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ELIZABETH VS MARY
The rivalry between the Virgin Queen and her Scottish cousin

Game of Thrones
The medieval reality BUILDING
behind the fantasy THE TITANIC

How the Battle of ^

Owain Glyndwr’s
the Atlantic was won great rebellion
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 CHRISTMAS 2015

WELCOME MAGAZINE

When we think of the Victorians, there’s no escaping historyextra.com

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 CHRISTMAS 2015

CONTENTS
Features Every month
6 ANNIVERSARIES
9 HISTORY NOW
9 The latest history news
12 Backgrounder: US gun crime
14 Past notes

16 LETTERS
19 MICHAEL WOOD’S VIEW
Read about Britain’s mortal battle with
the U-boat menace, on page 32 67 BOOKS OF THE YEAR
Our panel of experts selects the
inest history volumes of the past
12 months. Plus we round up 2015’s
20 Elizabeth versus Mary
Anna Whitelock charts the volatile – and
best historical iction and DVDs 36
ultimately deadly – relationship between
77 TV & RADIO Medieval history is
the Virgin Queen and her Scottish cousin
Our pick of Christmas history a major inluence on
26 Outrage in the empire programmes Game of Thrones
Richard Huzzey on the bloody suppres-
sion of a 19th-century uprising in Jamaica
80OUT & ABOUT
that caused uproar back home 80 History explorer: Titanic
84 My favourite place: Munich
32 Battle of the Atlantic
Jonathan Dimbleby reveals how German 91 MISCELLANY
U-boats brought Britain to the brink of 91 Q&A
disaster in the Second World War 92 Samantha’s recipe corner
94 Bumper Christmas quiz
36 Game of Thrones 96 Prize crossword
Carolyne Larrington explores the
medieval inspirations for the blockbuster 98 MY HISTORY HERO
fantasy TV series Robert Hardy chooses King Henry V

40 Vikings in America
John Haywood reveals the extent of
Norse exploration in the New World 30 SUBSCRIBE
y subscribe today
Save when you
47 All in the head
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY/HBO/BRIDGEMAN/GETTY

James Poskett examines the 19th-century

fascination with phrenology – where skull
shape was said to determine character

50 Happy Victorians?
Rosalind Crone challenges the idea that
19th-century life was blighted by dirt,
poverty, crime and disease
26 Why bloodshed
60 Owain Glynd r USPS Identification Statement BBC HISTORY (ISSN 1469-8552) (USPS 024-177)

Huw Pryce describes the life of the last

Welsh Prince of Wales, who took on the
English crown in the 15th century
Christmas 2015 is published 13 times a year under licence from BBC Worldwide by
Immediate Media Company Bristol Ltd, 9th Floor, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol
in Jamaica shocked
BS1 3BN, UK. Distributed in the US by Circulation Specialists, Inc., 2 Corporate Drive,
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4 BBC History Magazine

 47
“The realm beneath [your wife’s] bonnet has
your future mapped upon it”

20 60
How Mary, Queen of A man of vision as well
Scots fell foul of her as violence
English cousin

40
What did the Vikings
discover in America?

50
“BY CONTEMPORARY
STANDARDS,
SLUM-DWELLERS
WERE NOT ALL
VERY DIRTY”
BBC History Magazine 5
 Dominic Sandbrook highlights events that took place at Christmas in history

ANNIVERSARIES
26 December 1825

Tsar Nicholas’s reign begins with a

revolt that leaves at least 1,200 dead
Grand Duke Constantine’s abdication throws Russian politics into chaos
n Russia, 26 December 1825 (14 December, according to
the Julian calendar then in use in the country) was the
day of the winter solstice. That morning, the sun rose at
9am. In St Petersburg, the atmosphere was heavy with
tension. Almost four weeks earlier, the death of Tsar
Alexander I had thrown Russian politics into tumult.
The acknowledged heir, his brother Grand Duke Constan-
tine, had no intention of taking the throne. Instead the
plan was for his younger brother Nicholas to succeed.
What followed, however, was chaos. Nicholas tried to
back out in favour of Constantine, who himself insisted on
abdicating. Late on the 25th, officials warned Nicholas that
liberal officers in the Royal Guards were planning a coup. By
the following morning, troops and sympathetic demonstra-
tors had begun to assemble in St Petersburg’s Senate Square,
shouting “Hurrah for Constantine!” Meanwhile, Nicholas,
“pale, weary and eager to settle the whole affair as soon as
possible,” ordered a larger contingent of loyalists to secure
the entrances to the square.
Almost all day, Nicholas’s generals waited for the order
to act. “Let me clear the square with gunfire,” one urged
him, “or abdicate!” At last, at around 4pm, Nicholas gave
in, and the artillery batteries opened fire. The government
claimed around eight people were killed; in reality, historians
estimate the true total to be at least 1,200, mostly civilians.
The suppression of the Decembrist revolt left a bitter
legacy. The chief Decembrists were hanged, while many
more were sent into Siberian exile. Nicholas himself ruled
until 1855, his reign marked by economic stagnation and
political repression. But the memory of the rising endured.
In the Russian imagination, at least, the Decembrists lived
on as revolutionary martyrs.

Karl Ivanovich Kollmann’s 1830s painting of the Decembrist revolt in St Petersburg. The suppression of the uprising
resulted in the deaths of at least 1,200 people, while the revolt’s leaders were hanged or sent into Siberian exile

6 BBC History Magazine

 Dominic Sandbrook is a historian and
presenter. His latest series,
Let Us Entertain You, recently
aired on BBC Two

25 December 1950

The Stone of Scone

is stolen by students
Scotland’s hallowed relic is smuggled out of Westminster
Abbey... but turns up in Arbroath nearly four months later

I n the era of the Ealing comedies,

the theft of the Stone of Scone
from Westminster Abbey seemed like
something from a film script. Yet at
its centre was one of Scotland’s most
hallowed nationalist relics – the ancient
sandstone block on which its medieval
monarchs had been crowned.
The plan to steal the stone was the
brainchild of a young man called Ian
Hamilton, a Glasgow student who was
keen to win publicity for Home Rule.
A few days before Christmas, Hamilton
and three friends drove south in a couple
of Ford Anglias. On arrival in London
they held a rendezvous in – of all places
– a Lyons Corner House. That night,
Hamilton made a first bid to steal the
stone, hiding under a trolley in West-
minster Abbey – only to be spotted by
a night watchman.
The following evening, they tried
again. This time they broke into the
AKG-IMAGES/PA
abbey overnight, climbing in through a
building yard before making their way to
King Edward’s Chair, where the stone
was kept. In good Ealing fashion, they
contrived to drop the heavy stone while
they were dragging it out, smashing it in
two before lugging the pieces into their
waiting car.
At this point – it was 5am – the story
took another bizarre twist. Before they
could drive off, a passing policeman
stopped for a chat and a cigarette. Only
after he had gone did the robbers make
their getaway – two of them heading for
Kent with the larger bit of the stone, the
other two bound for the Midlands.
The loss of the stone sparked a political
furore. But the following April, after
months of speculation, the students left
the stone – now mended – on the altar
at Arbroath Abbey, in honour of the
declaration of Scottish independence
at Arbroath in 1320.

The Stone of Scone is removed from Arbroath Abbey in April 1951, to be returned
to Westminster Abbey. Since 1996 the stone has resided in Edinburgh Castle

BBC History Magazine 7

 B R A D S H AW ’ S
B O OK S AND MAP S

BRADSHAW’S HANDBOOK BRADSHAW’S CONTINENTAL

PREMIUM LEATHERBOUND RAILWAY GUIDE
EDITION
BRADSHAW’S HANDBOOK

George Bradshaw’s railway guides were the essential companions

for anyVictorian or Edwardian traveller. Carried by Phileas Fogg,
commented on by Sherlock Holmes and even used by Bram Stoker’s
Dracula, these books, the perfect gift for any railway enthusiast,
provide a unique window into a bygone age.

A L S O A VA I L A B L E

Bradshaw’s International Bradshaw’s Canals and Bradshaw’s Railway Map

Air Guide, 1934 Navigable Rivers 1907 (folded)

Available from all good bookshops and www.shirebooks.co.uk

A N I M P R I N T O F B L O O M S B U RY P L C
 The latest news, plus Backgrounder 12 Past notes 14

HISTORY NOW
Have a story? Please email Matt Elton at matt.elton@immediate.co.uk

Bad girls?
An 1889 illustration from Punch
magazine showing a woman being
imprisoned. A new study suggests
that female criminals were judged
on how ‘feminine’ their behaviour
was when they appeared in court

How violent women took on the

Victorian legal system – and won
Female criminals in 19th-
century London were treated
more leniently if they acted in
a ‘feminine’ way, new research
suggests. By Matt Elton
GETTY
C
haste, dependent, virtuous and frail:
just some of the traits expected of
women in Victorian Britain. So what
happened when they deviated from this
behaviour in the most dramatic way possible
– through acts of violent criminality?
That’s the question at the heart of a study
by Andrew August, professor of history at
Abington College of Penn State University.
He explored reports in the East London
Observer of 2,500 physical assaults brought
before the Thames Police Court in the early
1880s. The reports reveal that a considerable
proportion of defendants – 32 per cent –
were female. They also show how working-
class women were judged by middle-class
magistrates and the press, and how some
women used this judgment in their favour.
The men and women in the sample, it
seems, were similar – as were their crimes.
“Men and women accused of assault were
usually around the same age, and victims
were usually men,” says August.
Yet despite this, his research – which

BBC History Magazine 9

History now / News
Domestic drama Marital tensions break out into open warfare in an 1871 illustration.
Women who used ‘masculine’ forms of violence – such as kicking and spitting – were
judged more harshly, says Andrew August, the author of a new study on the subject
appears in the Journal of British Studies
– suggests that women who exhibited
‘unfeminine’ characteristics received
more severe sentences. Drunk women
accused of assault were less likely to
be released or simply fined than those
who were not, for instance, and more
likely to receive a sentence of longer than
two weeks. Women who kicked their
victims, meanwhile, also more frequent-
ly received more than 14 days in prison.
Other ‘unfeminine’ traits that led to
harsher punishment included biting and
spitting. Similarly, newspaper reports
often described the women in gendered
terms. One criminal was labelled “a
masculine-looking woman”, and
another as a “female savage”.
August argues that we should see these
differences as part of a wider “civilising
offensive” through which middle-class
proponents attempted to control the
behaviour of working-class people,
both in terms of their class and gender.
The courtroom and newspaper, both of
which were very public, were two key
arenas in this effort. “Women who
“One criminal was
labelled as a ‘masculine-
looking woman’ by
the newspapers; another
as a ‘female savage’”
10
engaged in violent behaviour were seen as
problematic primarily if they appeared
to violate elite gender norms,” he says.
If women could successfully appeal to
these norms, by emphasising their roles
as wives and mothers, or by appearing
clean, respectable, deferent or weak,
courts and observers often saw them as
less threatening. But if they appeared out
of sync with the norms, by being strong,
‘masculine’ or confrontational, the
authorities took their disorder seriously,
and they were labelled ‘threatening’.
Yet rather than regard working-class
women as passive victims of the legal
system, August suggests that we should
view many as shrewd and resourceful.
“They understood their role and place
very differently from the middle-class
advocates of Victorian domesticity,” he
says.“Though their lives were filled with
poverty and, often, violence, they knew
how to deal with authorities such as the
police and courts. Many worked hard to
perform a version of ‘femininity’ that
would appeal to elite observers.”
Such performances were not sincere or
enduring, however. “Instead, they put on
trappings of this femininity for the
benefit of the court and observers, and
when they did so successfully, the court
and newspaper viewed them favourably,”
says August. “As such, these cases give us
insight into the strategies adopted
by working-class women as well as the
authorities’ approach to individuals.”
OBITUARY
Lisa Jardine
(1944–2015)
L isa Jardine, a leading historian of the
early modern period and member
of the advisory board of BBC History
Magazine, has died at the age of 71.
A professor of renaissance studies
at University College London (UCL),
Jardine was also known for her TV and
radio appearances discussing history and
the arts. In 2009, she won the Cundill
International Prize in History for Going
Dutch: How England Plundered Holland’s
Glory (HarperPress, 2008). Her other
books covered topics as diverse as
Shakespeare and the scientific revolution.
News of her death prompted tributes
from historians around the world. Simon
Schama wrote that “Lisa Jardine was one
of the great historians. She understood
that, to write of humanity, you needed to
be fully part of it.” UCL professor Melissa
Terras remembered Jardine as “support-
ive of colleagues and the causes she cared
about, [with] a vital energy that encour-
aged and galvanised those around her”.
Greg Neale, founding editor of BBC
History Magazine, said: “When we were
planning the magazine’s launch 15 years
ago, I knew that the strength of our
advisory panel would be crucially impor-
tant as a signal of our intention to treat
history seriously while bringing it to
a new, popular audience. Lisa summed
up that approach perfectly. With her
untimely death, the profession of history
– and the humanities in general – has lost
a dynamic, inspirational figure, and the
magazine has lost a good friend.” ME
REX/MARY EVANS
Historian Lisa Jardine, who was
“a dynamic, inspirational figure”
BBC History Magazine

New views of Africa
The king of Benin as depicted
in a 16th-century bronze relief.
The history of the kingdom,
and three others, is now being
taught at secondary schools
EDUCATION
A-level students set for a voyage of
discovery to precolonial Africa
S ome pupils studying A-level history
in the UK will be able to learn
about the history of Africa before its
invasion and occupation by European
powers in the 19th century, following
the introduction of a new exam syllabus.
The course, part of the OCR history
syllabus, explores the stories of four
kingdoms – Songhay, Kongo, Benin, and
Oyo and Dahomey – from 1400 to 1800.
Students will also be able to expand their
study through independent coursework.
“History is a well-taught and popular
subject at A-level, but concern has been
expressed about the arguably narrow
range of topics and periods it covers,”
says Mike Goddard, head of history at
OCR. “We consulted higher-education
historians in the course of developing the
syllabus: the Royal Historical Society, for
example, stressed that it was important
not to tell the history of the non-western
“We wanted to put a
nail in the coffin of such
ridiculous ideas as Africa
AKG
having no history”
BBC History Magazine
world solely through its contact with the
west. So we wanted to include non-Brit-
ish and non-European topics that would
allow study of other civilisations and
societies in their own right.
“The syllabus wasn’t designed with
the specific intention of changing views
about Africa, and isn’t predicated on an
assumption that everyone has outmoded
views – but where such views aree held,
this topic should correct them,” Goddard
says. “What we didd want to do is to put
another nail in the coffin of ridiculous
ideas such as Africa having no history.”
Historian David Olusoga, whose work
explores themes of colonialism and
racism, said: “I’m very pleased by this
news: I think the fact that the English
and Scottish were not important in this
period of Africa’s history is one of the
reasons that it’s previously passed us by.
“It’s particularly pleasing that the
syllabus appears to not just be about ‘lost
black heroes’, but instead about people –
rather like Henry VIII in British history
– who were not particularly heroic,
and therefore more complicated. It’s also
important because it deals with Africa
as just another part of the world.” ME
WHAT WE’VE
LEARNED
THIS MONTH
‘Heat spots’ have been
found in Giza pyramid
A scan of the Great Pyramid at Giza
has revealed “thermal anomalies” in
the structure, Egyptian officials say.
It is thought that the differences –
which were detected using infrared
thermography and include ‘heat
spots’ in three adjacent stones at
the bottom of the pyramid – may be
the result of differences in building
materials, internal air currents or the
presence of voids behind the surface.
Mesolithic people may
have owned ‘ecohomes’
The remains of a 6,000-year-old
‘ecohome’ have been found by
experts at the Blick Mead site near
Stonehenge. The shelter, which was
built in the hollow left by a fallen tree,
featured a thatched or animal-skin
roof connected to a central post to
keep the heat in. And, rather than
building a fire near the roof, its
inhabitants appear to have warmed
large stones and placed them close
to where people slept – what project
expert David Jacques describes as
“a type of storage heater”.
Lost Disney cartoon is
to get a new screening
A Walt Disney cartoon will be
shown in public for the first time
since 1928 following its rediscovery
in the archives of the British Film
Institute (BFI). The only surviving
print of Sleigh Bells, a six-minute
short featuring the character Oswald
the Lucky Rabbit, was found by
a researcher exploring the BFI’s
online catalogue, and a restored
version will be screened at BFI
Southbank on 12 December.
A still from Sleigh Bells, the 1928
short by the Walt Disney Studio
11
History now / Backgrounder
The historians’ view…
What are the real
issues in the US gun
control debate?
In the wake of a mass shooting in an Oregon college, and the
run-up to the presidential election, arguments about gun
control are raging fiercely in the US. Two experts explore the
underlying concerns fuelling both sides of the debate
Interviews by Chris Bowlby, a BBC journalist specialising in history
We underplay
the dual purpose
of the right to bear
arms – self-defence
and defence against a
tyrannical government
PROFESSOR JOYCE LEE MALCOLM
American ideas of the right to bear arms,
incorporated into the US Constitution and
debated ever since, originated, in great part,
from traditions of English law. The Second
Amendment of the US Constitution, asserting
the right of Americans to be armed, is a legacy
of the right of Englishmen to “have arms for
their defence”. That English right, enshrined
in the English Bill of Rights of 1689, however,
was limited to “the Subjects which are
Protestants” – at that time, some 90 per cent
of the population – and to those weapons
“suitable to their Condition and as allowed by
Law”. Despite these qualifiers, the English
right to keep and carry firearms was virtually
unrestrained until the Firearms Act of 1920.
The US Second Amendment, by contrast,
has no religious, class or legislative limitation.
It refers to the need for a citizen militia as one
reason for the right, then declares: “The right
of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not
be infringed.” This unqualified guarantee is
12
entrenched in the nation’s constitution.
In two recent landmark decisions, the
US Supreme Court has affirmed that the
amendment protects an individual’s right
to own guns for self-defence.
However, the focus of legal debate has
changed over time. We now tend to under-
play the dual purpose of the right of
individuals to be armed – self-defence and
defence against a tyrannical government
– stressing only self-defence. The great
English jurist William Blackstone, writing
in the late 18th century, described the right
as “a publick allowance under due restric-
tions, of the natural right of resistance and
self-preservation, when the sanctions of
society and laws are found insufficient to
restrain the violence of oppression”.
Modern governments are, of course,
hostile to the idea of an armed public ready to
resist, and most people believe a public with
standard firearms would be useless against
a well-equipped army. Nevertheless there are
many examples of governments disarming
their citizens in order to repress them, and of
armed citizens putting up stiff resistance. As
Alex Kozinski, an American federal judge,
points out: “The Second Amendment is a
doomsday provision, one designed for those
exceptionally rare circumstances where all
other rights have failed – where the govern-
ment refuses to stand for re-election and
silences those who protest; where courts have
lost the courage to oppose, or can find no one
An anti-control protestor carries
a gun at a rally against Initiative
594 in Washington state. This
measure, enacted in the state
in 2014, mandates background
checks for all gun purchases
to enforce their decrees. However improbable
these contingencies may seem today, facing
them unprepared is a mistake a free people get
to make only once.”
Today’s public and political debate about
gun control focuses on the question of
individual acts of violence, whereas in the
past there was more emphasis on anxiety
about groups possessing weapons. In the early
20th century, state legislation focused on
keeping firearms out of the hands of African-
Americans in the south, and the waves of
immigrants from eastern and southern
Europe entering the country in the north.
In the past few years, though, with
a national murder rate that has been
declining for more than two decades, the
focus has been on keeping guns out of the
hands of individuals likely to commit mass
murders. The majority of American states
– some 43 to date – have become far more
permissive about licensing law-abiding
citizens to carry concealed firearms for their
own protection and in the
event of such an attack.
Joyce Lee Malcolm is
Patrick Henry professor of
constitutional law and the
Second Amendment at George
Mason University, Virginia
BBC History Magazine

The debate about
gun control is
also a debate about the
role of government
control in American life
DR EMMA LONG
In most cases, debates about gun control in
the US have followed periods of violence.
Prohibition and the 1929 St Valentine’s Day
Massacre, in particular, led to the first serious
attempt by Congress to regulate firearms: the
1934 National Firearms Act, taxing and
regulating ownership of certain weapons.
The assassinations of John F Kennedy, Robert
Kennedy and Martin Luther King led to the
Gun Control Act of 1968, and the peak of
urban violence in American cities in the 1980s
provided the backdrop to the 1993 Brady
Handgun Violence Protection Act and the
1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban. Major
debates also occurred after the 1999 school
CORBIS/GETTY
shooting in Columbine, and shootings in
Virginia Tech in 2007, Fort Hood in 2009,
and Aurora and Sandy Hook in 2012.
However, debate has not led to action. This
BBC History Magazine
is, in large part, a result of the fact that the
politics of gun control have become so
tangled, complex and politically toxic that
it is now impossible to obtain the consensus
needed to pass legislation. It’s also important
to remember that gun control is a state issue
as well as a federal issue. Lack of action at
federal level does not mean inaction at state
level, as the current patchwork of US state
laws relating to guns testifies.
The gun rights versus gun control debate in
the US touches on a wide range of cultural
and political issues that go much deeper than
the question of access to firearms. The
popular view of the American Revolution
holds that the colonists fought the British for
liberty and freedom, and against tyranny.
The US Constitution and Bill of Rights were
designed to reinforce these goals. The link to
the nation’s founding is important because it
implies that any attack on the principles
established by the revolution is an attack
on the US itself, meaning that gun control
supporters have to defend themselves against
charges of anti-Americanism before they can
even get to their core arguments. In many
ways, the debate about guns is a debate about
the very meaning of the US.
For many Americans the question is also
one of freedom from government control.
Investigators re-enact the St Valentine’s Day
massacre, a crime that led to Congress’s
first serious efforts to regulate firearms
The Constitution embodies the idea that
government should be small and limited.
That was a reasonable description of the
federal government for most of the 20th
century until the exigencies of the New Deal
and Second World War saw power flow to
the centre, where it stayed as a result of the
Cold War. For those who believe that the
government is too big, interference in gun
ownership is simply more evidence of an
overarching authority intruding on the
power of the ordinary citizen.
Gun rights supporters argue that, since
statistics do not prove that gun control
reduces gun crime (an argument refuted by
gun control advocates), the government does
not have enough reason to intrude on the
constitutionally protected rights of law-
abiding American citizens. In opposition,
gun control supporters argue that the
Constitution also embodies the govern-
ment’s duty to ensure the safety of its
citizens. Thus the debate about guns is
also a debate about the
role of government
in American life.
Dr Emma Long is a lecturer
in American studies at the
University of East Anglia
DISCOVER MORE
BOOKS
왘 To Keep and Bear Arms: The Origins of
an Anglo-American Right by Joyce Lee
Malcolm (Harvard University Press, 1996)
왘 A Well-Regulated Militia by Saul Cornell
(OUP, 2008)
13
History now / Backgrounder

