Modern History
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘Modern History’
While inspecting troops in Colchester for duty against Napoleon, the Duke of York came upon one man who gave new meaning to the word Veteran.
In September 1811, during the Napoleonic Wars, George the Prince Regent and his brother Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, were reviewing the troops of the Eastern Command on Lexden Heath, near Colchester, when they spied an elderly man wearing a uniform from a bygone age and perched on an aged pony. They asked the division’s commander General John Pitt, Earl of Chatham, what he was doing there.
Nothing seemed likely to stop Napoleon Bonaparte from conquering Europe, but one little fellow slowed him up a bit.
The Battle of Castiglione in northern Italy, on August 5th, 1796, was a resounding victory for Napoleon Bonaparte over the Austrian Empire. The general, who at that time was still serving the French Republic, read Helen Maria Williams’s account of his Italian campaign and told her later ‘that he would answer for the truth of all that she had reported’ — including, presumably, this poignant little scene.
William Burdon gives us a character sketch of his friend the ‘Count’, who did not let his small stature cramp his style or narrow his mind.
Joseph Boruwlaski, who was originally from Halicz (then in Poland, now in the Ukraine), settled in Durham after years of touring Europe as a violinist, an entertainer and frankly a curiosity, for he was barely thirty-nine inches high. William Burdon offered to help him financially but Joseph would not hear of it as his modest needs were by now satisfied — which Burdon would have thought typical of the man.
A veteran of the Battle of Salamanca in 1812 was boasting of his lieutenant’s bravery when his wife sprung some unwelcome news upon him.
Joseph Boruwlaski knew how it felt to be ever on the edge of bankruptcy. Barely thirty-nine inches in stature, he had relied for over seventy years on the generosity (and curiosity) of noble and royal patrons, and on fees earned from the violin concerts he gave across Europe. The following events, which occurred some time after the Battle of Salamanca in 1812, therefore touched him deeply.
Lord Halifax tacks gratefully into the Winds of Liberty, though he trims his sails to avoid being blown into republicanism.
Following the Restoration of King Charles II in 1660, opponents of George Savile, Marquess of Halifax, dubbed him ‘the Trimmer’ for charting a nice course between the King’s claims on power and Parliament’s defence of liberties. Halifax gleefully embraced the label, and privately circulated The Character of a Trimmer (1685) to champion a liberal constitution years ahead of its time.
Following the Restoration of King Charles II, the country charted a well-planned course between the extremes of civil licence and Government control.
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax, won for himself the nickname of ‘the Trimmer’ for his ability to sail a course between political extremes. It was intended as a snub, but he wore the badge with pride, maintaining that we needed both Charles II’s strong government and also Parliament’s vigorous defence of civil liberties in order for our country to prosper.