TODAY IN HISTORY

[Blackleaf]

9th April 1483 - Edward V succeeds Edward IV as King of England and France and Lord of Ireland - although he never had a coronation and was never crowned. This was during the Wars of the Roses. He was only 12 when he became King and only about 13 when he died.
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Edward was born in sanctuary within Westminster Abbey while his mother, Elizabeth Woodville, was taking refuge from the Lancastrians who dominated the kingdom while his father, the Yorkist King Edward IV of England, was out of power. He was created Prince of Wales in June, 1471, following his father's restoration to the throne, and appeared with his parents on state occasions.

Edward IV, having established a Council of Wales and the Marches, duly sent his son to Ludlow Castle to be its nominal president. It was at Ludlow that the prince was staying when news came of his father's sudden death. Edward inherited the throne on April 9, 1483, at the age of twelve. His father's brother Richard, Duke of Gloucester, was entrusted with the role of protector to his young nephews, Edward V and Richard, Duke of York. He intercepted Edward's entourage on its return journey from Wales and escorted the princes to London. Less than three months later, Richard took the throne himself. On June 25, Parliament declared his nephews illegitimate after clergyman Ralph Shaa presented evidence that Edward had contracted to marry Lady Eleanor Butler before he married Elizabeth Woodville; this would have made his marriage to Elizabeth invalid. Richard's other brothers, Edmund and George, Duke of Clarence, had both died before Edward, leaving Richard next in line for the throne. They were imprisoned in the Tower of London.

Once the two boys went into the Tower of London, they were never seen in public again. What happened to them is one of the great mysteries of history, and many books have been written on the subject. It is generally believed that they were killed, and the usual suspects are: their uncle, King Richard; Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham; and Henry Tudor, who defeated Richard and took the throne as Henry VII.

After the princes' disappearance, there was much uncertainty as to their fate. If they were killed, the secret was well kept; conversely, there was no evidence of their survival or of their having been shipped out of the country. When a pretender, Perkin Warbeck, turned up claiming to be Prince Richard, in 1495, William Stanley (younger brother of King Henry's stepfather, Thomas Stanley, 1st Earl of Derby), who, despite his Yorkist sympathies, had turned against Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth Field and helped King Henry win it, said that, if the young man was really the prince, he would not fight against him, thus demonstrating that some Yorkists had not given up hope of the princes being still alive.

King Edward V and his brother the Duke of York imprisoned in the Tower of London by Paul Delaroche

In 1674, some workmen remodelling the Tower of London dug up a box containing two small human skeletons. They threw them on a rubbish heap, but some days or weeks later someone decided they might be the bones of the two princes, so they gathered them up and put some of them in an urn that Charles II of England ordered interred in Westminster Abbey. In 1933 the bones were taken out and examined and then replaced in the urn in the vault under the Abbey. The experts who examined them could not agree on what age the children would have been when they died or even whether they were boys or girls. (One skeleton was larger than the other, and many of the bones were missing, including part of the smaller jawbone and all of the teeth from the larger one.)

Edward V
By the Grace of God, King of England
and France and Lord of Ireland

Reign - 9 April 1483 - 25 June 1483

Coronation - Never crowned

Queen - Never married

Issue - Died without posterity

Royal House - York

Father - Edward IV (1442-1483)

Mother - Elizabeth Woodville (c. 1437-1492)

Born - 4 November 1470
Westminster

Died - 1483?
Tower of London?

Buried - Westminster

wikipedia.org

 

[Blackleaf]

Blackleaf's daily column continues.
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10th April 1955 - Ruth Ellis murdered her lover David Blakeley. When she was hanged at Holloway Prison on 13th July 1955, she became the LAST woman ever to be executed in Britain.

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Ellis was born in the Welsh seaside town of Rhyl in 1926. Her mother Bertha was a Belgian refugee, and her father a cellist from Manchester who spent much of his time playing on Atlantic cruise liners. One of five children, she was raised as a Catholic. Ruth left school at fourteen to work as a waitress. In 1941, at the height of the Blitz, the Neilsons moved to London.

At 17, she became pregnant by a married Canadian soldier, and gave birth to a son, Clare Andria (Andy), in 1944. The father continued to visit and pay maintenance until he returned to Canada, but Ruth's faith in men had been badly shaken. Via low-level modelling work, she became a nightclub hostess, which paid significantly more than the various factory and clerical jobs she had worked since leaving school. In 1950, looking for some security, she married 41 year old George Ellis, a divorced dentist with two sons, who had been a customer. Unfortunately, George was an alcoholic who became violent when drunk, and Ruth was jealous and possessive, convinced he was having an affair. The marriage deteriorated rapidly. When Ruth gave birth to Georgina in 1951, George refused to acknowledge paternity, and they separated shortly afterwards. She moved in with her parents, and went back to hostessing to make ends meet.


David Blakeley
In 1953, she became manager of a nightclub, and met David Blakeley, three years her junior. He was a well-mannered former public school boy, but also a hard drinking racing driver with expensive tastes. Within weeks he moved into her flat above the club, despite being engaged to another girl at the time. She eventually accepted Blakeley's proposal of marriage, although Ruth was still married to George Ellis. Blakeley became progressively more jealous of her attentions to male customers, and spent more and more time in the club to keep his eye on her. Her earnings fell as a result, and his inheritance was blown on a playboy lifestyle and development of a racing car. Rows about money, fuelled by alcohol, became violent - from both sides. He also maintained another mistress, and each was extremely jealous of the other's affairs and activities.

On Easter Sunday, April 10 1955, Ruth Ellis shot David Blakeley outside the Magdala public house in Hampstead, London using the gun she kept for security at the club. She made no attempt to leave the scene, asking a witness to call the police. The jury at the trial took just fourteen minutes to convict her of the murder of David Blakeley. The last woman to hang in England went to the gallows at Holloway Prison on July 13, 1955, at the age of 28.

The case caused widespread controversy at the time: on the day of her execution the Daily Mirror columnist Cassandra wrote a famous column attacking the sentence, writing "The one thing that brings stature and dignity to mankind and raises us above the beasts will have been denied her - pity and the hope of ultimate redemption." A petition to the Home Office asking for clemency was signed by 50,000 people, but the Conservative Home Secretary Major Gwilym Lloyd George rejected the appeal for mercy.

wikipedia.org

Also on this day -

1633 - The banana is introduced into England and sold in markets. Previously, no English person had ever seen a banana. Nowadays, the British are one of the biggest consumers of bananas in the world. In 2004, the British ate almost 3 BILLION bananas and, in British supermarkets, they are outsold only by lottery tickets.

1912 - The British ship Titanic sets out on its maiden voyage.

 

[The Gunslinger]

I just have to ask you this Blackleaf, where do you find the time to put these up every day.
Fascinating stuff though.

 

[Blackleaf]

Re: RE: TODAY IN HISTORY

I just have to ask you this Blackleaf, where do you find the time to put these up every day.
Fascinating stuff though.

It only takes about 1 minute to make a post.

 

[Blackleaf]

11th April 1689 - William III (Prince of Orange) and Mary II become the joint rulers of England
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Mary II, born in 1662, was the daughter of James II and Anne Hyde. She was married to William of Orange as a matter of Charles II's foreign policy; she and William had no children. Mary died of smallpox in 1694. William III (William of Orange), born in 1650, was the son of William, Prince of Orange, and Mary Stuart (daughter of Charles I). Husband and wife were also first cousins, both being a grandchild of Charles I. William, one of the most significant players on the continent, constantly strove to spread Protestantism and decrease the Catholic influence of France and Spain. He died in 1702 from complications after being thrown from his horse.

William and Mary began their marriage under duress. She was twelve years younger than he and found him repulsive. Although terribly homesick while living in Holland, she eventually came to love both the man and his country. William maintained a long-lasting affair with Elizabeth Villiers, one of Mary's ladies-in-waiting, which prompted Mary to be completely devoted and subservient to her husband. William's demeanor towards Mary seemed cold and indifferent on the surface, but his deep grief over her death indicated just how much he relied upon and respected her.

The inability of James II to work with Parliament, combined with his reckless Catholic appointments, brought both the political and religious spheres of the monarchy under fire again. The situation reached its climax in 1688. James established an alliance with Catholic France; arrested Archbishop Sancroft and six other bishops for failing to proclaim the Catholic faith; tampered with private property and historic rights; and produced a male heir after abandoning Anglicanism for Catholicism, which destroyed Parliament's hopes that the crown would pass to the Protestant children of James' first marriage. Parliament appealed to William of Orange, urging him to save England from a Catholic takeover. William gathered his forces and landed in England in November of 1688. William's professional troops and the welcome they received from the English landholders intimidated James. James was captured while fleeing from London, but William ensured him safe passage to France. James, feeling alone and realizing his lack of popular support, abdicated and accepted his exile in France. James made one attempt to regain the crown, but his French and Irish forces were soundly defeated at the Battle of Boyne and James returned to France to live the rest of his life in exile.

Parliament, although victorious in unseating James, was faced with a dilemma. They wanted the throne to be the sole possession of Mary, with William serving as Prince Consort, but Mary refused due to her self-imposed subservience to her husband. William was reluctant to accept the throne by means of conquest, preferring to be named king by Parliament through birthright. Parliament succumbed to the wishes of William and Mary, and the pair acceded as co-rulers. As the reign unfolded, however, Parliament's original plan became the reality of the situation. William was considerably more concerned with his holdings and the Protestant-Catholic conflicts on the continent, leaving Mary behind in England to rule. William and the English populace were conspicuously indifferent to each other, but Mary loved England and the English people loved her.