PAST NOTES
THE CHRISTMAS SPEECH

OLD NEWS
Tarantulas
for two
Portsmouth Evening News /
14 July 1892

“A tarantula,” declared the

Portsmouth Evening News in
1892, “is a large insect of the spider
tribe, and its bite is as deadly as that
of a rattlesnake.” But why did this
matter to that newspaper’s readers?
An unusual report had arrived from
Las Vegas, of a duel between two young
men – an American and a Mexican –
who had both fallen in love with the
same girl. The Mexican had taunted his Britons watch Queen Elizabeth II’s Christmas message in 1958
rival in front of his friends, declaring
that America was a land of cowards. As many of us prepare to tune in to the
Determined to save face, the Ameri- Queen’s Christmas message, Julian Humphrys
can had agreed to test his bravery against
his foe’s by entering a dark room in
investigates the origins of this seasonal tradition
which a number of tarantulas had been
released. Whoever emerged alive would Who made the first royal reported as saying that the prospect
claim the girl – but if either of them Christmas broadcast? of making the broadcast ruined his
King George V. On Christmas Day Christmas. The table at which he sat
became too frightened and left the room
1932 he delivered a 251-word, was covered with thick cloth to
before the death of the other, he would muffle the rustling of the papers held
three-minute wireless message,
forfeit all claim to the object of their penned for him by poet and writer in his trembling hands.
mutual love. Rudyard Kipling. It was broadcast
As the doors closed, the Mexican was How was the broadcast received?
live just after 3pm, which was
Extremely well. Over 20 million
heard to cry out that he had been bitten considered the best time for
people listened and there was
and was dying. The doors were opened reaching most of the countries
IILLUSTRATION BY BEN JONES

widespread approval, not only of

and the Mexican fell out and collapsed of the empire by short-wave radio.
to the floor, while the American walked Was it the king’s idea?
out unhurt. No. It was thought up by BBC
It was quickly established that the director, John Reith, who saw it
Mexican was not, in fact, dying, but had as a way of inaugurating the
simply scraped his hand on a nail. BBC’s Empire Service (now
Assuming he had been bitten, he had the World Service).
simply fainted from the shock. George V was initially uncertain
about using the relatively untested
medium of radio. He was persuaded
News story
to do so following a visit to the BBC
sourced from
and a discussion with prime minister
britishnews
Ramsay MacDonald who sold the
paperarchive. idea of the Christmas broadcast as
co.uk and a tool to help the monarchy maintain
rediscovered unity within the empire.
by Fern Where did he make the broadcast?
Riddell. In a small room in Sandringham
Fern regularly House, connected by telephone
appears on lines to Broadcasting House. The
BBC Radio 3’s king was highly nervous – he was
Free Thinking
Kipling’s words, but also of the
king’s no-nonsense delivery of them.
His slightly gravelly voice was
particularly well-suited to his image
as the ‘grandfather’ of the empire.
What happened next?
George V made an annual Christmas
broadcast for the rest of his reign,
the last coming less than a month
before his death in 1936. But there
would be no Christmas speech from
his son, Edward VIII, that year. When
he did make a broadcast in Decem-
ber, it was to announce his abdica-
tion. It would take the wartime
Christmas messages of George VI to
turn the royal Christmas broadcast
into the tradition it is today.
To listen to George V’s first Christ-
mas message, go to bbc.co.uk/
programmes/p027m2xp
TOPFOTO

14 BBC History Magazine

 YOUR ANCESTORS WERE

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 Your views on the magazine and the world of history

LETTERS
A high-flying pilot
I was interested to read the note on
LETTER James McCudden in Our First World
OF THE Warr (December), which deals with
MONTH his early days in the Royal Flying
Corps. McCudden trained as a fighter
pilot in 1916 and subsequently became
(in the rank of major) the most highly
decorated British flyer of the First World
War and indeed British military history –
winning the VC, DSO and Bar, MC and Bar
and the Military Medal.
My stepfather, Archie Sprangle, served
as an observer/gunner in 1917–18 with
5 Squadron RFC and was himself decorated
with the DFC. He often used to tell me
Gentle clarification
I read with interest the review by Joanna
Bourke of Philipp Blom’s Fracture: Life
and Culture in the West, 1918–1938
(Books, November). However, she repeats
a misapprehension that is too common.
When discussing Thank You, Jeeves, she
refers to Jeeves as a butler. He was not a
butler, but a gentleman’s personal
gentleman, a very different role. Beach of
Blandings Castle is a proper butler.
Perhaps a better book to study might
have been The Code of the Woosters,
published in 1938, which contains the
famous lampooning of Mosley and the
Blackshirts as Roderick Spode and the
Black Shorts.
John Hood, Lancashire
about his own wartime experiences on the
western front, and in talking about British
air aces he said that McCudden was regarded
by himself and brother RFC officers as
“simply the greatest of them all”.
Bryan Samain
Suffolk
쎲 This issue we’re rewarding
the writer of the letter of the
month with one of our Books
of the year: Towards the
Flame: Empire, War and the
End of Tsarist Russia by
Dominic Lieven. For more on
the book, turn to page 69
which an English king would have sought
to form an alliance. Richard was
surrounded by states that were in no
position to offer any hope of a meaning-
ful treaty. At the same time, just as his
envoys (Langton and Sherwood) arrived
at the Vatican to form a diplomatic
relationship with Pope Sixtus – he died!
Therefore, to class as ‘luck’ the fact that
his brother made an inconvenient
marriage to Elizabeth Woodville seems
to me to be slightly mis-directing, if not
understating, the case.
Sharon Lock, North Cotes
Surprising similarities
I must confess to a slight bias towards any
article or book written by the wonderful
Alison Weir, who has quickly become
one of my favourite authors over the past
few years.
I was very interested in her article
The Forgotten Tudor Princesss in your
November edition. It struck me how
similar, yet also how different, Margaret
Douglas’s story is to another Tudor great:
Margaret Beaufort. It seems that
Margaret Douglas perhaps enjoyed a little
more freedom at an earlier age than her
great-grandmother, who was wedded and
bedded by 13 years old, at the behest of
her parents. Yet it seems that their lives
somewhat mimic each other in the
ambition each held for their children and
their dynasty.
Throughout the article, I found myself
comparing the two – how things had
changed in only a century! It was
extremely interesting to see how
Margaret Douglas appeared to live in a
manner centred on her core beliefs and
goals; from her first imprisonment with
Thomas Howard, to her later plots to
secure the futures of her descendants.
I have always wondered what Margaret
Beaufort would have made of her
grandson Henry’s VIII’s life. I now also
imagine how Margaret Douglas would
have reacted to the knowledge that her
grandson did become king of England
after all.
Eluned Creighton-Sims,
Monmouthshire

Richard III’s real misfortune In defence of Napoleon III

I write in regard to the article by David Your article La Débâclee (December)
Horspool in the December edition, regrettably belittles Napoleon lll yet
pointing out the bad ‘luck’ – or, as again. Since Victor Hugo was a great
medieval England would have had it, writer, people tend to believe his insulting
‘fortune’ – that affected the reign of label of ‘Napoleon le Petit’. Similarly, the
Richard III (Richard III: A Hostage to views of Emile Zola.
Fortune). It was refreshing to see an But since Hugo spent the whole Second
article that separated fact from fiction Empire in self-imposed exile, I am more
by clearly pointing out how Shakespeare inclined to take the opinion of someone
dramatised events to his own ends. who lived through it and knew the
I do agree totally with Horspool’s emperor much better – my great
premise, but on reading the article, have grandmother Leonie. Her father was
to question his definitions of ‘luck’. What a doctor who treated Napoleon lll for
MARY EVANS

was extremely unlucky about Richard’s Is Carry on, Jeeves a tale of skin cancer and she came to know his
reign were the internal weaknesses a butler or a gentleman’s whole family very well. Her enthusiasm
suffered in many of the countries with personal gentleman? for the Second Empire and “our beloved

The opinions expressed by our commentators are their own

n and may not represent the views of BBC History Magazine or the Immediate Media Company

16 BBC History Magazine


Napoleon III on horseback. Tony Boullemier wants to challenge the negative view
of the French emperor that has been perpetuated by Emile Zola and Victor Hugo
sovereign” shines out from her 20,000-
word diary, which formed the basis for
my own novel, entitled Leonie and the
Last Napoleon.
Not only did Napoleon lll instruct
Haussmann to rebuild Paris. After
absorbing much from his years living in
England, he also drove forward health
care, banking, railways, shipbuilding,
the telegraph and the wine and cheese
industries. He made friends with Queen
Victoria, brought back the joie de vivre
France had lost during the revolutionary
period and restored it as a major power.
It was his misfortune to come up
against a political genius in Bismarck.
Sedan was not just a sad day for France.
Bismarck’s manoeuvrings also teed up
two world wars.
Tony Boullemier, Northampton
From Prunty to Brontë
I have been enjoying my recent
subscription to BBC History Magazine
and have a comment on the Brontë
GETTY
History Explorer (November). Living as I
do in Co. Down, Northern Ireland, I was
BBC History Magazine
disappointed to see no mention of the
Bronte Homeland visitor centre near
Banbridge. Patrick Brontë grew up in
this area – the family name was
originally Prunty – and he eventually
made his way to Haworth parsonage.
It is well worth a visit.
Annette McKee, County Down
Correction
쎲 In the caption on page 26 of October’s
issue (The Glorious Caesars), we
described a relief as showing Jesus with
three apostles. As Professor William
McDonald has written-in to point out,
Jesus’s companions shown here are
actually the gospel writers Mark, Luke
and John.
WRITE TO US
We welcome your letters, while
reserving the right to edit them.
We may publish your letters on our
website. Please include a daytime
phone number and, if emailing, a postal
address (not for publication). Letters
should be no longer than 250 words.
email: letters@historyextra.com
Post: Letters, BBC History Magazine,
Immediate Media Company
Bristol Ltd, Tower House,
Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN
SOCIAL MEDIA
What you’ve been saying
on Twitter and Facebook
@HistoryExtra: What do you
think are the biggest challenges
present-day historians face?
@StephenWensley Loss of the
written source in favour of quickly
superseded electronic media
@charlotteshist Is it more important
to show all knowledge discovered in
complete detail or simplify to make
findings accessible to everyone?
@thebrassglass Shortage of funding,
and grasping and maintaining public
interest
@IanEBass Lack of funding and the
cutting of heritage services. Also a
dependency on customer service
rather than generating interest
@spectator has suggested we
should replace Remembrance
Day with a ‘national Day of the
Dead’. What do you think?
@spyhistory No. Remembrance Day
is about the living too. Remembering
past & present sacrifices, but with a
moment of reflection on the present
day #peace
@LouiseBrown1994 Barely
respecting them is it? Seems to forget
the purpose of reflecting a war hero’s
memory.
@FutureWhizz Not sure about this
one – possibly too much of a change?
Remembrance Day sounds more
reflective & respectful...
What is your favourite historical
television programme and why?
@LovelyStrife Call the Midwife
because it really captures the
post-war era & doesn’t back away
from the reality of life back then
@PorthPiskie66 Poldark because
my ancestors worked at the Botal-
lack Mines (used for the filming),
before emigrating to Australia
@cazp53 Who Do You Think You
Are? – So many of us have no idea of
amazing stories in our background
You’ve also been saying…
@champersfay @HistoryExtra
Reading you in bed this morning,
nothing like you for a bit
of an early morning read
@ParaHurlis @HistoryExtra
podcasts on my bus journey. I love
my seniors bus pass
17
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Michael Wood on… religious toleration
“In a world ravaged by fanaticism,
Ibn Arabi’s words still ring true”
It will be a grim Christmas for many in
the near east, Christianity’s birthplace.
Conflict flares everywhere, the old streets
of Syria are devastated, and its great
heritage is being erased. On our TV screens every night
we watch horrified as millions of refugees flood into
Europe while their homes, the oldest inhabited cities in
the world, are wrecked, and with them a pluralist society
that existed for millennia. The gradual expulsion of
Christians from their heartland is another strand of this
tragedy. At the centre of the conflict is religious division.
Not long before the present crisis erupted, I went to
Damascus and visited the tomb of one of the towering
figures in Islam, the philosopher and mystic Ibn Arabi,
who died there in 1240 on the eve of the Mongol
devastation of the near east. He was born in Andalusia,
where Jewish, Christian, Islamic and Greek traditions
melded in an astoundingly rich cultural synthesis. He
wrote some 400 books (he was more prolific than
Aristotle!) whose great theme was the unity of being, and
the unity of religions. His work had a huge influence
across the Muslim world, in India and even in Chinese
Islam from the 17th century. He is still loved in tradi-
tional Muslim society, though from then till now many
in authority have regarded him as a heretic, his ideas
verging on pantheism. But his work speaks urgently
today in a world ravaged by ignorance and fanaticism.
His tomb lies in a picturesque quarter of Damascus a
mile beyond the city wall, up a curving cobbled street
lined with fruit and flower stalls. You reach a domed
Ottoman refectory built by the great architect Sinan to
feed poor visitors to the tomb, which is still popular
among locals. The tomb is in an underground chamber
in the mosque next door: the walls dark green, crowded
with framed pictures, photos, paintings and texts; many
faded now, in old fashioned wood and gilt frames. The
grave itself is enclosed in a little house of glass surround-
ed by flowers and potted plants. On the old carpets,
knots of people sat praying quietly while the custodian
chatted with me about ‘the sheikh’ as he called him.
REX FEATURES
BBC History Magazine
Comment
I am not a religious person but I am fascinated and
moved by the religious impulse, the forms of devotion
and the history they transmit, especially the sufi shrines:
the welcoming haven of Nizamuddin in Delhi; the
glittering jewel box of Gailani in Baghdad; raucous
qawwali in the shrines of Sind; the razzmatazz of the
Egyptian moulids with ferris wheels, trance dancing and
medicine shows. These alternative ways of seeing are
now threatened everywhere by the rise of Wahhabi forms
of Islam. But they are a key part of the Muslim story.
Ibn Arabi’s key ideas were rooted in the Qur’an itself:
there should be no compulsion in religion, everyone
has the right to their own path to the divine, the earlier
revelations of other religions are all part of the divine
plan. Writing in the full flow of Islamic civilisation,
before the sack of Baghdad in 1258, Ibn Arabi’s stand
was that Islam was the latest signpost, but that nothing
in humanity’s long quest for wisdom can be left out,
as all that is human is divine; that retribution for evil
corresponds to evil; that intolerance is against the
grain of humanity. “Nothing is more beautiful than
the world,” he said. Despite the incessant noise of
fundamentalist ideologues, the majority of the world’s
Muslims I am sure would agree: in my experience they
live and feel their lives in a very different way from that
urged by the fanatical minority. The great traditions
of Islam, so multi-layered and so various in all its
regional manifestations, are far richer and deeper than
one sectarian strand.
Michael Wood So here for the festive season is a message from
is professor of Damascus, the famous words of Ibn Arabi:
public history at “My heart is capable of every form
the University of A cloister for a Christian monk, and a temple for the
Manchester. His Hindu idols;
next TV series, A pasture for gazelles, the votary’s Kaaba;
The Story of The tables of the Torah, the Qur’an:
China, will air Love is the creed I follow:
soon on BBC Two Wherever turn his camels, Love is still my creed
And faith.”
A happy Christmas to all readers!
ILLUSTRATION BY FEMKE DE JONG
19
Elizabeth and Mary

Dea
riva

Vying for power

Mary, Queen of Scots craved the throne
occupied by her cousin Elizabeth I.
Theirs was a relationship defined by
plots, massacres, assassinations and,
ultimately, the executioner’s sword

20 BBC History Magazine

dly
ls
Elizabeth I’s relationship with Mary, Queen
of Scots dominated English and Scottish politics
for 20 years. Anna Whitelock charts the
two queens’ stormy rivalry, from leeting
detentes to bloody denouement
BRIDGEMAN

Complements an upcoming drama, Bloody Queens: Elizabeth and Mary

BBC History Magazine 21

Elizabeth and Mary
1558– 59
The rivals take the stage
Two young women get their irst taste of power
On 17 November 1558 Elizabeth I
acceded to the throne of England
having been acknowledged as
Henry VIII’s heir in her father’s will
and testament. Yet for many
Catholics in England and abroad,
Elizabeth was illegitimate. They saw
Mary Stuart, queen of Scotland and
legitimate granddaughter of Henry’s
sister Margaret Tudor, as the rightful
queen of England.
One was Henry II, king of France,
whose son François was married to
Mary. He proclaimed the couple as
king and queen of England, and
ordered that the royal arms of
22
For many Catholics,
Elizabeth’s coronation
was a call to arms. They
immediately began
agitating for her to be
replaced by her
cousin Mary
1560
Elizabeth strikes
the irst blow
A Protestant revolt lays Mary low
Mary was still in France when, in 1560,
a Protestant and anti-French uprising
threatened her Scottish throne. English
intervention on the side of the insurgents
and the death of Mary’s mother, Mary of
Guise, led to the Treaty of Edinburgh. By
this, the French agreed to withdraw their
troops that had been stationed in Scotland
and recognise Elizabeth’s right to rule
England, leaving Scotland in the hands of
a coalition that supported Protestantism.
While Mary refused to ratify the treaty,
it marked the end of the first stand-off
between the young queens: Elizabeth
was triumphant, Mary was humiliated
and incensed. Her eclipse was confirmed
when in December 1560 her husband died,
leaving her a childless dowager queen with
no rule or status. When her mother-in-law,
Catherine de Medici, made it clear there
GETTY
was no home for her in France, Mary chose
to return to Scotland and claim her throne.
England be quartered with those of
Scotland and France on his niece’s
badges and silverware. It was
reported that as Mary entered her
chapel, gentlemen before her cried
“make way for the queen of England”.
Elizabeth’s secretary, William Cecil,
realised that as long as Mary lived,
“this quarrel now begun, is undoubt-
edly like to be a perpetual incum- Catherine de Medici,
brance of this kingdom”. When the Mary’s mother-in-
French king died in July 1559, law. When her son
15-year-old François became king of died, she ordered the
widowed Mary out of
France – with Mary, aged 16, as his her French home
queen consort. The threat to
Elizabeth now grew even greater.
BBC History Magazine

The Duke of Guise’s troops massacre
Protestants at Wassy-sur-Blaise
1561– 62
– an atrocity that cast a shadow over
Anglo-Scottish relations
The moment
is lost
Plans for the two queens
to meet are scotched by
a massacre
With Elizabeth and Mary now
neighbouring queens, relations
began with a show of amity.
Mary declared that they were
“both in one isle, both of one
language, the nearest kins-
woman that each other hand,
and both queens”. Yet within
days of her arrival in Scotland
she sent a representative to
England to ask Elizabeth to
acknowledge her as her heir.
Elizabeth refused, explaining
that she did not intend to
nominate a successor,
believing it would inspire
disaffection against her.
In early 1562, arrangements
were made for the two queens
to meet in Nottingham in the
BRIDGEMAN/GETTY
autumn, but this was cancelled
in March after the massacre of
French Protestants at Wassy
under the orders of Mary’s
uncle, the Duke of Guise.
BBC History Magazine
1567
“I treat
you as my
daughter”
Mary’s torment draws
sympathy from the
English queen
On 10 February 1567 there was
an explosion at the house at
Kirk O’Field in Edinburgh where
Lord Darnley had been staying.
His dead body was found in the
garden. When James Heyburn,
Earl of Bothwell, Mary’s ally –
with whom some believed she
was having an affair – emerged
as the chief suspect for
Darnley’s murder, Mary too fell
under suspicion. Elizabeth was
horrified and in a letter to Mary
explained how, “my ears have
been so deafened and my
understanding so grieved and
my heart so affrighted to hear
the dreadful news of the
abominable murder of your
mad husband and my killed
cousin that I scarcely have the
wits to write about it”.
Elizabeth urged Mary to
1562– 66 distance herself from the
scandal in order to protect her
Marital woes reputation: “I treat you as my
daughter, and assure you that
Mary’s choice of husband leaves her if I had one, I could wish for
relationship with Elizabeth in tatters her nothing better than I
desire for you.”
Mary now began to look for a new husband and
negotiations were opened for a match with Don Carlos,
son of Philip II of Spain. Elizabeth made clear that she
would regard such a marriage as a hostile act. She tried
to neutralise the threat by suggesting the Duke of
Norfolk, the Earl of Arundel and then, rather bizarrely, The death of
her great favourite, and rumoured lover, Robert Dudley, Lord Darnley,
Earl of Leicester. The proposal came to nothing: not Mary’s
only was the intended bridegroom unwilling, but Mary’s second
attention had instead come to focus on the Catholic husband,
Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley. horrified
Elizabeth I
Darnley was also a grandchild of Margaret Tudor so,
like Mary, had a strong claim to the English throne. Their
marriage on 29 July 1565 left Mary and Elizabeth’s
diplomatic relationship in tatters: “All their sisterly
familiarity was ceased, and instead thereof nothing but
jealousies, suspicions and hatred,” wrote the Scottish
diplomat Sir James Melville. Though the marriage
floundered, not least following the murder of Mary’s
private secretary David Rizzio – a crime that involved
Darnley – Anglo-Scottish relations were damaged.
Mary gave birth to James in June 1566, giving her
a son and heir, and an even greater claim to the
English throne.
23
Elizabeth and Mary
1567– 68
Mary seeks
solace in England
The newly unseated queen throws
herself on her cousin’s mercy
On 15 May 1567, just three months after
Darnley’s death, Mary married the Earl of
Bothwell at Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh. The
marriage proved to be deeply unpopular
and many people, including Elizabeth, were
shocked at the fact that Mary could marry
the man accused of murdering her previous
husband. Weeks later, 26 Scottish peers,
known as the confederate lords, turned
against Mary and Bothwell, and in July
Mary was forced to sign deeds of abdica-
tion. Her son James was to become king
with the Earl of Moray as regent.
Elizabeth was outraged. She instinctively
aligned herself with her fellow monarch,
cousin and close kinswoman. She believed
what the lords had done was abhorrent and
maintained an uncompromising defence of
Mary’s sovereignty. They had imprisoned
and deposed an anointed queen, a crime
against God that was even greater than
Darnley’s assassination months earlier.
Nothing justified the action against Mary.
In 1568 Mary escaped from Lochleven
Castle where she had been imprisoned,
fleeing south to England to seek refuge
and her cousin’s support in order to regain
the Scottish throne.
24
1569 – 86
The plots thicken
Mary is linked with numerous
schemes to assassinate Elizabeth
Mary was now in England as a prisoner and
Elizabeth cast as an unwillingly gaoler. After
she was moved to Tutbury Castle and
placed in the custody of the Earl of
Shrewsbury, Mary petitioned her cousin
for an audience, better treatment and the
restoration of her crown, but was offered
Mary and her
third husband, little in response. Elizabeth’s professions
the Earl of of determination to restore Mary to the
Bothwell (left), Scottish throne now looked to be little more
endured a than realpolitik.
tempestuous When evidence emerged that Mary was
relationship implicated in the Ridolfi Plot that sought to
depose Elizabeth and place Mary on the
throne, Elizabeth was forced to acknowl-
edge Mary as a significant threat and
placed her in stricter custody. The unravel-
1568– 69 ling of the Throckmorton Plot in 1583, a
scheme for the Duke of Guise to invade
A show of England and place Mary on the throne, was
proof to spymaster Francis Walsingham and
solidarity William Cecil that the time had come for
action. By the Bond of Association and the
Did Mary murder her husband? Act for the Security of the Queen’s Person
Not in Elizabeth’s eyes
in 1584, Mary, though not specifically
named, was made responsible for future
ALAMY/GETTY
When Mary landed at Workington (in
plots instigated in her name. When
Walsingham uncovered a third plot that
involved Antony Babington, a Catholic
modern-day Cumbria) on 16 May 1568,
gentleman he was ready to act.
gentleman, act
Elizabeth was placed in a quandary. She
A
acknowledged the legitimacy of Mary’s
position as a fellow monarch and found it
hard to countenance the actions of those
who would keep Mary from her rightful
throne. However, she was also aware that Following her flight
the Earl of Moray was supportive of English to England, Mary
Protestant interests, and that Mary’s was placed in the
restoration would mean his destruction. custody of the Earl
Elizabeth resolved that an inquiry would of Shrewsbury
be held into the conduct of the confederate at Tutbury
lords and the question of whether Mary was Castle
guilty of Darnley’s murder. As evidence
against Mary, Moray presented the
so-called casket letters – eight unsigned
missives purportedly from Mary to Bothwell
– which, he claimed, proved her adultery
and her complicity in Darnley’s murder.
While the majority of the commissioners
did accept the letters as genuine, Elizabeth
believed they represented not just a
devastating attempt to destroy Mary’s
reputation but also an attack on every
woman in an “unnatural” position of
authority. She refused to be moved by the
evidence suggested by the letters and
resolved that the inquiry would reach the
verdict that nothing had been proven
against either side. Moray returned to
Scotland as regent and Mary remained in
custody in England.

