History
Posts in The Copybook tagged ‘History’
A cat moved home from Edinburgh to Glasgow and seemed to settle in nicely, but it turned out she was only biding her time.
In a pamphlet published in 1815, the anonymous authors took a look at British zoology, aiming (they said) to amuse, to instruct and “to look through Nature up to Nature’s God”. The collection of anecdotes about cats included this remarkable story, a tale of stubborn determination worthy of Robert the Bruce’s famous spider.
The Russian Consul in New York issued a stern rebuke to those trying to break Britain’s ban on slave-trading by sailing under his nation’s colours.
Long after slavery was criminalised throughout the British Empire, the abuse went on unabated in the USA. Hoping to escape the wrath of the Royal Navy, traders with their wretched cargo would sail to America under false colours, but on April 2nd, 1836, the Russian Consul in New York, Alexis Eustaphieve (1755-1857), issued this stern Consular notice to any who thus dishonoured the Russian flag.
Only months after kidnapping the Duke of Ormond, Irish radical Thomas Blood was at it again, this time attempting to steal the Crown Jewels.
In December 1670, Thomas Blood, believed on all sides to be a dangerous republican revolutionary, tried to hang the Duke of Ormond like a common criminal on the gallows at Tyburn. His plan went awry, but once again Blood, his son-in-law Thomas Hunt and the rest of the gang eluded the authorities. Five months later, the Irishman was back in the capital, this time with a plan to steal the Crown Jewels.
Karl Philipp Moritz described three kinds of criminal in Georgian England, from the gentlemanly cutpurse to the deadly footpad.
On June 20th, 1782, German tourist Karl Philipp Moritz was excited to find himself taking his first ride in an English stagecoach. During the trip, he and his fellow-passengers were regaled with stories of daring crimes in the neighbourhoods through which they passed, prompting Moritz to reflect on the perils of walking abroad in Georgian England.
King Edmund Ironside’s courageous defence of his crown against the invading Danes was undermined by treachery at home.
When King Ethelred ‘the Unready’ (i.e. lack-counsel) died in 1016, his son Edmund inherited not only the English crown, but the threat of losing it to the warlike Cnut, King of Denmark. That legacy Edmund might have coped with, for he deserved the nickname ‘Ironside’ for his courage in battle. Unfortunately, he had also inherited his father’s advisers.
The invading Danes fought so fiercely that Edmund Ironside, the young English king, threw all caution to the wind.
In 1016, Cnut the Great, King of Denmark, attempted to build a North Sea empire that encompassed the British Isles. In a bruising series of battles, Cnut had learnt that Edmund, the young English king, was a steely warrior worthy of respect, and that English nobleman Edric, who had defected to Edmund’s side, could not be trusted. Both lessons were confirmed on October 18th that year.