Whigs and Tories in Parliament, divided over the course of English commerce and Puritan-Anglican tensions, united in two goals: to maintain supremacy over the monarchy, and to forever eliminate Catholic influence in government. The character of the monarchy was altered evermore as oligarchic rule fueled parliamentary reform of government. The Bill of Rights, enacted in 1689, was more a bill of limitations: the use of royal and prerogative rights (the foundation of Tudor-Stuart authority) was forbidden, the king could only maintain a standing army with parliamentary consent, and an annual income of £600,000 was disbursed to the monarchs, with grants for specific purposes also appropriated by Parliament. The Mutiny Act ensured that Parliament would be prorogued every year by requiring parliamentary approval of the armed forces on a yearly basis. The Bank of England was established to deal with financing government. The Settlement Act of 1701 was the final act to fully establish the supremacy of Parliament. King William's War, a series of continental battles fought primarily to push Protestantism, had heavily taxed English economic resources; to retaliate, The Settlement Act forbid wars without Parliament's consent. The act forbid members of the House of Commons, as well as all non-indigenous people, from holding public office and subjected ministerial appointments to parliamentary approval. Judges were removed from royal punishment, as they had to now be formally impeached by the House of Parliament, with no royal pardon. As a final assertion of supremacy, Parliament was granted the right to name the succession; James' Catholic offspring with Mary of Modena were barred from the throne. The crown was to pass to the descendants of Sophia, granddaughter of James I and niece of Charles I, who had married into the German Protestant House of Hanover. Parliament had successfully forbid the accession of any more Catholic monarchs.

The reign of Mary II and William III marked the end of royal prerogative. Parliament, with the authority of the oligarchy, came into a position of prominence regarding the governing of England. William spent the greatest part of the reign embroiled in continental battles against Catholicism. Evelyn, in her Diary, made mention of Mary's lack of remorse concerning the abdication of her father, but Evelyn also accurately assessed the characters of the king and queen: "She seems to be of a good nature, and that she takes nothing to heart; whilst the Prince her husband has a thoughtful countenance, is wonderfully serious and silent, and seems to treat all persons alike gravely, and to be very intent on affairs: Holland, Ireland, and France calling for his care."

britannia.com

 

[Blackleaf]

12th April 1918 - German zeppelins - the L60, L61, L62, L63 and L64 - bomb the Northern English towns of Grimsby, Hull and Leeds - one of 11 German zeppelin raids on Britain between 1917 and 1918 (there were more between 1915 and 1917). The first German zeppelin raid on Britain took place on 19th January 1915, when several towns in Norfolk, including King's Lynn, were bombed - the first EVER air raids and the first ever bombings of civilians anywhere in the world.
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A Shropshire village, Wednesbury, lines in rubble after being bombed by German zeppelins, 1916.


Zeppelin raids of Wedensbury

How the Shrewsbury Chronicle reported the Wednesbury Raids
[Shropshire Archive reference: Shrewsbury Chronicle 11 February 1916]

On the 31st January 1916, nine airships left their bases in Friedrichaven and Lowenthal and headed for Liverpool, England. Their orders were to fly across the breadth of England and bomb Liverpool. This raid was to show the British that no area was beyond the reach of the airships. Kapitanleutnant Max Dietrich commanded the L21 and was the first to cross the North Sea at 5.50pm. Mist and fog was already forming over the heavily populated areas meaning that Dietrich had to combine calculation of time and speed, with observation wherever cloud provided a gap. He saw the lights of a city below him, which he calculated to be Manchester. Then at 8.50pm he could no longer see any lights or ground features and concluded that he was over the Irish Sea, slightly to the North of Liverpool. He turned south and finally came upon lights of a town, which he concluded was Liverpool. He ordered action stations.

The people of Liverpool were enjoying a normal Monday evening; they did not hear any engines or see any airships in the sky. There was no panic or no danger - as there were no Zeppelin airships above. Dietrich had got his calculations wrong. When he thought he was over Manchester he was actually over Derby; the 'Irish Sea' was really unlit areas of North Shropshire and Eastern Wales, and Liverpool was actually Wednesbury.

The bombs from the L21 fell on Tipton and Bradley first, and then Wednesbury. The first bombs landed in the King's Street area near a large factory. A Mrs. Smith, who lived on the street, left her house to see what was happening. Her initial reaction was that there had been an explosion at the factory but, as she walked towards the fires, bombs started to drop behind her. She hurried back to her home to find her house demolished and all her family killed: her husband Joseph, daughter Nellie, aged 13, and son Thomas, aged 11.

The audience at King's Music Hall in Earp Street had just settled for the second half of the Melodrama "The Faithful Wedding". They heard explosions outside and the lights went off in the hall. The audience all hurried outside into the street. They were greeted with the sight of Zeppelins. Some ran to the church, others hid in the cellar of the public house and others stayed in the street.



The End of the Raids?
After the L21 had finished here it headed to Walsall and dropped the last of its bombs. Meanwhile the people of Wednesbury stood discussing the events of the evening before heading to bed.

But this was not the end, as the L19 captain Kapitanleutnant Loewe had come to the same conclusion as Dietrich. He too dropped his bombs on Wednesbury, causing minor damage but no casualties. The ship then suffered engine problems and had to ditch in the North Sea. None of the crew survived this landing. This was the end of the bombing for the people of Wednesbury.

http://www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk/roots/packages/war/war_z05.htm

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Under the command of Korvettenkapitan Peter Strasser the navy quickly acquired more airships. Throughout 1914 these were used for reconnaissance patrols over the North Sea, but the German Admiralty was pressing for permission to use them for attacks against England. The Kaiser, somewhat reluctantly, granted such permission and on the 19th of January the Germans carried out the first Zeppelin raid against Britain, killing two and injuring sixteen.

This was the first of many raids, which continued at a rate of about two per month, in parallel with the continuing reconnaissance patrols. The German Admiralty was very enthusiastic about the results, and asked for permission to bomb London. This was only granted by the Kaiser after a series of raids by French bombers on German cities. On the 31st of May 1915 the first raid was carried out against London, killing seven and injuring thirty five.

The most successful Zeppelin raid on London in the entire war was on the 8th of September 1915. This raid caused more than half a million pounds of damage (a huge amount in those days), almost all of it from the one Zeppelin, the L13, which managed to bomb central London. This single raid caused more than half the material damage caused by all the raids against Britain in 1915.

On the night of 6-7 June 1915 Rex Warneford, a lieutenant in the RNAS, flying a Morane-Saulnier, was on a bombing mission against the Zeppelin sheds at Evere. When he spotted a Zeppelin returning from a bombing raid against London he decided to attack it. He tried shooting his carbine at it, his only armament, but he was driven off by the Zeppelin's defensive machine guns.

The airship began climbing, leaving the little plane behind, but Warneford, unbeknown to the Zeppelin crew, continued the pursuit, climbing slowly over two hours to an altitude of 13,000 feet. At this stage the airship began to descend in the direction of Brussels, and seizing his opportunity Warneford, now above the Zeppelin, dived towards it and from about two hundred feet above he dropped his six bombs on its roof.

The resultant explosion destroyed the Zeppelin, and almost destroyed Warneford's fragile monoplane.

He was forced to put the plane down, behind enemy lines, but he managed to make sufficient emergency repairs to take off again and return to his base. LZ 37 was the first Zeppelin brought down by an airplane.

Warneford was awarded the Victoria Cross by the British, and the Knight's Cross of the Legion d'Honneur by the French, but his triumph was short-lived. He was killed ten days later in a flying accident.

This was an isolated incident. Throughout the remainder of 1915 the Zeppelins raided London frequently, and with impunity. They flew too high for most planes, and when they were intercepted by aircraft the ammunition in use at the time had little effect. Despite this impunity the material effect of the raids, with the exception of L13's success, was relatively slight.

Navigation was very primitive, and as the war progressed the British use of blackouts made it even harder. Bomb aiming was far from accurate. It is estimated that only 10% of the bombs dropped from Zeppelins actually hit their target. The psychological impact of these raids, however, was enough to cause the British to tie up 12 squadrons on home defence.

The Germans also bombed Paris. The first raid was on 21st of March, when two Zeppelins caused 23 deaths and injured 30. Although the Zeppelins continued to raid Paris, London was actually a preferred and easier target. The nearest Zeppelin base to Paris was at Metz, which meant flying close to 320 km (200 miles) over French territory each way, giving the defending airforce and anti-aircraft guns much more time to organize.

Raids against London had to cover nearly twice the distance, but most of the approach was over friendly territory and the sea. Paris was also protected by barrage balloons, a measure only taken by the British later in the war.

1916 did not start well for the Zeppelins. Four of them were lost carrying out bombing raids during the Battle of Verdun, and this marked the last use of airships for tactical bombing. But Strasser remained confident. The Zeppelin factory was producing a new generation of airships – larger, more powerful, and with more engines.

But it was also a year of change on the British side as well. Disappointment with the RNAS' failure to stop the Zeppelins resulted in the responsibility of home defence being given to the RFC. Happily for them this coincided with the arrival of improved ammunition.

Towards mid 1916 the British planes were armed with a mixture of explosive and incendiary bullets. This mixture would prove to be deadly to the airships: the explosive bullets could pierce the Zeppelin's tough outer skin and cause leaks on the inner gas bags. The incendiary bullets could set those leaks on fire, and once on fire a Zeppelin was doomed.

William Leefe-Robinson, flying a BE2c, was the first to shoot down a dirigible over Britain, on the 2nd of September, 1916. The massive fire of the burning airship was visible for over a hundred miles. This was during a raid of twelve naval airships which were, somewhat unusually, accompanied by four army airships. Leefe-Robinson became an instant hero. He survived the war, only to die a month later in the influenza epidemic.

Strasser's confidence remained unshaken. Leefe-Robinson had shot down the SL11. It was an army airships, not one of Strasser's, and moreover an old Schutte-Lanz dirigible with a wooden frame.

But Strasser's confidence was misplaced. Three weeks later he was to lose two airships, out of a total of twelve taking part in a raid. There were no comforting explanations. They were naval airships. They were the most up to date Zeppelins available.

