Innholdsfortegnelse for September 2024 i History Extra

"The Tudors are such stalwart figures in English history and historical fiction that it’s hard to imagine that the dynasty might never have come to rule. And yet their path to the throne required a huge amount of fortune – and not just on the battlefield at Bosworth. Nathen Amin’s cover feature this month takes us back to the young life of Henry VII, revealing quite how often that life hung by a thread. It’s a lesser-known chapter in the Tudor drama, and one that I hope you’ll enjoy reading about on page 32. If you were one of those who enjoyed the BBC drama SAS: Rogue Heroes, you might recall Dominic West’s portrayal of the flamboyant Dudley Clarke, who helped found the special forces organisation. But while the SAS…

"We need a meaningful story for the new generation – our composite union" WHAT A SUMMER IT’S BEEN SO FAR, WITH AN astonishing election result. There has been much talk of national renewal, and in due course we’ll see what that means. But it felt like a watershed. The new prime minister’s dad was a toolmaker, his mum a nurse; the cabinet is majority comprehensive-educated, with more alumni of Parrs Wood High School than of Eton. Among commentators – not just on the left – there’s been a growing feeling that 14 years of Tory rule, compounded by Brexit, have undermined what the great medieval historian Ibn Khaldun called asabiyyah: group feeling – the glue that makes societies work. And watching TV on election night, I found myself wondering whether,…

Disregard for death An ancient Greek philosopher announced at the Olympic Games of AD 161 that he would burn himself to death at the next event – and, four years later, he did just that. On the final night of the Olympics in AD 165, Peregrinus Proteus lit his own funeral pyre and leapt into the flames. He wanted, he reportedly said, “to put a tip of gold on a golden life” and to “benefit mankind by showing them the way in which one should disregard death”. Thirst for justice A statue in Paisley, Renfrewshire commemorates a woman whose main claim to fame is that she once found a decomposing snail in a ginger beer bottle. May Donoghue was served the drink in a cafe in August 1928, and downed…

What happens when there is scant clear historical detail about a person, but instead a litany of material that crafts a particularly engineered idea about them? That’s a question that Mary L Shannon explores in her biography of William ‘Billy’ Waters, a black sailor, dancer and musician who found fame in Regency London. Waters’ records chart very little: they tell us that he was born into slavery in New York, and that he had a naval pension and a wife named Elizabeth, and they link him with some locations in London. He does, though, appear more widely in newspapers, satire and plays that completely reinvent his life story. Shannon deftly draws together these parallel sets of sources to explore the life of the real man and that of his celebrity…

Your new novel is set in Assyria in the ninth century BC. What inspired you to write about that place and time? What drew me to the setting was how culturally rich the world of ancient Mesopotamia was. This was the place where writing was invented; where the Epic of Gilgamesh was written around 1,000 years before the Iliad; and where one of the first legal codes was created. How much did you draw on historical accounts, and how much is this a new take on an ancient myth? Babylonia is part historical fiction, part myth retelling. Semiramis and Ninus are mythical figures with historical counterparts: the former is based on Queen Sammu-ramat, the latter on King Shamshi-Adad V (ruled 824–811 BC). My novel follows the myth as recounted by…

Dora Maar: Behind the Lens Amar Gallery, London / Ends 18 August / amargallery.com There’s still just time to see the work of one of the 20th century’s most famous photographers this summer. At the Amar Gallery you can discover the multifaceted talent of Dora Maar, long overshadowed by her reputation as one of Picasso’s lovers. Featuring her surrealist works, including rare photographs of Picasso’s Guernica, the exhibition reveals how |Maar extended her artistry to poetry and painting to become far more than merely Picasso’s ‘Weeping Woman’. Money Talks: Art, Society & Power Ashmolean Museum, Oxford / 9 August 2024–5 January 2025 / ashmolean.org Delve into the interplay between currency and art in this exhibition featuring more than 100 items by artists ranging from Rembrandt to Banksy. It showcases money’s…

1. Mary's miracle In our Books Interview, Alice Loxton charts Mary Anning’s tragic early life. The future palaeontologist lost several family members, but also survived against the odds when a tree she was sheltering under was struck by lightning, killing those around her (page 70). 2. Picture that The Victorian artist Rossetti was a fascinating character, but I didn’t know that he kept a bizarre menagerie in his London home, including a toucan “which he dressed in a cowboy’s hat and trained to ride around on the back of a llama” (page 47). 3. Regal legal One fascinating fact that’s included in our piece on the Plantagenet state is that Edward I created so much legislation that he was later known as ‘the English Justinian’ (page 67).…