1586
Walsingham’s
trap is sprung
Mary’s support for a Catholic
rising seals her fate
The Babington Plot planned a Catholic
rising, the assassination of Elizabeth and
rising
the accession of Mary as queen of England.
With Mary’s correspondence under
surveillance, a letter addressed to Babing-
ton, which apparently endorsed the plot,
gave Walsingham the evidence he needed.
In September Mary was moved to Fother-
inghay Castle in Northamptonshire where
she would be tried for treason: the stage
was set for the final act of struggle between
the two queens.
Elizabeth was determined that Mary
should admit her wrongdoing and ask for
forgiveness, clinging to the possibility of
pardoning her cousin and saving her life.
Yet Mary was uncompromising: she refused
the right of the commissioners to try her,
argued against the legality of the trial, and
maintained that, as a foreign anointed
queen, she had never been an English
subject and thus could not be convicted
of treason.
ALAMY/GETTY
The outcome was inevitable. Mary was
found guilty, having “compassed and
imagined the hurt, death and destruction
of the royal person”.
BBC History Magazine
RIGHT: Elizabeth’s
royal seal, which
she used to sig
gn
Mary’s death
warrant in 1587
1587
The sword falls
Elizabeth attempts to shit
it the
blame as Mary loses her head
Despite unrelenting pressure from
parliament and her councillors to carry
out Mary’s sentence, Elizabeth hesi-
tated to order the execution. In her eyes,
Mary remained a legitimate sovereign
and she was concerned that killing her
would set a dangerous precedent. It
was what Elizabeth had always sought
to avoid but now she had little choice.
On 1 February 1587 she finally
signed the death warrant. However,
without her knowledge, her councillors
resolved to carry out the sentence
immediately and a week later, on
8 February, Mary was executed, her
Anna Whitelock k is a historian and
broadcaster and author of Elizabeth’s
Bedfellows: An Intimate History of the
Queen’s Courtt (Bloomsbury, 2013)
Anthony Babington, centre, plans
Elizabeth I’s murder at St Giles’s
Field in a 17th–century illustra-
tion. Yet it was Mary who lost her
life in the fallout from the plot
head severed in three blows.
Elizabeth was furious when she was
told that the sentence had been carried
out, and William Davison, to whom she
had entrusted the death warrant, was
sent to the Tower. The council pleaded
for clemency, claiming they had wanted
to spare Elizabeth the pain of having to
order Mary’s death. Elizabeth claimed
her advisors had betrayed her wishes.
It was a convenient fiction. Doubtless
Elizabeth was genuinely distraught by
the execution but when Mary was
sentenced to death the die had been
irrevocably cast.
DISCOVER MORE
TELEVISION
왘 Look out for the upcoming
BBC Two drama Bloody
Queens: Elizabeth and Mary
y
25
Jamaican rebellion

Outrage in
the empire
Richard Huzzey investigates how the brutal massacre
following Jamaica’s Morant Bay Rebellion 150 years ago
created a schism in British opinion over the role of colonialism
Accompanies the BBC Radio 4 series Liberalism: The Grand Tour

26

2 3
4 5
Setting of the rebellion
7 1 Colonel Fyfe with four Maroons –
former runaway slaves who helped
suppress the 1865 rebellion
2 Morant Bay with the courthouse,
where the protest and executions took
place, in the background
3 A group of British military officers.
Martial law was imposed in order to
stem the uprising
4 Edward Eyre, governor of Jamaica
at the time of the rebellion
5 A Jamaican plantation labourer
photographed in 1865
6 A scene from Morant Bay, 1865
7 The cotton tree where the rebels
assembled immediately before
attacking Morant Bay courthouse
O
ne hundred and fifty years
ago, British soldiers stood
among thousands of
burned homes in Jamaica,
surveying the battlefield
they had created. At least
400 Jamaicans lay dead,
many of them hanged in reprisals after the
fighting had finished. The use of martial law
to authorise these deaths quickly became the
most infamous part of Britain’s response to
the ‘Morant Bay Rebellion’ that shocked the
island in October 1865.
A celebratory letter from one soldier to
another recorded “the splendid service” of
“shooting every black man who cannot
account” satisfactorily for his activity. The
colony’s governor had not only authorised
brutal force against the areas in disruption,
but he had also directed sweeping revenge
against the communities and individuals who
defied his rule. In the subsequent months and
years, cultured Victorians back home in Britain
would use these events to debate the finer
legal and philosophical points of what empire
meant for liberal and conservative principles.
The tensions that sparked the rebellion and
its brutal suppression had been building since
slavery was finally abolished in the British
West Indies in 1838. Though now freed from
slavery, black Jamaicans found themselves
pushed to work for low wages in the sugar
fields of former masters. Those who wanted to
strike out on their own were harassed by the
Jamaican colonial assembly’s laws that
punished vagrancy or ‘squatting’. Though the
assembly was elected by a black majority,
since the property qualification for voting was
fairly modest, the requirements for candidates
ensured that only a few wealthier black or
mixed-race Jamaicans could play a part in
government. For the most part, the wealthy
white owners of sugar estates remained in
charge, and tried to prevent any redistribu-
tion of land to their former slaves.
Seven months before the rebellion, black
Jamaican workers had articulated their
grievances to their queen respectfully and
peaceably. On 25 April 1865, the workers from
Saint Ann parish petitioned Victoria about
their “great want at this moment from the bad
state of our island soon after we became free
subjects”. They went on to outline the ways in
which, following their emancipation from
slavery 27 years earlier, black Jamaicans had
found colonial authorities set against any
efforts at independence, especially when it
came to farming for themselves.
The colony’s governor, Edward Eyre,
reluctantly forwarded the petition to the
monarch. He found the response from the
British Colonial Office much to his liking.
He widely distributed this ‘Queen’s Advice’,
27
Jamaican rebellion
which told her petitioners that, as in the rest
of the empire, workers’ prosperity depended
upon them working harder to make “the
plantations productive”. This, the message
suggested, would allow West Indian propri-
etors to match the wages “received by the best
field labourers” in Britain.
In early October 1865, a leading black
resident of Saint Thomas parish, Paul Bogle,
led protests against the court settlement of
a land dispute. Efforts to arrest him and others
escalated over subsequent days, and on
11 October he marched on the Morant Bay
courthouse. Soldiers opened fire and, in the
aftermath, he was caught and executed; many
hundreds of others were killed in the fighting
and reprisals that followed.
Bogle’s political mentor, George William
Gordon, was a wealthy member of the island’s
elected assembly, son of an enslaved mother
and a Scottish slave-owning father. But that did
not spare Gordon from guilt by association. He
had agitated on behalf of poor Jamaicans,
raising exactly the same issues of prejudice that
sparked Bogle’s defiance. Governor Eyre
ordered Gordon’s arrest; he was taken into the
area under martial law to be hanged without
the usual burdens of proof in a civilian court.
“As news of the rising
and the governor’s
brutal reprisals
iltered back to
British readers,
black Jamaicans
appeared in a more
sympathetic light”
When news of the rising reached British
newspapers, many readers would probably
have sided with the governor. Just a few years
earlier, in 1857–58, Britons had broadly
supported the punishment meted out to
Indians rebelling against the East India
Company. However, as news of Eyre’s actions
filtered across the Atlantic, black Jamaicans
appeared in a more sympathetic light. Gordon
had used the hours between condemnation
and execution to write a letter to his wife. She
passed it to Louis Chamerovzow, secretary of
the British Foreign and Anti-Slavery Society,
who published the letter. Gordon was
embraced as a Christian martyr to Eyre’s
butchery during the “very questionable”
period of “military despotism”.
By December 1865, some of the most
famous lights of Victorian British society were
dividing into clear factions. Drawing together
abolitionists, lawyers and leading authors, an
organisation calling itself the Jamaica
Committee denounced Eyre – not his victims
– as the real threat to the British empire. The
savagery of the military response and the
manipulative extra-legal killing of Gordon,
the governor’s long-term political critic,
offended these men’s faith in the benevolence
of British rule. Sceptics were not satisfied with
the Royal Commission sent to Jamaica by the
Liberal government in early 1866 to investi-
gate. When it reported in early June, the
government removed the governor but
avoided any legal sanctions against him.
The philosopher John Stuart Mill played
a leading role in sharpening the committee’s
response. He was incensed at “an infringe-
ment of the laws of England” and “acts of
violence committed by Englishmen in
authority, calculated to lower the character
of England in the eyes of all foreign lovers of
liberty” and likely to “inflame against us the
people of our dependencies”. Mill and his

HOW THE REBELLION SPLIT BRITAIN’S LEADING LIGHTS

Supporters of the Jamaica Committee, backing Eyre’s prosecution
John Stuart Mill Charles Darwin John Bright Thomas Hughes
Mill (below right), a utilitarian Darwin became known for his Bright had established himself The Lambeth MP was famous

PAGES 26-27: RARE BOOKS + SPECIAL COLLECTIONS-PRINCETON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY THIS PAGE: GETTY
philosopher and MP for evolutionary theory, expounded in as a national figure during the as the author of Tom Brown’s
Westminster, advocated On the Origin of Species (1859). campaign to repeal the Corn School Days (1857), which
on behalf of a range of He and fellow naturalist Laws, which triumphed in 1846. offered young Britons
liberal causes such as TH Huxley supported A staunch free trader, he shared moral lessons about manly
women’s rights. He Eyre’s prosecution. Some scepticism of imperial and military responsibility and childish
was well known researchers believe that his power with fellow ‘Manchester tyranny. He joined the Jamaica
thanks to writings family’s support for School’ politicians. A radical Committee after championing
such as On Liberty. abolitionism inspired his Liberal MP for Birmingham the Union during the American
However, he interest in biological at the time of Eyre’s trial, he Civil War (1861–65), when he
supported difference as a way to would become a cabinet warned that the Confederacy
colonialism as a prove the common minister in William Gladstone’s was fighting for slavery rather
force for civilisation. humanity of all races. 1868 Liberal government. than national self-determination.

Defenders of the governor’s response to the uprising

Thomas Carlyle
One of the most celebrated
essayists and controversialists
of the age, Carlyle criticised the
exploitation of factory workers
and posed the ‘Condition of
England’ question about the
dehumanisation of the poor.
However, he also venerated a
“genuine aristocracy” of great
men who could, historically and
in the future, rule authoritatively
for the common good.
Charles Dickens Rev Charles Kingsley
The author drew attention to the Kingsley (left) was regius
plight of the British poor in his professor of modern history
popular serialised stories such at Cambridge University but
as Oliver Twist (1837-39), but he also famous for his novels
did not extend that sympathy to Westward Ho! (1855) and The
black Jamaicans. Though he Water-Babies (1863). Initially
criticised slavery in his American reluctant to speak publicly
Notes (1842), he was strongly in favour of Eyre, he found
influenced by his mentor, Carlyle, himself opposed to Hughes
in mocking philanthropists who and Darwin, who had been
sent charity to Africa while his allies in previous
ignoring suffering at home. public controversies.

28 BBC History Magazine


An illustration of the Morant Bay Rebellion on 11 October 1865. The demonstration
resulted in bloodshed when troops guarding the court opened fire on the crowd
fellow Liberal MP John Bright hoped to
launch and finance a private prosecution
against Eyre for what they saw as his murder
of Gordon. In July 1866, when moderate
members flinched at this suggestion, Mill
took over as chairman of the Jamaica
Committee and the money was raised from
supporters including biologists Thomas
Huxley and Charles Darwin, geologist
Charles Lyell and historian Goldwin Smith.
Most of these intellectuals were publicly
identified with the Liberal party and some,
such as Mill, sat as MPs.
Support for the governor
A similarly distinguished group of Eyre
apologists arrayed themselves against this
committee in a “war of representation”, as
one eminent historian has described the
public debates. From August, the author
Thomas Carlyle chaired the Eyre Defence
Fund, to raise money for the costs of legal
representation for the governor. More than
a decade earlier Mill had crossed swords
with Carlyle, his former mentor and
friend, in the periodical press. They
had argued over the reasons why the
West Indian sugar colonies had not
prospered after emancipation, Carlyle
blaming the freed people and Mill their
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY LIBRARY/GETTY
tyrannical government. Now Carlyle
employed his pen to defend Eyre and
criticise the government, which
“instead of rewarding their
governor Eyre, throw him out
George Gordon, me
leading rebel Paul
was hanged by Ja
governo
BBC History Magazine
the window to a small loud group” of
“rabid Nigger-Philanthropists, barking
furiously in the gutter”. This cause – if not
the aggressive language – drew support
from literati such as Charles Dickens, John
Ruskin, Charles Kingsley and Alfred
(later Lord) Tennyson.
How did such Victorian intellectuals justify
their sympathy with Eyre? We might point to
three general influences. First, they included
some of the most passionate champions of
workers against free-trade industrialists; men
such as Carlyle and Dickens had previously
attacked middle-class philanthropists as too
interested in American slavery or African
civilisation rather than with the plight of
workers in Britain. Second, Carlyle and his
admirers, including Kingsley, venerated a cult
of manly leadership and prized authoritative
rule, allowing them to interpret the gover-
nor’s actions accordingly. Third, the sharp
power of a belief in racial superiority led
Eyre’s defenders to trust a white governor’s
judgment and doubt the trustworthiness of
people of African descent.
This is not to say, however, that the
critics of Eyre were anti-racists or
anti-imperialists. Their criticism of
violent repression rested on the damage
done to Britons’ claims to superiority
and benevolence in ruling “subject
and dependent races”. They did
not fundamentally disagree
with the Queen’s Advice,
issued by a Liberal govern-
ment, which had dismissed
the tensions over land and
labour law in Jamaica. Far
from sympathising with the
rebellion as epitomised by
Paul Bogle, Mill and his colleagues focused on
the use of martial law and the opportunistic
murder of George Gordon. Mill, whose part
in the controversy may have helped him lose
his seat in the 1868 election, would later recall
that “there was much more at stake than only
justice to the Negroes” but “whether the
British dependencies, and eventually, perhaps
Great Britain itself, were to be under the
government of law, or of military licence”.
After arguments in the press and in the
courtroom, the prosecution of Eyre finally
faltered in 1868. The governor’s reputation
remained tarnished, though, and he lived the
rest of his life in private, surviving on his
government pension. Those who deprecated
Eyre’s methods did not fundamentally
disagree on questions of empire – Mill and
his allies looked to liberty, not authority, as
their tool, but they still saw black people as
pupils in civilisation rather than equals. The
clash of celebrities quickly became the focus
of journalistic (and later academic) attention
on Morant Bay. Black Jamaicans – except,
perhaps, the respectable George Gordon –
faded from the attention of Britons.
A century and a half after the rebellion and
the foundation of the Jamaica Committee,
this Victorian controversy offers important
lessons for our understanding of empire and
liberal thought. Eyre’s response underlines
the role of violence, actual or threatened,
behind British colonial rule. The murder of
hundreds of Jamaicans has often been listed
alongside the cruelties of the Amritsar
Massacre in India (1919) and the Mau Mau
uprising in Kenya (1952–60) as exceptions to
the ‘rule of law’ in the empire, but violence
lurked in the foreground of imperial gover-
nance. Gordon is now immortalised in the
National Heroes’ Park of Jamaica, and
Paul Bogle is commemorated alongside him
– reminding visitors of the broader struggle
in post-emancipation Jamaica, as well as
Eyre’s most famous victim.
Richard Huzzey is a senior lecturer in history at the
University of Liverpool, and author of Freedom
Burning: Anti-Slavery and Empire in Victorian
Britain (Cornell UP, 2012). He is a member of the
Centre for the Study of International Slavery
DISCOVER MORE
BOOK
왘 The Killing Time: The Morant Bay
Rebellion in Jamaica by Gad Heuman,
(University of Tennessee Press, 1995)
RADIO
왘 The Morant Bay Rebellion is the focus of
one of the episodes of the upcoming
Liberalism: The Grand Tour
series that is due to begin on
BBC Radio 4 in December
29
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Battle of the Atlantic
DANGER
IN THE
DEEP
Jonathan Dimbleby’s new book tells
the story of the Battle of the Atlantic.
He explains to Rob Attar how German
U-boats nearly changed the course of the
Second World War, and why salvation for
the Allies came from the skies
How important was the battle
to the outcome of the war?
It was fundamental. The Atlantic was the
route by which all resources came to Britain,
without which the country would have
collapsed. Had we lost the battle, we wouldn’t
have had enough weapons – nor the indus-
trial capacity to make weapons – and
American troops would not have been able
to get across for D-Day. In fact, there
wouldn’t have been a D-Day. y
Wass it possible that the Allies could
havve lost the Battle of the Atlantic?
With h the benefit of hindsight it’s clear
that we were likely to win, but at the
timee it appeared that we could very
easilly lose. Had Hitler not been so
obseessed with the urge to conquer
Russsia, and instead diverted more
resources to the Atlantic, it could have
beenn a very close-run thing.
Too my mind it’s academic
whetther we could or
coulldn’t have
lost, because
whatt is
intriiguing is
32
that it was an open question for so long. With
all the demands on ships elsewhere, it took
only a small number of vessels to be lost in
the Atlantic for the reduction in supplies to
inhibit the ability to wage war. Winston
Churchill claimed that nothing caused him
greater anxiety than the U-boat threat, while
President Roosevelt said that the war would
in the end be won or lost in the Atlantic.
At the start of the battle, which of the
two sides was best prepared?
Neither was very well prepared.
The British came to the battle
having misread the lessons of
the First World War – when
U-boats first displayed their
destructive potential – and
they underestimated their
capacity to damage Allied
routes across the Atlantic.
Jonathan Dimbleby’s new
book explores one of the
longest continuous
campaigns of the
Second World
War, running from
1939 to 1945
They did not have enough escorts to protect
their ships, and were torn between that
requirement and the need to protect against
invasion across the Channel. There just
weren’t enough ships to go round.
As for the Germans, they were torn
internally. Grand Admiral Raeder, head of
the Kriegsmarine, believed that surface
vessels posed the greater threat, whereas
U-boat commander-in-chief Karl Dönitz
thought that submarines would be most
effective. This is still contentious territory
because there is no doubt that great German
ships such as the Bismarck had the capacity to
cause significant damage. However, Dönitz
argued that U-boats – properly resourced and
in large enough numbers – would be much
more effective in the tonnage war. If they
could sink more tonnes of shipping than the
Allies could build, it would result in victory
for the Third Reich.
Was Dönitz right?
GETTY/BBC
Yes, I think he was. At the start of the war he
set a rather arbitrary requirement of 300
U-boats, yet he began with only 60 or so.
BBC History Magazine

