TODAY IN HISTORY

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13th May 1643 - the Battle of Grantham, in Lincolnshire, during the English Civil War. The Parliamentarians (Roundheads) defeat the Cavaliers.
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Cavalier soldier (supporter of the King) on the left, and a Roundhead soldier (supporter of Cromwell) on the right.



In March 1643, a large force of Royalists (Cavaliers) from Newark commanded by Sir Charles Cavendish and Sir John Henderson marched into Lincolnshire and captured the town of Grantham in a surprise attack. The Royalists did not garrison Grantham but marched on towards Boston. Parliament's commander in Lincolnshire, Lord WIlloughby of Parham, attempted to block the Royalist advance with a force of 1,500 troops, but in a brief engagement at Ancaster Heath on 11 April, the Parliamentarians were easily routed by the larger Royalist force.

Alarmed that Cavendish's manoeuvres might herald a march south by the Earl of Newcastle's northern army, Parliament ordered Lord Willoughby to make another attack on Newark. Willoughby joined forces with Colonel Cromwell of the Eastern Association and Captain Hotham with a contingent from Nottingham at Sleaford on 9 May. They advanced to Grantham on 11 May but remained there for a further two days, which gave Cavendish and Henderson time to prepare a counterstrike. In the early hours of 13 May, Cavendish made a surprise attack on Lord Willoughby's troops quartered at the village of Belton, killing 70 and taking 40 prisoners. Later in the day, the Royalists made a second advance. After an exchange of musket fire, Cromwell, in his first independent action as a cavalry commander, led a charge that drove the Royalists from the field. Despite the Parliamentarian victory, however, the march on Newark was abandoned.

british-civil-wars.co.uk

 

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14th May 1796 - British physician Edward Jenner carries out the world's first widely known vaccination. He innoculated an 8-year-old boy, James Phipps, against smallpox. However, a Dorset farmer, Benjamin Jesty, had successfully inoculated his wife and two children during a smallpox epidemic in 1774, but it was not until Jenner's work some twenty years later that the procedure became widely understood

Around this time smallpox was greatly feared, as one in three of those who contracted the disease died, and those who survived were commonly badly disfigured. Voltaire, a few years later, recorded that 60% of people caught smallpox, with 20% of the population dying of it. Jenner died of a 2nd stroke in 1823.
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Edward Jenner FRS (May 17, 1749 – January 26, 1823) was an English country doctor who studied nature and his natural surroundings from childhood and practiced medicine in Berkeley, Gloucestershire, England. He is famous as the first doctor to introduce and study the smallpox vaccine.

Jenner trained in Sodbury, Gloucestershire as an apprentice to Dr. Ludlow for 8 years from the age of 13, then went up to London in 1770 to study under the surgeon John Hunter (a noted experimentalist, and later a fellow of the Royal Society[1]) and others at St George's Hospital. William Osler records that Jenner was a student to whom Hunter repeated William Harvey's advice, very famous in medical circles, "Don't think, try". Jenner therefore was early noticed by men famous for advancing the practice and institutions of medicine, and Hunter remained in correspondence with him over natural history and proposed him for the Royal Society. Returning to his native countryside, by 1773 he became a successful general practitioner and surgeon, practicing in purpose-built premises at Berkeley.

Jenner and others formed a medical society in Rodborough, Gloucestershire, meeting to read papers on medical subjects and dine together. Jenner contributed papers on angina pectoris, ophthalmia and valvular disease of the heart and commented on cowpox. He also belonged to a similar society which met in Alveston, near Bristol.[1]

He was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1788, following a careful study combining observation, experiment and dissection into a description of the previously misunderstood life of the cuckoo in the nest.



Smallpox
Around this time smallpox was greatly feared, as one in three of those who contracted the disease died, and those who survived were commonly badly disfigured. Voltaire, a few years later, recorded that 60% of people caught smallpox, with 20% of the population dying of it. A Dorset farmer, Benjamin Jesty, had successfully inoculated his wife and two children during a smallpox epidemic in 1774, but it was not until Jenner's work some twenty years later that the procedure became widely understood. Indeed it is generally believed that Jenner was unaware of Jesty's success and arrived at his conclusions independently.

Jenner's Initial Theory
In fact he thought the initial source of infection was a disease of horses, called "the grease", and that this was transferred to cows by farmworkers, transformed, and then manifested as cowpox. From that point on he was correct, the complication probably arose from coincidence.

Noting the common observation that milkmaids did not generally get smallpox, Jenner theorized that the pus in the blisters which milkmaids received from cowpox (a disease similar to smallpox, but much less virulent) protected the milkmaids from smallpox. He may have had the advantage of hearing stories of Benjamin Jesty and perhaps others deliberately arranging cowpox infection of their families and of a reduced risk in those families.

In May 1796, Jenner tested his theory by inoculating James Phipps, a young boy, with material from the cowpox blisters of the hand of Sarah Nelmes, a milkmaid who had caught cowpox from a cow called Blossom. Phipps was the 17th case described in Jenners first paper on vaccination.

Jenner inoculated Phipps with cowpox pus in both arms on one day. This produced a fever and some uneasiness but no great illness. Later, he injected Phipps with variolous material, which would have been the routine attempt to produce immunity at that time. No disease followed. Jenner reported that later the boy was again challenged with variolacious material and again showed no sign of infection.

He continued his research and reported it to the Royal Society who did not publish the initial report. After improvement and further work he published a report of 23 cases. Some of his conclusions were correct, and some erroneous - modern microbiological and microscopic methods would make this easier to repeat. The medical establishment, then as now, considered his findings for some time before accepting them. Eventually vaccination was accepted and in 1840 the British government banned variolation and provided vaccination free of charge.

Jenner's continuing work on vaccination prevented his continuing his ordinary medical practice. He was supported by his colleagues and the King in petitioning Parliament and was granted £10,000 for his work on vaccination. In 1806 he was granted another £20 000 for his continuing work.

In 1803 in London he became involved with the Jennerian Institution, a society concerned with promoting vaccination to eradicate smallpox. In 1808, with government aid, this society became the National Vaccine Establishment.

Jenner became a member of the Medical and Chirurgical Society on its foundation in 1805, and subsequently presented to them a number of papers. This is now the Royal Society of Medicine.

Returning to London in 1811 he observed a significant number of cases of smallpox after vaccination occurring. He found that in these cases the severity of the illness was notably diminished by the previous vaccination.

In 1813 the University of Oxford awarded him the degree of MD.

In 1821 he was appointed Physician Extraordinary to King George IV, a considerable national honour, and was made Mayor of Berkeley and Justice of the Peace.

He continued his interests in natural history and 1823 he presented "Observations on the Migration of Birds" to the Royal Society.

He died of his second stroke on 26 January 1823, having fully recovered from the first, and was survived by one son and one daughter, the eldest son having died of tuberculosis aged 21.

In 1980, the World Health Organisation declared smallpox an eradicated disease. This was the result of coordinated public health efforts by many people, but vaccination was an essential component.

Statue of Jenner in Kensington Gardens, London.

wikipedia.org

Also on this day -

1847 - HMS Driver completes the first circumnavigation of the world by a steamship when it arrives at Spithead on the Hampshire coast.

1921 - In the United States, Florence Allen becomes the first woman judge to sentence a man to death. Frank Motto is found guilty of murder and executed on August 20th.

1940 - Most of Rotterdam, Holland is destroyed by German bombing – killing 1,000 and making more than 50,000 homeless.

