countryside). And yet, during the period Strathern looks at here, it was open to ideas emanating from other countries and cultures. This openness contributed to…

Across 1 Semi-legendary king of the Britons who enlisted the aid of Hengist and Horsa to protect his land against the Picts and Scots (9) 6 For example, the military one that seized power in Argentina in 1976 (5) 10 The statesman Pericles played a vital part in making this city the political and cultural centre of Greece (6) 11 A London club and a theatre were named after this 18th-century actor-manager (7) 12 Last name of the Russian-born American writer and philosopher who gained fame with her novel The Fountainhead (1943) (4) 13 British aviator, famous for her solo flight to Australia, who died on a 1941 mission for the Air Ministry (3,7) 14 British general best known for his ill-fated defence of Khartoum in 1885 (6) 15 In…

Fighting for the faith Marc Morris argues that England’s conversion to Christianity was a far from peaceful affair The Aids crisis Janet Weston explores the devastating consequences of HIV/Aids as it tore through Britain in the 1980s Britain’s motor city Steve Humphries chronicles the dramatic rise and fall of Coventry’s car industry Medieval romances Lydia Zeldenrust on how tales of lords and ladies became bestsellers in the Middle Ages…