When you consider that some of these small number of U-boats could inflict
would always be journeying to and from the was quite astonishing – particularly when
battlefield, and some would be undergoing they operated in wolf packs from French
repairs, he often had only around 20 U-boats ports after France had been neutralised.
operational at any one time. However, the One of the most devastating attacks
amount of damage that such a relatively occurred in March 1943 when 22 ships
from two convoys were sunk by a large
group of U-boats.
It was at this point that the British Air
Ministry was persuaded that very long range
bombers – which had been theoretically
available for nearly two years – could be
If U-boats could deployed in the mid-Atlantic to cover what
was known as the Atlantic gap. Within two
sink more tonnes months, the story of the battle had complete-
ly changed – and by May 1943 the campaign
of shipping than had been won.
the Allies could So was the introduction of such bomb-
ers the crucial factor in Allied victory?
build, it would U-boats were more frightened of aeroplanes
than anything else. Planes came out of the
result in victory sky at high speed, forcing the U-boats to
keep diving, meaning that they lost contact
with the convoys. Prior to the introduction
for the Third Reich of the very long range bombers there was a
BBC History Magazine
Sailors clear ice on HMS
Scylla, escorting an Atlantic
convoy in February 1943.
Despite such Royal Navy
escorts, large numbers of
merchant vessels were sunk
by U-boat attacks
IN CONTEXT
Battleof the Atlantic
The term ‘Battle of the Atlantic’ was
coined by Winston Churchill to describe
Allied attempts to maintain the shipping
routes across the ocean that were
needed to support Britain’s war effort
and population. Despite travelling in
convoys and with navy escorts, merchant
ships fell prey to German U-boats in
large numbers.
The Americans’ entry into the war,
following the attack on Pearl Harbor in
December 1941, lightened the burden on
the British empire, but did not end the
U-boat menace. The deadliest period
came at the start of 1943, but soon
afterwards new technology, tactics and
intelligence successes turned the tide –
and by May 1943 the battle was effec-
tively decided in the Allies’ favour.
The Allies lost around 80,000 seamen
in the battle, including 30,000 from the
merchant navy. Meanwhile, the casualty
rate for U-boat crews – around 70 per
cent – was the highest in the entire war.
33
Battle of the Atlantic
large area in the mid-Atlantic that could not
be reached from Iceland, Greenland,
Northern Ireland, Scotland or the US by
existing aircraft.
When these bombers first became
available they were given to the Air
Ministry which, in an extraordinarily
dogmatic way, held on to them rather
than making them available to the
Admiralty. This contributed to
a ferocious internal struggle between
the two departments that one admiral
likened to being more bitter than “our
war against the Hun”.
Sir Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris was
convinced that the strategic bombing of
Germany was the most effective way of
bringing that country to heel, and that it was
a waste to use aeroplanes to protect merchant
convoys. Churchill invariably sided with
Harris, until very late in the day, thus
prolonging the Battle of the Atlantic by at
least a year. As a result a great many ships
were sunk and lives lost unnecessarily.
Churchill was a great war leader but this was
a great error, the greatest, in my view, of his
entire leadership between 1940 and 1942.
When the Air Ministry finally consented,
it took just 40 of the very long range bombers
to transform the battle. So the introduction
of the bombers was absolutely fundamental
– but of course other things counted,
including intelligence, weaponry, the skill of
escort captains and the tactics they had
begun to deploy to thwart U-boat attacks.
How important was the role of
Bletchley Park?
In my view, not as important as people like to
believe – especially if they watch movies! Of
course, Enigma was broken thanks to Turing
and his team. However, the naval Enigma
was more complicated and better protected
than the land version, and there were key
periods where we couldn’t break it. The
delays were quite considerable, despite the
amazing efforts and skill within Bletchley.
Between January and December 1942 there
was nearly a year when we were not able to
penetrate German codes at all; this was
a big killing time, to use an unfortunate
contemporary phrase.
Meanwhile, the German codebreaking
system was getting into the British naval
codes almost with impunity because of an
underinvestment in security on our side. So
at key points they were breaking our codes
when we weren’t breaking theirs – and even
when we were breaking their codes and
diverting convoys accordingly, these orders
to divert were being picked up by Dönitz,
who was able to redirect the submarines.
Enigma would then pick up on these
34
The crew of a U-boat scan the Atlantic
horizon in 1942. Depth charges dropped
by ships – or, more effectively, bombers
– destroyed many submarines or forced
them to dive for long periods
redirections, and a kind of blind man’s buff
went on. It was an extraordinary period.
What was life like for those who served
in the battle?
In some ways it was just like the experience of
war more generally: long hours and days of
discomfort and boredom, punctuated by
moments of extreme danger. It was a stressful
experience and you had to be very resilient.
The weather played a big part in this.
Sometimes ships would be sailing through
appalling storms, unable to move. Slow,
lumbering merchant vessels could not even
make headway against the ferocity of these
gales, and very often they would be driven
back and unable to advance any distance at
all. It could be extremely uncomfortable, very
cold and very frightening. On the other hand,
when the weather was lovely and skies were
balmy you might think that all was well – but
this was actually the most dangerous time,
when it was easiest for the U-boats to attack.
There was often not much in the way of
medical facilities. Nicholas Monsarrat, whose
novel The Cruel Sea was set during the battle,
joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and
found himself a ship’s surgeon. He had never
wielded a scalpel in anger nor given an
injection, yet he found himself putting
people’s eyes back in, stuffing their guts back
into their stomachs. People were required to
do things, while short of antibiotics – short of
anything – to ease pain and suffering. Plus
the food was dreadful, with not enough
storage or fridge space.
Things were similar in the U-boats, which
were extremely cramped and got very airless.
If you were forced down by a ship or aeroplane
depth charging, you would stay underwater
until you were virtually asphyxiated by the
lack of oxygen. You would be there waiting,
waiting, waiting with the prospect of
another depth charge descending from
the surface. There would be the sound
of creaking hulls and then, suddenly,
massive explosions all around, leaving
the whole U-boat shaking and
shivering – or, very often, completely
destroyed.
How much did people in Britain
follow the battle?
People noticed when ships went down,
but in general it was very under-reported.
Churchill required significant censorship of
the fact that U-boats were sinking British,
Allied and neutral cargo ships. He was
extremely worried about the paucity of good
news – that very few U-boat crews were being
captured compared with the huge Allied
tonnage being lost month after month. There
had to be some reporting of it, but it was
often delayed and calculated to minimise the
impact. This was compounded by the fact
that the battle was being fought far away, out
at sea, and that very few reporters were
following the events. So in general the British
public did not know a great deal about the sea
war at the time.
What do you hope readers might take
from the book?
I wanted my book to have an upstairs/
downstairs quality, exploring the dramas at
sea and in the capitals of the warring powers.
I’ve sought to place the battle in the context
of the wider war and I hope I’ve told the story
in a way that brings it alive and makes people
aware of just how vital these events were. The
Atlantic was a lifeline – the carotid artery on
which Britain depended. This was no
motorway but a minefield, and it was a great
mercy that the ships made it through.
Jonathan Dimbleby is a broadcaster, film-maker
and historian who regularly presents BBC Radio 4’s
Any Questions? His books include Destiny in the
Desert: The Road to El Alamein (Profile, 2013)
DISCOVER MORE
BOOK
왘 The Battle of the Atlantic: How the
Allies Won the War by Jonathan Dimbleby
(Viking, 2015)
ON THE PODCAST
Jonathan Dimbleby discusses the Battle
of the Atlantic and its importance in the
outcome of the war on our weekly podcast
GETTY
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podcasts
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Medieval Game of Thrones

Queen Daenerys and her

advisors in the TV series
Game of Thrones. As was
the case with many
queens in medieval
Europe, Daenerys’ claim
to the throne is recognised
only when all the men of
her family are dead

Game of
Thrones’
medieval
inspiration
From warrior eunuchs to shadowy assassins,
Carolyne Larrington introduces some of the
remarkable medieval people whose lives are
relected in the all-conquering fantasy drama
ALAMY

36 BBC History Magazine


FACTFILE
Game of Thrones
First aired in 2011, the TV series
Game of Thrones – and George
RR Martin’s fantasy novels on
which it’s based – follows the
dynastic clashes of the powerful
families of Westeros as they
scheme and fight for the Iron
Throne. But though the story’s
setting, plot and characters are
fictional, much of it seems familiar.
BBC History Magazine
1 Margareta I
The queen who used the deaths of her
husband and son as a springboard to
uniting Denmark, Norway and Sweden
If there’s one experience that Queens Cersei and
Daenerys – two of the leading protagonists in
Game of Thrones– share with their real-life
medieval counterparts, it’s that they’re playing
the game by men’s rules. Female queens in
the Middle Ages primarily derived their power
through their relationships to royal men – fa-
thers, husbands and sons – and, as such, were
severely limited in what they could achieve.
Yet there were ways to hurdle these barriers.
In Game of Thrones Cersei, wife of King Robert
Baratheon, uses lies and manipulation to
achieve her goals. Medieval queens, meanwhile,
often influenced their husbands behind the
scenes, making councillors anxious about
private conversations in the royal bedchamber.
One medieval woman who defied all the odds
stacked against female rulers was Queen
Margareta I who – in a truly remarkable life –
united the kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and
Sweden. After the deaths of her father, the king
of Denmark, and husband, the king of Norway,
Margareta was left queen mother. When her
only son, Olaf, died in his teens she held both
the Norwegian and Danish crowns in her own
right. The Swedes then invited her to oust their
hated German ruler, Albrecht of Mecklenburg,
suggesting that she could act as “the ruling lady
and proper lord of Sweden until such time as she
might marry”.
Instead of marrying, though, Margareta
adopted her young great-nephew, Eric of
Pomerania, as her son and heir. He was crowned
at Kalmar in 1397 as king of the three kingdoms.
Despite this, Margareta had no intention of
ceding her power, remaining de facto sovereign
until her death in 1412. She ruled with the
agreement of the ‘great men’ (magnate council-
lors of the three kingdoms) but ensured that no
new husband would take her power from her.
Margareta was perhaps the most successful of
all medieval queens, and her achievement – the
Kalmar Union of Denmark, Sweden and
Norway – lasted until 1523.
Margareta I of Denmark,
Sweden and Norway
was a queen whose
Martin was influenced by real achievements rival
people and events, notably from fictional heroines
the medieval era – aspects of the
Wars of the Roses are recogni-
sable, as are nods to Hadrian’s
Wall and the Icelandic sagas. The
series is sparking wider interest in
the Middle Ages – but how much
are the characters, their allies and
enemies drawn from history?
37
Medieval Game of Thrones
2
Teutonic
Knights
The military order that slew
‘savages’ in the name of God,
wherever they found them
In Game of Thrones, the Night’s Watch is a
dedicated order sworn to defend the Seven
Kingdoms against threats from beyond
the northern Wall. It’s a way of life that
denies the men a home, wife or family,
and which demands absolute obedience.
Absolute obedience was also a mantra
for a series of military orders in medieval
Europe – most specifically during the
crusades. We tend to think of the crusades
as wars waged in the eastern
Mediterranean for possession of the Holy
Land but in fact they were prosecuted in
many other parts of the continent.
One of the most effective orders was that
of the Teutonic Knights. Originating in a
hospital for German pilgrims in Acre, the
knights retreated from the kingdom of
Jerusalem after its fall in 1187 and found a
new role in the Holy Roman Empire. In Holy Roman emperor Frederick II, who supported
the Teutonic Knights’ holy war in northern Europe
1233, with the support of Emperor
3 The Mongol hordes
The nomadic horse-riding warriors who swept across the
plains of Asia and Europe to raid, plunder and spread terror
The fierce, copper-skinned Dothraki horse lords of
Game of Thrones are, we’re told, born to fight and die
in the saddle. Theirs is a distinct culture – centred
around horses, conquest and plunder – one with a
great deal in common with the Mongols, the coalition
of nomadic tribes from central Asia that were united
under Genghis Khan. Genghis founded what would
become the largest contiguous land empire ever seen
– from the Pacific Ocean to eastern Europe – in the
13th and 14th centuries.
A succession of western travellers, usually church-
men, went to visit the Mongols in the mid-13th
century and chronicled their experiences, interpret-
ing what they saw for the potentates (the pope and the
Holy Roman emperor) who had sent them.
One of the first to visit the Mongol orda (court, but
also our modern word horde) was Johannes de Piano
Carpini, who set out in 1245, sent by Pope
Innocent IV to the Great Khan, Güyük. Johannes
relates how extreme the climate was as he and his
companions travelled eastwards from Kiev. Dust
storms, hailstorms so intense that 160 men drowned
when the hail melted, scorching heat and savage cold
plagued the friar on his journey.
Johannes described the horse and cattle-dung fires,
and remarked upon how little the Mongols washed.
He reported that they lived in gerss (yurts) and were
38
Frederick II, they undertook the
conquest and conversion of the Prussians
– a conquest that took 50 years. The
order’s chronicles detail their opponents’
savagery, stating that they would “roast
captured brethren alive in their armour,
like chestnuts, before the shrine of a local
god”. The order later campaigned in
Poland and Lithuania, where inhabitants
resisted conversion during a war that
lasted 200 years.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s knight in
The Canterbury Tales (composed
between 1387 and 1400) had served
with the Teutonic Knights, and Chaucer
tells us: “Prussia, in Latvia had he
reysed, and in Russia, no Christian man
so often of his degree.” The verb reyse,
from the German reisen (to travel), was
a term used by the knights for their
summer raiding expeditions into
Lithuania. Its use shows how well-
informed Chaucer was about the
political situation in this part of Europe.
GETTY/BRIDGEMAN
The role of crusaders, including
such orders, in the battle to impose
Christianity across all of Europe
continued to the end of the Middle Ages.
prone to drunken binges fuelled by
fermented mare’s milk, called kumiss.
Another traveller,
William of Ruysbroeck,
travelled to the Mongol capittal
of Karakorum in 1253, with lletters
from King Louis IX of France. William
hoped to bring Catholicism to t the court of
Möngke Khan, and was dism mayed to find that
he had been forestalled by Neestorians, who
disseminated this variety of C Christianity,
originating in Syria, as far eaast as China.
William’s troubles were co ompounded by
his interpreter, whose grasp of o Mongol
wasn’t as comprehensive as he h claimed.
“When I had learned someth hing of the
language, I saw that when I said one thing,
he said a totally different onee,” William
complains. The men at Mönggke’s court were
curious about his homeland:: “And they
began to question us greatly about the
kingdom of France, whether there were many
sheep and cattle and horses there, and whether
they had not better go there at once and take it A Mongol warrior rides into
battle in a 14th-century
all,” William tells us. Eventually in-fighting Persian illustration.
between various hordes fractured the Mongol empire, The parallels with
but its extent has never been equalled. Game of Thrones s are obvious
BBC History Magazine

4 A secret society of assassins
The guild of shadowy hitmen who eliminated
opponents with poison-tipped daggers
If you thought that the Faceless Men of Game
of Thrones – a group of contract killers with the
ability to change appearance at will and whose
raison d’etre was to serve their Many Faced
God – were simply too far-fetched to be based
on the medieval world, then think again.
The very word ‘assassin’ has its origins in a
secret society of the medieval period: the Nizari
Ismailis, an Islamic sect formed in the late
11th century in Persia and Syria. The Shia
Nizaris opposed the Sunni Seljuq dynasty that
held sway in Persia – and they seized several
mountain forts including the eyrie at Alamut,
in what’s now north-western Iran, which
became their headquarters.
These young, vigorous men were obviously
expendable yet, remarkably, they tried to
avoid collateral casualties when carrying out
their assignments.
Infiltrating a victim’s retinue called for
particular skills and intelligence. The selective
elimination of opponents through killings that
were often carried out in public places struck
fear into the Nizaris’ enemies and increased the
sect’s political leverage. The usual
weapon was a dagger, often dipped
in poison. A threatening note
pinned to a cake left by the bed
could also be effective in
bringing enemies to heel.
The main sect of
assassins was finally put
survived into the 14th century. The great
Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta tells how the
“Sultan’s Arrows”, as he called them, carried
poisoned knives, and that “when he desires to
send one of them to assassinate some foe of his,
he pays him his blood money. If he escapes after
carrying out the deed, the money is his, but if he
is caught it goes to his children.”
Even more exciting than the historical facts
about these assassins were the legends that
spread about them in the medieval world.
The 14th-century author writing as Sir John
Mandeville relates how a Nizari leader known as
the Old Man of the Mountain trained men in
his lofty fortress. Here he had built a walled
garden, a paradise with beautiful virgins and
handsome young men. When a knight arrived,
the Old Man would give him an intoxicating
drink, then spring his offer: the knight must
kill an identified target. If he died in the attempt,
he would be admitted to a paradise a hundred
times lovelier than the hallucinatory
mountaintop garden.
In Marco Polo’s equally unreliable account,
the intoxicant is a drug: “He caused opium to
be administered to 10 or a dozen of the
youths; and when half-dead with
sleep, he had them conveyed to
[…] the garden.”
The sect’s foes claimed that the
killers used hashish – which
eventually became assassin.
The assassin
Jaqen H’ghar of
the Faceless Men
in Game of Thrones.
Nizaris undertook
assassinations
from the late
11th century
Carolyne Larrington teaches medieval literature
at St John’s College, Oxford and has written on
mythology, Arthurian legend, Old Norse literature
and the writings of medieval women
Narses,
5
warrior eunuch
The brilliant Byzantine general
who drove the Goths from Italy
To many medieval people, the idea of a
formidable eunuch fighting force sweeping
all before it – as does Queen Daenerys’
eunuch army of the Unsullied in Game of
Thrones – would have seemed absurd. In real
life, such an army would have been of little
use: boys castrated young developed very
little muscle and tended to run to fat.
Nevertheless, eunuchs comprised an
important component of many medieval
societies, from Constantinople to China,
fetching good prices in slave marts. And
though eunuchs were rarely good fighters,
they often made successful military leaders.
Narses (c478–573 AD), a Byzantine eunuch
general sent by the Emperor Justinian to
campaign against the OstroGoths, was
regarded by contemporary chroniclers as
effective and strategic (“for a eunuch”, they
often added), conquering Rome and driving
the Ostrogoths from Italy. Narses’ success
was not down to personal courage but,
rather, to the logistical and administrative
skills that he demonstrated in organising
armies, just as he had organised the civil
service back in Constantinople. He enforced
discipline among his men, but just as
important was his capacity to ensure that
they got paid on time and that their rations
were delivered.
Another eunuch, Peter Phokas, was a
leading Byzantine general during the reign of
Nikephoros II Phokas (AD 963–69), who
helped repel a Russian invasion of south-east
Europe. He even, according to the chroniclers,
defeated the “enormous” enemy leader in
single combat. “Brandishing his lance in both
hands… [he] threw it at the Scythian
[Russian]. So powerful was the blow that he
split his body from front to back… and the
enemy fell to the ground without a word”
Yet, in reality, it seems that intelligence and
speed of reaction, not muscle, won the day for
this outstanding eunuch general – and for his
fellow castrates holding high rank.

DISCOVER MORE

BOOKS
왘 Winter is Coming: The Medieval World
of Game of Thrones by Carolyne Larrington
(IB Tauris, 2015)

BBC History Magazine 39

Viki
Vikings in
i America
A i

John Haywood tells the epic story of a small band of

Scandinavian explorers who went where no European had
gone before, 500 years ahead of the voyages of Columbus
Complements a BBC One documentary In Search of the Vikings

40 BBC History Magazine

 A reconstruction of a Viking
church and workshop near the
Norse settlement of L’Anse aux
Meadows in Newfoundland
ABOVE: A scene from the series of
Icelandic sagas, short stories and
poems called the Flateyjarbók,
which includes accounts of Viking
voyages to North America
WERNER FOREMAN/ALAMY

BBC History Magazine 41

Vikings in America

T
he first encounter between
Europeans and Native
Americans did not go well
for either side. Around
AD 1000, Leif Eriksson had
sailed west from the newly
established Norse colony in
Greenland and discovered a fair land he
named Vinland. Now, three years later, his
brother Thorvald was in the second summer
of a follow-up expedition. Thorvald and his
men were exploring a headland at the mouth
of a fjord when they spotted three humps on a
sandy beach. On further investigation, the
humps turned out to be canoes and under
them were cowering nine men. The
Norsemen captured and killed eight of them
but the ninth escaped and raised the alarm.
Later the same day, Thorvald and his men
saw a swarm of canoes sailing down the fjord
towards them. Outnumbered, they took
refuge in their ship and, with the advantage of
iron weapons, beat off the attack. However,
during the fight Thorvald received an arrow
wound in the armpit and died shortly
afterwards. At his request, Thorvald’s men
gave him a Christian burial on the headland,
marking his grave with crosses at his head
and feet. Leif had been the first European to
set foot on the American continent; Thorvald
was the first to be buried there.
Because of the subsequent history of the
Americas, the Norse discovery of America
has become one of the most studied aspects of
the Viking Age (c800–1100), a period that saw
Scandinavian raiders, traders and settlers
active across much of Europe and as far south
as north Africa’s Mediterranean coast and as
far east as Baghdad. Collectively, Viking Age
Scandinavians knew more of the world than
any previous Europeans. As the only proven
pre-Columbian European
contact with the Americas,
the fascination with the
Norse discoveries is
understandable. But do
they really merit all the
described as ‘the stepping stone route’
because it proceeded in stages, from one
island group to another with relatively short
open-sea crossings between them.
The first step on the way came – 200 years
before Leif’s discovery of Vinland – with the
conquest and colonisation of Scotland’s
Northern Isles soon after 800. This was
followed about 25 years later by the settlement
of the Faroe Islands and then Iceland in c870.
The next step was the foundation of the
Norse Greenland colony by Erik the Red in
the 980s. As Greenland is geologically part
of the North American continent, this ought
to be regarded as the first European settle-
ment in the Americas, though it is rarely
recognised as such.
The irst sighting
The settlement of Greenland was quickly
followed by the first European sighting of the
North American continental mainland, a feat
achieved by an Icelandic merchant called
Bjarni Herjolfsson.
According to the Greenlanders’ Saga
– which, with Erik the Red’s Saga, is our main
literary source for the Viking discovery of
America – Bjarni had returned home from a
trip to Norway in 986 to find that his father
had emigrated to Greenland with Erik the
Red. Knowing nothing about Greenland, save
that it was mountainous, treeless and had
good pastures, Bjarni set off after his father
and predictably soon got lost.
After several days of bad weather and poor
visibility, Bjarni found himself off the coast of
a densely forested, hilly land. This was
obviously not Greenland so, without even
landing, Bjarni sailed north and after two
days sighted a flat, forested land. Once again
he didn’t land. After sailing north-east for
another three days, Bjarni encountered a
rocky, mountainous, glaciated land which he called Vinland (‘Wine Land’). The party built
thought too barren to be Greenland. Putting houses at a place afterwards called Leifsbuðir
the land astern, Bjarni sailed east and four (‘Leif’s booths’), where they spent a comfort-
days later arrived at the Norse settlement able winter. “The country seemed to them so
in Greenland. kind that no winter fodder would be needed ILLUSTRATED MAP BY MARTIN SANDERS/SCOTT BORCHARDT

attention? Bjarni’s discoveries excited a lot of interest
The Norse route to and, when he decided to give up trading, Erik
America is sometimes the Red’s son Leif Eriksson bought his ship
and set off on a follow-up expedition. This
was around the time that Iceland converted to
A statue of Leif Christianity, that is c1000. Leif began by
Eriksson – the reversing Bjarni’s course. Sailing north-west,
first European Leif came to a land of bare rock and glaciers
to land on
mainland
which he called Helluland (‘Slab Land’).
America – Turning south, Leif next came to a low
in Reykjavik forested land with white sand beaches which
he decided to call Markland (‘Forest Land’).
Sailing south-west for two days Leif
discovered a land where the rivers teemed
with salmon and grapes grew wild. This Leif
for livestock: there was never any frost all
winter and the grass hardly withered at all.”
The winter days were much longer than
they were in Greenland and “on the shortest
day of the year, the sun was visible in the
middle of the afternoon as well as at breakfast
time”. Come the spring, Leif and his men cut
a full load of timber – wood was always in
short supply in Greenland – and set off home.
Leif made no contact with native peoples,
that fatal first encounter took place during his
brother Thorvald’s follow-up expedition.
Thorvald’s death at the hands of Native
Americans was not enough to deter at least
two attempts by the Norse to settle in