 

[I think not]

STATE OF ISRAEL PROCLAIMED:
May 14, 1948


On May 14, 1948, in Tel Aviv, Jewish Agency Chairman David Ben-Gurion proclaims the State of Israel, establishing the first Jewish state in 2,000 years. In an afternoon ceremony at the Tel Aviv Art Museum, Ben-Gurion pronounced the words "We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine, to be called Israel," prompting applause and tears from the crowd gathered at the museum. Ben-Gurion became Israel's first premier.

In the distance, the rumble of guns could be heard from fighting that broke out between Jews and Arabs immediately following the British army withdrawal earlier that day. Egypt launched an air assault against Israel that evening. Despite a blackout in Tel Aviv--and the expected Arab invasion--Jews joyously celebrated the birth of their new nation, especially after word was received that the United States had recognized the Jewish state. At midnight, the State of Israel officially came into being upon termination of the British mandate in Palestine.

Modern Israel has its origins in the Zionism movement, established in the late 19th century by Jews in the Russian Empire who called for the establishment of a territorial Jewish state after enduring persecution. In 1896, Jewish-Austrian journalist Theodor Herzl published an influential political pamphlet called The Jewish State, which argued that the establishment of a Jewish state was the only way of protecting Jews from anti-Semitism. Herzl became the leader of Zionism, convening the first Zionist Congress in Switzerland in 1897. Ottoman-controlled Palestine, the original home of the Jews, was chosen as the most desirable location for a Jewish state, and Herzl unsuccessfully petitioned the Ottoman government for a charter.

After the failed Russian Revolution of 1905, growing numbers of Eastern European and Russian Jews began to immigrate to Palestine, joining the few thousand Jews who had arrived earlier. The Jewish settlers insisted on the use of Hebrew as their spoken language. With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, Britain took over Palestine. In 1917, Britain issued the "Balfour Declaration," which declared its intent to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Although protested by the Arab states, the Balfour Declaration was included in the British mandate over Palestine, which was authorized by the League of Nations in 1922. Because of Arab opposition to the establishment of any Jewish state in Palestine, British rule continued throughout the 1920s and '30s.

Beginning in 1929, Arabs and Jews openly fought in Palestine, and Britain attempted to limit Jewish immigration as a means of appeasing the Arabs. As a result of the Holocaust in Europe, many Jews illegally entered Palestine during World War II. Radical Jewish groups employed terrorism against British forces in Palestine, which they thought had betrayed the Zionist cause. At the end of World War II, in 1945, the United States took up the Zionist cause. Britain, unable to find a practical solution, referred the problem to the United Nations, which in November 1947 voted to partition Palestine.

The Jews were to possess more than half of Palestine, although they made up less than half of Palestine's population. The Palestinian Arabs, aided by volunteers from other countries, fought the Zionist forces, but by May 14, 1948, the Jews had secured full control of their U.N.-allocated share of Palestine and also some Arab territory. On May 14, Britain withdrew with the expiration of its mandate, and the State of Israel was proclaimed. The next day, forces from Egypt, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq invaded.

The Israelis, though less well equipped, managed to fight off the Arabs and then seize key territory, such as Galilee, the Palestinian coast, and a strip of territory connecting the coastal region to the western section of Jerusalem. In 1949, U.N.-brokered cease-fires left the State of Israel in permanent control of this conquered territory. The departure of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs from Israel during the war left the country with a substantial Jewish majority.

During the third Arab-Israeli conflict--the Six-Day War of 1967--Israel again greatly increased its borders, capturing from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria the Old City of Jerusalem, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights. In 1979, Israel and Egypt signed an historic peace agreement in which Israel returned the Sinai in exchange for Egyptian recognition and peace. Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) signed a major peace accord in 1993, which envisioned the gradual implementation of Palestinian self-government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The Israeli-Palestinian peace process moved slowly, however, and in 2000 major fighting between Israelis and Palestinians resumed in Israel and the occupied territories.

 

[Blackleaf]

15th May 1718 - The first machine gun is patented by London lawyer James Puckle who, as a keen fisherman, intended to use it at sea! It became known as the Puckle Gun.

A Puckle Gun, the replaceable cylinder for square bullets is visible below.

In 1718 in London, England, lawyer James Puckle demonstrated his new invention, the Puckle Gun, a tripod-mounted, single-barreled flintlock weapon using a revolving cylinder. Using a standard flintlock weapon, a soldier could be expected to fire three times per minute; the Puckle gun could fire up to nine shots per minute. It was the first revolver cannon and one of the first guns to use some sort of rotary feed system.

Puckle developed two versions of the basic design. For Christian enemies, he felt that the standard round bullets would be the best ammunition. However, when facing Muslim Turks, he thought that square bullets (which would cause larger, more painful wounds, in his opinion) would be more suitable.

Mr. Puckle could not attract investors to his weapon, he never mass-produced it, nor did he manage to sell this weapon to the British military. The Puckle Gun did not seem to inspire any weapons, it would be nearly a century before multi-barrel handguns like Pepperbox pistols and Revolvers would become common. It shares little with the first manual machine guns (e.g. Gatling gun), whose chambers were mechanically reloaded from a hopper. It did forshadow the use of hand-cranks in manual machine guns, as well rotary chambers for ammo storage decades before they became common. It is also one of the few weapons to have been intended to fire square bullets, rather then rounds ones.

wikipedia.org


Also on this day -

1800 - King George III survives two assassination attempts ON THE SAME DAY. The second coming from James Hadfield who fired a shot at the King during a performance at the Drury Lane Theatre in London.

1860 - Giuseppe Garibaldi, along with around 1,000 volunteers, defeats the vastly superior Neapolitan Army under General Landi at the Battle of Calatafimi. A few years later, all the city states and nations on the boot-shaped peninsular unify together to form Italy.

 

[Blackleaf]

16th May 1220 - King Henry III lays the foundation stone for the new Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey.

A Lady chapel is a chapel inside a cathedral dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Traditionally, a Lady chapel is the largest chapel of a cathedral. Generally the chapel was built eastward of the high altar and formed a projection from the main building, as in Winchester, Salisbury, Exeter, Wells, St Albans, Chichester, Peterborough and Norwich cathedrals, in the two latter cases now destroyed.

The earliest Lady chapel built was that in the Saxon cathedral of Canterbury; this was transferred in the rebuilding by Archbishop Lanfranc to the west end of the nave, and again shifted in 1450 to the chapel on the east side of the north transept. The Lady chapel at Ely Cathedral is a distinct building attached to the north transept; at Rochester the Lady-chapel is west of the south transept.

Probably the largest Lady-chapel was that built by Henry III in 1220 at Westminster Abbey, which was 30 feet wide, much in excess of any foreign example, and extended to the end of the site now occupied by Henry VII's chapel.

Among other notable English examples of Lady-chapels are those at Ottery-St-Mary, Thetford, Bury St Edmund's, Wimborne, Christ church, Hampshire; in Compton Church, Surrey, and Compton Martin, Somersetshire, and Darenth, Kent, it was built over the chancel. At Croyland Abbey there were two Lady-chapels.

Lady-chapels exist in most of the French cathedrals and churches where they form part of the chevet; in Belgium they were not introduced before the 14th century; in some cases they are of the same size as the other chapels of the chevet, but in others probably rebuilt at a later period, they became much more important features, and in Italy and Spain during the Renaissance period constitute some of its best examples.

wikipedia.org

Also on this day -

1902 - King Alfonso XIII is enthroned in Spain.

