During the industrial revolution landowners throughout Britain became rich on the proceeds of mineral deposits found deep beneath their estates. Coal was the ‘black diamond’, yielding a carbon-crusted fortune to families such as the Fitzwilliams of Wentworth or the Pembertons of Trumpington Hall. The primacy of the land-owning families was nearly universal. The only major exception to aristocratic domination was found in the thoroughly egalitarian freeminers […]
Monthly Archives: February 2012
The American Civil War is one of history’s most horrifying and bloodiest conflicts of all time. This mid-nineteenth century spasm of fratricidal butchery ranks as the most savage war to have ever blighted the American continent. The anger and obstinacy of a civil war found a distinctly uncivil outlet in mechanised, industrial fighting. Although the fighting was particularly fierce and bitter, the post-conflict peace held. Reconciliation, […]
Revenge in the rose garden
Berwick is a small town on the Northumbrian coast occupying the northern shore of the River Tweed. Today it lies 2.5 miles south of the Scottish border and is a peaceful tourist town and local administrative and service centre. This peaceful existence belies its turbulent past as the epicentre of Anglo-Scottish struggles. Wars, sieges, conquest and raids were Berwick’s lot for centuries. It is estimated that […]
Back and forth in Berwick
Why is there a ‘b’ in subtle? And, for that matter, why is there a ‘b’ in debt, doubt or plumber? The letter ‘b’ is not the only seemingly redundant silent letter in English – why is there a ‘p’ in receipt, a ‘c’ in indict or a ‘s’ in isle or aisle. A sensible guess might suggest that the pronunciation has shifted over the years, […]
Why is there a ‘b’ in subtle?
You are being chased through a thick pursued by horrific creatures – half man and half goat. Your heart is racing as you run, stumbling over roots and bushes, thorns ripping at your clothes and branches whipping at your face and hands. Behind you, the forest echoes with the blood curdling yelps and cries of the pursuing host. They are faster than you, more nimble in […]
Run for your life
I am making my unintentional continuation of the royal theme on this blog a tribute to the 60th anniversary of the Queen’s accession to the throne. A less regally-focused service will resume tomorrow! Call them traditional or unimaginative, but royal dynasties enjoy using their favourite names – think of all the French kings called Louis (18), Edwards in England (8) and Alfonsos in Spain (13). This […]
Keeping count of the Karls
In my previous post I talked about the London Borough of Greenwich being elevated in status to a Royal Borough – an exclusive club with only three other members. The honour has been bestowed as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. But is it a fitting accolade? What is royal about Royal Greenwich? There is plenty of royal history in the borough with connections that […]
So what is royal in Royal Greenwich?
I forced my reluctant, bone-chilled body out into a frozen London night to head over to Woolwich. What induced me to leave my warm flat to head all the way over the river to zone 4? Fireworks. Pure and simple – I love fireworks. Maybe it is because I didn’t get to go to many bonfire nights as a kid or maybe I just love the […]
Arise, the Royal Borough of Greenwich
Two names are synonymous with the Crusades – King Richard of England and Saladin. But Saladin is simply a western corruption of an Arabic honorific (akin referring to Richard as the Lionheart). The great ruler’s personal name was Yusuf, or Joseph. Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn is a laqab, a descriptive epithet that means ‘Righteousness of the Faith’. This was easily compressed and corrupted into Saladin. His name was […]
Righteousness and the Lionheart
In a perfect monarchical system, the king or queen will be the personal embodiment of a country’s sense of identity. If monarchy stands for anything, it is tradition and history – a personal and unbroken link to centuries past. Of course, the reality is often quite different. The House of Windsor has a quintessentially English ring to it, but this was the intentional First World War […]
Strange sovereigns
Monarchy was for centuries the standard form of government in Europe. At the turn of the twentieth century only Switzerland and France had no sovereign as their head of state. Whilst Switzerland had a long and proud tradition of local democracy, France vacillated between republican ideals and monarchical longings, alternating between presidents and kings of either Bourbon or Bonaparte extraction. In the aftermath of the Second […]
Surviving the revolution
What is the capital of Wales? W? No points and certainly no prizes if you put forward that answer. Hopefully, everyone reading this blog would know (or at least guess) it is Cardiff. But did you know that Cardiff was only made the capital of Wales as recently as 1955? So where was the Welsh capital six decades ago? And what made them choose Cardiff in […]