42
 Viking voyages
across the Atlantic

Vinland. The first, about two years after

Thorvald’s death, was led by Thorfinn
Karlsefni, an Icelandic merchant, who took
with him his wife Gudrid, 65 men, five
women, and a variety of livestock.
The party spent an uneventful winter at
Leifsbuðir, during which time Gudrid gave
birth to a son, Snorri, the first European to be
born in America. In the spring, the party had
its first encounter with Native Americans,
who turned up at Leifsbuðir to trade furs.
The Norse called them ‘Skrælings’, perhaps
meaning ‘screamers’. Coming from a Stone
Age culture, the Skrælings were fascinated by
the Norsemen’s iron weapons and tools but
Karlsefni forbade his men to trade them.
During a second encounter later in the
summer, one of Karlesefni’s men killed a
Skræling who was trying to steal some
weapons. The Norse defeated an attempt by
“Leif Eriksson’s half-sister Freydis played
her part in repelling the Native American
attack, terrifying them by baring one of her
breasts and beating it with a sword”
the Skrælings to take revenge but after
spending another winter at Leifsbuðir,
Karlsefni returned to Greenland.
A second attempt at settlement was made
by Leif’s half-sister Freydis who, according to
Erik the Red’s Saga, had already been to
Vinland as part of Karlsefni’s expedition. She
had played her part in repelling the Skræling
attack, terrifying them by baring one of her
breasts and beating it with a sword. Freydis
was an abrasive woman, unsuited to leader-
ship, and her attempt at settlement ended
when half the party were killed in a deadly
internecine feud. Only one further voyage to
Vinland is recorded. In 1121 Erik Gnupsson,
the bishop of Greenland, set out for Vinland
but the fate of his expedition is not known.
Archaeological proof of a Norse presence in
North America came to light in 1961 with the
discovery of a settlement of turf longhouses
and workshops at L’Anse aux Meadows at the
northern tip of Newfoundland. The long-

43
Vikings in America
America’s
Viking hoax
Why evidence of a Scandina-
vian colony in Minnesota
doesn’t stand up to scrutiny
Olof Ohman stands by the runestone
he ‘discovered’ in Minnesota in 1898
In 1898 a Swedish emigrant called Olof
Ohman made a sensational discovery
on his farm near Kensington, Minnesota.
It was a flat stone with a runic inscrip-
tion: “Eight Goths and 22 Norwegians
on an exploration journey from Vinland
to the west. We had camp by two
skerries one day’s journey north from
this stone. We were out [to] fish. One
day after we came home [we] found 10
men red of blood and dead. AVM Save
[us] from evil. [We] have 10 men by the
sea to look after our ships 14 days’ travel
from this island. [In the year] 1362.”
On closer examination the runes
turned out to be a mixture of types used
from the 9th to the 11th century, and
homemade symbols. The language
used was the distinctive Swedish-Nor-
wegian dialect spoken by the numerous
Scandinavian settlers in Minnesota in
the 1890s, while the date was based on
the Arabic system of notation which was
not used in 14th-century Scandinavia.
The stone was a fake, probably made
by its discoverer, a former stonemason,
but despite academic debunking some
romantics still believe it to be genuine.
For many Americans, particularly those
with Scandinavian ancestry, the wish to
believe that the USA has a heroic Viking
past is strong and linked to the needs of
immigrant communities to put down
roots in their adopted homeland.
Since the Kensington hoax, several
more purported Viking artefacts have
been ‘discovered’ in the USA but none
has stood up to scrutiny. So far, only
one genuine Norse artefact has been
found. This is a penny of Norway’s
11th-century king Olaf Kyrre, found on a
medieval Native American site in Maine.
But it is likely that this was planted, as
the context of the find is not recorded.
44
house is the typical Norsee
dwelling but similar housses
were also built by the Inuit
and other Native
American peoples.
What proved beyond
doubt that this was a
Norse settlement was
the large number of
metal artefacts discov-
ered at the site, including
wrought iron ship rivets
and a typically Scandinavian
bronze ring pin. Stone loom
weights and a spindle whorl
provided evidence for weaving
Artefacts discovered at the
at the site. As this was a female Viking settlement of L’Anse sail to Markland to cut wood
activity in Viking Scandinavia, aux Meadows, including
this confirmed the saga worked bone, a whetstone and they travelled high into
accounts of women taking part and a spindle whorl
in the Norse voyages of
exploration. Radiocarbon dates from organic
matter at the site show that it was occupied
briefly, between 980 and 1020, which accords
well with the saga traditions.
The environment around L’Anse aux
Meadows bears little resemblance to the saga
descriptions of Vinland. Winters there are
severe and there are no wild grapes so it is
unlikely to be Leifsbuðir. It is more likely that discovery of America was slight. News of the
L’Anse aux Meadows was a base for expedi-
tions further south. That such expeditions
took place is proved by the presence of
butternuts among food remains on the site.
An American species of walnut, butternuts
grow no further north than New Brunswick,
500 miles to the south.
The Vinland conundrum
So, if Vinland was not at L’Anse aux
Meadows, where was it? Helluland and
Markland can fairly certainly be identified as
Baffin Island and Labrador respectively but
the saga descriptions of Vinland contain
mutually incompatible details. The salmon
described in Leif’s account place Vinland
north of the Hudson river and the grapes
place it south of the St Lawrence. That would
be somewhere in the Canadian Maritimes or
New England, but there are no frost-free
winters north of Chesapeake Bay.
The length of the shortest day is no help in
determining Vinland’s latitude because it is
not based on clock times – the Vikings did
not have clocks – so, unless there are new
archaeological discoveries, we’ll probably
never know the location of Vinland.
The Norse attempt to settle Vinland was
fleeting – it was all over in about 20 years and
probably involved fewer than 200 people. It
was doomed to failure. The distances were
too great, the small Greenland colony did not 왘 The Vikings and America by Erik
have the population to support a colonising
v
venture and their
iron weapons did
n
not give the Norse a
decisive advantage
ovver the far more
nu
umerous natives.
Yet this was not
the end of the Norse
preesence in North
Ammerica. The
Greeenland colony
survvived until the
midd-15th century when
the iimpact of the Little
Ice Age killed it off. The
Greenlanders continued to
until at least as late as 1347
the Arctic, hunting polar
bears, seals and walrus.
There, around 1170, they met with the Thule
Inuit, and these contacts continued until the
end of the colony. Norse artefacts have been
found on many Thule sites in the Canadian
Arctic and a probable Norse hunting camp
has recently been identified at Tanfield Valley
on Baffin Island.
Judged objectively, the impact of the Norse
Norse discoveries soon reached Europe but it
did not change Europeans’ world view in the
way that Columbus’s later discovery did: no
one suspected that Vinland was part of a new
continent. There is no evidence that
Columbus knew about Vinland when he set
out on his fateful voyage in 1492. As far as
Native Americans were concerned, the Norse
voyages might as well never have happened
– they had no influence whatsoever on North
America’s cultural development.
Despite this, Thorvald Eriksson’s fatal
encounter with the Skrælings does mark a
significant moment in world history: it was
the end of humanity’s 70,000-year journey
out of Africa. The descendents of peoples
who had left Africa and migrated east
through Asia to the Americas had finally met
the descendents of people who had left Africa
and migrated west. The circle of the world
was finally closed.
John Haywood is a historian and author. His latest
book, Northmen, is published by Head of Zeus
DISCOVER MORE
TELEVISION
왘 In Search of the Vikings,
presented by Dan Snow and Sarah
PARKS CANADA
Parcak, is due to air on BBC One in January
BOOK
Wahlgren (Thames and Hudson, 2000)
BBC History Magazine
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 Phrenology

Many Victorians believed that he key to

inding the ideal spouse, a d reforming the
criminal mind,
m lay in the shape of their
skulls, as JJames Poskett explains

none other than Queen Victoria herself was

S
ome time in th he mid-19th century,
the popular mu usical Florodora
declared: “You must choose your
wife with phrenological care. For the
realm beneath her bonnet has your future
mapped upon it.”
Today, the idea of yo
oung men basing their
choice of future wife on
o what lies “beneath
her bonnet” – ie the diimensions of her head
– may seem more than n a little ridiculous. Yet
150 years ago, Florodorra was offering male
suitors some serious ad dvice. The world was
in the grips of a phrenology craze, and the
‘science’ of phrenologyy – which declared that
the best way to read ann individual’s character
BRIDGEMAN
asking phrenologists to inspect her children.
Phrenology was pioneered by physicians
such as Franz Joseph Gall (1758–1828), who
believed that the brain is made up numerous
organs, each linked to a faculty such as
benevolence and destructiveness. As such, a
protruding forehead – where the ‘perceptive’
organs resided – could indicate an impressive
intellect, whereas a bump on the crown was
the sign of a strong sense of morality.
These ideas certainly struck a chord.
Phrenological societies sprang up from New
York to Calcutta, and audiences were soon
flocking to lectures on the science of the skull. A phrenology

model showing
was through the shapee of their skull – was These people genuinely believed that where on the skull
making major waves. P Prison colonies were phrenology could make the world a better certain character traits
being built on phrenological principles and place. Turn the page to find out how… are believed to come from

BBC History Magazine

Phrenology

How phrenology was used to…

Find the perfect wife Educate the ‘weak-minded’
For the Victorian bachelor, picking a wife The world’s first ‘phrenological areas of the brain associated with
could be tricky. Most were no doubt after school’ was set up in Calcutta intellect – at the front of the head
someone who would conform to a in 1825, the brainchild of East – had apparently shown great
male-dominated society: looking after the India Company surgeon George improvement. This supposedly
children and home, and taking an interest Murray Paterson. He was supported the typically racist
in her husband. But how could you be obsessed with the malleability colonial belief that Indians were
sure you were getting ‘the one’? Help of the brain and suspected degenerate and weak – it was
came in the form of phrenology. that education could change thought only British education and
Published in 1841, Coombe’s Popular the physical organisation of culture could turn them into
Phrenology helpfully explained: “One of the mind. civilised subjects.
the first requisites in a good wife is to Each morning the Bengali
ascertain that she has a good head.” pupils had their heads measured
Two phrenological organs were with a pair of callipers. After
important: ‘Philoprogenitiveness’, which six months Paterson
produced affection for children and found that the
ensured that your future wife would be a
good mother; and ‘Amativeness’, which
controlled sexual desire. Too little, and
the wedding night might suffer. Too much,
and you were at risk of being cuckolded.
In a society in which it was believed
that female sexuality should be carefully
regulated, phrenological manuals on
marriage proved incredibly popular.

Rehabilitate criminals
Every week, a phrenological lecture was held
at the women’s prison in New York. The matron,
Mrs Farnham, decided that the Bible wasn’t doing
the inmates much good. Instead, she started
reading aloud from The Constitution of Man, George
Combe’s classic exposition of the merits of
phrenology. Soon, fellow reformers in Europe and
Australia were also turning to phrenology in a bid to
rehabilitate the growing prison population.
This was all part of a broader change in attitudes
towards crime in the 19th century. Many started to
see physical punishment as ineffective, a relic of a
bygone era. Rather than executions and whippings,
criminals needed to be reformed. New prisons
became the markers of a modern civilised society.
But what characterised the criminal mind? And how
could it be fixed? Enter phrenology. Mrs Farnham
explained how the development of the brain
distinguished criminals from the rest of the
population. A large organ of ‘Acquisitiveness’ (just
above the ear – see illustration right) increased An illustration from 1883
the temptation to steal. This was particularly shows the phrenology chart
problematic if combined with a bump around the area of the skull. Phrenologists
associated with ‘Conscientiousness’. The warden believed that the brain is
made up of a series of
hoped that once the inmates understood how their organs that govern a
GETTY

brains worked, they could practise more self-control. person’s character

48
 Campaign for the abolition of slavery
Charles Caldwell was a What is fascinating, however, is
slaveholder and a phrenologist, the response from abolitionists.
which wasn’t unusual. Phrenology Rather than rejecting phrenology,
Entertain the masses
found supporters right across the many abolitionists thought it could
Over 6 million people visited the Great
US in the 19th century, and be used to help their cause.
Exhibition in Hyde Park in 1851. The
particularly among southern According to them, African heads
Crystal Palace housed all the triumphs
plantation owners. It provided an showed signs of “improvement”
of the Victorian age. Those interested in
apparent justification for slavery, when slaves were given a proper
the sciences could also see a complete
one allegedly grounded in the education. This contradicted the
collection of phrenological busts. They
latest scientific theories. Most claims of men like Caldwell who
were the work of an artisan named
disturbingly, skulls of murdered argued that Africans would never
William Bally, a popular lecturer based in
slaves were even sold to reach “an equality with the
Manchester. Bally’s busts were unique
phrenological collectors. Caucasian”. Still, for those on the
because they were manufactured as
Caldwell, a Kentucky physician, receiving end of slavery, even the
miniatures, small enough to fit in your
helped popularise the subject in abolitionist argument sounded
pocket and take home as a souvenir.
the south. In the 1820s he pretty suspicious. Why bother
The collection included something for
travelled down the Mississippi with phrenology in the first place?
everyone, from busts of painters, poets
river to New Orleans on lecture The African-American James
and famous Greek philosophers, like
tours. According to Caldwell, McCune Smith, born a slave in
Aristotle, to criminals.
Africans had small intellectual New York, put it best. White
Phrenological lectures and museums
organs. These, combined abolitionists and slaveholders,
also drew big crowds. The phrenologist
with large animal organs, he wrote, were just as guilty as
George Combe conducted a two-year
rendered them unfit for each other, both subscribing
tour of the United States, selling out
freedom. to the “fallacy of phrenology”.
venues in New York City and Philadelphia.
In Paris, visitors paid to see Pierre
Dumoutier’s phrenological collection on
rue de l’École-de-Médicine. The museum
housed plaster busts of Pacific Islanders
and West Indian slaves. For the French
proprietor, the prize exhibit was a bust
of Napoleon Bonaparte.
Exhibitions like these transformed
phrenology into a social and political
Start a revolution movement. Phrenology was a science of
the people. It had something to offer no
Gustav von Struve was the editor of Zeitschrift für
matter what your background – whether
Phrenologie, a phrenological journal published in
you were a working-class labourer or
Heidelberg, Germany. In the 1840s, Struve linked
Queen Victoria herself.
phrenology to his impassioned political campaigns.
He wanted to bring democracy to Europe and end
the stranglehold of the despotic princes. By 1848,
Struve decided that he was tired of waiting.
This was the year in which a wave of revolutions
swept across Europe. Struve joined the Hecker Dr James Poskett is a historian of science, race and
Uprising in Baden, determined to bring about political print at the University of Cambridge. He is
change by any means. “Phrenology is at the bottom
the Adrian research fellow at Darwin College
of all my doings,” Struve explained in the middle of
the violent rebellion. For him, this new mental science DISCOVER MORE
proved that all men and women, rich and poor, were
subject to the same laws of nature. As such, men like BOOK
Leopold I, the Grand Duke of Baden, had no right to 왘 Queen Victoria’s Skull: George Combe
tell the masses what to do. Phrenologically, the and the Mid-Victorian Mind by David Stack
people of Europe were entitled to rule themselves. (Continuum Books, 2008)
Struve wasn’t the only revolutionary phrenologist. 왘 Head Masters: Phrenology, Secular
In France, supporters of the 1830 July Revolution Education, and Nineteenth-Century
founded the Paris Phrenological Society. In 1870s Social Thought by Stephen Tomlinson
India, phrenology was taken up by anti-colonial (University of Alabama Press, 2005)
nationalists, rallying against the injustices of British WEBSITE
rule. And in the early 20th century, the first Chinese 왘 What would your head have said about
phrenological books were published in the wake of you? Take our fun phrenology quiz to find
the 1911 revolution. out: historyextra.com/bbchistorymagazine/
phrenology

BBC History Magazine 49

Victorian lives

Was V
re

Gustave Doré’s famous engraving,

produced to illustrate the 1872 book
London: A Pilgrimage, depicts (and
exaggerates) the squalor of tightly
packed terraced houses. Yet, as
Rosalind Crone observes, the washing
lines in Doré’s picture demonstrate that
“slum-dwellers were not all very dirty –
or, at least, they didn’t choose to be”

50 B
BBC
BB History Magazi
Magazine
 COVER STORY

Victorian life
ally so grim?
Rosalind Crone reveals surprising
truths about the experiences of the
urban poor in 19th-century Britain
Complements the BBC One series Dickensian

T
he most familiar images of Victorian life are bleak indeed:
impoverished children working long hours in factories and
mines; blankets of smog suspended above overcrowded
cities; frightening workhouses run by cruel governors; violent
criminals lurking in the shadows. In black-and-white photos of the
period, people both high and low-born are invariably unsmiling – a
miserable bunch, surely?
There is some truth in this portrayal. The twin processes
of industrialisation and urbanisation did force a drop in living
standards for some, and the turbulent decade after Queen Victoria
came to the throne became known as the ‘Hungry Forties’. These years
were punctuated by economic depression leading to social unrest,
popular protests and growing fears of revolution.
Such impressions can be explained by the collision of three unique
processes. The first, combining industrialisation and urbanisation,
had acutely visual effects. Just as important was the expansion of
print culture, which provided a vehicle for such images as well as a
growing and captivated audience. The third ingredient, equally crucial,
was the emergence of a reforming spirit among the social elite from
the 1830s onwards. Grave images of deprivation were circulated
precisely because reformers such as Dickens, Disraeli and Gaskell,
plus journalists and MPs, wanted to remedy such social problems.
But was life truly miserable? Did the labouring poor believe they
were living in exceptionally tough times? Social historians have worked
hard to give voice to those at the bottom, uncovering new evidence and
taking a fresh look at old material related to five aspects of life. In doing
so, they have challenged the very grimmest portrayals of urban
GETTY

Victorian Britain. Turn the page to find out how…

BB Hist r a i 51
Victorian lives
1 Were the mills really dark and satanic?
Workers toiled
W d in dangerous factories or mines – but conditions improved substantially
The mention of wo ork in the Victorian period rarely fails to
conjure up an image of an imposing factory or a bleak
mine, run by a merciless employer, in which employees
– including small c children – are forced to work long hours,
often in poor light,, using dangerous machinery. It is
a picture created b by novels such as Dickens’ Hard
Times; by governm ment inquiries, such as Ashley’s Mines
Commission of 18 842, which exposed brutal physical and
moral conditions; and by scandals about real factories
throughout the century. But is it accurate? Not entirely.
Industrialisation in the early 19th century did drive down
wages and lead to o an increase in the employment of
women and childre en, especially those of a very young age,
in the manufacturin ng sector. Work in factories and mines
certainly could be dangerous. In 1879, one MP who had
visited a Bradford textile factory in the late 1830s described
the 80 crippled and deformed children gathered for his
inspection in the courtyard: “No power of language could
describe the varietties, and I may say the cruelties, in these
degradations of the human form. They stood or squatted
before me in all thee shapes of the letters of the alphabet.”
However, from tthe 1830s onwards, legislation was
introduced to restrict child and (in some cases) female
labour, to improve e conditions and to regulate working
hours. Reforms were limited, but often by the realities of
working-class life.. Take child labour, for example. While it
offends our 21st-c century sensibilities, it was not neces-
sarily socially detrrimental – after all, the wages that
52
Young children carry heavy loads in a
Midlands brickyard in this 1871 illustration
from The Graphic, a weekly London newspa-
per. It has been estimated that between
20,000 and 30,000 children aged under 16
worked in British brickyards at that time
children brought in could raise the standard of living for
the entire family. The alternative – schooling – cost money
and rarely bettered a child’s future prospects.
What’s more, working in a factory could be preferable
to other types of paid work. Days were controlled by the
clock, but they were not necessarily longer than those of
agricultural labourers. Clocking in and out, combined
with the physical separation of work and home, could be
more attractive than the endless days of domestic
servants – another expanding industry. For every
merciless master there existed at least one paternalistic
employer who cared about his workers. Some even
created model villages near workplaces for families to
live in some comfort, one of the most famous being the
Cadbury’s Bournville establishment near Birmingham.
Not only did some workers enjoy protection for tradi-
tional holidays (raucous St Monday festivities continued as
late as the 1870s in the West Midlands) but time for leisure
increased: the working day was limited to 10 hours, and
the Saturday half-day was introduced. Many employers
organised trips for their workforces to the seaside.
Even employees without these privileges were increas-
ingly able to enjoy an expanding world of leisure,
as workers’ real wages increased from the middle of the
century. At the same time, industrial unrest and popular
narratives of factory accidents subsided because the
GETTY
majority of working people became more comfortable
with new patterns of work and industrial capitalism.
BBC History Mag
gazine
 2 A route out of poverty
Not all paupers were condemned
to hellish workkhouses George Cruikshank’s illustration of
Oliver Twist begging for more gruel
One of the most enduring images of the typifies perceptions of workhouses
Victorian period is entirely fictional: the – yet such conditions were more com-
painfully hungry OOliver Twist begging mon in pre-Victorian establishments
the tyrannical workhouse beadle,
Mr Bumble, for gru uel. Charles Dickens
wrote his novel in the wake of the
New Poor Law of 1834, legislation
that aimed to redu uce government
spending on welfa are by deterring the
poor from seeking g assistance. Local
relieving officers wwere tasked to send
those in need to thhe workhouse, where
families were split up. Those who
could work were p pressed into hard
labour and those w who couldn’t were
cared for at the m nimum standard.
All were subjected d to a harsh
disciplinary regime e.
Some workhousses were abhorrent
institutions. Local penal authorities
were convinced th hat paupers
deliberately tore thheir uniforms or
smashed windowss in order to be sent
to prison – where both accommoda-
tion and food were e better.
The workhouse also held a special
attraction to journalists eager for
explosive copy. In 1866, James
Greenwood disguised himself as a
vagrant to spend a night in the male
‘casual ward’ of thhe Lambeth Work-
house. After being g registered, he was
forced to bathe in a “liquid so disgust-
ingly like weak mu utton broth” and
allocated a shirt a d rug, then entered
the ward to find “3 30 men and boys
stretched upon sh hallow pallets which
put only 6 inches o of comfortable hay between circumstances. And the poor had multiple
them and the ston ny floor. These beds were resources upon which to draw. First was
“The poor
placed close together… In not charity, which many socially conscious and were not docile
a few cases two gentlemen had clubbed religiously motivated elites were only too
beds and rugs and d slept together.” eager to supply. And the poor were not docile recipients of this
But how helpful are such portraits in recipients of this charity. They knew just how
understanding the e experience of poverty in to play the role required to secure funds – charity. They
Victorian Britain? TThey certainly have their combining a display of respectability with
limits. Written betwween 1837 and 1839, Oliver evidence of poverty. knew how to play
Twistt could at best describe conditions only in Secondary survival strategies ranged from
pre-Victorian poorrhouses, and the New Poor gleaning (gathering leftover grain after
the role required”
Law was in practic ce not nearly as harsh as its harvest), keeping livestock, co-residence and
promise – probab y why campaigns against pawning, to less legitimate activities – poach-
it died away fairly quickly. ing, petty crime, prostitution and fraud. The
It’s also worth acknowledging that work- poor routinely pawned their Sunday clothes
houses functioned d as providers of services early in the week to put food on the table, and
ranging from educ cation to health care, redeemed them on Saturdays after wages had
particularly from thhe mid-1860s onwards been collected. A London pawnshop assistant
when improvemen nts in provision were made. described the merriment of the trade on
What’s more, po overty was not a permanent Saturday evening: “Some was eating fish and
BRIDGEMAN

state but often a ccondition that working chips, some was eating tangerines, some had
people, or even lo ower middle-class people, pease pudding and faggots. Cor blimey it was
could slip into andd out of, depending on like Mother Kelly’s doorstep in there.”