1943 - The Dambusters: the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe dams in Germany are attacked and destroyed by 19 Lancaster aircraft from the RAF's 617 Squadron led by Guy Gibson, using the specially designed bouncing bombs invented by Barnes Wallis.

1956 - England cricketer Jim Laker of Surrey takes all 10 Australian wickets for 88 in 46 overs at the Oval.

 

[Blackleaf]

18th May 1152 - Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, marries Henry Plantagenet (later Henry II of England). She had been divorced two months earlier from King Louis VII of France.
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Eleanor of Aquitaine (1122) – March 31, 1204) was one of the wealthiest and most powerful women in Europe during the High Middle Ages. She was Queen consort of both France and England in turn. She is well known for her involvement in the Second Crusade.


Early life
The oldest of three children, her father was William X, Duke of Aquitaine, and her mother was Aenor de Châtellerault, the daughter of Aimeric I, Vicomte of Chatellerault. William's and Aenor's marriage had been arranged by his father, William IX of Aquitaine the Troubador, and her mother, Dangereuse, William IX's long-time mistress. Eleanor was named after her mother and called Aliénor, which means other Aenor in the langue d'oc (Occitan language), but it became Eléanor in the northern Oil language.

She was raised in one of Europe's most cultured courts, the birthplace of courtly love. By all accounts, Eleanor was the apple of her father's eye, who made sure she had the best education possible: she could read, speak Latin, and was well-versed in music and literature. She also enjoyed riding, hawking, and hunting. Eleanor was very outgoing and stubborn. She was regarded as very beautiful during her time; most likely she was red-haired and brown-eyed as her father and grandfather were. She became heiress to Aquitaine (the largest and richest of the provinces in what would become modern France) and seven other countries. Her brother, William Aigret, died as a baby and she had only one other sibling, a younger sister named Petronilla.




Marriage to Henry II of England
The marriage of Eleanor of Aquitaine to Henry of Anjou and Henry's subsequent succession to the throne of England created an empire.Two lords tried to kidnap Eleanor to marry her and claim her lands on Eleanor's way to Poitiers. As soon as she arrived in Poitiers, Eleanor sent envoys to Henry, Count of Anjou and Duke of Normandy, asking him to come at once and marry her. On Whit Sunday, May 18, 1152, six weeks after her annulment, Eleanor married Henry 'without the pomp and ceremony that befitted their rank'[2]. She was about 11 years older than he, and related to him in the same degree as she had been to Louis. Eleanor and Henry were half, third cousins through their common ancestor Ermengarde of Anjou (wife to Robert I, Duke of Burgundy and Geoffrey, Count of Gâtinais). One of Eleanor's rumored lovers was Henry's own father, Geoffrey of Anjou, who advised him not to get involved with her. Over the next 13 years, she bore Henry five sons and three daughters: William, Henry, Richard, Geoffrey, John, Matilda, Eleanor, and Joan.

Despite her reputation in later historical accounts, Eleanor was incensed by Henry's philandering; their son, William, and Henry's illegitimate son, Geoffrey, were born months apart. Henry fathered other illegitimate children throughout most of their marriage.

Some time between 1168 and 1170, she instigated a separation, deciding to establish a new court in her own territory of Poitou. A small fragment of her codes and practices was written by Andreas Capellanus.

Henry concentrated on controlling his increasingly-large empire, badgering Eleanor's subjects in attempts to control her patrimony of Aquitaine and her court at Poitiers. Straining all bounds of civility, Henry had Archbishop Thomas Becket murdered at the altar of the church in 1170 (though there is considerable debate as to whether it was truly Henry's intent to be permanently rid of his archbishop). This aroused Eleanor's horror and contempt, along with most of Europe's.



Revolt and Capture
In March 1173, aggrieved at his lack of power and egged on by his father's enemies, the younger Henry launched the Revolt of 1173-1174. He fled to Paris. From there 'the younger Henry, devising evil against his father from every side by the advice of the French King, went secretly into Aquitaine where his two youthful brothers, Richard and Godfrey, were living with their mother, and with her connivance, so it is said, he incited them to join him'. [3] The Queen sent her younger sons to France 'to join with him against their father the King'[4]. Once her sons had left for Paris, Eleanor encouraged the lords of the south to rise up and support them.[5] Sometime between the end of March and the beginning of May, Eleanor left Poitiers to follow her sons to Paris but was arrested on the way and sent to the King in Rouen. The King did not announce the arrest publicly. For the next year, her whereabouts are unknown. On 8 July 1174, Henry took ship for England from Barfleur. He brought Eleanor on the ship. As soon as they disembarked at Southampton, Eleanor was taken away either to Winchester Castle or Sarum Castle and held there.

wikipedia.org
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Also on this day -

1830 - Brit Edwin Budding signs an agreement for his invention, the lawn mower, to go into mass production. His first customer is Regent's Park Zoo in London.

 

[Blackleaf]

21st May 685 - the Battle of Dunnichen (also known as Battle of Nechtansmere) was fought between the Picts and Northumbrians in Angus, in what is now Scotland. The Northumbrians were a Germanic people whose kingdom was in what is now Northern England and part of Southern Scotland and the Picts were Celtic. The Pict commander was Bridei III and the Northumbrian commander was Ecgfrith. The Battle was a victory for the Picts and afterwards Northumbria's existence was virtually wiped out in the area that later became Southern Scotland and occupied just what is now Northern England. Northumbria (or Northumberland) is now the most northerly county in England after King Alfred (known to the English as "The Father of England") unified all the Germanic kingdoms together to form what is now England.
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It's now a county bordering Scotland.

The Battle of Dunnichen (Welsh: Linn garan) or Battle of Nechtansmere was fought between the Picts and Northumbrians on May 21st 685, near Forfar, Angus. It ended in a decisive Pictish victory and severely weakened Northumbria's power in northern Britain.

The Northumbrians had been gradually extending their territory to the north, their constituent kingdom of Bernicia having captured Edinburgh from the Gododdin around 638. For the next thirty years they established political dominance over the Kingdoms of Strathclyde (which was in the area that is now South West Scotland and North West England) and Dál Riata, as well as Pictish Fortriu.

King Ecgfrith of Northumbria invaded lands held by the Picts in 685, apparently to stop them from raiding to the south. They met in battle on May 21 near Dunnichen; the Picts pretended to retreat, drawing the Northumbrians into the swamp of Dunnichen. The Pictish King Bridei III killed Ecgfrith and destroyed his army and enslaved many of the survivors. After the battle, Northumbria's influence never again extended past the Firth of Forth.

Little is known about the actual battle; it was briefly described by the Venerable Bede in the 8th century.

wikipedia.org

Also on this day -

1662 - Charles II of England marries Catherine de Braganza, daughter of John IV of Portugal.

1840 - Captain William Hobson claims British sovereignty over the whole of New Zealand. Official recognition as a British colony comes in 1841.

 

[Blackleaf]

22nd May 1455 - the First Battle of St Albans took place. This was the first battle of the Wars of the Roses. It was fought between the Lancastrians and Yorkists and was a victory for the Yorkists. The Yorkists were commanded by Richard, Duke of York and Richard, Earl of Warwick and the Lancastrians were commanded by Edmund, Duke of Somerset. Later on during the Wars of the Roses, a second battle took place in St Albans. The battle was strange in that instead of being fought in a wide open field, it was fought in the narrow streets and alleys of the town itself.
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First Battle of St Albans

The First Battle of St Albans was the first battle of the Wars of the Roses and was fought on May 22, 1455 in the town of St Albans, Hertfordshire. Richard, Duke of York and his ally, Richard, Earl of Warwick defeated the Lancastrians under Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, who was killed. York captured Henry VI and had himself appointed Constable of England.

