History

Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘History’

889
Edith and Edward Clay Lane

A King and Queen gentler than the times in which they lived.

The powerful Earl Godwin, a rough Saxon and an ambitious man, gave his support to King Edward the Confessor on condition that he marry Godwin’s daughter Edith.

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890
How Alfred Burnt the Cakes Charlotte Yonge

A popular tale of scorched cakes and a scolded king.

King Alfred the Great ruled from 871 to 899. He did more than any other king to unite the English as a nation, but first he had to overcome an invasion of Danes from across the North Sea, and a very cross housewife.

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891
The Gift Thrice Given Clay Lane

A story about William the Conqueror’s father, Robert the Magnificent.

Robert the Magnificent (1000-1035) was Duke of Normandy, and the father of King William I of England. His nickname referred in part to his legendary generosity.

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892
Byron and Hercules Clay Lane

Lord Byron could not have hoped for a better omen in his support for the oppressed people of Greece.

George Gordon Byron, one of the greatest of all English romantic poets, died in 1824, aged just 36, in Missolonghi, Greece. Yet he played a key part in liberating Greece from almost four hundred years of oppression by the Ottoman Empire.

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893
The Third Siege of Missolonghi Clay Lane

The cruelty of the Ottoman Turks so shocked Europe that the tide of opinion turned against them.

In 1823, early in the Greeks’ desperate fight for independence from the Ottoman Empire, English poet Lord Byron brought welcome public attention to the town of Missolonghi near Corinth just after it had endured two draining sieges. Two years later, however, the Turks came a third time.

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894
The Rewards of ‘Patience’ Clay Lane

How appropriate that the comic opera ‘Patience’ should introduce the world to the results of thirty years of labour.

Local boy Joseph Swan (1828-1914) worked for his brother-in-law in the pharmaceutical firm of Mawson, Swan and Morgan in Newcastle. He can claim to be one of the architects of modern living.

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