BBC History Magazine 53

Vic orian live

e crime paid
pers ade a mint out o exa eratin
ed b ‘the criminal class’

ou t e cto an age as inflamed by an expanding and

come to e rem ere as ncreas ng y p ctor a newspape
criminal and viole t, most o the press. rime news was readily
est- nown v c o s ant - eroes v il l n l w ll. D t il
o the 19th centur are ctional o covera e of a particularly
semi- ctional – o example, gruesome murder could increase
Fagin and Jack t Ripper. circulation several fold; the
ur perception have been proprietors of several national
Jacob’s Island, a notorious s um ‘rooke y’ in largely driven by e Victorians’ an on on newspapers ma e
south London ort ed aro nd 1810 own fears and cla ms of a lar e, small ortunes rom coverage o
hardened, uncivili ed and lar ely the ‘Jack the Ri er’ murders.
irretrievable crim al class in ith its thirst or crime, the
T ar he amous
early Victorian so ial investigators
edia also manu actured moral
pan cs y comp ng reports
c rians co Henr Ma hew a d John Binn over severa wee s to suggest
boasted that the had managed that a crime wave had hit a local
f t e urban sl to assemble 150 these area. The most amous o these
creatures in a roo the e ect a was t e on on garrott ng pan c
r n n ustr a s spectacle of sq lor, rags and o the early 1860s, sparked when
vi c s f r town dw ll s. wretchedness… ome were several London news a ers
u r o utant n r un men, an some were ublished a wave o re orts on
te ng popu at on children… man had the deep- violent street robberies. In act,
n isting sewera e. sunk and hal -av ted e e… so accor ng to t e cr m na
g s eter orate n . characteristic o atural dishon stat st cs, t ere was no
st n – t Giles Ol N l esty and cunning The hair o si ni cant increase in robberies.
co s n on on, nge n most o the lads as cut very However, o ular ears orced
e – we e mmorta s s, c ose to t e ea , s ow ng t e r t e government to ta e act on,
o nove sts, an s recent liberation om prison increasing penalties or
e ed i edeker’s amo s g The larisa on o phrenol o enders and granting police
a ress suc ro ogy a pseudosci nce primarily ew powers o surveillance
re t the tart o the ic io ocused on mea rements o the v r n wn r m n
t i tions o re or er human skull – see our eature on t r n t t t t
ad t b added r te f m page 47 gave the idea of the t t rm – r t t r
re nt g und-floor and cel t- rimin l l ’ i nti th t n vi l n – w in lin
nt in d y sewera ov authority. The arr al o crime through the second hal o the
r a n. ose v n r stat st cs n 1857 roug t 19t century. ey are supporte
ra g w t esse a t o accurate estimat o the y ot er ev ence, nota y t e
o r rre bodies to cc te dimensions of thi class 20,000 emergence o a disciplined,
th st es corpses, s db mem ers n on n a one, e cient olice orce acce ted – i
as n 1842: sa t g up accor ng to ourna st ames ot alwa s liked – b almost ever
n st n a uc et an ut t e t t reenwood in 9 , and the level of societ .
r a b es ere throw u er introduction o cr inal registers t t e same t me, soc ety was
t in a an wheeled w w t p otograp s ena e t e becomin less violent. Male-on
m ts ame qu c monitoring o every individual. a e v o ence a most certa n y
40 n in stems an o io Historians have worked hard to declined as displays o aggres
ts t remove w ste u exp o e t s m t ere were s on were ncreas n y re ar e
te su li . avengers r m h pro a y no more t an a out as unacce ta e.
t st ws mpose re on 4,000 tru y a t cr m na s , ut t at n t stop many
ns d ellings to c m ow and most the t a violence was ctor ans e ev ng t ey were
of slu . to ns built p bli opportun st c an carr e out y v n t rou a cr me-rava e
; ow had 19 uri poo , youn men. age. s one comm tte wor ng
No 0 to 90 per cent th la ontemporary ears about c ass news a er rea er ec are
di t in slums, and an rim n vi l n w r rth to enry ay ew: rea oy s
cl s , es eciall in th la orian
ri , liv in overcro de it . an w at mur ers an ro er es
us nee s reass s e “Fears about there is now!”
su o dir . B conte p ercept ons are mportant n
rd s ell rs were not all ir crime were assessments o quality o li e,
– , e n t c oo e t . ut so too s ve exper ence.
id l in epictions f sl l
inflamed by an Victorians were predominantly
fa ous etchi g 5 spectators rather than victims o
s s wa hing hangi g i
expanding and cr me. n spectat ng – w en
ba e even serve as increasingly v o ence was presente n neat y
packaged, entertaining forms –
– those most o fe
ETT

r stence pictorial press” cou e an en oya e past me

5 B History Magazin
ALAMY

The front page of the 22 September 1888 edition of The Illustrated Police News reports the murder of Annie Chapman, second
victim of the killer dubbed Jack the Ripper. Such lurid accounts of crimes boosted newspaper circulations enormously

BBC History Magazine 55

V c or an l ves

n n rises
t ickbed
i ht to killer
, ressive resu t

,e iall poor ones, were at

r k ch ng ome nasty diseases.
m on killers – measles
t m llp x and t phus – had
bl ed ri in
a itar conditions created b
ra d ur tio did assist the s read o
th in io iseases as well as various
il es d estive system such as
di a troenteritis.
at li e expectanc , which had
s wn ong-term mprovement,
to t e in t e second quarter o the
th . t e start of Queen Victoria’s
re it d llen to around 25–27 years in
th in ow s of Manchester, Liver ool
d As he Cambridge Group for
th s Po ulation and Social Structure
lc a e ectanc in urban slums o

Y
t w t w t t
t .
Th re son was the high rate o
ild it A ound one-third of children,
d h lf in some poor nei hbou cartoon rom 1 4 a s on t e n etween c o era an contam nate
od d o e they reached the age o ater posited by John now – a breakthrou h that saved many live
e. igh il m rtality was a actor driving
in ers o o spring. However, as
th rie and memoirs o men and s ort men w t a teet an poor eyes g t,
n ll l vels o societ show, nlisting for service in the Boer Wars at the
“There were tales
vi il ren never compensated nd of the century, who tri ered a overn-
ot r those who were lost. ent nqu ry.
of chalk in white
As ri
e ,
he e mortality statistics
l th Victorian eriod was an
Then there were tales o ood adulteration bread, plaster of
– the use o chalk or alum in white bread
i m nt in terms o health. Li e laster o Paris in boiled sweets, horsemeat Paris in sweets
pe i re sed rom around 1870 in sausages – encouraged by an unregulated
ly ue to the act that the n ustry un er pressure to se rea y-ma e and horsemeat
i ia b ame better at fi htin diseas ood at chea rices. However, from 1860,
. ni r or helped, because stagnan ew le islation on food standards combated
in sausages”
di s shed awa . Doctors and t e worst a uses. n anyway, av ng
ie is an o develop a bette eveloped a taste for many ‘ro ue’ products,
de of the causes of diseases. the working classes were largely indi erent
era e more t an 50,000 bout most low-level adulteration.
op i n durin the 1848–49 epidemic, Recent research suggests that Britons o
th at l t around 14 000 in the last the mid-Victorian period enjoyed a diet rich
id f 66, after John now success in ruit, whole grains, oily sh and vegetables
u ate that the disease was – superior to ours toda , in act. Nutritional DISCOVER MORE
tr it t min t w t r. Inf ti problems came in the orm o tinned oods
di responsible for around 40 pe nd cheap sugar imported during the late BOOK
nt f a hs in 1840, but this figure 19t century – etr menta n t e ong term 왘 o ent ctor ans: opu ar
ut 20 per cent 1900. e but, in the short term, sources of deli ht nt rt inm nt in Nin t nth-
nt ich he prevalence of degenera rat er t an m ser century on on osa n
ti d o r ok that of infectious disease rone Manchester Universit
d e ictorian era Press, 2012
on t r yg ene, mprove osa in ron is a senior ecturer in istor at TELEVISION
nu t e e com at sease, w c he Open Universit , specialisin in the societ 왘 Dickensian i n w
d li ely in light of a commonly and culture of 19th-centur Britain, particularl 20- art rama ue to
ld f e eriod – the numbers o crimina justice an popu ar cu tur air on BB ne soo

5 B History Magazin
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 BBC History Magazine’s
Roman Britain Day
Saturday 27 February 2016, 10am–5.30pm
M Shed, Princes Wharf, Bristol BS1 4RN
With Barry Cunliffe, Richard Hobbs, David
Mattingly, Bronwen Riley and Miles Russell
Find out how Britain was incorporated into the Roman empire and what
Bronwen Riley life was like for those living under occupation. This event includes a buffet
lunch and regular teas and coffees
Barry Cunliffe is emeritus
professor of European archaeology at the
University of Oxford and the author of
several books on ancient Britain,
including Britain Begins.
Talk Country Life in Roman
Wessex
Barry will show how studies of five Roman
villas have shed remarkable light on life in
this corner of Roman Britain, offering new
insights into the rural economy and
farming technology of the time.
Richard Hobbs is a curator of
Romano-British collections at the British
Museum and the co-author of Roman
Britain: Life at the Edge of Empire.
Talk The Richness
of Britain
In this talk, Richard will reveal how a
selection of fascinating objects from
Roman Britain can teach us a huge amount
about everyday life in the empire’s most
northerly province.
Miles Russell is senior lecturer
in archaeology at Bournemouth
University. He regularly appears on TV
and in this magazine and is co-author
of UnRoman Britain.
Talk The ‘Face’ of
Roman Britain
Britain was part of the empire for four
centuries and yet there is a curious lack of
portrait sculpture from this period. Miles
Keith Jeffery will discuss what this might mean for
Britain’s place in the Roman world.
Book online at historyextra.com/bbchistorymagazine/events
58
David Mattingly
is professor of Roman archaeology at the
University of Leicester. His books include
An Imperial Possession: Britain in the
Roman Empire.
Talk Experiencing the
Roman Empire in Britain
and Beyond
Museums, popular books and TV
programmes tend to reinforce the view
that the Roman period was a time of social
and cultural advancement for the majority
of Britons. But was that really the case? In
this talk, David will offer a more nuanced
interpretation of the impact of the Roman
conquest on the native population.
Bronwen Riley is head of content
at English Heritage and series editor of
English Heritage guidebooks. Her most
recent book is Journey to Britannia: From
the Heart of Rome to Hadrian’s Wall,
AD 130.
Talk Visit Britannia,
AD 130
Bronwen will describe an epic journey from
Rome to Hadrian’s Wall, bringing the smells,
sounds, colours and textures of travel in
the second century AD vividly to life.
> Visit historyextra.com/
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Discover the story of 1916. This was the year of the battles of the Somme
and Jutland and of great changes back at home. This event includes a buffet
lunch and regular teas and coffees
Keith Jeffery is professor of
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Belfast and the author of the new book,
1916: A Global History.
Talk 1916: A Tipping Point?
Keith will reflect on the extent to which
1916 – a year of costly sacrifices for both
the Allies and the Central Powers –
marked a crucial watershed during the
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Nick Hewitt is a naval historian,
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BBC History Magazine 59

 THE
PRIN
N
A bronze statue of Owain
Glyndŵr, erected in 2007
in Corwen. It was just
a few miles away in his
home of Glyndyfrdwy that
Glyndŵr was proclaimed
Prince of Wales in 1400
ALAMY

60
LAST WELSH
NCE OF WALES
Six centuries ater Owain Glyndŵr’s death,
Huw Pryce looks at the national hero who
sought a brighter future for his country by
rising up against English rule
O
n Thursday 16 September
1400, a group of Welshmen
gathered at Glyndyfrdwy,
an estate named after the
nearby river Dee (Welsh:
Dyfrdwy) to perform a
dramatic act of defiance
against the English crown: the proclamation
of Owain of Glyndyfrdwy, lord of the estate,
as Prince of Wales.
The elevation of Owain Glyndŵr, as he is
better known, marked the beginning of a
rising that in a few years had engulfed
virtually the whole of Wales, and threatened
to reverse Edward I’s conquest of the country
in 1282–84. For the meeting at Glyndyfrdwy
was more than an act of bravado. Over the
following week forces loyal to Owain instilled
terror through a series of raids in north-east
Wales and the borders, similar to the
chévauchées of English armies against the
French in the Hundred Years’ War. They
pillaged and burned a swathe of towns
including Ruthin, Denbigh and Welshpool.
Small wonder that the townspeople of
Oswestry, another victim of these attacks,
later claimed that Owain and his followers
had launched a treacherous conspiracy aimed
at nothing less than the death of Henry IV of
England, his son Henry, all magnates and
nobles in England, the destruction of the
English monarchy and “the everlasting
extinction of the whole English language”
(that is, the English people). While this report
was overblown, the Welsh rising under Owain
Glyndŵr certainly unleashed considerable
violence and destruction.
The English authorities, and later English
historians in the early modern period, branded
the prince a rebel and a traitor (though
Shakespeare’s portrayal of ‘Owen Glendower’
was more sympathetic). And, after the collapse
of the rising, Welsh attitudes tended to be
ambivalent at best. It was only in the 19th
century that Glyndŵr began to be widely
hailed in Wales as a national hero.
These posthumous images of Glyndŵr offer
fascinating insights into the ideals projected on
to him by later generations. However, simply to
paint him as a hero or villain would be to miss
his significance in the context of his own time.
Regime man
Before 1400 there had been little to indicate
that Owain would rise against the crown.
Like many other Welsh gentry of the period,
he had shown himself ready to accommodate
himself to the regime established by
Edward I’s conquest. He had studied law
at the Inns of Court in London and served
in royal armies in England, Scotland and
France. He had married Margaret Hanmer,
from a notable border family, whose father
had been a judge in the Court of King’s Bench.
Yet that was only part of the picture. Within
Welsh society Owain occupied a special place
61
 ^
Owain Glyndwr
TIMELINE

^
The life of Owain Glyndwr
Owain Glyndwr ^ is born. His father,
c1359
Grufydd Fychan, is descended from
the princes of Powys (north-east Wales),
and his mother, Elen, from the princes
Owain is an esquire of Deheubarth (south-west Wales).
of Richard Fitzalan (let),
Earl of Arundel. This
relected a tradition
of service to the Owain is
Fitzalans as lords of March 1387 proclaimed
Bromield and Yale and Prince of Wales
Oswestry and Chirk. by supporters on
his estate at
Glyndyfrdwy,
near Corwen. His
Owain wins a devastating victory at banner (let) presented
Bryn Glas, near the village of Pilleth in him as the true prince.
16 September 1400
Radnorshire. He captures the power-
ful Marcher lord Edmund Mortimer,
who later defects to him.
22 June 1402 Henry IV’s eldest son, Prince Henry
(the future King Henry V), appointed
royal lieutenant in Wales on 8 March,
burns Owain’s homes at
At Aberystwyth Castle Glyndyfrdwy and Sycharth.
(let) Owain ratiies May 1403
a treaty, agreed in
Paris on 14 July
1404, with Charles
VI of France to
make common
cause against
Henry IV of England.
12 January 1405

In a two-part letter
sent from Pennal August 1405
(Merioneth) to Owain summons four representa-
Charles VI of France, tives from each commote (administra-
Owain declares tive division) in Wales, recognising his
the allegiance authority to a parliament at Harlech.
of Wales to This follows a parliament held at
Benedict XIII, the Machynlleth (above) the previous year.
pope at Avignon
(right), who was 31 March 1406
backed by The English retake Harlech Castle.
the French. They capture members of Owain’s
family living there – including his
wife and two of his daughters – and
send them to London.
February 1409
Owain dies. The places of his death
and burial are unknown. Some claim
that he ended his days in Herefordshire. cSeptember 1415
ALAMY

62 BBC History Magazine

 thanks to his descent, through his father,
from the princes of northern Powys, and,
through his mother, those of Deheubarth.
After Owain Lawgoch (Owain of the Red
Hand), the last male descendant of the
dynasty of Gwynedd and a would-be Prince
of Wales, had been assassinated by an English
agent in France in 1378, Owain Glyndŵr had
the strongest ties to the princely dynasties of
the era before the conquest of 1282. Moreover,
even before 1400, leading Welsh poets of the
day, notably Iolo Goch, took pains to remind
Glyndŵr of his distinguished pedigree that
made him “sole head of Wales”.
Ties of loyalty
A feeling of resentment that his status had not
been sufficiently recognised, particularly
through the granting of a knighthood, may
have contributed to Owain’s decision to rise
against the crown. So too may the disruption
to established ties of loyalty caused by changes
in the pattern of lordship during the final
crisis years of Richard II’s reign, which ended
with the usurpation of Henry IV in 1399. The
weakness of the new Lancastrian dynasty may
also have helped tip the scales in favour of
the decision to revolt. Possibly the immediate
catalyst was a territorial dispute with
Reginald Grey, Lord of Ruthin.
Yet the recognition of Owain as Prince of
Wales in September 1400 was not simply an
impetuous response to a sense of personal
slight. The meeting at Glyndyfrdwy was a
stage-managed occasion that deliberately
evoked the past in order to challenge the
foundations of English rule in Wales. The
message was simple: Owain Glyndŵr, not
Henry IV’s son Prince Henry, was the true
successor of the native princes of Wales whose
power had been destroyed by Edward I more
than a century before.
Owain drove the message home on his great
seal. This not only styled him “Owain by the
grace of God Prince of Wales” but also, by
depicting the arms (four lions rampant) of
the princes of Gwynedd, presented him as
the successor of the last Welsh rulers to have
borne the title Prince of Wales. Likewise
Owain referred to “our forefathers the Princes
of Wales” in a letter to King Charles VI of
France. As so often in the Middle Ages,
revolutionary change was presented as
the restoration of a more authentic past.
In agreeing to be proclaimed prince,
Owain must have been confident of receiving
support. That support depended on his
countrymen recognising the legitimacy of his
claim – conferred on him by his ancestry and
the tradition of princely rule he sought to
BRIDGEMAN
resurrect. This enabled him to attract the
loyalty of his fellow gentry – including their
relatives among the clergy, who were frus-
BBC History Magazine
A portrait of Henry IV of England, whose
new Lancastrian regime was threatened by
Owain Glyndŵr’s Welsh revolt
“Glyndŵr’s revolt
quickly spread
throughout the
whole of Wales as
castles were seized
and English forces
were defeated”
trated by the restricted opportunities for
advancement – as well as Welsh students at
Oxford and Cambridge. In addition, in
February 1401 the commons in parliament
complained that Welsh agricultural labourers
in England “had suddenly fled the said realm
for their same country of Wales, and had
strongly equipped themselves with arms,
bows, arrows and swords and other weapons
of war, such as they had not done at any time
since the conquest of Wales”.
However, support was also contingent on
military success. The best evidence for
Glyndŵr’s wide appeal is the spread of the
revolt from its origins in the north-east across
most of Wales. In April 1401 the prince’s cous-
ins Gwilym ap Tudur and Rhys ap Tudur
(ancestors of Henry VII) tricked their way into
Conwy Castle and held it for two months, while
in the summer Glyndŵr moved west into
Cardiganshire and defeated the English at the
battle of Hyddgen. By June 1402 his forces were
deployed in mid-Wales, near the English
border, where he defeated and captured Sir
Edmund Mortimer at the battle of Bryn Glas.
This victory had more than military
significance, as by the end of the year
Mortimer had defected to Glyndŵr and
married his daughter Catrin.
Meanwhile, Owain’s appearance in
Glamorgan was greeted with a rising in his
support. By summer 1403 the momentum of
the revolt seemed unstoppable, as Owain led
his forces to the Tywi valley and received the
surrender of Carmarthen, the centre of
English royal authority in south Wales for
three centuries.
True, everything did not go the prince’s
way. He suffered several defeats, and on
21 July his allies Henry Percy (Hotspur) and
Thomas Percy were killed by royal forces at
the battle of Shrewsbury. Yet Owain was
determined to stamp his authority on Wales.
In 1404, Harlech and Aberystwyth castles fell
to him, as did the town of Cardiff. He held his
first parliament in Machynlleth, thereby
signalling an aspiration to build on military
successes by creating political institutions.
Glyndŵr also tried to internationalise the
conflict. In July 1404 his representatives
concluded a formal treaty in Paris with King
Charles VI of France. As a result, a large
French force landed at Milford Haven 12
months later and marched through south
Wales, possibly reaching the outskirts of
Worcester. Earlier in 1405, Owain had made
an agreement, known as the Tripartite
Indenture, with Edmund Mortimer and
Henry Percy to depose Henry IV and divide
the kingdom between them, with Owain
receiving an expanded Wales as his share.
French retreat
Yet despite the attempts to secure help from
outside Wales, Owain suffered increasing
setbacks from 1405. His brother was killed
and his son captured at the battle of Pwll
Melyn near Usk in May 1405, and after about
two months the French army retreated
without a major confrontation with
Henry IV’s forces. A letter Owain sent from
Pennal in Merioneth in March 1406 – which
attempted to reinforce the French alliance
by declaring the allegiance of Wales to the
Avignon papacy, and called for an indepen-
dent Welsh church and two universities –
is often quoted as evidence of the prince’s
political vision. However, the need to make
this approach, as well as its failure to secure
further French aid, reflected Owain’s growing
vulnerability, as an increasingly effective
response by the English crown – including
economic sanctions as well as military
campaigns – led to the surrender of commu-
nities across Wales.
In 1408 any hopes vested in the Tripartite
Indenture were dashed by the defeat of Henry
Percy at the battle of Bramham Moor in
Yorkshire, and by the following year the
English had recaptured Aberystwyth and
63
 ^
Owain Glyndwr
^
How did Glyndwr
meet his end?
Mystery still exists over how
Owain spent his last days and
where he has lain for 600 years
The date and circumstances of Owain
Glyndŵr’s death have been the subject of
speculation for centuries. According to
Welsh annals composed in the 15th cen-
tury, “[in] 1415 Owain went into hiding on
St Matthew’s Day in Harvest [21 Septem-
ber], and thereafter his hiding-place was
unknown. Very many say that he died; the
seers maintain that he did not.”
Other 15th-century sources agree in
placing his death on 20 or 21 September
1415. Owain’s contemporary, the chroni-
cler Adam of Usk, alleged that the prince
was buried secretly at night but was
later reburied at an unknown location.
The historian Elis Gruffudd (died c1556)
related as many as three different
accounts of the prince’s demise while, by
the late 17th century, a history of the rising
reported that he had died at the house of
one of his daughters in Herefordshire.
While Glyndŵr’s death is shrouded in
mystery his impact on later genera-
tions cannot be doubted. A largely
sympathetic account in Thomas Pen-
nant’s Tour in Wales (1778) helped to
transform Owain from cruel and destruc-
tive rebel to patriotic hero. His reputation
reached its height between about 1870
and 1920, when he was celebrated as the
greatest Welshman who had ever lived.
This didn’t mean that he inspired
demands for Welsh independence from
England. Rather, his name was invoked
in support of a wider patriotism to the
British empire in which Wales occupied
an honoured place as its oldest part.
During the fifth centenary of his death in
1915, his heroic battle for freedom against
superior odds was compared to the
struggles faced by the small nations of
Belgium and Serbia against Germany and
its allies, and used to encourage Welsh
recruitment for the British war effort.
Owain Glyndŵr’s seal, with the words
‘Princeps Wallie’ for Prince of Wales
64
Charles VI of France (1380–1422) and his court. Charles sealed a treaty with Owain Glyndŵr in
July 1404, sending troops to help the Welsh cause. However, despite marching through
south Wales, Charles’s troops headed home without engaging the English in a major battle
Harlech castles. Although sporadic attacks
continued for some years, Glyndŵr was now
an outlaw on the run rather than a national
leader attracting loyalty, and inspiring fear,
across the length and breadth of Wales.
However, unlike some other Welsh princes
earlier in the Middle Ages, he was never
betrayed by his own people or captured.
Modern vision
Despite his uprising’s ultimate failure, it
would be rash to dismiss Owain Glyndŵr
as a romantic dreamer. For one thing, we have
hints of a vision of Wales as a modern state
with parliaments and a bureaucracy trained
in its own universities (even if the evidence is
too fragmentary to deduce whether, or how
far, Owain and his advisers devised a blueprint
for the future of his principality – including
its constitutional relationship with England).
In seeking to realise his vision, Glyndŵr
combined a readiness to exploit opportunities
to form alliances beyond Wales with a shrewd
ability to mobilise widespread support by
tapping into Welsh political culture. Thus
Owain not only presented himself as the
successor of the princes whose rule had ended
in 1282 but also became identified with the
centuries-old prophetic tradition of a Welsh
deliverer. This foretold the expulsion of the
Saxons from the island of Britain and the
restoration of the Britons’ descendants, the
Welsh, to the sovereignty they had allegedly
enjoyed before the Anglo-Saxon conquests.
That Owain deliberately identified himself
with this prophetic tradition is suggested by
the presence of Crach Ffinnant, described as a
‘prophet’, at his proclamation as Prince of
Wales. Likewise, in 1403 Glyndŵr sought
advice on his future prospects from Hopcyn
ap Thomas of Ynysforgan, who enjoyed a
reputation as a ‘master of brud (prophecy)’.
Adherence to this mythic view of the past
and future is also apparent in the prince’s
strongly anti-English rhetoric. For example,
in seeking the support of Henry Don (Dwn),
a powerful landholder in Kidwelly in south
Wales, Owain announced that he hoped,
“by God’s help and yours, to deliver the
Welsh race from the captivity of our English
enemies, who, already for a long time now
elapsed, have oppressed us and our ances-
tors”. He also complained to Charles VI of
France that Wales had long been oppressed
by “the fury of the barbarous Saxons”.
The punitive statutes passed against the
Welsh show that the English parliament
and crown also saw the rising essentially
in terms of a conflict between two peoples:
both Glyndŵr and the royal authorities
stoked further ethnic tensions.
For several years, then, Owain Glyndŵr
posed a major challenge to Henry IV’s new
Lancastrian regime. However, what makes
him significant is not so much the dramatic
successes he achieved in overthrowing the
political order established by the Edwardian
conquest of Wales. Rather, the support he
garnered for his attempt to renew the
tradition of Welsh princely rule throws light
on the tensions and aspirations of the Wales
of his day. Above all, Glyndŵr’s rising exposes
the continuing salience of a political culture
that conquest had failed to eradicate.
Huw Pryce is professor of Welsh history at Bangor
University. He has published widely on the history
of medieval Wales and on Welsh history writing
DISCOVER MORE
BOOKS
GETTY/BRIDGEMAN
왘 Owain Glyn D ŵr: Prince of Wales
by RR Davies (Y Lolfa, 2009)
왘 Owain Glyndŵr: A Casebook by (eds)
Michael Livingston and John K Bollard
(Liverpool University Press, 2013)
BBC History Magazine
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 BBHX15