In an attempt to avoid becoming outflanked by the 3,000 strong Yorkist army, Henry's army of 2,000 troops pulled back into the town and built barricades in Holywell Hill and St Peter's Street to defend against a Yorkist attack from the fields to east. The bulk of Henry's forces were surprised and fully occupied by the speed of Richard's attack; most of the army was expecting a peaceful resolution like the one at Blackheath in 1452, and the leaders had been negotiating minutes before the attack. However, two frontal assaults down the narrow streets made no headway and resulted in heavy casualties for the Yorkists.

Warwick took his reserve troops through an unguarded part of the town's defences, following a path through back lanes and gardens. Suddenly the Earl appeared in the Market Square where the main body of Henry troops was sitting around talking and resting. There is evidence they were not yet expecting to be involved in the fighting, as many were not even wearing their helmets. Warwick charged instantly with his small force of reserves and smashed the Lancastrian line in two, making military history.

The Earl then ordered his archers to fire at the men around the King, killing some and injuring many nobles including the King and his commander the Duke of Buckingham. Warwick killed one of his own enemies, the Duke of Somerset outside the Castle Inn. The men manning the barricades realising the enemy was in the main square and fearing an attack from behind abandoned them to the Yorkists who soon climbed over and joined the rout.

The First Battle of St Albans was trivial in military terms, with perhaps 300 dead, but the battle was a complete victory for York in political terms: he had captured the King, returning himself to complete power; his rival Somerset was dead; and the Neville's arch enemies Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland and Lord de Clifford both fell during the rout.

Wars of the Roses (in chronological order)

1st St Albans – Blore Heath – Ludford Bridge – Northampton – Wakefield – Mortimer's Cross – 2nd St Albans – Ferrybridge – Towton – Hedgeley Moor – Hexham – Edgecote Moor – Lose-coat Field – Barnet – Tewkesbury – Bosworth Field – Stoke Field

wikipedia.org

22nd May 1840 - Britain ends the practice of sending convicts to the penal colony of Australia.

 

[#juan]

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May 22, 2006

Article from World War II Magazine
Field Marshall Erwin Rommel: The Desert Fox's Defense of Normandy
During World War II, Field Marshall Erwin Rommel's decision to stop the Allied invasion of France at the water's edge was contrary to the rule book and anathema to his more tradition-bound contemporaries.

By Williamson Murray

When World War II ended in Europe in May 1945, most Western military leaders and analysts regarded Erwin Rommel as the war's greatest German general. But that was not how most German military leaders felt. Instead, in their memoirs they argued that Rommel was at best an adequate tactician and not a bad leader of small units, that he had been an adequate division commander, but his command of corps, army and army groups was often flawed. Rommel, they asserted, had involved himself too much in the day-to-day details of the tactical fight and not enough in the operational and strategic issues that must concern those at the highest levels of command, and he paid too little attention to matters of intelligence and the enemy's order of battle. Thus, his German critics allege, as the commander of the Afrika Korps, "the Desert Fox" had won some spectacular victories but willfully ignored problems of logistics.

Of course, Rommel was no longer present to defend himself. His peripheral involvement in the July 1944 plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler had led the Gestapo to compel the field marshal to take his own life that October. The debate on Rommel's ability was, therefore, left to be fought out among his contemporaries and was picked up by historians who continue this debate to the present day. Much of the criticism of Rommel's suitability for high command is focused around his performance as the commander of Heeresgruppe (Army Group) B and its defense of northwestern Europe against the Anglo-American invasion in June and July 1944.


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Rommel's actions in that assignment can perhaps give the best indication of the validity of the charges that the field marshal was not up to positions of great responsibility. They can also provide insights into how German military leaders as a whole approached the strategic and operational problems of World War II and how well they understood the larger issues involved in the war.

Rommel's Glory Years
For Rommel, the first three years of the war were spectacular. He had risen from the obscurity of a mere division command (one among approximately 140) to an army command with the rank of field marshal. His leadership of the 7th Panzer Division during the blitzkrieg in France had contributed considerably to his rapid promotion through the command hierarchy. One recent German account of the invasion of France asserts that Rommel played an even more important role in the breakthrough on the Meuse -- which led to the Allied collapse -- than Heinz Guderian did.

Fresh from the victory in France, in early 1941 the Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH -- Army High Command) selected Rommel to command a small corps of German mobile and mechanized troops that was being sent to North Africa to prevent the collapse of the Italian position in Libya. Under strict orders to remain on the defensive once he arrived, Rommel instead hit the ground running and began attacking the British even before his entire force had reached the desert. In a series of spectacular advances, he consistently disobeyed the instructions of not only his titular bosses in Rome, the Italian Comando Supremo, but also his superiors in Berlin, the OKH. Unimpressed by the Afrika Korps' early victories, the chief of the German General Staff, the schoolmasterly Colonel-General Franz Halder, was instead soon moaning that Rommel had gone "mad" in North Africa.

Whatever the criticisms issuing from the OKH, Rommel's performance was brilliant. His mission was to keep the British out of Libya and to restore the Italian position in North Africa. He more than accomplished this. His masterstroke came in June 1942 when his outnumbered Afrika Korps wrecked the British Eighth Army on the Gazala Line immediately to the east of Benghazi. He then pursued his beaten foe all the way back to El Alamein, the Eighth Army's last defensive position in Egypt before the Nile.

Along the way, he also took the fortress port of Tobruk. Some historians have criticized Rommel for not halting after his victory at Gazala so that German and Italian airborne and amphibious forces could assault Malta. However, given the performance of Italian forces up to that point in the war, Rommel had reason to be dubious about the success of such an operation -- and he was probably correct. Certainly Hitler agreed with him. Rommel sensed that he had the enemy on the run, and that this was the moment of opportunity that could lead to the fall of Egypt. Impressed with what he had accomplished thus far, Hitler promoted Rommel -- who had been only a major general at the start of the war -- to field marshal on June 22, 1942. But things were about to change.

In August 1942 the British finally discovered a field commander, Lt. Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery, who would fight the Eighth Army in accordance with its actual abilities. More important for the men of this badly battered force, he would provide its units leadership with a capital "L." As he told the British and Commonwealth soldiers defending the Alma Halfa Ridge in September 1942, "they would stay there alive, or they would stay there dead." They stayed. The Afrika Korps was brought to a halt, and by the end of September, Rommel was suffering from exhaustion and a bout of jaundice that finally forced him to return to Germany for treatment.

Thus, Rommel was not even in North Africa when Montgomery's opening blows in the second Battle of El Alamein fell on Axis positions in October. Not yet fully recovered, the Afrika Korps commander rushed back to the front, but by the time he arrived those in charge had already lost the battle. For the first time in North Africa, the Germans were up against a commander willing and able to take advantage of the overwhelming ground and air superiority the British possessed.


link

 

[Blackleaf]

23rd May 1701 - the execution of Scottish pirate William Kidd at Execution Dock in Wapping, London. He was found guilty of murdering his ship's gunner, a man named Moore. After the execution, his body was taken to Tilbury Point where it was left to hang in chains for two years. Kidd was drunk during the execution.
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Kidd's body hanging in chains over the Tilbury Point. It hung there for 2 years as a deterrent to would-be pirates.