The L33 had been hit by anti aircraft fire. She did not catch fire, but she was forced to land in England. The crew all survived, and set her alight before capture. The L32 was shot down by a plane, and as in the case of Leefe-Robinson's SL11, it caught fire. Nor were these the last losses in 1916.

Despite flying almost four times as many sorties as in 1915, and dropping almost five times as many bombs, Strasser's fleet caused only about two thirds as much damage as they had in 1915.

The German military was becoming disillusioned with the Zeppelins, and began using the new Gotha and Giant bombers to attack Britain, but Strasser remained convinced. The answer was to fly higher, above the defending aircraft. Thus was conceived the third generation of Zeppelins, the "Height Climbers", airships capable of reaching an altitude of 20,000 feet.

In order to reach these heights defensive armaments were reduced, as was the strength of the frame. Flying at such altitudes produced a whole new set of problems. The extreme cold and thin oxygen affected both the engines, and the crew's capability to function.

Bomb aiming and navigation became even harder. But with the renewed immunity the height seemed to offer, it seemed worth the price. Indeed, when on the night of October 19th 1917 a fleet of eleven Height-Climbers crossed the English coast they were too high to be heard, and their raid was a total surprise.

But on the return journey, over the European mainland, almost half the airships were shot down by British and French fighter aircraft as they descended towards landing. The L55 had attempted to avoid this risk by keeping at 20,000 feet till it had cleared the western front, but this caused other problems. The morning sun heating the hydrogen forced the L55 to a record-breaking 24,000 feet. With most of the crew disabled by oxygen deprivation it was a struggle to bring her under almost partial control. The L55 crash landed in central Germany.

The total amount of material damage caused by the airships in 1917 was less than 90,000 pounds.

1918 started badly for the beleaguered airship fleet, when a series of unexplained explosions at the airship base in Ahlhorn blew up four Height-Climbers, one Schutte-Lanz airship, and four sheds. German manufacturing by this time had been greatly reduced, and they could not replenish such losses.

On the 5th of August Strasser himself led the last big raid against Britain, leading a fleet of five Height-Climbers. Strasser was flying in L70 – his most advanced airship, capable, he hoped, of flying bombing missions against New York. But by this time the British had aircraft that could operate at about 20,000 feet as well, and L70 succumbed to a two man DH4 piloted by Egbert Cadbury. (He was a member of the famous chocolate manufacturing family.)

The fatal shots were fired by his gunner, Robert Leckie, whose hands were almost frozen because he had not had time to put on gloves when he and Cadbury had scrambled to chase the Zeppelins. The rest of the airships dropped their bombs on what they thought were "targets of opportunity", but in fact they dropped them in the sea.

The Zeppelin attacks had a profound psychological impact on the Allies. The Germans were ordered, under the treaty of Versailles, to hand over all their airships, but their crews preferred to destroy as many of them as they could.

The need to tie up numerous squadron in home defence can be marked as the Zeppelin's greatest achievement, for as a weapon of war they proved themselves unsatisfactory. Of the 115 Zeppelins employed by the Germans, 53 were destroyed and a further 24 were too damaged to be operational. Strasser's crews suffered a 40% loss rate. The cost of constructing those 115 Zeppelins was approximately five times the cost of the damage they inflicted.

Article contributed by Ari Unikoski

firstworldwar.com

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[Blackleaf]

13th April 1360 - Hailstones kill English troops in France on a day known as "Black Monday" during the Hundred Years' War when England ruled several parts of France.
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England rules several parts of France during the Hundred Years' War.

On so-called “Black Monday” in 1360, a hail storm kills an estimated 1,000 English soldiers in Chartres, France. The storm and the devastation it caused also played a part in the Hundred Years’ War between England and France.

The Hundred Years’ War began in 1337; by 1359, King Edward III of England was actively attempting to conquer France. In October, he took a massive force across the English Channel to Calais. The French refused to engage in direct fights (obviously) and stayed behind protective walls throughout the winter, while Edward pillaged the countryside.

In April 1360, Edward’s forces burned the Paris suburbs and began to move toward Chartres. While they were camped outside the town, a sudden storm materialized. Lightning struck, killing several people, and hailstones began pelting the soldiers, scattering the horses. One described it as “a foul day, full of myst and hayle, so that men dyed on horseback [sic].” Two of the English leaders were killed and panic set in among the troops, who had no shelter from the storm.

The heavy losses suffered by the English were seen by many as a sign from God. King Edward was convinced to negotiate peace with the French. On May 8, 1360, the Treaty of Bretigny was signed, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War. Edward agreed to renounce all claims to the throne of France, though he was given control of land in the north of the country. Fighting resumed nine years later, when the king of France declared war, claiming Edward had not honored the treaty. The last phase of the Hundred Years’ War did not end until 1453.

The largest hailstone recorded in modern times was found in Aurora, Nebraska. It was seven inches in diameter, about the size of a soccer ball. Hail typically falls at about 100 miles per hour.

historychannel.com

 

[Blackleaf]

14th April 1471 - the Battle of Barnet, one of the Wars of the Roses, is fought between the army of King Edward IV (Yorkists) and the army of the Earl of Warwick (Lancastrians). The Earl of Warwick, a Lancastrian, was killed during the battle - cut down whilst trying to reach his horse. Many of the Lancastrians were killed by their own men, who became confused during the battle. This was another victory for King Edward IV and the Yorkists. After this came the final War of the Roses - the Battle of Tewkesbury.
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The place where the battle took place.


The Battle of Barnet, which took place on April 14, 1471, was a decisive battle of the Wars of the Roses, near the town of Barnet, 10 miles north of London.



Background

The main protagonists were King Edward IV of England and Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick, former friends and allies who had fallen out as a result of Edward's tendency to favour the relatives of his queen, Elizabeth Woodville. In October of the previous year, Warwick "the Kingmaker" had driven Edward out of the country, replacing his Lancastrian predecessor, King Henry VI of England, on the throne. Warwick then made the mistake of agreeing to assist King Louis XI of France in his conflict with the Duke of Burgundy (the Burgundians were usually allies of the English and fought with them against the French in the Hundred Years' War). This prompted the Burgundians to offer military aid to Edward, who returned to England on March 14, 1471. The two armies were evenly matched in numbers, but Warwick was expecting support from his son-in-law, George, Duke of Clarence, who happened to be Edward's brother and hurried to make his peace with the latter.

Edward marched to London while Warwick remained in Coventry where he had been raising troops. Having taken back his capital, Edward then moved to meet Warwick at Barnet.




The Death of the Earl of Warwick

On the Lancastrian side, the Earl of Oxford commanded the right flank, the Marquess of Montagu the center, and the Duke of Exeter the left. These were arrayed offset from the road to Barnet, with the left flank on the road. The Earl of Warwick was with the reserves.

The Yorkists were set-up centered on the road, with Edward commanding the center, his brother Richard (later Richard III) on the right, and Lord Hastings the left.

Oxford's troops, helped by their initial flanking position made an early impact on the Yorkist left, but this was compensated for by foggy conditions which made it difficult for the Dukes of Somerset and Exeter to push home their advantage. The two sides ended up so the battle lines were parallel to the highway rather than at right angles to it. Some of the Lancastrian troops mistook one another for the enemy in the ensuing confusion. As the mist cleared and Warwick recognised defeat, he was cut down while trying to reach his horse. His younger brother, the Marquess of Montagu, was also killed, probably by one of Oxford's troops when the cry of treachery went up.

The same day as the battle Queen Margaret landed at Weymouth and began gathering troops from Wales and the Welsh Marches. Had she been able to join forces with Warwick matters might have ended very differently. Instead, Edward's victory enabled him to consolidate and prepare himself for the final confrontation against the Lancastrian royal family - the Battle of Tewkesbury.

wikipedia.org

 

[Blackleaf]

15th April 1912 - the giant British ocean Liner, Titanic, sinks after it hit an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada on its maiden voyage. It hit the iceberg on the night of April 14th. It was the largest ship ever built at that time - and was thought to be unsinkable. Of a total of 2,223 people, only 706 survived; 1,517 perished
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RMS Titanic was the second of a trio of superliners intended to dominate the transatlantic travel business.[1]Her older sister was RMS Olympic. After Titanic's sinking, her younger sister HMHS Britannic (originally RMS Gigantic) was built. Owned by the White Star Line and built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland (not Northern Ireland in those days), United Kingdom, Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time of her launching. During Titanic's maiden voyage (from Southampton to New York), she struck an iceberg at 11:40 PM (ship's time) on Sunday evening April 14, 1912, and sank two hours and forty minutes later at 2:20 AM Monday morning.

Approximately 1,523 people perished in the accident, (according to the US Senate investigation), ranking it as one of the worst peacetime maritime disasters in history and by far the most famous. Titanic's design used some of the most advanced technology available at the time and the ship was popularly believed to be "unsinkable". It was a great shock that, despite the advanced technology and experienced crew, Titanic sank with a great loss of life. The media frenzy about Titanic's famous victims, the legends about what happened on board the ship, the resulting changes to maritime law, and the discovery of the wreck in 1985 by a team led by Robert Ballard and Jean-Louis Michel have made Titanic persistently famous in the years since.


On the night of Sunday, April 14, the temperature had dropped to near freezing and the ocean was completely calm. There was no moon and the sky was clear. Captain Smith, perhaps in response to iceberg warnings received via wireless over the last few days, had altered Titanic's course around 10 miles (19 km) south of the normal shipping route. That Sunday at 1:45 PM, a message from the steamer Amerika warned that large icebergs lay in Titanic's path, but inexplicably, the warning was never relayed to the bridge. Later that evening, another report of numerous, large icebergs in Titanic's path, this time from the Mesaba, also failed to reach the bridge.