THE PANEL Your new book features essays on the legacy of the British empire from academic historians at a range of institutions. What were your aims when you started work on the project? Alan Lester British colonial history has become a highly controversial topic. We’ve seen a backlash against Black Lives Matter (BLM) and, in some quarters, an attempt to morally defend the British empire against the critique articulated by the BLM movement. In the midst of all that, I wanted to collect the work of expert historians and present it in a way the public could engage with – and, hopefully, help them be better informed when navigating what’s become a really contested area of history. How did you choose which experts to call on to write the book’s…

THE CONVERSATION "I wish that there was no need for specialist history months" THIS ISSUE IS PUBLISHED AT THE MIDPOINT OF South Asian Heritage Month (SAHM) – which, incredibly is only in its fourth edition. I well remember its inception. In 2017, the TV documentary My Family, Partition and Me aired on BBC One. One of its strands followed SAHM co-founder Binita Kane as she retraced the journey taken by her father, Bim Bhowmick, from East Pakistan – now Bangladesh – to India in 1947. It was a deeply affecting programme, and a transformative moment for her. Binita had grown up in Wales and had previously known little of her father’s history – the story of his migration across a border, but also of the devastating loss of family members…

DOUBLE TROUBLE FOR THE NAZIS In 1941, Renato Levi (inset left) – an Italian Jew who had been recruited to spy for the Germans – arrived in Cairo. What his masters didn’t know was that he was a double agent working for the British. Returning to his German controllers a few months later, he told them that he’d left in Egypt a recruit who would communicate with them by radio. This recruit was entirely fictional; instead, a British wireless operator was sending signals drafted by Clarke’s team. Codenamed ‘Cheese’, Clarke’s ruse became the longest-running double agent operation of the war, assisting in deceptions from 1941 until after D-Day. MAKING A DUMMY OF ROMMEL In early 1942, as German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel advanced across the desert, Clarke was asked to…

Æthelstan was on the throne for a mere 14 years, but that was ample time for him to change the course of British history. He was born in c894, the son of Edward the Elder and the grandson of Alfred the Great. He was crowned ‘King of the Anglo-Saxons’ (ie of the Mercians and West Saxons) in 925 and two years later – after conquering York, the last remaining Viking kingdom – became the first king of all the English. This was the springboard for an ambitious attempt to create a national kingship based on the ideas of the ninth-century Carolingian Renaissance, which had flourished under the Frankish emperor Charlemagne. Æthelstan’s reign is now seen as a watershed in the birth of the English state, witnessing key developments in administration,…

…by hook or by crook? We use this phrase to mean that we’ll get something done, no matter how. The rhyme is apparent, but the origin is not – though people keep guessing. Some point to 1169, when Henry II invaded Ireland, suggesting that the Anglo-Normans planned to land on Hook Head in Wexford and at the nearby village of Crooke in Waterford. Yet supporters of this etymology can’t provide a source, which makes their explanation worthless. Next we fast forward to 1666, the year of the Great Fire of London, when the ghosts of Messrs Hook and Crook – surveyors employed in determining the rights of claimants whose houses were destroyed, and who managed to satisfy everybody – are conjured up. Once again, no documents confirm their existence (though…

The sleepless emperor Individuals have lent their names to many things: inventions, discoveries and even nations. Yet the Eastern Roman ruler Justinian famously has a less desirable eponym: a plague. The reasons for this, and the more positive achievements of an emperor renowned for his zeal and drive, are explored in an engrossing interview with historian Peter Sarris. historyextra.com/justinian-pod The prophetic patriot Joan of Arc’s death at the stake in 1431 ensured that she was remembered as a martyr, the ‘virgin saviour’ of the French nation. Yet does this legacy obscure the real story of the young woman at its heart? Our interview with historian and author Anne Curry aims to set the record straight, charting the rise and fall of the peasant girl who became a patron saint. historyextra.com/joan-arc-pod…