At the Old Bailey on May 8th and 9th 1701 Kidd was tried for Moore's murder and several counts of Piracy. The nine members of his crew were tried on the piracy charges. All were found guilty and sentenced to hang. Many felt that the trial was inadequate and there are arguments about it to this day. Certainly, some evidence which might have proven his innocence seems to have been mislaid during the trial.

On Sunday May 18th 1701, the chaplain at Newgate preached a sermon on the text "For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ". Perhaps Kidd did not fully appreciate the irony of it, as he was still confident of a reprieve. Although a reprieve did arrive for eight of his crewmen, he and the Irishman Darby Mullins had their sentences confirmed. The following Tuesday, May 23rd they were taken from Newgate, together with a pair of condemned Frenchmen, in two horse-drawn carts. They were guarded by marshals and led by the Admiralty marshal who carried the Admiralty's symbol, a silver oar. It was quite clear that Kidd was not sober - to the shocked disapproval of the Newgate Chaplain. The procession, accompanied by a large crowd, made its way through the City and past the Tower of London to Execution Dock, Wapping.

The old Newgate prison, before it was burnt down during the Gordon Riots of 1780.


At this place there was a permanent gallows for pirates and it was customary to chain the corpses of the hanged to a post on the foreshore and let them "drown" in three tides as an example. Kidd spoke from the gallows and warned all ship-masters to learn from his fate. As the cart was drawn away from the scaffold to hang him, the rope around Kidd's neck broke, leaving him floundering in the Thames mud as the other condemned men hung. Still drunk, and now covered in mud, he had to be helped to his feet and man-handled back on to the gallows for a second time - the praying Chaplain in attendance. A new rope was hastily thrown around his neck and he was eventually hung. After the symbolic triple "drowning" his body was taken to Tilbury Point where it was left to hang in chains for two years.

http://www.storyoflondon.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=4

 

[Blackleaf]

24th May 1487 - Lambert Simnel, aged 10 years, was crowned as "King Edward VI" of England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. He was crowned in Ireland, as that was one of the places where he gained support from the Yorkists.

However, despite his young age, it turned out that he was an imposter. The person who should be King - who was about the same age - had been imprisoned in the Tower of London.

This all led to the Battle of Stoke Field - one of the Wars of the Roses - between the supporters of Simnel, who were mainly Irish and Flemish, and the supporters of King Henry VII. Simnel's supporters were defeated.
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Lambert Simnel (circa 1477 – circa 1534) was a child pretender to the throne of England. Together with Perkin Warbeck, he was one of two impostors who threatened the rule of Henry VII of England (reigned 1485–1509) during the last decade of the 15th century.

Lambert Simnel was born around 1477. Different sources have different claims of his parentage from a baker and tradesman to organ builder. At the age of about ten, he was taken as a pupil by an Oxford-trained priest named Roger Simon (or Richard or Symonds) who apparently decided to become a kingmaker. He tutored the boy in courtly manners and contemporaries described the boy as handsome.

Originally Simon intended to present Simnel as Richard of York, son of Edward IV. However, when he heard rumours that Edward, Earl of Warwick had died during his imprisonment in the Tower of London, he changed his mind. The real Edward was a boy of about the same age who was a genuine claimant to the throne because he was the son of George, Duke of Clarence.

Simon spread a rumour that Edward had actually fled from the tower and was under his guardianship. He gained some support from the House of York. He took Simnel to Ireland where there was still support of Yorkists and presented him to the Earl of Kildare. The Earl was willing to support the story and invade England to overthrow King Henry. On May 24, 1487 Simnel was crowned in Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin as "King Edward VI". He was approximately ten years of age. The Earl of Kildare collected an army of Irish soldiers under the command of Thomas Geraldine.

When Henry Tudor heard about the matter, he also knew that he had the real Edward of Warwick still imprisoned in the Tower. On February 2, 1487 he presented the real Edward in public in an attempt to prove that the young pretender was an impostor. Henry also declared a general pardon of all offences, including treason against himself, on the condition that offenders submit to him.

John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln and designated successor to late King Richard III of England, joined the conspiracy against the king and fled to Flanders. There he claimed that he had taken part in young Warwick's escape. There he also met Lord Lovell who had supported a failed Yorkist uprising in 1486. Margaret of Burgundy collected 2000 Flemish mercenaries and shipped them to Ireland under the command of Martin Schwarz. They arrived in Ireland on May 5. Henry was informed of this and began to gather troops.

Simnel's supporters — mainly composed of Flemish and Irish troops — landed on Piel Island in the Furness area of Lancashire on June 5, 1487 and were joined with some English supporters. However, most local nobles with the exception of Thomas Broughton did not join them. They clashed with Henry's army on June 16 at the Battle of Stoke Field and were defeated. The Earl of Kildare was captured, and the Earl of Lincoln and Sir Thomas Broughton were killed. Lord Lovell went missing and there were rumours that he had escaped and hidden to avoid retribution. Simon avoided execution due to his priestly status but was imprisoned for life.

Henry VII pardoned young Simnel (probably because he had mostly been a puppet in the hands of adults) and gave him a job in the royal kitchen. When he grew older, he became a royal falconer. He died around 1534.

wikipedia.org

Also on this day -

1689 - The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants (Roman Catholics are intentionally excluded). This granted freedom of worship to Nonconformists

 

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25th May 1659 - Richard Cromwell (aka "Tumbledown Dick"), the son of Oliver Cromwell, resigns as Lord Protector of England. This led to the Restoration of the Monarchy in 1660.
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Richard Cromwell (October 4, 1626 – July 12, 1712) was the third son of Oliver Cromwell, and the second Lord Protector of England, Scotland and Ireland, for little over eight months, from September 3, 1658 until May 25, 1659. Richard Cromwell's enemies called him Tumbledown Dick.

Richard was an unlikely successor, coming to prominence only because his two elder brothers both died before their father. Having previously sat in Parliament, but only having joined the Council of State a year before his appointment as Protector, he had neither the political experience nor the interest required to maintain his position. He gave it up with little hesitation, resigning or "abdicating" after a demand by the Rump Parliament.

This was the beginning of a short period of restoration of the Commonwealth of England but led to a state of anarchy that resulted in the return of the exiled King Charles II of England and the English Restoration. Unlike his father, Richard was not held accountable for the death of King Charles I. He retired to obscurity, going into exile in continental Europe under the soubriquet of "John Clarke", but returning in 1680 to live out the remainder of his life in Britain.


wikipedia.org

 

[Finder]

Boy Richard Cromwell was extremely unremarkable unlike his father. You think the english would have chosen a better way to find a new "Lord Protector" rather then the way which already proved to be a failure.

 

[Blackleaf]

26th May 1798 - the Battle of Tara Hill, during the 1798 Rebellion, was fought between the British and a group of Irish rebels. It was a heavy defeat for the rebels and the end of the rebellion in County Meath. Despite the fact that there were around 4000 rebels but only 700 British soldiers, the rebels had 500 casualties but the British had a mere 30!
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Aerial view of Tara Hill, County Meath.


The Battle of Tara Hill was fought on 26 May 1798 between British forces and Irish rebels involved in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, resulting in a heavy defeat for the rebels and the end of the rebellion in County Meath.

Background

Following the outbreak of the rebellion in neighbouring county Kildare, United Irishmen rebels in Meath began to assemble at the ancient hill of Tara, chosen as much for its historic and cultural symbolism as for the panoramic view it afforded of the surrounding countryside. The initial mobilisations had gone well for the rebels, with a force of 4,000 rebels gathered at the camp by early morning. A successful attack on a party of Reay Fencibles, on their way to bolster the garrison at Dublin, netted the baggage of the entire regiment. This proved to be a pyrrhic victory as when news of this humiliating loss reached the main body of the fencibles, they diverted course and made straight for Tara to avenge this loss.