At 11:40 PM while sailing south of the Grand Banks of Newfoundland, lookouts Fredrick Fleet and Reginald Lee spotted a large iceberg directly ahead of the ship. Fleet sounded the ship's bell three times and telephoned the bridge. Sixth Officer Moody answered, "Yes, what do you see?", only to hear Fleet exclaiming, "Iceberg, right ahead!", to which Moody curiously responded, "thank you", before informing First Officer Murdoch of the call. Murdoch (who had now already seen the iceberg) ordered an abrupt turn to port (left) and full speed astern, which stopped and then reversed the ship's engines. A collision turned out to be inevitable, and the iceberg brushed the ship's starboard (right) side, buckling the hull in several places and popping out rivets below the waterline, creating a total of six leaks in the first five watertight compartments. Murdoch then ordered the ship hard right rudder which swung Titanic's stern away from the iceberg. The watertight doors were shut as water started filling the five compartments, one more than Titanic could stay afloat with. The weight of the five compartments filling with water weighed the ship down past the top of the watertight bulkheads, allowing water to flow into the other compartments. Captain Smith, alerted by the jolt of the impact, arrived on the bridge and began to assess Titanic's situation. Following an inspection by the ship's officers and Thomas Andrews, it was apparent that the Titanic would sink, and shortly after midnight on April 15, lifeboats were ordered to be readied and a distress signal sent out.

Of a total of 2,223 people, only 706 survived; 1,517 perished.[3] If the lifeboats were filled to capacity 1,178 people could have been saved. Of the First Class, 199 were saved (60%) and 130 died. Of the Second Class, 119 (44%) were saved and 166 were lost. Of the Third Class, 214 were saved (25%) and 536 perished. Of the crew, 214 were saved (24%)and 685 perished. Of particular note, the entire complement of the Engineering Department, remaining at their posts to keep the ship's electrical systems running, drowned. The majority of deaths were caused by victims succumbing to hypothermia in the 28 °F (−2 °C) water. Out of the 16 lifeboats and 4 collapsibles launched only one came back. Another boat helped. Lifeboat 4 was close by and picked up eight crewmen, two of whom later died. Close to an hour later, Lifeboat 14, under the command of fifth officer Harold Lowe, went back and rescued four people, one of whom died afterwards. Other people managed to climb onto the two collapsible lifeboats that floated off the deck. There were some arguments in some of the other lifeboats about going back, but many survivors were afraid of being swamped by people trying to climb into the lifeboat or being pulled down by the anticipated suction from the sinking ship, though this turned out not to be severe. Only 12 people were picked up from the water.


Also on this day -

1755 - In England, Samuel Johnson publishes the first ever English dictionary which it took him around 10 years to write..

wikipedia.org

 

[I think not]

April 15th 1944
Soviets capture Tarnopol in Poland

On this day in 1944, the Soviet Red Army occupies Tarnopol, one of the principal cities of Eastern Galicia, across the former Polish border.

Tarnopol, traditionally a part of Poland, then part of the Soviet Union, had become German-occupied territory in the great German offensive eastward in June 1941. One hundred and eighty Jews were shot in Tarnopol early in the German occupation; tens of thousands of Polish Jews would be slaughtered as German forces occupied larger swaths of the former eastern Poland. The Red Army naturally represented liberation for the Jewish survivors of German totalitarianism--although, Jews would eventually find their communist liberators to represent a totalitarianism of another stripe.

Also on this day in 1944, the U.S. plans Operation Wedlock, an invasion of the Kurile Islands of northern Japan. American and Canadian troops, aided by the Ninth Fleet and American bombers ordered to bomb the islands every day, prepare to occupy the islands long disputed between Japan and Russia.

The plan was a fiction. There was no invasion--or a Ninth Fleet. It was all a ruse to divert Japanese attention away from the Marianas Islands, the Allies' true target. Operation Forager, the real thing, was launched on June 15, 1944, with a landing on Saipan, one of the three Marianas Islands. It was a U.S. success, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Japanese--both from combat and ritual suicide--including that of the Japanese commander, Lieutenant General Yoshitsugu Saito.

 

[Blackleaf]

16th April 1746 - the Battle of Culloden takes place, fought between Bonnie Prince Charlie's army of Scottish Jacobites, who supported him (a Stuart) in his claim to the Throne, and the Royal Army, the supporters of the Hanoverian monarch, King George II. It was a victory for the Royal Army and a decisive defeat for the Jacobite cause. Around 1250 Jacobites died and 52 soldiers of the Royal Army died. It was the last battle ever to be fought on the British mainland.


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Battle of Culloden, by Morier. (Jacobite Army on the left and the Royal Army, in the red, on the right)


The Battle of Culloden (April 16, 1746), was the last military clash in Scotland (and the UK mainland), between the rebel forces of the Jacobites, who supported the claim of Charles Edward Stuart (aka "Bonnie Prince Charlie") to the throne; and the Royal Army which supported the Hanoverian sovereign, King George II. Culloden brought the 1745 Jacobite Rising to a close. In fact, the rebellion was small but it had enormous psychological impact upon the Highland Scots, and severe civil penalties thereafter (e.g., it became a criminal offence to speak Gaelic or wear tartan). Thus, Culloden was a decisive defeat for the Jacobite cause, and Bonnie Prince Charlie never attempted to take the throne again.

Prince Charles Edward Stuart, known to his supporters as Bonnie Prince Charlie and to his opponents as the Young Pretender, successfully raised forces, mainly of Scottish Highland clansmen, which took Edinburgh and defeated the Royal Army stationed in Scotland at the Battle of Prestonpans. The British government began bringing forces back from the war with France in Flanders to deal with the Jacobite rebellion.

After a lengthy wait, Charles persuaded his generals that English Jacobites would stage a rising and the French would invade to assist them. His army of around 5000 invaded England on November 8, 1745 and advanced through Carlisle and Manchester to Derby, a position where they appeared to threaten London, leading King George II to make plans to decamp to Hanover. The Jacobites met only token resistance in England; however, there was also very little active support from English Jacobites, and the French invasion fleet was still being assembled, the armies of General George Wade and of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland were approaching, a militia was forming in London and they had (fictitious) reports of a third army closing on them. The Jacobite general Lord George Murray and the Council of War insisted on returning to join their growing force in Scotland and on 6 December 1745 they withdrew, with the Prince petulantly leaving the command to Murray.

The Jacobite forces reached Glasgow by 25 December, reprovisioned, and were joined by a few thousand extra men. They then clashed with the forces of General Henry Hawley near Falkirk and were victorious. The Duke of Cumberland arrived in Edinburgh on 30 January to take over command of the government army from General Hawley, then marched north along the coast with the army being supplied by sea. They assembled at Aberdeen and spent six weeks in careful training.

The King's forces continued to pressure Charles, and he retired northwards, losing men and failing to take Stirling Castle or Fort William but investing Fort Augustus and Fort George in Inverness by early April. Charles now took charge again, insisting on fighting a defensive action.


The Duke of Cumberland and his army of around 8,000 arrived at Nairn on 14 April. The Jacobite forces of about 5,400 left their base at Inverness, leaving most of their supplies, and assembled 5 miles (8 km) to the east near Drummossie, around 12 miles (19 km) before Nairn. Prince Charles had decided to take personal command of his forces and took the advice of his adjutant general, Secretary O’Sullivan, who chose to stage a defensive action at Drummossie Moor, a stretch of open moorland enclosed between the walled Culloden enclosures to the North and the walls of Culloden Park to the South. Lord George Murray "did not like the ground" and with other senior officers pointed out the unsuitability of the rough moorland terrain which was highly advantageous to the Duke with the marshy and uneven ground making the famed Highland charge somewhat more difficult while remaining open to Cumberland’s powerful artillery. They had argued for a guerilla campaign, but the Prince refused to change his mind.

On 15 April the Government army celebrated Cumberland's birthday, drinking his health at his expense. At the suggestion of Murray the Jacobites tried that evening to repeat the success of Prestonpans by carrying out a night attack on the government army encampment, but the half-starved Highlanders who had only had one biscuit apiece during the day were still 2 miles (3 km) short of Nairn by dawn and had to march back, then dispersed to search for food or fell asleep in ditches and outbuildings. Many of them lay exhausted in the grounds of Culloden House throughout the battle.

Early on 16 April the Government army marched from Nairn, and Jacobite guns sounded the alarm (though not all heard) to bring their troops to form two lines. The front line of exhausted highland foot soldiers had guns in the centre and on the flanks, the second line included their horse regiments, worn out from the night march, and the Scots and Irish regiments of the French army. The weather was very poor with a gale driving sleety rain into the faces of the Jacobites. The Duke's forces arrived around mid day and arrayed themselves in two lines to face the Jacobite forces, their left flank anchored on a low stone wall running along the south end of the field towards Culloden Park. Horse Dragoons and Government militia moved round behind the wall to infiltrate the park around the Jacobite flank. The Prince's artillery, outnumbered some three to one, opened fire first but due to a lack of trained gunners had little impact.

Over the next twenty minutes Cumberland's superior artillery continued to batter the Jacobite lines, while Charles, moved for safety out of sight of his own forces, waited for the government forces to move. Inexplicably, he left his forces arrayed under the Government fire for over half an hour. Although the marshy terrain minimised casualties, the morale of the Jacobites began to suffer. Several clan leaders, angry at the lack of action, pressured Charles to issue the order to charge. When he was eventually persuaded to issue the order, the McDonalds refused, angry because they had been placed on the left flank overturning their traditional right to take the right flank. The Clan Chattan was first away, but an area of boggy ground in front of them forced them to veer right so that they obstructed the following regiments and the attack was pushed towards the wall. The Highlanders advanced on the left flank of the Government troops but were subjected to several volleys of musket fire and the artillery which had switched from roundshot to grapeshot.

Despite this, a large number of Jacobites reached the Government lines; however, unlike in previous battles, their uncoordinated charge meant that the line arrived piecemeal. The newly intoduced bayonet drill used by the government troops meant that in many places the charge, already flagging, was crushed against the Government lines. Despite this, the right flank of the Jacobites broke through the first line of Government troops and was only halted by Cumberland's second line of defence.