When Princess Elizabeth gave birth to the future King Charles III at Buckingham Palace in 1948, she overthrew three centuries of royal precedent. The birth of the prince was not witnessed by a politician and, as such, lacked the guarantee that she did not have the infant smuggled in via a warming-pan -the accusation made of Mary of Modena at St James’s Palace in 1688. When Charles’s first son, William, was born in 1982, royal tradition was further cast aside: he was born in a hospital not – like his many predecessors – in a palace. As Kate Williams’ new book demonstrates, any divergence from the monarchy’s palatial foundations is a move away from royalty itself. The stories of the many royal palaces dotted across Britain – of which 30…

SOCIAL HISTORY Long-lost lavatories Why was the Devil thought to lurk in old privies? And did constipation turn Henry VIII into a tyrant? In our new series, Toilets Through Time, David Musgrove examines the history behind that most universal of all human experiences – going to the loo. MEDIEVAL HISTORY Plague and partying A collection of tales set during the Black Death may not sound like the most obvious candidate for a major Netflix adaptation. But a riotous new take on Boccaccio’s Decameron has indeed just landed on the streaming service, so we take a look back at the source material and what it can tell us about the era. THE RENAISSANCE Powerbroker or poisoner? Catherine de’ Medici is one of the 16th century’s most formidable figures. With the return…

In May 1964, gospel singer and guitarist Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915–73) gave a performance of ‘Didn’t it Rain’ that has become integral to her legend, filmed by Granada Television in appropriately soggy conditions at Manchester’s disused Wilbraham Road railway station (pictured below). But who was Tharpe? As Archive on 4: Sister Blues (BBC Radio 4, Saturday 10 August) recounts, Tharpe was dubbed both ‘the original soul sister’ and the ‘godmother of rock’n’roll’, reflecting her status as a singer of formidable power and a trailblazing electric guitar player who influenced everyone from Chuck Berry to Bob Dylan and the Rolling Stones. Presented by the singer-songwriter Joan Armatrading, the documentary also highlights Tharpe’s importance as a black, female and queer artist. Also in the Archive on 4 strand is Nixon: A Resigning…

Across 6 Ptolemy 7 Mugwump 10 Hatshepsut 11 Goya 12 Blanke 13 Brougham 15 Aethelflaed 19 Scarface 20 Trajan 21 Spas 23 Abolition 24 Arapaho 25 Fairfax. Down 1 St Pauls 2 Alison Weir 3 Ampere 4 Dust Bowl 5 Umayyad 8 Wig 9 Isabel Peron 14 Grenadiers 16 Hiawatha 17 Sceptre 18 Farnham 20 Taiwan 22 SDP. Five winners of The D-Day Atlas by Charles Messenger: S Graves, Sheffield; Andy Gilbert, Newcastle upon Tyne; Eleanor Lees, Isle of Man; Michael Payne, Jersey; Austin Baird, Cramlington…

Nasa’s Head of Science Nicola Fox chooses IN PROFILE Marie Curie, born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw, was a naturalised-French physicist and chemist. She conducted groundbreaking research into radioactivity, and was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes – in physics, with her husband Pierre in 1903, and in chemistry in 1911. She was also the first woman to become a professor at the University of Paris. A mother of two, she died aged 66 from aplastic anaemia, likely the result of repeated exposure to radiation. "She was not a ‘Look at me – I’m so awesome’ type, but thought of herself as part of a partnership with her husband, Pierre" When did you first hear about Curie? As a child of eight, when I was at primary school. We were studying…

Kerry Brown “China is often in the news these days. But, for Britain, relations with this vast country go back four centuries to the time of Elizabeth I. Britain has a huge China story – one it rarely speaks about, but one it should definitely celebrate more.” Kerry chronicles Britain and China’s long relationship on page 56 Kavita Puri “The 2021 census revealed that British Asians are the largest ethnic minority group in Britain. Yet we are only now starting to understand British south Asian history more widely, let alone its complex nature.” Kavita considers the value of specialist history months in her column on page 20 Nathen Amin “To understand the suspicion and paranoia of the first Tudor king, Henry VII, is to delve into his perilous youth and…

LETTER OF THE MONTH When not in Rome… In his very interesting article Five Things You (Probably) Didn’t Know About Roman Britain (July), Rob Collins omits questioning who the Romans were. The ‘Romans’ came not from Rome, but from the whole Roman empire, which encircled the Mediterranean – and all these ‘Romans’ are among our ancestors! Some ‘Roman’ Africans were soldiers (including officers), while others were sailors, bureaucrats and traders. African auxiliary troops were often used as frontier guards – for example, the Numerus Maurorum Aurelianorum stationed by Hadrian’s Wall. Quite a number of soldiers (from many regiments) settled here when discharged, and other Romans remained when the empire ended. They married local women, or just begat children. There was no racial discrimination in the Roman empire. Among our African…