BBHX15

BBHX15

BBHX15
 BOOKS OF THE YEAR

Over the following six pages, leading experts highlight

the best history books of 2015 – from forensic biographies
to sweeping accounts of entire civilisations. Plus, read our
pick of the best historical iction, TV and ilm
ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID LYMBURN

BBC History Magazine 67

Books of the Year 2015
The best of a
packed year
Every year we
receive hundreds
of books in the
office, and 2015 has been
no exception. How, then,
to make sense of this mass
of material? We have taken
a twin approach, asking
experts in a diverse range
of historical fields – from
the ancient world and
the Tudor period to 20th-
century and social history
– to choose their top books,
and other authors, histori-
ans and broadcasters to
select their single favourite.
So whether you want to
try something new, delve
further into a particular
historical period, or are
simply looking for a perfect
historical present, you will
find here the very best that
the year has had to offer.
And, if you (whisper it)
want a break from all
that reading, we have also
looked back at the TV and
film highlights of the past
12 months. Turn to page 76
for that – and, whatever
you choose, I hope that
you enjoy it.
Matt Elton
Reviews ed
ditor
68
WORLD WARS
Conflicts of interest
GARY SHEFFIELD picks his favourite books on the First and
Second World Wars: titles that reassess accepted wisdom
he centenary of
the Gallipoli/
Dardanelles
campaign was
one of 2015’s
key military
anniversaries,
and I was
impressed by
Peter Stanley’s Die in Battle, Do Not
Despair: The Indians on Gallipoli,
1915 (Helion & Company). Indian army
troops made a significant contribution
to the Gallipoli campaign, but until this
title appeared, just a single chapter in a
single book had been devoted to them.
Stanley paints a fascinating picture of
Indian army forces: their experience of
hill warfare was invaluable in the difficult
terrain of the peninsula.
Turning to the Second World War,
three books stood out. As the title of
Robin Prior’s When Britain Saved
the West: The Story of 1940 (Yale)
suggests, it’s a provocative read,
challenging assumptions about an iconic
year in British history. Prior argues that
Winston Churchill’s position as prime
minister became secure earlier than has
been conventionally portrayed. Other
accounts point to Churchill’s election as
“As the title of Robin Prior’s book,
When Britain Saved the West,
suggests, it’s a provocative read”
Churchill meets soldiers in the
Second World War. Robin Prior’s
“provocative” look at 1940 suggests
that the PM’s role was secure
earlier than otherwise thought
party leader towards the end of 1940
– several months after he became PM –
as a key moment, yet Prior prompts the
thought that it may have been important
merely for symbolic reasons.
Prior also flags up the fact that
Churchill publicly praised trade union
leader Ernest Bevin even before he
became PM, thus foreshadowing a key
partnership in the coalition government.
James Holland’s The War in the
West, A New History: Germany
Ascendant 1939–1941 (Bantam Press)
is very different: a narrative history of
the early years of the war. Examining
the conflict from a western perspective,
zooming in on individuals’ experiences,
it’s a marvellously readable book.
Finally, Niall Barr’s Yanks and
Limeys: Alliance Warfare in the
Second World War (Jonathan Cape)
is a hugely rewarding book on the Anglo-
American alliance. This highly successful
partnership was bedevilled by tensions,
but united by some common ground,
two factors brought out in Barr’s deeply
researched, sophisticated treatment of
an apparently familiar subject.
Gary Sheffield d is author of A Short History
of the First World War (OneWorld, 2014)
‘T’ ILLUSTRATION BY ABU TABU/GETTY
 New York ‘master builder’
Robert Moses with a model of a
proposed Battery Bridge, 1939.
Robert Caro’s take on the urban
planner “set the standard for
historical biography in 2015”

More 20th-
century picks
Suzannah
Lipscomb
My book of the year
is Saul David’s
phenomenal
Operation Thunder-
boltt (Hodder &
Stoughton), an
outstandingly good,
compelling read.
Telling the story of
the hijacking of Flight
139 and the Entebbe
hostage rescue of
1976 as if in real time,
it draws on extensive
research and
imaginative recon-
20TH CENTURY struction. Very highly
recommended.
A turbulent century Suzannah
Lipscomb is the
author of The King
DOMINIC SANDBROOK looks at this year’s modern history is Dead: The Last
highlights, featuring tsars, Thatcher and town planners Will and Testament
of Henry VIII (Head
of Zeus, 2015)
t has been an excellent year for volume authorised biography. By bringing alive the
20th-century history. Nobody controversial American statesman’s early life as
interested in the story of Europe’s never before, Ferguson casts him in an entirely new
Richard
past century can afford to miss light: as an idealist, fired by a passionate belief in the
Davenport-Hines
Ian Kershaw’s enormously assured virtues of American democracy. Contentious stuff, Andrew Lownie’s
To Hell and Back: Europe perhaps, but readers will have fun arguing the point. Stalin’s Englishman:
1914 – 1949 (Allen Lane), Readers will surely also relish the second volume The Lives of Guy
a sweeping, measured survey of of Charles Moore’s splendid life of Britain’s most Burgess (Hodder &
an age of terrible bloodshed and controversial prime minister, Margaret Thatcher: Stoughton) is a rich
chaos, taking us from the dawn of the century to Everything She Wants (Allen Lane), which takes combination of spy
the onset of the Cold War in fine style. Meanwhile, in everything from the 1984 Brighton bomb to the story, cultural history,
Dominic Lieven’s Towards the Flame: Empire, miners’ strike and the misadventures of her son. social outrage and
War and the End of Tsarist Russia (Allen Still, if one book really set the standard for character portrait.
Several recent
Lane) focuses on the agony of Russia in the first historical biography in 2015, it was Robert Caro’s
biographies with
years of the century. Lieven brilliantly shows how masterpiece The Power Broker: Robert Moses an espionage angle
and why Russia slid into war, setting the crucial and the Fall of New York (Bodley Head). Caro have seemed to me
decisions of the summer of 1914 against the wider wrote it in the early 1970s, but it has never before despicable in their
been published in Britain. The life of Robert Moses,
‘I’ ILLUSTRATION BY MIRANDA GRISEL/ALAMY

context of its economic boom, political turmoil sensationalism and

and growing paranoia about its German rival. the man who rebuilt 20th-century New York – an gullibility, but Lownie
The weightiest book of the year, both physically arrogant bully who built more parks, bridges, instead writes with
and emotionally, was surely Nikolaus Wachsmann’s housing projects and flyovers than anyone else in scepticism, decency
KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration history – might not sound like a thrilling read. But and a sharp regard
Camps (Little, Brown). Based on extraordinarily there has never been a better book about the art of for the truth.
Richard Davenport-
detailed research, overturning myths and dispelling politics, nor a more riveting study of what power
Hines is the author
clichés, this is the definitive history of the Nazi camp does to an individual. of Universal Man:
system, as well as an immensely moving read. The Seven Lives
The horrors of Nazi Germany also loom large Dominic Sandbrook is the author of The Great British of John Maynard
in Niall Ferguson’s Kissinger: 1923–1968: Dream Factory: The Strange History of Our National Keynes (William
The Idealist (Allen Lane), the first of a two- Imagination (Allen Lane, 2015) Collins, 2015)

BBC History Magazine 69

Books of the Year 2015

Best for new ANCIENT WORLD

research
Roger Moorhouse
Significant archival
Dynasties and dictators
revelations on the PETER JONES rates the best of the year’s books on the classical
Second World War
are pretty rare. But
world – sweeping accounts of the rise and fall of civilisations
The Maisky Diaries,
edited by Gabriel aking full advantage Mary Beard is a historian at the top of her form in
Gorodetsky (Yale),
of the wide range of SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome (Profile
is just that: the secret
diaries of the Soviet sources covering the Books), a source-based, finely argued account of
ambassador to ‘Julio-Claudian’ Roman Rome from its foundation to the emperor
London, Ivan Maisky, emperors from 27 BC Commodus. Her story of Rome’s early kings
from 1932 to 1943. to AD 68 – Augustus, (753–509 BC) and republic (509–31 BC) takes a
Maisky’s entries and Tiberius, Caligula, predominantly narrative form, paying almost as
pen-portraits of his Claudius and Nero – much attention to low life as to high. Always on the
contemporaries are Tom Holland’s lookout for the new angle, she argues that Rome’s
revealing, and add a Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the House of expansion across Italy in the fourth century BC is
new voice to events. Caesar (Little, Brown) paints an intrigue-ridden the key to its success, creating soldiers hardened to
They also give a taste
picture of the new world that emerged after the conflict, but able to turn enemies into friends with
of the treasures still
locked up in the Roman republic collapsed in a welter of blood. generous, all-embracing alliances and treaties. She
Russian archives. When the dust settled, one man was left standing: treats the imperial period (31 BC–AD 192) more
Roger Moorhouse Julius Caesar’s adopted son and heir, Octavian, soon thematically but no less interestingly.
is author of The to become Rome’s first emperor, Augustus. Holland Robert Harris’s Dictator (Hutchinson) may
Devils’ Alliance: sees this new order as a mafiosi world, in which be a novel, but Harris knows his sources and
Hitler’s Pact with power rested with the padrone who would go to any uses them superbly in this climax to his trilogy
Stalin, 1939-41 lengths – even family murder – to sustain it. It all centred on the statesman and orator Cicero
(Bodley Head, 2014) makes for a gripping read about a disturbingly (106–43 BC). Harris brilliantly captures the
fascinating period of history. world of a highly intelligent but compromised
Ian Kershaw Josiah Ober’s The Rise and Fall of Classical figure who, thanks to his letters, we know better
In The German War: Greece (Princeton University Press) is another than anyone else in Roman history. This is a man
A Nation Under compelling read. Using an in nventory covering each grappling with everyyday problems –
Arms, 1939–45 (Bod- state’s settlement pattern, poopulation, military a failing marriage, the death of
ley Head) Nicholas strength, constitution and coinage – to name just his beloved dau ughter – while
Stargardt goes far a few – Ober argues that thee sustained economic heroically committing his life
beyond any previous growth of the Greek world was made possible to trying to savve the republic
work in helping to by freedom, competition an nd innovation in an from dictatorsh hip at the hands
understand the men-
accountable, citizen-controllled democratic of Julius Caesarr and his
talities of German
soldiers and civilians
society. This raised the living standards of more followers.
in the Second World and more people and increaased cultural
War. He makes bril- productivity, especially fromm the fifth to Peter Jones is the author of Eureka!:
liant use of first-hand the second century BC, to a level that did Everything You Ever Wanted to Know
accounts to cast light not return to the Greek world until the About the Ancient Greeks
on their reactions 20th century. But Were Afraid to Ask
as they engaged in (Atlanntic, 2014)
a terrible war of an-
‘T’ ILLUSTRATION BY DYLAN BLAIR/GETTY

nihilation. He shows
what they thought “Mary Beard is
they were fighting for, A bust of the Roman
and why they con- a historian at emperor Commodus,
tinued as Germany one of the subjects
faced certain defeat. the top of her of Mary Beard’s new
Ian Kershaw’s “source-based, finely
most recent book
form in SPQR, argued” history
is To Hell and Back: her account of
Europe, 1914–1949
(Allen Lane, 2015) the city of Rome
e”

70 BBC History Magazine

 Further Tudor
highlights
Sarah Gristwood
Just as you thought
it was safe to go into
a bookshop without
seeing another Tudor
biography you
wanted, along comes
The Lost Tudor
Princess (Jonathan
Cape), Alison Weir’s
A Plantagenet ruler, riveting profile of
possibly John, goes Margaret Douglas.
hunting in this scene Niece to Henry VIII
from a manuscript. Marc and daughter to the
Morris’s study of the queen of Scots,
king is “magisterial”, Douglas’s bloodline
says Chris Skidmore still runs in Britain’s
royal family. I thought
TUDOR AND MEDIEVAL I knew the Tudors,
but Weir manages,
delightfully, to spring
Grand narratives a string of surprises.
Sarah Gristwood
CHRIS SKIDMORE recommends books that make sense of is the author of
Blood Sisters: The
the complex, dramatic world of medieval and Tudor history Women Behind the
Wars of the Roses
agna Carta (HarperPress, 2012)
“This has been
and the battle
of Agincourt something of an Tracy Borman
have dominated
headlines in anniversary year How to Be a Tudor
by Ruth Goodman
what has been for medieval history” (Viking) is a stunning,
something of an deeply researched
anniversary year account of what it
for medieval Wolf Hall, highlights have included Michael was like to live as a
history, leading to a glut of new books on both Everett’s The Rise of Thomas Cromwell: Tudor. It’s based on
crucial events in England’s past. Yet in a crowded Power and Politics in the Reign of Henry a thorough review of
field, some fine new books stand out. VIII, 1485–1534 (Yale), which focuses on the the sources, but what
Marc Morris’s magisterial biography, King lesser-known story of Cromwell’s journey to the makes it unique is
top. Alison Weir’s The Lost Tudor Princess: that Goodman has
John: Treachery, Tyranny and the Road to
A Life of Margaret Douglas, Countess of put it all into practice
Magna Carta (Hutchinson) will surely become – sleeping, eating,
the book of choice on this fated reign for years to Lennox (Jonathan Cape) is a welcome biography
washing, dressing.
come, while David Carpenter’s Magna Carta of Henry VIII’s niece that casts fascinating light on
As a result, this is
(Penguin Classics) combines a new version of one of the key characters of the Tudor age. one of few books that
the hallowed document itself with 500 pages of James Shapiro’s 1606: William Shakespeare can justifiably claim
‘M’ ILLUSTRATION BY MAIRI LAIRD/GETTY

insightful commentary, and will prove the and the Year of Lear (Faber & Faber) explores to bring every aspect
standard edition of the text. the period in which the playwright penned King of the period to life.
Henry V’s victory at Agincourt is recounted in the Lear, Macbeth and Antony and Cleopatra. As well as A huge achievement.
reminding us that history’s influence is a key force Tracy Borman
superb Cursed Kings (Faber & Faber), the fourth
behind some of our greatest literary works, Shapiro is the author of
volume of Jonathan Sumption’s epic history of the
demonstrates the anxiety of a fin de siècle world in Thomas Cromwell:
Hundred Years’ War. The book spans the years from The Untold Story
1399 to 1422 in what is a riveting display of the the shadow of the gunpowder plot.
of Henry VIII’s Most
‘grand narrative’, told mainly from French sources. Faithful Servant
The Tudor field has been less crowded this year. Chris Skidmore is the author of Bosworth: The Birth (Hodder and
Nevertheless, following the BBC’s dramatisation of of the Tudors (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2013) Stoughton, 2014)

BBC History Magazine 71

Books of the Year 2015

LISTEN
TO MORE
AUTHORS
historyextra.com/
bbchistorymagazine
/podcasts

Best of the rest SOCIAL HISTORY

Joann Fletcher
Not only does John
Ashdown-Hill’s The
Past lives
Mythology of Richard HALLIE RUBENHOLD chooses the best social history books
IIII (Amberley) deal
with the mass of of the year: tales of fashion and food, sex and starvation
myths surrounding
this much misunder- ooks on social history details everything from farming practices to table
stood monarch, it is
are a varied breed, manners, while the second is a fun, informative
a fascinating story
of how the author’s
taking in anything that compendium of Tudor recipes, many of which –
research inspired can tell us about how such as rosewater biscuits – sound scrumptious.
Philippa Langley’s life was lived in the From tales of celebratory feasts to the horrors
Looking for Richard past. Jacky Colliss of wartime starvation, The Diary of Lena
project – with its Harvey’s Red: Mukhina: A Girl’s Life in the Siege of
sensational outcome. A Natural History Leningrad by Lena Mukhina and translated
I particularly like the of the Redhead by Amanda Love Darragh (Macmillan), is a
author’s conclusion: (Allen and Unwin) does just this by exploring the gripping and emotive account of a teenage girl’s
“When you encoun- tangled 50,000-year history of red hair and its experience of life during the siege from 1941–44.
ter the myths, please
changing cultural significance. Although viewed Heralded as the ‘Russian Anne Frank’, her diary
refer to the evidence
presented here – or
with suspicion, it seems that women tended to is a disquieting mix of adolescent descriptions of
go in quest of new wear it slightly better than men, from Mary friends, school and parties along with the miseries
evidence – and do Magdalen to Elizabeth I and the beauties of war, hunger and the death of family members.
your best to bust of the pre-Raphaelite era. Equally shocking in its depiction of survival
them!” – surely most Suspicion and fascination also feature heavily in and desperation is London Lives: Poverty,
excellent advice for Through the Keyhole: Sex, Scandal and Crime and the Making of a Modern City
any historian! the Secret Life of the Country House 1690–1800 by Tim Hitchcock and Robert
Joann Fletcher’s (The History Press), Susan Law’s examination Shoemaker (Cambridge University Press).
most recent book of the sexual indiscretions of the wealthy and The authors are responsible for the ground-
is The Story of
powerful. The Georgians were no less curious breaking Old Bailey Sessions Papers Online,
Egypt (Hodder and
Stoughton, 2015)
about what the upper echelons were getting up part of a wide-ranging project to digitise primary
to in bed than we are, and were just as willing to source material about the lives of ordinary
judge the ruling class by their peccadilloes. Londoners. This book collects their stories and
Andrew Roberts Food has been another perennial interest documents how the criminal underclass helped
Jeremy Black’s through the centuries, and The Tudor Kitchen: shape the English justice system.
Metropolis: Mapping What the Tudors Ate and Drank by Terry
the Cityy (Conway) Breverton (Amberley) offers a comprehensive Hallie Rubenholdd is the author of several books,
describes how cities look at dining in the Tudor era. The first half including The Scandalous Lady W (Vintage, 2015)
came to be mapped,
and is as gorgeous
as it is stimulating. “The Georgians
Warren Dockter’s
Churchill and the were just as curious
Islamic World (IB about what the upper
Tauris), meanwhile,
charts the changing echelons were up
‘B’ ILLUSTRATION BY DAVID LYMBURN/BRIDGEMAN

relationship Winston
Churchill had with to in bed as we are”
Islam. He emerges
as more progressive
than his reactionary
imperialist reputation
might suggest. Georrge, Prince of Wales
is caught cheating in
Andrew Roberts is
this 1796 etching. Susan
the author of Elegy: Law’s look at the goings-
The First Day on on in
n a country house is
the Somme (Head one of Hallie Rubenhold’s
of Zeus, 2015) bookks of the year