A captain of Clan Munro later recounted that "In the midst of this action the officer that led on the Clan Camerons called to me to take quarter, which I refused and I bid the rebel scoundrel advance. He did, and fired at me, but providentially missed his mark. I then shot him dead and took his pistol and dirk..."

While the attack was still in progress, a small number of the Government forces had breached the park wall and the Campbell militia advanced unseen to fire at the right flank of the Jacobite lines. This added to all the other brutal gunfire, and threatened by cavalry the Jacobites were forced to retreat. The Duke ordered in his dragoons to rout the Jacobite forces, but the small contingent of elite Irish and other regular regiments covered the retreat as the Jacobites withdrew.

In a total of about 60 minutes the Duke was victorious, around 1,250 Jacobites were dead, a similar number were wounded, and 558 prisoners were taken. Cumberland lost about 52 dead and 259 wounded among his Government forces.

 

[I think not]

LENIN RETURNS:
April 16, 1917

On April 16, 1917, Vladimir Lenin, leader of the revolutionary Bolshevik Party, returns to Petrograd after a decade of exile to take the reins of the Russian Revolution. One month before, Czar Nicholas II had been forced from power when Russian army troops joined a workers' revolt in Petrograd, the Russian capital.

Born Vladimir Ilich Ulyanov in 1870, Lenin was drawn to the revolutionary cause after his brother was executed in 1887 for plotting to assassinate Czar Alexander III. He studied law and took up practice in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg), where he associated with revolutionary Marxist circles. In 1895, he helped organize Marxist groups in the capital into the "Union for the Struggle for the Liberation of the Working Class," which attempted to enlist workers to the Marxist cause. In December 1895, Lenin and the other leaders of the Union were arrested. Lenin was jailed for a year and then exiled to Siberia for a term of three years.

After the end of his exile, in 1900, Lenin went to Western Europe, where he continued his revolutionary activity. It was during this time that he adopted the pseudonym Lenin. In 1902, he published a pamphlet titled What Is to Be Done? which argued that only a disciplined party of professional revolutionaries could bring socialism to Russia. In 1903, he met with other Russian Marxists in London and established the Russian Social-Democratic Workers' Party (RSDWP). However, from the start there was a split between Lenin's Bolsheviks (Majoritarians), who advocated militarism, and the Mensheviks (Minoritarians), who advocated a democratic movement toward socialism. These two groups increasingly opposed each other within the framework of the RSDWP, and Lenin made the split official at a 1912 conference of the Bolshevik Party.

After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution of 1905, Lenin returned to Russia. The revolution, which consisted mainly of strikes throughout the Russian empire, came to an end when Nicholas II promised reforms, including the adoption of a Russian constitution and the establishment of an elected legislature. However, once order was restored, the czar nullified most of these reforms, and in 1907 Lenin was again forced into exile.

Lenin opposed World War I, which began in 1914, as an imperialistic conflict and called on proletariat soldiers to turn their guns on the capitalist leaders who sent them down into the murderous trenches. For Russia, World War I was an unprecedented disaster: Russian casualties were greater than those sustained by any nation in any previous war. Meanwhile, the economy was hopelessly disrupted by the costly war effort, and in March 1917 riots and strikes broke out in Petrograd over the scarcity of food. Demoralized army troops joined the strikers, and on March 15 Nicholas II was forced to abdicate, ending centuries of czarist rule. In the aftermath of the February Revolution (known as such because of Russia's use of the Julian calendar), power was shared between the ineffectual Provincial Government and the soviets, or "councils," of soldiers' and workers' committees.

After the outbreak of the February Revolution, German authorities allowed Lenin and his lieutenants to cross Germany en route from Switzerland to Sweden in a sealed railway car. Berlin hoped (correctly) that the return of the anti-war Socialists to Russia would undermine the Russian war effort, which was continuing under the Provincial Government. Lenin called for the overthrow of the Provincial Government by the soviets, and he was condemned as a "German agent" by the government's leaders. In July, he was forced to flee to Finland, but his call for "peace, land, and bread" met with increasing popular support, and the Bolsheviks won a majority in the Petrograd soviet. In October, Lenin secretly returned to Petrograd, and on November 7 the Bolshevik-led Red Guards deposed the Provisional Government and proclaimed soviet rule.

Lenin became the virtual dictator of the world's first Marxist state. His government made peace with Germany, nationalized industry, and distributed land but, beginning in 1918, had to fight a devastating civil war against czarist forces. In 1920, the czarists were defeated, and in 1922 the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was established. Upon Lenin's death in early 1924, his body was embalmed and placed in a mausoleum near the Moscow Kremlin. Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honor. After a struggle of succession, fellow revolutionary Joseph Stalin succeeded Lenin as leader of the Soviet Union.

 

[Blackleaf]

17th April 1397 - Geoffrey Chaucer tells the Canterbury Tales for the first time at the court of Richard II. Chaucer scholars have also identified this date (in 1387) as when the book's pilgrimage to Canterbury starts. Chaucer is probably the 2nd greatest writer ever in the English language after Shakespeare.
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Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1343 – October 25, 1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher, bureaucrat (courtier), and diplomat. He was the first major author in the English language after the Norman conquest. Although he wrote many works he is best remembered for his unfinished epic poem The Canterbury Tales. He is sometimes credited with being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language, rather than French or Latin.

Chaucer was born in 1343 probably in London, although the exact date and location are not known. His father and grandfather were both London wine merchants (vintners) and before that, for several generations, the family were merchants in Ipswich. In 1324 John Chaucer, Geoffrey's father, was kidnapped by an aunt in the hope of marrying the twelve year-old boy to her daughter in an attempt to keep property in Ipswich. The aunt was imprisoned and the £250 pounds fine levied suggests that the family was well-to-do, upper middle-class if not in the elite. John married Agnes Copton, who in 1349 inherited property including twenty-four shops in London from her uncle, Hamo de Copton, who is described as the "moneyer" at the Tower of London.

There are no details of Chaucer's early life and education but compared to his near contemporary poets, William Langland and The Pearl Poet, his life is well documented with nearly five hundred written items testifying to his career. The first time he is mentioned is in 1357, in the household accounts of Elizabeth de Burgh, the Countess of Ulster when his father's connections enabled him to become a page to the noble lady. He also worked as a courtier, a diplomat, and a civil servant. In 1359, in the early stages of the Hundred Years' War, Edward III invaded France and Chaucer travelled with Lionel of Antwerp, Elizabeth's husband, as part of the English army. In 1360, he was captured during the siege of Reims, becoming a prisoner of war. Edward contributed £16 as part of a ransom, and Chaucer was released.

After this Chaucer's life is uncertain but he seems to have travelled in France, Spain and Flanders, possibly as a messenger and perhaps even going on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela. Around 1366 Chaucer married Philippa (de) Roet at St Mary de Castro (Leicester). She was a lady-in-waiting to Edward III's queen, Philippa of Hainault, and a sister of Katherine Swynford, who later (ca. 1396) became the third wife of Chaucer's friend and patron, John of Gaunt. It is uncertain as to how many children Chaucer and Philippa had, but 3 or 4 are the numbers most widely agreed upon. Thomas Chaucer had an illustrious career, chief butler to four kings, envoy to France and Speaker of the House of Commons. Thomas' great-grandson, Geoffrey’s great-great-grandson, John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln was the heir to the throne designated by Richard III, before he was deposed. Geoffrey's other children probably included Elizabeth Chaucy, a nun, Agnes, an attendant at Henry IV's coronation and another son Lewis Chaucer.

Chaucer is presumed to have studied law in the Inner Temple (an Inn of Court) at about this time, although definite proof is lacking. It is recorded that he became a member of the royal court of Edward III as a valet or esquire on 20 June 1367, a position which could entail any number of jobs. He travelled abroad many times with at least some of them being in his role as a valet. In 1368 he may have attended the wedding of Lionel of Antwerp to Violante, daughter of Galeazzo II Visconti, in Milan. Two literary stars of the era who were in attendance were Jean Froissart and Petrarch. Chaucer also travelled to Picardy the following year as part of a military expedition and visited Genoa and Florence in 1373.

It is on this Italian trip that it is speculated he came into contact with medieval Italian poetry, the forms and stories of which he would use later. While he may have been exposed to manuscripts of these works the trips were not usually long enough to learn sufficient Italian. It may have been his upbringing among the merchants and immigrants in the docklands of London that gave him the opportunity to learn the language. One other trip he went on in 1377 seems shrouded in mystery with records of the time conflicting in details. Later documents suggest it was a mission, along with Jean Froissart, to arrange a marriage between the future Richard II and a French princess, thereby ending the Hundred Years War. If this was the purpose of their trip, they seem to have been unsuccessful as no wedding occurred.

A 19th century depiction of Chaucer. For three near-contemporary portraits of Chaucer see here.Another indication of his early poetic life came on St. George's Day in 1374 when Edward III granted Chaucer a gallon of wine daily for life for some unspecified service. An unusual grant, Chaucer nonetheless regularly collected it until Richard II came to power and converted it to a monetary grant. A more substantial job was that of Comptroller of the Customs for the port of London which Chaucer began on 8 June 1374. He must have been suited for the role as he continued in it for twelve years, a long time in such a post at that period. His life goes undocumented for much of the next ten years and it is not known if he was in the city at the time of the Peasants' Revolt. He was mentioned in law papers of 4 May 1380, involved in the raptus of Cecilia Chaumpaigne. What raptus means, rape or possibly kidnapping, is unclear but the incident seems to have been resolved quickly and did not leave a stain on Chaucer's reputation.

While still working as comptroller Chaucer appears to have moved to Kent, being appointed as one of the commissioners of peace for Kent, at a time when French invasion was a possibility. He also became a Member of Parliament for Kent in 1386. There is no further reference after this date to Philippa, Chaucer's wife, and she is presumed to have died in 1387. He survived the political upheavals caused by the Lords Appellants despite the fact that some of the men executed over the affair Chaucer had known well.