Battle of Tara

Picking up yeomanry reinforcements along the way, the combined British force of about 700 troops lost no time in forming up at the bottom of the hill to attack the rebels who had posted themselves behind defenses such as old walls and ditches. An attack up the hill was quickly launched and met strong resistance from the rebels but the superior firepower of the military combined with a well-executed bayonet charge drove the rebels from the hill, dispersing them with much slaughter.

The loss to the British was some 30 dead and more wounded, with about 500 rebel dead and many wounded. The battle was notable for participation of a number of women in the rebel forces with at least one, Molly Weston (who died fighting on horseback), in a leadership position. The defeat was a devastating blow to the momentum of the rebellion as it prevented the spread of the rebellion northwards from Kildare.

Battles of the 1798 Rebellion

Ballymore-Eustace – Naas – Prosperous – Kilcullen – Carlow – Tara Hill – Oulart Hill – Newtownmountkennedy – Gibbet Rath – Three Rocks – Bunclody – Tuberneering – New Ross – Antrim – Arklow - Saintfield – Ballynahinch – Ovidstown – Foulksmills – Vinegar Hill – Ballyellis – Castlebar – Collooney – Ballinamuck – Killala


wikipedia.org

Also on this day -

1868 - Irish terrorist Michael Barrett becomes the last man to be publicly executed in Britain. He was hanged at Newgate gaol. Public executions were moved from Tyburn to the more controlled environment of Newgate in 1783 as the crowds at Tyburn often got unruly and difficult to control - such as people grabbing an arm or a leg to keep as a souvenir whilst the body was being quartered.

 

[Blackleaf]

Boy Richard Cromwell was extremely unremarkable unlike his father. You think the english would have chosen a better way to find a new "Lord Protector" rather then the way which already proved to be a failure.

We should have had an elected Lord Protector. It wouldn have been more popular and may have lasted longer.

Instead, Cromwell gave Richard the job on his deathbed.

 

[Blackleaf]

27th May 1541 - The execution of Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury and the niece of both Edward IV and Richard III, aged 67. She was accused of treason - but the execution didn't go smoothly. She was dragged to the block, to be beheaded, but refused to lay her head on it. Her head had to be forced onto the block, but she still struggled so much that when the axe (or, as she was of noble birth, maybe a sword) was brought down, it cut through her shoulder rather than her neck. She then managed to leap from the block and run away. The executioner pursued her and managed to strike her 11 times until she died.
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Margaret PoleMargaret Pole (August 14, 1473 – May 27, 1541), Countess of Salisbury, was the daughter of George Plantagenet, 1st Duke of Clarence and Isabella Neville. Her father was a brother of both Edward IV and Richard III.

Born at Farleigh Castle in Wiltshire, England, on August 14, 1473, she was the daughter of George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence and Isabel, elder daughter of the "kingmaker" Earl of Warwick and the sister of Edward, Earl of Warwick. As the last male representative of the Yorkist line, Edward was seen as a danger to the new Lancastrian dynasty and was executed on the orders of King Henry VII on November 28, 1499. Around 1491, Henry VII had given Margaret in marriage to Sir Richard Pole, whose mother was the half-sister of the king's mother, Margaret Beaufort. At her husband's death in 1505, Margaret was left with five children, of whom the fourth, Reginald Pole, was to become cardinal and Archbishop of Canterbury.

The family fortunes were various. On his accession, King Henry VIII reversed her brother's attainder; and, in 1513, made her Countess of Salisbury in her own right. An Act of Restitution was also passed by which she came into possession of her ancestral domains. Henry VIII considered her the saintliest woman in England; after the birth of Princess Mary, later Queen Mary I, Margaret became her godmother and sponsor in confirmation and was afterwards appointed governess of the princess and her household. As the years passed there was talk of a marriage between the princess and the countess's son Reginald, who was still a layman. However, when the matter of the king's divorce from Katharine of Aragon began to be talked of, Reginald Pole boldly spoke out his mind in the affair and shortly afterwards withdrew from England. The princess was still in the countess's charge when Henry married Anne Boleyn, but when he was opposed in his efforts to have his daughter treated as illegitimate, he removed the countess from her post, though she begged to be allowed to follow and serve Mary at her own charge. She returned to court after the fall of Anne, but in 1530 Reginald Pole sent Henry a copy of his published treatise Pro ecclesiasticae unitatis defensione, in answer to questions put to him on the king's behalf by Thomas Cromwell, Cuthbert Tunstall, Thomas Starkey, and others. Besides being a theological reply to the questions, the book was a denunciation of the king's policies. Henry was enraged, and though the Countess and her eldest son had written to Reginald in reproof of his attitude and action, determined that the family should pay for the insult.

In November, 1538, her eldest son, Henry Pole, Baron Montagu, another son and other relatives were arrested on a charge of treason, though Thomas Cromwell had previously written that they had "little offended save that he [the Cardinal] is of their kin", they were committed to the Tower, and in January, with the exception of Geoffrey Pole, they were executed. Ten days after the arrest of her sons, Margaret herself, despite her age, was arrested and examined by William FitzWilliam, Earl of Southampton, and Thomas Goodrich, Bishop of Ely, but these reported to Thomas Cromwell that although they had "travailed with her" for many hours she would "nothing utter", and they were forced to conclude that either her sons had not made her a sharer in their "treason", or else she was "the most arrant traitress that ever lived". In Southampton's custody she was committed to Cowdray Park, near Midhurst, and there subjected to all manner of indignity. In May Cromwell introduced against her a Bill of Attainder, the readings of which were hurriedly got over, and at the third reading Cromwell produced a white silk tunic found in one of her coffers, which was embroidered on the back with the Five Wounds, and for this, which was held to connect her with the Northern Uprising, she was "attainted to die by act of Parliament" and also lost her titles. The other charges against her, to which she was never permitted to reply, had to do with the escape from England of her chaplain and the conveying of messages abroad. After the passage of the Act, she was removed to the Tower and there, for nearly two years, she was "tormented by the severity of the weather and insufficient clothing". In April, 1541, there was another insurrection in Yorkshire, and it was then determined to enforce without any further procedure the Act of Attainder passed in 1539. In some sense her execution was the continuation by Henry VIII of his father's programme of eliminating possible contenders for the throne.



Execution
She refused to the end to acknowledge that she was a traitor. A popular ballad at the time reads:

For traitors on the block should die,
I am no traitor, no, not I!
My faithfulness stands fast and so,
Towards the block I shall not go!
Nor make on step, as you shall see,
Christ in Thy Mercy, save Thou me!

On the morning of May 27, 1541 Margaret was told she was to die within the hour. She answered that no crime had been imputed to her; nevertheless she was taken from her cell to the place within the precincts of the Tower of London, where a low wooden block had been prepared. As Margaret was of noble birth, she was not executed before the populace, though there were about 150 witnesses. According to some accounts, the countess, who was 67 years old, frail and ill, was dragged to the block, but refused to lay her head on it, having to be forced down. As she struggled, the executioner's first blow made a gash in her shoulder rather than her neck. She then leapt from the block and ran away pursued by the executioner, being struck eleven times before she died.