Portraits of Henry VII typically share a few key traits. They depict a man with a lean, strong face, a shock of brown hair escaping from beneath a black cap. A long nose; often the ghost of a smile. And dark, piercing eyes. Watchful? Wary? Suspicious, even? Certainly that’s how history has remembered him: as a king driven to the edge of tyranny by his rampant paranoia, cursed with a debilitating suspicion of those around him that left him isolated and unloved towards the end of his reign. Francis Bacon, writing in the early 17th century, remarked that Henry was “a dark prince, and infinitely suspicious”, who would admit no one “to his power or to his secrets”. There is an element of truth in Bacon’s judgment that Henry became…

What is the oldest object that is currently standing in London? Just a short walk from the Houses of Parliament along the Victoria Embankment looms a 20.88-metre-tall, pyramidtipped monolith inscribed with hieroglyphics: the ancient obelisk known as Cleopatra’s Needle. Nearly 3,500 years old, this monument is the oldest humanmade object on London’s streets. It was sculpted around 1450 BC for the pharaoh Thutmose III from granite quarried in southern Egypt, and was originally erected in Heliopolis, near present-day Cairo. This was a major cult centre for solar worship, considered home to the sun god, Ra; various obelisks were raised there to venerate that deity. In 12 BC, more than 14 centuries after its creation, the obelisk was relocated to Alexandria. This Hellenistic city on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast prospered under the…

Danny Bird: Your book explores the lives of 18 figures from across more than 1,000 years of British history, viewing each of them as an 18-year-old. Where did you find the inspiration for this book? And did it prompt you to reflect on your own life at the age of 18? Alice Loxton: The idea for Eighteen came when I was walking around the National Portrait Gallery in London. Typically, images there show figures from history depicted in later life or in the years of their success. While looking at these portraits of grown-ups, I loved pondering the idea that, once upon a time, they were teenagers, with all the hopes, fears, passions and dreams that adolescents have. So I wanted to shine a light on younger people throughout history.…

Naval pathfinding – surveying coastal waters and measuring the depth of the seabed to ensure a safe passage for shipping – was still in its infancy in Britain in the 18th century. And, as Michael Barritt shows in this pioneering study, Britain paid a high price for its neglect. Navigational data available to sea captains was often poor, and many vessels were needlessly lost to shipwrecks. Commercial shipping returning from the Americas and naval vessels on patrol offforeign shores both suffered heavily as a result. Sea captains needed reliable data, and they were reliant on hydrography – the science of surveying and charting bodies of water -to negotiate safe channels, to avoid running aground on rocky coasts, and to trace treacherous shoals and wrecks on the seabed. Yet for much…

This majestic book by Oswyn Murray has been long and eagerly awaited in classics circles – and its quality and scope exceed expectations. In it Murray explores how perspectives on Greek history have changed over the past three centuries, and the ways in which those shifting views reflected or shaped revolutions, wars and other pivotal events. Now aged 87, and an emeritus fellow at Balliol College, Oxford, Murray has lived through seismic shifts in the global order. He’s also witnessed – and contributed to -the transformation of theoretical and methodological approaches to the study of ancient history, not only in the Englishspeaking world but in every European tradition, including Russian. He personally knew many of the major actors in the later chapters of the book, so his first-hand testimony is…

Across 1 US journalist Ida ____, whose investigative work in the early 1900s exposed the Standard Oil company’s aggressive monopoly (7) 5 Turkic dynasty prominent in the Middle East in the 11th and 12th centuries (6) 10 See 12 across 11 Ottawa chief, great leader of inter-tribal resistance against 18th-century British rule in the Great Lakes area of North America (7) 12/10 across ‘___ and ___’, an old English law requiring a person spotting a crime to raise the alarm and pursue the felon (3/3) 13 Name adopted by a number of environmental political parties emerging in the 1970s (3,6) 14 Buckland Abbey, Devon was the home of this 16th-century privateer (5) 15 Adjective, in use from the 1970s, applied to precision-guided bombs, for example (5) 17 Capital of Manipur state, site of a notable British victory over…