On 12 July 1389 Chaucer was appointed the clerk of the king's works, a sort of foreman organizing most of the king's building projects. No major works were begun during his tenure but he did conduct repairs upon Westminster Palace, St. George's Chapel, Windsor, continue building the wharf at the Tower of London and build the stands for a tournament held in 1390. It may have been a difficult job but it paid well: two shillings a day, over three times the salary as a comptroller. In September 1390, records say that he was robbed, and possibly injured, while conducting the business and it was shortly after on 17 June 1391 that he stopped working in this capacity. Almost immediately on 22 June he began as deputy forester in the royal forest of North Petherton, Somerset. This was no sinecure, with maintenance an important part of the job, although there were many opportunities to derive profit.

Soon after the overthrow of his patron Richard II, Chaucer vanished from the historical record. He is believed to have died of unknown causes on 25 October 1400 but there is no firm evidence for this date which is from the engraving on his tomb, built over one hundred years after his death. There is some speculation—most recently in Terry Jones' book Who Murdered Chaucer? : A Medieval Mystery—that he was murdered by enemies of Richard II or even on the orders of his successor Henry IV. The new king did renew the grants assigned to Chaucer by Richard but in The Complaint of Chaucer to his Purse Chaucer hints that they might not have been paid. The last mention of Chaucer in the historical record is on 5 June 1400 when some monies owing to him were paid. Chaucer was buried in Westminster Abbey in London as was his right owing to the jobs he had performed and the new house he had leased nearby on 24 December 1399. In 1556 his remains were transferred to a more ornate tomb, making Chaucer the first writer interred in the area now known as Poets' Corner.

wikipedia.org

 

[Blackleaf]

18th April 1842 - the Chartist Convention met in London. Chartists wanted social and political reforms in Britain, and the 1840s were a period in which there were many Chartist riots throughout the country. Amongst the things they wanted were universal suffrage for all men over 21 years of age (women weren't alowed to vote) and an annual election of parliament.
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Chartism was a movement for social and political reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century. It gains its name from the People's Charter of 1838, which set out the main aims of the movement.


Chartism followed earlier Radical movements, such as the Birmingham Political Union which demanded a widening of the franchise, and came after the passing of the Reform Act 1832, which, according to the traditional Marxist model, gave the vote to the majority of the male middle classes, but not to the "working class" which was then emerging from artisan and labouring classes. Many Radicals made speeches on the "betrayal" of the working class and the "sacrificing" of their "interests" by the "misconduct" of the government, in conjunction with this model. D. C. Moore, however, cites that the enfranchisement is better understood with a five tier model - consisting of Upper, Upper and Lower Middle and Upper and Lower Working classes. Using this model, The Upper and Upper Middle classes had gained the vote after the Reform Act 1832, and it was the lower middle and upper working classes that joined the Chartist movement. The Lower working class, Moore states, were not educated sufficiently to see any interest in, and thus involve themselves with, the movement.

Chartism included a wide range of organizations. Hence it can be seen as not so much a movement as an era in popular politics in Britain. Dorothy Thompson described the theme of her book The Chartists as the time when "thousands of working people considered that their problems could be solved by the political organization of the country."

In 1838, six members of Parliament and six working men (from the London Working Men's Association, set up in 1836) formed a committee, which then published the People's Charter, containing the following objectives:

*Universal suffrage for all men over the age of 21
*Equal-sized electoral districts
*Voting by secret ballot
*An end to the need for a property qualification for Parliament (so that constituencies could return the man of their choice, rich or poor)
*Pay for members of Parliament
*Annual election of Parliament



The first wave
When these demands were first published in May 1838 they received a lukewarm response by Feargus O'Connor's Northern Star and other Radicals [D Thompson p58] being seen as too moderate. But it soon became clear that the charter had struck a chord among common people. Dorothy Thompson quotes John Bates as saying: "There were [radical] associations all over the county, but there was a great lack of cohesion. One wanted the ballot, another manhood suffrage and so on... The radicals were without unity of aim and method, and there was but little hope of accomplishing anything. When, however, the Peoples Charter was drawn up ... clearly defining the urgent demands of the working class, we felt we had a real bond of union; and so transformed our Radical Association into local Chartist centres..."

The movement organized a convention of 50 to facilitate the presentation of the petition. This met in London from February 1839 until May when it moved to Birmingham. Though they took pains to keep within the law the more radical activists were able to see it as the embryo of an alternative parliament (John Charlton The Chartists p 19). The convention called for a number of "ulterior measures" which ranged from calling on their supporters to withdraw their money from saving banks to a call for a sacred month, in effect a general strike. Meetings were held around the country and in June 1839 a large petition was presented to the House of Commons. Parliament, by a large majority, voted not to even hear the petitioners.

When the petition was refused, many advocated force as the only means of attaining their aims.


Outbreaks of violence ensued, leading to several arrests and trials. One of the leaders of the movement, John Frost, on trial for treason, claimed in his defence that he had toured Wales urging people not to break the law, although he was himself guilty of using language that some might interpret as being a call to arms. Frost's attitudes and stance, often seen as ambivalent, led another Chartist to describe Frost as putting 'a sword in my hand and a rope around my neck'. Nevertheless, Frost had placed himself in the vanguard of the Chartist movement by 1839. When another prominent member, Henry Vincent, was arrested in the summer of 1839 for making inflammatory speeches, the die was cast.

Instead of the carefully plotted military rising that some had suspected, Frost led a column of marchers to the Westgate Hotel, Newport where he initiated a confrontation. Some have suggested that the roots of this confrontation lay in Frost's frequent personal conflicts with various members of the local establishment; others, that Chartist leaders were expecting the Chartists to seize the town, preventing the mail reaching London and triggering a national uprising: it is generally acknowledged that Frost and other Chartist leaders did not agree on the course of action adopted.

The result was a disaster in political and military terms. The hotel was occupied not only by the representatives of the town's merchant classes and the local squirearchy, but by soldiers. A brief, violent, and bloody battle ensued. Shots were fired by both sides, although most contemporaries agree that the soldiers holding the building had vastly superior firepower. The Chartists did manage to enter the building temporarily, but were forced to retreat in disarray: twenty were killed, another fifty wounded.

Testimonies exist from contemporaries, such as the Yorkshire Chartist Ben Wilson, that Newport was to have been the signal for a national uprising. Instead Chartism slipped into a period of internal division and acrimonious debate as to the way forward.

In early May of 1842 a further petition, of over three million signatures, was submitted which was again rejected by parliament. The Northern Star commented on the rejection: "Three and half millions have quietly, orderly, soberly, peaceably but firmly asked of their rulers to do justice; and their rulers have turned a deaf ear to that protest. Three and a half millions of people have asked permission to detail their wrongs, and enforce their claims for RIGHT, and the 'House' has resolved they should not be heard! Three and a half millions of the slave-class have holden out the olive branch of peace to the enfranchised and privileged classes and sought for a firm and compact union, on the principle of EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW; and the enfranchised and privileged have refused to enter into a treaty! The same class is to be a slave class still. The mark and brand of inferiority is not to be removed. The assumption of inferiority is still to be maintained. The people are not to be free."

The depression of 1841–1842 led to a wave of strikes in which Chartist activists were to the fore and demands for the charter were included alongside economic demands. In 1842 workers went on strike in the Midlands, Lancashire, Yorkshire, and parts of Scotland in favour of Chartist principles. These industrial disputes were collectively known as the Plug Plot; as in many cases, protesters removed the plugs from steam boilers to prevent their use. Although the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, advocated a non-interventionalist policy, the Duke of Wellington insisted on the deployment of troops to deal with the strikers. Several Chartist leaders, including Feargus O'Connor, George Julian Harney, and Thomas Cooper were arrested, along with nearly 1,500 others. 79 people were sentenced, with sentences ranging from 7 to 21 years.

Despite this second set of arrests, Chartist activity continued. Beginning in 1843, O'Connor suggested that the land contained the solution to workers' problems. This idea evolved into the Chartist Co-Operative Land Company, later called the National Land Company. Workers would buy shares in the company, and the company would use those funds to purchase estates that would be subdivided into 2, 3, and 4 acre (8,000, 12,400 and 16,000 m²) lots. Between 1844 and 1848, five estates were purchased, subdivided, and built on, and then settled by lucky shareholders, who were chosen by lot. Unfortunately for O'Connor, in 1848 a Select Committee was appointed to investigate the financial viability of the scheme and it was ordered to be shut down. Cottages built by the Chartist Land Company are still standing and inhabited today, in Oxfordshire and on the outskirts of London.

The Chartists also stood in general elections, from the election of 1841 to the election of 1859, and O'Connor was elected in the general election of 1847. Harney stood for Election against Lord Palmerston in Tiverton, Devon in 1847.

An 1848 photograph of Chartists meeting at Kennington Common, London - the earliest photograph of a crowd taken anywhere in the world. In the centre is the "stage", where the speakers stand to address the crowd, with a few fluttering flags.



The 1848 petition and Kennington Common meeting

On 10 April 1848, Feargus O'Connor organised a mass meeting on Kennington Common, which would form a procession to present another petition to Parliament. The number of attendees varies depending on the source (O'Connor estimated 300,000; the government, 15,000; The Sunday Observer suggested 50,000 was more accurate). According to John Charlton the government was well aware that the Chartists had no intention of staging an uprising as they had established an extensive network of spies. The government did however organize a very large show of force, as 8,000 soldiers were in London that day, along with 150,000 special constables. In any case, the meeting was peaceful. However the military had threatened to intervene if the Chartists made any attempt to cross the Thames.

In a separate incident, rioters in Manchester attempted to storm the hated workhouse. A pitched battle resulted with Chartists fighting the police, eventually the mob was broken up, but rioters roamed the streets of Manchester for three days.