Legacy
Her son, Reginald Cardinal Pole said that he would "...never fear to call himself the son of a martyr". She was later regarded by Catholics as such and was beatified in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII.

wikipedia.org

Also on this day -

1679
Britain passes the Habeas Corpus Act which makes it illegal to hold anyone in prison without a trial.

1829
The rowing of the first University Boat Race between Oxford and Cambridge on the River Thames in London.

1937
The Golden gate Bridge is opened.

 

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28th May 1644 - My home town of Bolton, Lancashire, a Puritan stronghold, was attacked by Royalist troops, led by Prince Rupert and the Earl of Derby, during the English Civil War. They slaughtered up to 1000 of the town's innocent citizens and Bolton was the only place in England in which a mass slaughter like this occured during the Civil War. One report describes citizens -- not soldiers -- lined up so that a Royalist officer could run them through with his sword one by one. In 1651, the Earl of Derby was hanged for these crimes outside "Ye Olde Man and Scythe" public house in the town centre, the third oldest pub in England. To this day, a column with a cross on top stands in the exact place outside Ye Olde Man and Scythe were he was hanged.
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James Stanley, Earl of Derby

James Stanley, Earl of Derby, was hanged outside Ye Olde Man and Scythe in Bolton town centre for leading the Bolton Massacre which claimed over 1000 lives.

The cross and plaque which stand outside Ye Olde Man and Scythe mark the exact spot where he was hanged when the Royalists lost the Civil War.

In the 17th century, Bolton was a Puritan stronghold and sided with the Parliamentarian cause against the Royalists. It is said that the Civil War began in Preston, the first battle was in Manchester, but at Bolton the fight was bloodier and at its most intense. Bolton suffered three attacks during the Civil War, led by James Stanley, the Earl of Derby and Prince Rupert. Bolton finally fell to the Royalists in 1644 when their forces entered the town and carried out the only massacre of the Civil Wars. After the war, when the Royalist cause was lost, Derby was tried and sentenced for the massacre. Ye Olde Man & Scythe pub is the site of the execution of James, the seventh Earl of Derby in 1651. A cross outside the pub bears plaques which relate stories of Bolton through the ages.
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Prince Rupert, accompanied by the Earl of Derby approached Bolton on their way to relieve York. The town was renowned for its Puritanism and was held for Parliament by about 5,000 foot (soldiers).

Rupert may have wanted to pass the town by, but many of the attackers of Lathom House, which had been vigorously defended by Derby's wife, had fled to Bolton.

An early attack was beaten off by the defenders. One of Rupert's men was captured and hanged from the town walls on the grounds that he was an Irish Papist. This angered Rupert and after a series of furious attacks, the Royalists captured the town.

It is believed that few of the defenders were spared and well over 1,000 soldiers and citizens were killed.

Rupert records in his diary 'a great slaughter of the enemy'.

Rupert accepted the surrender of only 700 men who had taken refuge in a church.

One report describes citizens -- not soldiers -- lined up so that a Royalist officer could run them through with his sword one by one.

Other stories say that Royalist troops would burst into a house or shop and kill everyone inside. The very lack of eye-witness reports itself points to a massacre of everyone present, rather than planned "executions" with bystanders to report on what they had seen.

After the war, the Earl of Derby, who had been taken prisoner at the battle of Worcester, was taken to Chester, tried and sentenced for the massacre, although his crime was recorded as 'Treason'.

He was found guilty and it was decided to execute him at the scene of the crime in Bolton where he was then taken.

On 15th October 1651 James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby was led out to the scaffold in Bolton.

There he made a short speech saying that what he had done had been 'for his King, his country and his Protestant faith'.

wikpedia.org

Also on this day -

1503 - The Treaty of Everlasting Peace between Scotland and England is signed. However, it would actually last for only 10 years.

http://www.theteacher99.btinternet.co.uk/ecivil/bolton.htm

 

[Finder]

France
May 28, 1789
the Abbé Sieyès legislated the Third Estate into the national assembly inviting the first and second to join.

 

[Blackleaf]

29th May 1660 - The English Restoration. The Monarchy is restored and Charles II becomes the King. Charles returned from exile on May 23rd. He entered London on May 29th, his birthday. To celebrate "his Majesty's Return to his Parliament" May 29 was made a public holiday, popularly known as Oak Apple Day. He was crowned in 1661 and his Parliament was known as the Cavalier Parliament. Oak Apple Day (today) is still a major public holiday in England.
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Charles II - the first monarch to reign after the Monarchy came back.


The English Restoration or simply Restoration was an episode in the history of England beginning in 1660 when the English monarchy was restored under King Charles II after the English Civil War. The name Restoration may apply both to the actual event by which the monarchy was restored, and to the period immediately following the accession of Charles II.




End of the Protectorate
The Protectorate, which had preceded the Restoration and followed the Commonwealth, might have continued a little longer if Oliver Cromwell's son, Richard Cromwell, who was made Lord Protector on his father's death, had been capable of carrying on his father's policies. Richard Cromwell's main weakness was that he did not have the confidence of the army. After seven months the Army removed him and on May 6, 1659 it reinstalled the Rump Parliament. Charles Fleetwood was appointed a member of the Committee of Safety and of the Council of State, and one of the seven commissioners for the army. On June 9, 1659 he was nominated lord-general (commander-in-chief) of the Army. However, his power was undermined in parliament, which chose to disregard the army's authority in a similar fashion to the pre Civil War parliament. The Commons on October 12, 1659, cashiered John Lambert and other officers, and installed Fleetwood as chief of a military council under the authority of the speaker. The next day Lambert ordered that the doors of the House be shut and the members kept out. On October 26, a "Committee of Safety" was appointed, of which Fleetwood and Lambert were members. Lambert was appointed major-general of all the forces in England and Scotland, Fleetwood being general. Lambert was now sent, by the Committee of Safety, with a large force to meet George Monck, who was in command of the English forces in Scotland, and either negotiate with him or force him to come to terms.

It was into this atmosphere that Monck, governor of Scotland under the Cromwells, marched south with his army from Scotland. Lambert's army began to melt away, and he returned to London almost alone. Monck marched to London unopposed. The Presbyterian members, excluded in Pride's Purge of 1648, were recalled and on December 24 the Army restored the Long Parliament. Fleetwood was deprived of his command and ordered to appear before parliament to answer for his conduct. Lambert was sent to the Tower on March 3, 1660, from which he escaped a month later. Lambert tried to rekindle the civil war in favour of the Commonwealth by issuing a proclamation calling on all supporters of the "Good Old Cause" to rally on the battlefield of Edgehill. But he was recaptured by Colonel Richard Ingoldsby, a regicide who hoped to win a pardon by handing Lambert over to the new regime.




Restoration of Charles II
On April 4, 1660 in the Declaration of Breda Charles II made known the conditions of his acceptance of the crown of England. Monck organised the Convention Parliament, which met for the first time on April 25. On May 8 it proclaimed that King Charles II had been the lawful monarch since the execution of Charles I in January 1649[1]. Charles returned from exile on May 23[2]. He entered London on May 29th, his birthday. To celebrate "his Majesty's Return to his Parliament" May 29 was made a public holiday, popularly known as Oak Apple Day[3]. He was crowned at Westminster Abbey on 23 April 1661[2].

The Cavalier Parliament convened for the first time on May 8, 1661, and it would endure for over 17 years until its dissolution on January 24, 1679. Like its predecessor parliament, it was overwhelmingly Royalist and is also known as the Pensionary Parliament for the many pensions it granted to adherents of the King.



