Power and prestige in early modern Europe could turn with a rapidity that almost required belief in the divine for it all to make any sense. Titles, fortunes and crowns could be won or lost on the outcome of a single day’s fighting. The right marriage, the untimely death of an heir or the election of a new Pope could shift the balance of European power […]
Monthly Archives: July 2013
The Prime Minister is the political leader of the country and at the apex of Britain’s power pyramid. Whilst in office, they benefit from the perks of the position – accommodation at Number 10 Downing Street and Chequers, a weekly audience with the Queen, chauffeur driven cars and close security protection. But what happens when they are turfed out of power? How are they rewarded for […]
Premier rewards
In the mid-nineteenth century the electrical telegraph revolutionised communication. Information that had previously taken days, weeks or even months to reach its destination could be received within minutes. It was the first form of electrical communication, the precursor to the telephone, fax and internet. But it was neither the first system of long-distance message transmission nor the first method of communication to be called a telegraph. […]
A revolutionary method of communication
In a long and spectacular military and political career, Napoleon dominated most of Europe. Of all his enemies, only one remained permanently out of his grip – Britain. Napoleon couldn’t conquer England and was ultimately vanquished by a coalition of allies led by the British. This didn’t stop the defeated Emperor finally seeing the country that had beaten him with his own eyes. For two weeks […]
Napoleon’s English adventure
In the summer of 1550, Princess Mary and her continental supporters, the Imperial Habsburgs, hatched a plan to spirit the recusant princess out of an increasingly Protestant and intolerant state. Ships from the Imperial navy were kept at anchor off the coast of Maldon whilst sloops made their way up the Blackwater estuary to the Essex market town to rendezvous with Henry VIII’s eldest daughter. Had […]
The near escape of Princess Mary Tudor
Stephen Irvine, 12 July 2013 Having relaxed into the surroundings of more exotic climes of late, it was a miserable journey back to Norwich for Sour Times this week, as another ridiculous story unfolded in the land that spawned Tim Westwood, Delia Smith and Alan Partridge. With the city still reeling from the recent dust-up at the sci-fi convention, there was fresh drama as a gorilla […]
Making a Monkey of the Dead
The City of St Davids lies in the south-west corner of St Davids Peninsula surrounded by some of the most stunning Pembrokeshire coastlines and countryside. It is easily the UK’s smallest city by population: home to 1,797 in the 2001 census. The next smallest, St Asaph, is also a Welsh cathedral city but has nearly twice as many residents. Over the border, Wells is a bustling […]
Once in Saint David’s City
The legendary Bill Shankly once drolly summed up how important football had become: “Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.” There are very few occasions when football lives up to this quote and is literally a matter of life and death, but a […]
The ultimate grudge match
Mein Kampf and the Little Red Book (or, to give it the proper title, Quotations from Chairman Mao) are two of the most famous examples of political tracts written by leaders of repressive regimes. But they are not the only ones – Colonel Gadaffi made his ‘Green Book’ compulsory reading in Libya and Turkmenistan’s President Niyazov required all schools to take his book, the Ruhnama, as their primary […]
Dictatorial diatribes
In 1919, the quickest way to get from London to Dublin was to take the train to Holyhead, sail across the Irish Sea and then take the train from Dun Laoghaire (then named Kingstown) to Dublin. The journey would take about 11 hours and, in a world where time was increasingly equated to money, this was too long for the frenetic Harry Selfridge. Faced with having […]