The original plan of the Chartists, if the petition was ignored, was to create a separate national assembly and press the Queen to dissolve parliament until the charter was introduced into law. However the Chartists were plagued with indecision, and the national assembly eventually dissolved itself claiming it had a lack of support.

The petition O'Connor presented to Parliament was claimed to have only 1,957,496 signatures – far short of the 5,706,000 O'Connor had stated and many of which were discovered to be forgeries. O'Connor has been accused of destroying the credibility of Chartism, but the movement continued strongly for some months afterwards before it petered out.

wikipedia.org

 

[Blackleaf]

19th April 1882 - Charles Darwin, the British naturalist who came up with the Theory of Evolution, died at his home in Downe, Kent. The last 35 years or so of his life left him suffering from repeated bouts of depression over the death of his daughter at the age of about 10. In 1859, his book, On The Origin of Species, was published. He was buried near to those two other great British scientists - William Herschel and Sir Isaac Newton - in Westminster Abbey.
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Charles Darwin, circa 1854.

Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was a British naturalist who achieved lasting fame by convincing the scientific community of the occurrence of evolution and proposing the theory that this could be explained through natural and sexual selection. This theory is now considered the central explanatory paradigm in biology.

He developed an interest in natural history while studying first medicine, then theology, at university. Darwin's five-year voyage on the Beagle and subsequent writings brought him eminence as a geologist and fame as a popular author. His biological observations led him to study the transmutation of species and, in 1838, develop his theory of natural selection. Fully aware that others had been severely punished for such "heretical" ideas, he only confided in his closest friends and continued his research to meet anticipated objections. However, in 1858 the information that Alfred Russel Wallace had developed a similar theory forced early joint publication of the theory.

His 1859 book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (usually abbreviated to The Origin of Species) established evolution by common descent as the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, continued his research, and wrote a series of books on plants and animals, including humankind, notably The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals.

In recognition of Darwin's pre-eminence, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to William Herschel and Isaac Newton.

Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England, on 12 February 1809, at his family home, the Mount House. He was the fifth of six children of wealthy society doctor Robert Darwin and Susannah Darwin (née Wedgwood). He was the grandson of Erasmus Darwin on his father's side, and of Josiah Wedgwood on his mother's side, both from the prominent English Darwin – Wedgwood family which supported the Unitarian church. His mother died when he was only eight. He went to the nearby Shrewsbury School the next year as a boarder.

In 1825 after spending the summer as an apprentice doctor, helping his father with treating the poor of Shropshire, Darwin went to Edinburgh University to study medicine, but his revulsion at the brutality of surgery led him to neglect his medical studies. He learned taxidermy from John Edmonstone, a freed black slave, who told him exciting tales of the South American rainforest. In Darwin's second year he became active in student societies for naturalists. He became an avid pupil of Robert Edmund Grant, who pioneered development of the theories of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and of Charles' grandfather Erasmus concerning evolution by acquired characteristics. Darwin took part in Grant's investigations of the life cycle of marine animals on the shores of the Firth of Forth which found evidence for homology, the radical theory that all animals have similar organs and differ only in complexity. In March 1827 Darwin made a presentation to the Plinian society of his own discovery that the black spores often found in oyster shells were the eggs of a skate leech. He also sat in on Robert Jameson's natural history course in which he learnt about stratigraphic geology and received training in how to classify plants when assisting with work on the extensive collections of the Museum of Edinburgh University.

In 1827 his father, unhappy that his younger son had no interest in becoming a physician, shrewdly enrolled him in a Bachelor of Arts course at Christ's College, University of Cambridge, to qualify as a clergyman. This was a sensible career move at a time when many Anglican parsons were provided with a comfortable income, and when most naturalists in England were clergymen who saw it as part of their duties to "explore the wonders of God's creation". At Cambridge, Darwin preferred riding and shooting to studying. Along with his cousin William Darwin Fox, he became engrossed in the craze at the time for the competitive collecting of beetles, and Fox introduced him to the Reverend John Stevens Henslow, professor of botany, for expert advice on beetles. Darwin subsequently joined Henslow's natural history course, became his favourite pupil and came to be known as "the man who walks with Henslow". When exams began to loom, Darwin focused more on his studies and received private instruction from Henslow. Darwin became particularly enthused by the writings of William Paley, including the argument of divine design in nature. In his finals in January 1831, he performed well in theology and, having scraped through in classics, mathematics and physics, came tenth out of a pass list of 178.

Despite repeated bouts of illness during the last twenty-two years of his life Darwin pressed on with his work. He had published an abstract of his theory, but more controversial aspects of his "big book" were still incomplete; humankind's descent from earlier animals, and the mechanism of sexual selection which could explain features with no obvious utility other than decorative beauty as well as suggesting possible causes underlying the development of society and of human mental abilities. His experiments, research and writing continued.

When Darwin's daughter fell ill he set aside his experiments with seedlings and domestic animals to go with her to a seaside resort where he became interested in wild orchids. This developed into an innovative study of how their beautiful flowers served to control insect pollination and ensure cross fertilisation. As with the barnacles, homologous parts served different functions in different species. Back at home he lay on his sickbed in a room filled with experiments on climbing plants. He was visited by a reverent Ernst Haeckel who had spread the gospel of Darwinismus in Germany. Even at Cambridge, students now supported his ideas. Huxley gave "working-men's lectures" to widen the audience, and Wallace remained a supporter but increasingly turned to spiritualism. Variation grew to two huge volumes, forcing him to leave out humankind and sexual selection, but when printed was in huge demand.

The question of human evolution had been taken up by his supporters (and detractors) shortly after the publication of The Origin of Species, but Darwin's own contribution to the subject came more than ten years later with the two-volume The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex published in 1871. In the second volume, Darwin introduced in full his concept of sexual selection to explain the evolution of human culture, the differences between the human sexes, and the differentiation of human races, as well as the beautiful (and seemingly non-adaptive) plumage of birds. A year later Darwin published his last major work, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, which focused on the evolution of human psychology and its continuity with to the behaviour of animals. He developed his ideas that the human mind and cultures were developed by natural and sexual selection, an approach which has been revived in the last two decades with the emergence of evolutionary psychology. As he concluded in Descent of Man, Darwin felt that despite all of humankind's "noble qualities" and "exalted powers":

"Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin."
His evolution-related experiments and investigations culminated in five books on plants, and then his last book returned to the effect worms have on soil levels.

Darwin died in Downe, Kent, England, on 19 April 1882. He had expected to be buried in St Mary's churchyard at Downe, but at the request of Darwin's colleagues, William Spottiswoode (President of the Royal Society) arranged for Darwin to be given a state funeral and buried in Westminster Abbey.

wikipedia.org

 

[Blackleaf]

And this Guardian article from this day in 1873 gives you some idea of the effect that Britain's 19th Century industrial might had on its towns and cities.

The article talks about Oldham's numerous mills, and its many chimneys that turned the air, and the people in the town, black with soot and dirt -



Smoke as far as the eye can see

Saturday April 19, 1873
The Guardian


It would be incorrect to say that the collier is not "at home" in Oldham; but he is the last person you meet in the town which gives its name to the coal district. I went ignorantly, thinking to see colliers and collieries, and I found myself among "millers" and mills.

The airy wheels that rest on the skeleton scaffolding and the high pit banks around the shaft do not obtrude upon the sight as elsewhere. On the pleasant hills which encompass Oldham about, in the valley to which the town gently slopes, right in the streets and among the houses, wherever people may stand, there are "mills to the right of them, mills to the left of them, mills in the front of them, clatter and rumble".

Rising high, storey piled on storey, like oblong models of the incompleted [sic] Tower of Babel, or standing lower, square, and compact, like large family mansions in their own grounds, they extend throughout a boundless perspective, and the high stacks pouring out smoke in an endless volume, and pointing with silent finger to the skies they dim, may be seen stretching over hill and dale as far as the heavy clouds permit the eye to follow.
See them in the soft eventide, when the orb of day is slowly sinking behind the western hills, and the walls of flaring brick and the multitudinous windows, "whose panes the sunken sun incarnadines" glow with a universal ruddiness, and you seem to be looking upon the scene of a huge conflagration.

See them next by day, as the sooty exhalations roll up from the myriad fires that animate the loom and shuttle, and you may imagine the smoke to be rising from the unexpired embers of the evening's fire. From each of these giant structures all day long proceeds a sound like the murmuring of innumerable bees, and the air vibrates with the hum of industry.

At morning and night the clattering of clogs on the flags of the footway signals the march of the "hands" to their workplaces and the streets for half an hour are filled with a procession of men and women.

Men in jackets made waterproof by successive layers of oil, whose caps are as greasy as their coats, and whose aprons vary in colour from the tawny white of Monday morning to the dirty brown, of Saturday; women, generally pale, often pinched, and invariably with a shawl wrapped over head and shoulders, in neat dresses, guarded by clean aprons, hurry along in a stream that for the time seems to have no end.

guardian.co.uk

 

[JoeyB]

April 19

1775 The American Revolution begins

At about 5 a.m., 700 British troops, on a mission to capture Patriot leaders and seize a Patriot arsenal, march into Lexington to find 77 armed minutemen under Captain John Parker waiting for them on the town's common green. British Major John Pitcairn ordered the outnumbered Patriots to disperse, and after a moment's hesitation the Americans began to drift off the green. Suddenly, the "shot heard around the world" was fired from an undetermined gun, and a cloud of musket smoke soon covered the green. When the brief Battle of Lexington ended, eight Americans lay dead or dying and 10 others were wounded. Only one British soldier was injured, but the American Revolution had begun.

Scary stuff eh?

1993 Branch Davidian compound burns

At Mount Carmel in Waco, Texas, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) launches a tear-gas assault on the Branch Davidian compound, ending a tense 51-day standoff between the federal government and an armed religious cult. By the end of the day, the compound was burned to the ground, and some 80 Branch Davidians, including 22 children, had perished in the inferno.