Opposition to the Restoration
Reprisals against the establishment which had developed during the interregnum were constrained under the terms of the Indemnity and Oblivion Act which became law on 29 August 1660. Nonetheless there were prosecutions against those accused of regicide, the direct participation in the trial and execution of King Charles I. Thirty one of the fifty nine Commissioners who had signed the death warrant were living. Pardons were offered to those who came over to the monarchy. Those who did not were tried. Nine were found guilty and suffered the fate of being hanged, drawn and quartered. The leading prosecutor at the trial of King Charles I, John Cook, was executed in a similar manner. The bodies of the regicides Cromwell, Bradshaw and Ireton which had been buried in Westminster Abbey were disinterred, hanged, drawn and quartered.

On October 14, 1660 Major-General Thomas Harrison a leader of the Fifth Monarchists was the first person to be found guilty of the regicide of Charles I as the seventeenth of fifty nine commissioners (Judges) to sign the death warrant in 1649. He was the first regicide to be hanged, drawn and quartered because he was considered by the new government to still represent a real threat to the re-established order. This threat was realised when on January 6, 1661, 50 Fifth Monarchists, headed by a wine-cooper named Thomas Venner, made an effort to attain possession of London in the name of "King Jesus." Most of the fifty were either killed or taken prisoner, and on January 19 and 21, Venner and ten others were hanged, drawn and quartered for high treason.



Restoration Britain
In general, however, Charles gained a reputation as an easy-going, fun-loving king, and represented a complete contrast to the restrictive rule of Cromwell. He enjoyed horse-racing and was a great patron of the arts and sciences.

Theatres reopened after having been closed during the protectorship of Oliver Cromwell, Puritanism lost its momentum, and the bawdy 'Restoration comedy' became a recognisable genre.




The republican new nobility
The Commonwealth's written constitutions gave to the Lord Protector the King's power to grant titles of honour. Cromwell created over thirty new knights. These were all declared invalid at the Restoration of Charles II. Many were regranted by the restored King, but being non-hereditary, these titles have long since become extinct.

Of the twelve Cromwellian baronetcies, Charles II regranted half of them. Only two now continue: Sir George Howland Francis Beaumont, 12th baronet, and Sir Richard Thomas Williams-Bulkeley, 14th baronet, are the direct successors of Sir Thomas Beaumont and Sir Griffith Williams.

Edmund Dunch was created Baron Burnell of East Wittenham in April 1658, but it was not regranted. The male line failed in 1719, so no one can lay claim to the title.

The one hereditary viscountcy Cromwell created (making Charles Howard Viscount Howard of Morpeth and Baron Gilsland) continues to this day. In April 1661 Howard was created Earl of Carlisle, Viscount Howard of Morpeth, and Baron Dacre of Gillesland. The present Earl is a direct descendant of this Cromwellian creation and Restoration recreation.

wikipedia.org

 

[Blackleaf]

30th May 1381 - Essex peasants chase tax collector Thomas Bampton out of the village of Fobbing, eventually leading to the Peasants' Revolt led by Wat Tyler. Peasants in Essex and other counties in South East England were protesting against taxes. Amongst many things, they marched into London crossing London Bridge and they stormed the Tower of London, killing the Lord Chancellor (Simon of Sudbury), the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Treasurer (Robert de Hales).
Wat Tyler, John Ball and the other leaders were eventually killed.
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The Peasants' Revolt, Tyler’s Rebellion or Great Rising of 1381 was one of a number of popular revolts in late medieval Europe and is a major event in the history of England. The names of some of its leaders, John Ball, Wat Tyler and Jack Straw, are still familiar even though very little is actually known about these individuals.

The end of the revolt: Wat Tyler killed by Walworth while Richard II watches, and a second image of Richard addressing the crowd

Events leading to the Revolt
The revolt was precipitated by heavy-handed attempts to enforce the third poll tax, first levied in 1377 supposedly to finance military campaigns overseas — a continuation of the Hundred Years' War initiated by King Edward III of England. The third poll tax, unlike the two earlier, was not levied on a flat rate basis (as in 1377) nor according to schedule (as in 1379), but in a manner that appeared more arbitrary and hence unfair. Equally unfair, and a longer-term factor, was the way the Statute of Laborers of 1351 was enforced. The Black Death, that ravaged England in 1348 (killing millions) and 1349 had greatly reduced the labour force, and as a consequence, labourers were able to demand enhanced terms and conditions. The Statute attempted to curb this by pegging wages and restricting the mobility of labour, but the probable effect was that labourers employed by lords were effectively exempted, but labourers working for other employers, both artisans and more substantial peasants, were liable to be fined or held in the stocks.




First protests
In June 1381, two groups of common people from the southeastern counties of Kent and Essex marched on London. The most vociferous of their leaders, Walter, or "Wat" Tyler, was at the head of a contingent from Kent. When the rebels arrived in Blackheath on June 12, the renegade Lollard priest, John Ball, preached a sermon including the famous question that has echoed down the centuries: "When Adam delved and Eve span, who was then the gentleman?"[1]. The following day the rebels, encouraged by the sermon, crossed London Bridge into the heart of the city. Meanwhile the 'Men of Essex' had gathered with Jack Straw at Great Baddow and had marched on London, arriving at Stepney. Instead of what was expected from a riot however, there was only a systematic attack on certain properties, many of them associated with John of Gaunt and/or the Hospitaller Order. On June 14, they are reputed to have been met by the young king himself, and to have presented him with a series of demands, including the dismissal of some of his more unpopular ministers and the effective abolition of serfdom. One of the more intriguing demands of the peasants was "that there should be no law within the realm save the law of Winchester". This is often said to refer to the statutes of the Charter of Winchester (1251), though it is sometimes considered to be a reference to the more equitable days of king Alfred the Great, when Winchester was the capital of England.

Richard II meets with the rebels in a work from Jean Froissart's Chronicles



Storming the Tower of London
At the same time, a group of rebels stormed the Tower of London— after likely being let in— and summarily executed those hiding there, including the Lord Chancellor (Simon of Sudbury, the Archbishop of Canterbury, who was particularly associated with the poll tax), and the Lord Treasurer (Robert de Hales, the Grand Prior of the Knights Hospitallers of England). The Savoy Palace of the king's uncle John of Gaunt was one of the London buildings destroyed by the rioters. Richard II agreed to reforms such as fair rents, and the abolition of serfdom.



Smithfield
At Smithfield, on the following day, further negotiations with the king were arranged, but on this occasion the meeting did not go according to plan. Wat Tyler left his Army and rode forth to parlay with the King and his party. Tyler, it is alleged by his killers, behaved most belligerently and dismounted his horse and called for a drink most rudely. In the ensuing dispute Tyler drew his dagger and William Walworth, the Mayor of London drew his sword and attacked Tyler, mortally wounding him in the neck. Seeing him surrounded by the King's entourage the Rebel Army was in uproar, but King Richard, seizing the opportunity, rode forth and promised the Rebels all was well, that Tyler had been knighted, and their demands would be met - they were to March to St John's Field's, where Wat Tyler would meet them. This they duly did, but the King was lying, the Nobles re-established their control with the help of a hastily organised militia of 7000, and most of the other leaders were pursued, captured and executed, including John Ball. Jack Straw turned on his associates under torture and betrayed many of them to the executioner - though it did not save him. Following the collapse of the revolt, the king's concessions were quickly revoked, and the tax was levied.

Despite its name, participation in the Peasants' Revolt was not confined to serfs or even to the lower classes. Although the most significant events took place in the capital, there were violent encounters throughout eastern England -- but those involved hastened to dissociate themselves in the months that followed.

Also on this day -

1431 - The English burn French peasant girl Joan of Arc at the stake.

wikipedia.org