1995 Truck bomb explodes in Oklahoma City

Just after 9 a.m., a massive truck bomb explodes outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The blast collapsed the north face of the nine-story building, instantly killing more than 100 people and trapping dozens more in the rubble. Emergency crews raced to Oklahoma City from across the country, and when the rescue effort finally ended two weeks later the death toll stood at 168 people killed, including 19 young children who were in the building's day-care center at the time of the blast.

On April 19, 1995, the two-year anniversary of the disastrous end to the Waco standoff, McVeigh parked a Ryder rental truck loaded with a diesel-fuel-fertilizer bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and fled. Minutes later, the massive bomb exploded, killing 168 people.

Interesting stuff.

 

[I think not]

Here's another one for you JoeyB
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FIRST BLOOD IN THE CIVIL WAR:
April 19, 1861


On April 19, 1861, the first blood of the American Civil War is shed when a secessionist mob in Baltimore attacks Massachusetts troops bound for Washington, D.C. Four soldiers and 12 rioters were killed.

One week earlier, on April 12, the Civil War began when Confederate shore batteries opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in South Carolina's Charleston Bay. During a 34-hour period, 50 Confederate guns and mortars launched more than 4,000 rounds at the poorly supplied fort. The fort's garrison returned fire, but lacking men, ammunition, and food, it was forced to surrender on April 13. There were no casualties in the fighting, but one federal soldier was killed the next day when a store of gunpowder was accidentally ignited during the firing of the final surrender salute. Two other federal soldiers were wounded, one mortally.

On April 15, President Abraham Lincoln issued a public proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteer soldiers to help put down the Southern "insurrection." Northern states responded enthusiastically to the call, and within days the 6th Massachusetts Regiment was en route to Washington. On April 19, the troops arrived in Baltimore, Maryland, by train, disembarked, and boarded horse-drawn cars that were to take them across the city to where the rail line picked up again. Secessionist sympathy was strong in Maryland, a border state where slavery was legal, and an angry mob of secessionists gathered to confront the Yankee troops.

Hoping to prevent the regiment from reaching the railroad station, and thus Washington, the mob blocked the carriages, and the troops were forced to continue on foot. The mob followed close behind and then, joined by other rioters, surrounded the regiment. Jeering turned to brick and stone throwing, and several federal troops responded by firing into the crowd. In the ensuing mayhem, the troops fought their way to the train station, taking and inflicting more casualties. At the terminal, the infantrymen were aided by Baltimore police, who held the crowd back and allowed them to board their train and escape. Much of their equipment was left behind. Four soldiers and 12 rioters were killed in what is generally regarded as the first bloodshed of the Civil War.

Maryland officials demanded that no more federal troops be sent through the state, and secessionists destroyed rail bridges and telegraph lines to Washington to hinder the federal war effort. In May, Union troops occupied Baltimore, and martial law was declared. The federal occupation of Baltimore, and of other strategic points in Maryland, continued throughout the war. Because western Marylanders and workingmen supported the Union, and because federal authorities often jailed secessionist politicians, Maryland never voted for secession. Slavery was abolished in Maryland in 1864, the year before the Civil War's end. Eventually, more than 50,000 Marylanders fought for the Union while about 22,000 volunteered for the Confederacy.

 

[Blackleaf]

20th April 1657 - Battle in Santa Cruz Bay, in the Anglo-Spanish war, In Tenerife. English fleet under Robert Blake sinks Spanish silver fleet. The Anglo-Spanish War was fought between the British Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell and Spain between 1654 and 1660. The British Protectorate destroyed 16 Spanish ships, whereas the Spanish managed to destroy only 1 British ship - despite the Spanish probably having more firepower.
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The Anglo-Spanish War of 1654 was fought between the British Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell and the Spanish between 1654 and 1660. It was caused by commercial rivalry.

During the war Admiral Robert Blake blockaded Cádiz, and in 1655 one of his captains, Richard Stayner, destroyed most of the Spanish treasure fleet. A galleon of treasure was captured, and the overall loss to Spain was estimated at £2,000,000.

In May 1655, British forces in the form of a joint expedition led by Admiral Sir William Penn (father of the founder of Pennsylvania), and General Robert Venables seized the island of Jamaica. In 1657 the Governor invited the Buccaneers to base themselves at Port Royal to deter Spanish aggression. In 1657 and 1658 the Spanish, sailing from Cuba, failed at the battles of Ocho Rios and Rio Nuevo in their attempts to retake the island, and in 1657 Blake defeated the Spanish West Indian Fleet.

On April 20, 1657, Blake totally destroyed a Spanish treasure fleet of 16 ships at Santa Cruz Bay, Tenerife for the loss of one ship, despite being under fire from shore batteries and attacking and withdrawing on the tide.

The major land actions took place in the Spanish Netherlands. The redcoats of the New Model Army distinguished themselves at the Battle of the Dunes in alliance with the French who were engaged in the Franco-Spanish War.



Aftermath

After the ending of the Anglo-Dutch War, Cromwell turned his attention to England's traditional enemies, France and Spain. Both were Catholic countries and Cromwell fervently believed it to be God's will that the Protestant religion should prevail in Europe. Spain was selected as the principal target of England's aggressive foreign policy partly because war against France risked the possibility of French help in restoring the Stuarts to the throne of England. During the first year of the Protectorate, Cromwell negotiated with the French statesman Cardinal Mazarin, resulting in the drafting of an Anglo-French alliance against Spain in October 1655.

Meanwhile, Cromwell had already launched the Western Design against Spanish colonies in the West Indies. Although Jamaica was seized from Spain, the Western Design failed in its principal objective of capturing the island of Hispaniola. In European waters, General-at-Sea Robert Blake proceeded to blockade the Spanish port of Cadiz. Little was achieved in the war until September 1656 when one of Blake's captains, Richard Stayner, intercepted a Spanish treasure fleet and captured or sank all but two of its ships, which was a serious blow to the economy of Spain. Then in April 1657, Blake completely destroyed the Spanish battle fleet in Santa Cruz harbour, leaving the Spanish treasure fleets virtually defenceless against the English blockade of Spain.

The Anglo-French alliance against Spain was signed in March 1657. Under the terms of the treaty, the English would join with France in her continuing war against Spain in Flanders. France would contribute an army of 20,000 men, England would contribute 6,000 troops and the English fleet in a campaign against the Flemish coastal fortresses of Gravelines, Dunkirk and Mardyck. It was agreed that Gravelines would be ceded to France, Dunkirk and Mardyck to England.

The combined Anglo-French army for the invasion of Flanders was commanded by the great French Marshal Turénne. The Spanish Army of Flanders was commanded by Don Juan-José, an illegitimate son of the Spanish King Philip. The Spanish army of 15,000 troops was augmented by a force of 3,000 English Royalists - formed as the nucleus of potential army for the invasion of England by Charles II, with Charles's brother James, Duke of York, amongst its commanders.

The Commonwealth fleet blockaded Flemish ports but to Cromwell's annoyance the military campaign started late in the year and was subject to many delays. Marshal Turénne spent the summer of 1657 campaigning against the Spanish in Luxembourg and made no move to attack Flanders until September. Mardyck was captured on 9 September and garrisoned by Commonwealth troops. Dunkirk was besieged in May 1658. A Spanish relief force attempted to lift the siege but was defeated on 4 June at the Battle of the Dunes. The Commonwealth contingent in Turénne's army fought with distinction and impressed their French allies with a successful assault up a strongly defended sandhill 150 feet high during the battle. When Dunkirk surrendered to Turénne on 14 June, Cardinal Mazarin honoured the terms of the treaty with Cromwell and handed the port over to the Commonwealth, despite the protests of Louis XIV. The Commonwealth also honoured its obligations in respecting the rights of the Catholic populations of Mardyck and Dunkirk. A contingent of Commonwealth troops remained with Turénne's army and were instrumental in the capture of Gravelines and other Flemish towns by the French.

The war between France and Spain ended with the signing of the Peace of the Pyrenees on 28 October 1659. After the Restoration of Charles II in England, the Anglo-Spanish War was formally terminated in September 1660. Charles sold Dunkirk to Louis XIV of France in November 1662 - though less than £300,000 of the promised half million was ever paid. Jamaica remained an English colony. The Spanish formally recognised England's ownership of the island in 1670.

wikipedia.org

 

[Blackleaf]

21st April 1509 - Henry VIII becomes King. He is famous for being married six times, for making England independent of Rome in a religious sense and creating the independent Church of England, and for passing acts that include the Witchcraft Act 1542 and the Buggery Act 1533.
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Henry VIII (28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547) was King of England and Lord of Ireland (later King of Ireland) from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was the second monarch of the Tudor dynasty, succeeding his father, Henry VII. He is famous for having been married six times and for wielding the most untrammeled power of any British monarch. Notable events during his reign included the break with Rome and the subsequent establishment of the independent Church of England, the Dissolution of the Monasteries, and the union of England and Wales.

Several significant pieces of legislation were enacted during Henry VIII's reign. They included the several Acts which severed the English Church from the Roman Catholic Church and established Henry as the supreme head of the Church in England, the Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542 (which united England and Wales into one nation), the Buggery Act 1533, the first anti-sodomy enactment in England; and the Witchcraft Act 1542, which punished 'invoking or conjuring an evil spirit' with death.

Henry VIII is known to have been an avid gambler and dice player. He excelled at sport, especially jousting, hunting, and royal tennis, during his youth. He was also an accomplished musician, author, and poet; his best known piece of music is Pastyme With Good Company (The Kynges Ballade). Henry VIII was also involved in the construction-from-scratch and improvement of several significant buildings, including Nonsuch Palace, King's College Chapel in Cambridge and Westminster Abbey in London - the existing buildings improved were often properties confiscated from Wolsey (such as Christ Church, Oxford, Hampton Court Palace, palace of Whitehall) and Trinity College, Cambridge.

wikipedia.org