72 BBC History Magazine

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Books of the Year 2015
BEST OF THE REST
Further reading
Leading historians nominate the best of the year in their fields
Leaders gather for the Yalta conference, 1945. Nigel Jones
rates two books that shed new light on the Second World War
Nigel Jones’s top Second
World War books
Books by British historians
are, sometimes, more
objective and insightful
than those by natives of
the countries they write
about. There are two
excellent examples of this
published this year. Robert
Gildea’s Fighters in the
Shadows: A New History of
the French Resistance (Faber
& Faber) illuminates the
complex, contentious history
of the resistance movement.
Meanwhile Nicholas
Stargardt’s enlightening
The German War: A Nation
Under Arms, 1939–45
(Bodley Head) is an exami-
nation of the changing
attitudes of ‘ordinary’
Germans to the conflict.
Nigel Jones is author of
Peace and War: Britain in
1914 (Head of Zeus, 2014)
74
Juliet Barker’s best book
on the Middle Ages
For sheer scale of ambition,
it would be hard to beat
Jonathan Sumption’s five-
volume history of the
Hundred Years’ War – and
the fourth instalment, Cursed
Kings (Faber and Faber),
published to coincide with
the 600th anniversary of
Agincourt, is a tour de force.
From his description of Paris
in 1400 to his final, poignant
account of the burial of King
Charles, we are in thrall to
a master storyteller. This is
history at its sparkling best:
authoritative, colourful and
full of sharply observed wit
and wisdom. History as it
should be written.
Juliet Barker’s latest
book is England, Arise:
The People, the King
and the Great Revolt of
1381 (Little, Brown, 2014)
Alan Forrest’s best
books on Waterloo
The books on Waterloo that
caught my attention this year
are those that did more than
retell the story of the fighting.
In Went the Day Well?:
Witnessing Waterloo (William
Collins), David Crane follows
people about their everyday
lives in Britain on the day
their army was in action in
Belgium. Brendan Simms’
Thee Longest Afternoon
(Penguin) offers a microhis-
tory of the battle by discuss-
ing the defence of the farm at
La Haie Sainte by British and
Hanoverian soldiers. Finally,
Gareth Glover disinters
fascinating images and
artefacts in Waterloo in 100
Objects (The History Press).
Alan Forrest is the author
of Waterloo (OUP, 2015)
Simon Sebag
Montefiore’s war picks
Max Hastings’ The Secret
Warr (William Collins) is a
total thriller with a full cast of
killers, swashbucklers and
beautiful adventuresses. It’s
also the best history of war
intelligence yet, with a clear
analysis of when it really
counted and when it didn’t.
Sean McMeekin is one of
the best writers on the First
World War. The Ottoman
Endgamee (Allen Lane) is an
outstanding history of the
neglected eastern war. It is
equally at home in the
politics of the Ottoman and
Russian courts as on the
intrigues of the western
powers, all of whom were
playing a giant game from
which the modern Middle
East emerged.
Simon Sebag Montefiore
is a historian and novelist
Evan Mawdsley’s choice
of 2015’s Soviet histories
Oleg Khlevniuk’s Stalin:
New Biography of a Dictator
(Yale) is written by the most
highly respected historian of
the Stalin period working in
Russia. On Stalin’s Team:
The Years of Living Danger-
ously in Soviet Politics
(Princeton University Press),
by Sheila Fitzpatrick, deals
with men who worked
effectively with the dictator
and also managed an
orderly succession. The
doyen of Stalinist history
‘from below’ turns elite
biographer here, but also
provides insights into
Kremlin family life.
Evan Mawdsley is
professor of international
history at the University
of Glasgow
David Wootton’s top
scientific history book
The history of science book
of the year has to be Andrea
Wulf’s excellent biography
of the pioneering Prussian
explorer and naturalist
Alexander von Humboldt,
The Invention of Nature:
The Adventures of Alexander
von Humboldt, the Lost Hero
of Sciencee (John Murray).
Everyone I know who has
read it has loved it, and with
good reason. The evidence
of the near-contemporary
Charles Darwin’s close
dependence on Humboldt’s
work – so close as to
constitute what we would
now call plagiarism – is
particularly striking.
David Wootton is the
author of The Invention
BRIDGEMAN
of Science: A New History
of the Scientific Revolu-
tion (Allen Lane, 2015)
BBC History Magazine
 WANT MORE ?
For reviews of hundreds of recent history books,
go to our online archive historyextra.com/
bbchistorymagazine/books

HISTORICAL FICTION What’s coming

up in 2016
History, rewritten It may not yet be the
end of the year, but
NICK RENNISON picks his favourite historical fiction of 2015 – we’re already looking
ahead to the highlights
bold reimaginings of vivid characters and moments in time of the next 12 months.
In our January issue,
ickensian in both people records, in beautifully written prose, what I’ll be talking to Lara
Feigel about The
scope and subject he gained in the process – as well as what he lost.
Bitter Taste of Victory
matter, Stephen Another memorable narrative voice can be (Bloomsbury), her look
Jarvis’s Death and found in Laila Lalami’s The Moor’s Account at the importance of
Mr Pickwick (Periscope Books), the story of a disastrous, culture in the dying
(Jonathan Cape) was 16th-century Spanish expedition to Florida, days of Nazi Germany.
the most remarkable recounted by one of its few survivors. Estebanico, I’ll also be meeting
historical fiction debut a Moroccan slave, describes the slow destruction up with Simon Sebag
of 2015. Focusing on of the expedition in the face of disease, internal Montefiore to discuss
the genesis of The Pickwick Papers, the serial novel squabbling and battles with indigenous peoples The Romanovs,
that transformed Dickens from promising hack in a tale that works both as an old-fashioned 1613–1918 (W&N), his
account of the rise
writer into national celebrity, Jarvis resurrects adventure yarn and as a sophisticated analysis
and fall of a dynasty.
the forgotten figure of Robert Seymour, the artist of the clash of cultures. We’ll have the usual
that he claims was the true creator of Mr Pickwick. Equally compelling is MJ Carter’s The Inidel expert reviews, too,
A vast, sprawling epic, packed with digression Stain (Fig Tree), the second novel to feature with the first issues of
and detail, it is a brilliant achievement for her mismatched Victorian investigators Blake of the year exploring
a first-time novelist. and Avery. Returned from India, the setting for books including the
More established writers produced equally her 2014 debut The Strangler Vine, the two men late David Cesarani’s
compelling work this year. Pulitzer Prize winner find themselves entangled in the dangerous Final Solution:
Geraldine Brooks ventures far back into ancient world of 1840s London radicalism when they are The Fate of the Jews,
history in The Secret Chord (Little, Brown), her persuaded to look into the grotesquely staged 1933–1949 (Macmillan)
and Simon Hall’s 1956:
dazzling retelling of the life of the biblical king murders of two printers. Filled with vivid
The World in Revolt
David. Told in the voice of Natan, court characters, from Chartist pornographers to (Faber and Faber).
prophet philanthropic noblemen, Carter’s book is Firmly in the
and conscience to historical crime fiction at its best. ‘epic history’ camp,
the king, this story of Peter H Wilson’s
David’s progress from Nick Rennison is the author of Carver’s Quest The Holy Roman
shepherd boy to (Corvus, 2013) Empire: A Thousand
supreme ruler of his Years of Europe’s
History (Penguin) aims
to provide an acces-
sible, single-volume
take on a millennium.
And in Heroic Failure
“The Secret Chord and the British (Yale),
is a dazzling Stephanie Barczewski
asks: just what is the
retelling of national obsession
‘D’ ILLUSTRATION BY MAIRI LAIRD/GETTY

with glorifying defeat?

the life of King
David, written in
beautiful prose”
Biblical ruler King David
is the subject of Geraldine
Brooks’ “dazzling retelling”
Plus, with new
biographies on figures
as diverse as Stalin,
Richard III, Catherine
Howard and the
Duke of Monmouth, it
promises to be a great
year whatever your
historical interest. See
you in 2016... ME

75
 DVD HIGHLIGHTS
JONATHAN WRIGHT on some of 2015’s
best historical home media releases

From dream to reality

Selma
(20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, certificate: 12)

tanding before an elite audience as he

accepted the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize,
Martin Luther King Jr was a figure of
the highest moral authority. It’s a scene
recreated at the start of Selma, Ava
DuVernay’s evocation of the 1965
protests against electoral practices that
effectively disenfranchised African-
Americans in the south of the US.
But DuVernay doesn’t linger on King’s triumph. Instead,
she cuts to the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing,
which killed four girls, and then to the scorn poured on
Selma resident Annie Lee Cooper (Oprah Winfrey) as she
tries to register to vote. King’s influence, we’re reminded,
was a hard-won burden, rooted in struggle and suffering.
That we understand the weight of such responsibility is
largely down to David Oyelowo, who gives an extraordinary
performance. His King is clearly flawed, and doubt flickers
across his face, yet he’s more than tough enough to spar with
canny political fixer Lyndon B Johnson (Tom Wilkinson).
Some historians have criticised the film for showing the
president as reluctant to act against discriminatory voting
practices. But whatever quibbles there may be, Selma’s deeper
truths – notably that non-violent protest doesn’t preclude David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King in Selma. The campaigner’s
influence, the film shows, was “rooted in struggle and suffering”
violence being used against you – couldn’t be clearer.

Wolf Hall Make More Noise! Britain’s Bloodiest The Celts: Blood,
Suffragettes Dynasty: The Iron and Sacrifice

‘S’ ILLUSTRATION BY CAROLINA CANCANILLA/20TH CENTURY FOX/2ENTERTAIN

(2entertain, certificate: 15)
in Silent Film Plantagenets with Alice Roberts
As it illuminated the dark (BFI) (Acorn, certificate: 15) and Neil Oliver
months of early 2015 with (IMC Vision)
flickering candlelight, it was The BFI’s latest trawl through Looking at a medieval era
clear the BBC’s adaptation its copious archives focuses when a single, brutal family Despite spectacular recent
of Hilary Mantel’s novels, on women’s struggle to get shaped the fate of England, archaeological finds, the
Wolf Halll and Bring Up the vote. Via documentary Wales and much of France, notion that the Celts were
the Bodies, was special. footage and comedies Dan Jones profiles a quartet uncivilised barbarians has
Anchored by Mark Rylance’s such as those starring Alma of Plantagenet monarchs. proved surprisingly durable.
mesmerising presence Taylor and Chrissie As the 15 rating suggests, the Hence the need for this
as Cromwell, the White – also known as reconstructions are violent. revisionist series, presented
series pulled off the the Tilly girls – this But with that proviso, anyone by Alice Roberts and Neil
trick of making collection charts trying to get teenagers Oliver. Over the course of
well-documented the changing lives interested in history could do three episodes, the duo
events seem of women in worse than have them watch trace the Celts’ story from
thrillingly tense. the early part of this while highlighting the fact its roots through the golden
Event TV of the the 20th century. that George RR Martin based age of the La Tène culture,
highest imaginable Scholarly essays his Game of Thrones universe to its collisions with the
standard. add context. largely on the Plantagenets. Romans’ invading armies.
Damian Lewis as
Henry VIII in Wolf Hall

76 BBC History Magazine

 Jonathan Wright previews the pick of upcoming programmes
An Inuit boy in the
Canadian Arctic
transports ice home
to melt for tea, c1950
Cold comfort
Sunday Feature:
Above Sixty, Below Zero
Radio Radio 3,
scheduled for Sunday 6 December
The recent history of native peoples in
the far north has too often been a story
of exploitation, as writer Lesley
Riddoch discovers when she visits
Sweden, Iceland and Arctic Canada.
In the 17th century, for example, the
Sami of northern Sweden were used as
slave labour in silver mines; while whole
Inuit communities were moved in the
1950s from forest homes to the High
Arctic, part of a bid to protect
Canadian sovereignty over cold
and barren regions.
Caroline Quentin (left) and Pauline
Collins star in Dickensian
Novel notion
Dickensian
TV BBC One, scheduled for December
It’s one of those ideas that’s so bril-
liantly simple you wonder why nobody
has thought to do it before. Over 20
episodes, Dickensian brings together
many of Charles Dickens’ most famous
characters and locations in – quite
appropriately, considering how his
books were first published as serials
with cliffhangers – a soap-style drama.
Tony Jordan, co-creator of Life on
Mars, leads the writing team, while a
starry cast includes Pauline Collins,
Caroline Quentin, Omid Djalili,
BBC/GETTY
Anton Lesser and Peter Firth.
For more on the Victorians,
read our feature on page 50
BBC History Magazine
TV&RADIO
Iberian stories
Simon Sebag Montefiore tells us about his series on
Spain’s rich – and surprisingly unfamiliar – history
Blood & Gold:
The Making of Spain
TV BBC Four, scheduled for December
Perhaps because so many of us head
south for holidays, we tend to assume
we’re familiar with Spanish history.
Don’t be so sure, says Simon Sebag
Montefiore. “People think they know
Spain well, and actually not many people
do,” he tells BBC History Magazine.
If that’s true, Montefiore’s three-part
series – which follows the country’s story
through to the present day via the
Romans, Visigoths, Muslim rule, foreign
conquest and the civil war – should help.
It’s a tale of empires and religion, a
story too “of the struggle of tolerance
versus intolerance” that throws up plenty
of unexpected moments – such as when
Montefiore introduces viewers to Samuel
ibn Naghrillah, who was Jewish yet
became prime minister and commander-
in-chief of the army in 11th-century
Granada, then part of the Islamic world.
Montefiore is equally adept at finding
new takes on stories that are more
familiar. We often see the Armada as
a one-off attempt by Philip II to take
England. This narrow view overlooks
“It’s a tale of empires
and religion and ‘the
struggle of tolerance
versus intolerance’”
In his history of Spain,
Simon Sebag Montefiore
relates a story that takes
in Romans, Visigoths,
Muslim rule, foreign
conquest and the civil war
MAGAZINE
CHOICE
such events as his marriage to Mary (“If
they’d had a child the whole of English
history would be different”) and the fact
Philip was nothing if not determined.
“He ordered [Elizabeth I’s] assassina-
tion and overthrow,” says Montefiore.
“The Armada was just one of many
attempts he made to send fleets. When it
failed, he started preparing another
Armada, so for him it wasn’t decisive.”
Montefiore also explores the “incred-
ibly dull” General Franco’s relationship
with the “flamboyant” Adolf Hitler.
Despite sharing a commitment to
authoritarian rule, the two men didn’t
get on. “Hitler had funded and armed
Franco, and helped him win the civil
war,” says Montefiore, “but he had
complete contempt for the Spaniards.
Hitler regarded them as a kind of joke
nation, and Franco as a joke leader.”
Nevertheless, the two men did meet to
discuss Spain’s possible entry into the
Second World War. But Hitler realised
poverty-stricken, broken Spain had little
to offer. “Hitler was so irritated by being
with Franco he could hardly speak
speak,” says
Montefiore, “and he said being with
Franco was like having three teeth pulled
out at the same time.”
77
TV & Radio
Bettany Hughes at Istanbul’s Golden Gate, one of the many gems dotted along
the Egnatian Way, which allowed people to communicate from Asia back to Italy
Journey into the past
Ancient Ways
Radio Radio 4,
scheduled for Thursday 3 December
When, sometime around the middle of
the second century BC, the Romans
began construction of the Egnatian Way,
it was intended as “a means of military
control” in the recently conquered
province of Macedonia. But by linking
Dyrrachium on the Albanian coast
with Byzantium, modern-day
Istanbul, the route soon assumed
far more significance.
“It quickly became the most amazing
player in history in its own right because
it allowed people to communicate right
from the Asian coast back to the Italian
mainland [via ship across the Adriatic],”
says historian Bettany Hughes. “It
allowed the transfer of ideas, cultures,
stories, of religions. What starts as a
rather depressingly typical Roman
engineering project in order to subjugate
a victim population actually ends up,
rather than reducing the human
experience, massively enriching it.”
One way to understand the signifi-
cance of the Egnatian Way, says Hughes
– who travelled by foot, car, horseback,
motorbike and even got a lift on an
Albanian farmer’s cart as she explored
“every Roman mile” of the route for a
new historical travelogue – is to consider
78
We’ll send you news of the best history shows
every Friday. Sign up now at historyextra.
its place in the history of Rome around
the time of the end of the republic. The
battles of Dyrrhachium (48 BC), which
pitted Julius Caesar against Pompey, and
Philippi (42 BC), fought in the wake of
Caesar’s assassination (44 BC), took
place along the route.
After the latter encounter, a triumphal
arch was built over the Egnatian Way.
“It’s completely neglected, it’s not on
maps, nobody visits it, it’s now this
collapsed pile of blackened stone in the
middle of a cornfield in northern
Greece,” says Hughes, who says she
hitched a lift on the back of a motorbike
with an archaeologist to see the site.
Other archaeological evidence of the
route’s significance is rather more
mundane, but no less critical to our
understanding of the past. At Thessa-
loniki on the Aegean coast in Greece,
construction of a new metro line has
revealed the old road, now 40 feet below
the ground, and once a site where traders
plied their wares.
“There are these beautiful late Roman/
early Byzantine flagstones,” says Hughes.
“You can still see the holes in the
flagstones where shop owners propped
up their canopies. There’s a lovely bit of
graffiti where a kid’s scratched a game
into a bit of the marble, obviously sitting
outside bored while his parents are
shopping inside, so it’s very vivid.”
WANT MORE ?
com/bbchistorymagazine/newsletter
(From left to right): Kate Williams,
Lucy Worsley and Greg Jenner
display their knowledge of the past
After the success of The Quizeum
(continuing through December, BBC
Four), it seems Auntie is suddenly
keen on panel shows about the past.
The Great History Quiz (December,
BBC Two) will see teams led by Lucy
Worsley and Dan Snow answer
questions on the Tudor era. Kirsty
Young asks the questions.
Elsewhere, Downton Abbey
may be drawing to a close, but it
won’t bow out until after a Christmas
Day special (ITV). In terms of radio
dramas, Beloved (December, Radio
4) is an adaptation of Toni Morrison’s
Pulitzer-winning novel, which tells
the story of a woman and her young
daughter after they escape from
slavery in Kentucky. Inspector Chen
(December, Radio 4) explores rather
more recent history as it dramatises
Qiu Xiaolong’s Inspector Chen crime
novels, set in Shanghai in the 1990s.
On PBS America, the history of
a fast food staple comes under the
spotlight in Burger Town (Saturday
5 December). The documentary
charts the story of McDonald’s, a tale
linked to the growth of car ownership
in the US and the invention of the
drive-in restaurant.
Originally aired in 1973, The World
at War is always worth revisiting.
From Wednesday 23 December
to Christmas Day, Yesterday is
repeating the series in full. Look
out too for Yesterday’s re-runs of
Hitler: The Rise of Evil (Wednesday
23 December), which stars
Robert Carlyle as the führer, and
Nuremberg (Christmas Day), the
story of the Nazi war crimes trials.
BBC
BBC History Magazine
 FROM THE MAKERS OF

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 OUT&ABOUT
HISTORY EXPLORER
The story of Titanic
Dr Aidan McMichael and Charlotte Hodgman visit
Queen’sIsland,Belfast, where one of history’s
most famous ocean liners was built and launched
Q
ueen’s Island was once the
heart of Belfast’s shipbuild-
ing industry. Created in the
19th century from mud and
earth excavated from works
to widen and deepen the
channel into the city, the
now quieter waters of the docks once teemed
with ships and workers. But it was the
establishment of the Harland & Wolff
shipyard in 1861 that turned Belfast into one
of the world’s great shipbuilding centres.
More than 1,700 vessels were built at the
shipyard’s Queen’s Island site, but it is for
one vessel in particular that it is best
remembered: RMS Titanic.
Walking onto Queen’s Island today, into
what is now known as the Titanic Quarter,
there are three remarkable structures on the
skyline: the enormous twin shipbuilding
gantry cranes of Harland & Wolff, known
affectionately as Samson and Goliath; and
the huge Titanic Belfast visitor attraction,
which sits at the entrance to Belfast’s
docks, just metres from where Titanic
was constructed and launched.
Titanic Belfast’s six-storey design
echoes the shape of the ship’s bows
and is exactly the same height as
Titanicc from keel to boat deck –
90 feet. Standing outside the
building and gazing up at the
bow-shaped aluminium-clad
exterior is probably as close to
a Titanicc experience as you
can get. Pools of black water
surround the building – an
echo of the waters of the
North Atlantic where Titanic
Newspapers were full of
details of the tragedy in the
aftermath of the sinking
80
Titanic Belfast cost more than
£100m to complete and sits
just metres from the slipway
where Titanic was constructed
and launched
sank – while the 16-tonne metal sign at the
front of the building weighs the same as the
ship’s main anchor.
Once inside, the 14,000sq-metre space
tells the story of Titanicc – from the indus-
tries and innovations that enabled its
creation, its launch and fitting out in Belfast,
to the maiden voyage and tragic sinking on
15 April 1912. Nine interpretive and
interactive galleries are used to explore the
ship, including a ‘dark ride’ through a
replica shipyard, and a fish-eye view of the
wreck, displayed beneath a glass floor.
A new class of ship
“Titanicc was the second of three Olympic-
class ships designed and built for the White
Star Line between 1908 and 1914,” says
Aidan McMichael, chairman of the Belfast
Titanic Society. “Around 3,000 people
worked on the construction of the ship –
about 20 per cent of Harland & Wolff’s
workforce – and the vessel was designed
here, in Belfast, in drawing offices that still
survive today, overlooking the slipways.
Most of the workers hailed from east
Belfast and there would have been vast
swathes of people walking to and from
the shipyard every day. Titanic, and its
sister ship Olympic, which was built
at roughly the same time, would
have been iconic sights on the
skyline.”
The first of the three ships to launch
was Olympic, on 20 October 1910. As
the largest ocean liner in the world, its
GETTY/TITANIC BELFAST
launch attracted huge local and
international interest. Less than a year
later, on 31 May 1911, Titanicc slid
la
dowwn slipway number three, and into
the wwaters of the Victoria Channel in
Belfast Lough. After launch Titanicc was
BBC History Magazine
 “Our fascination
with Titanic shows
no sign of abating”
AIDAN MCMICHAEL

BBC History Magazine 81

Out & about / History Explorer

VISIT
Titanic Belfast

Star Line, but we know he was planning to

Visitors to Queen’s
Island can walk the vast
slipways of Titanic (blue
outline, left) and sister
ship Olympic (right)
moved to the nearby Thompson wharf,
where the majority of the fitting-out was
completed in preparation for its maiden
voyage in April 1912.
“Ship launches in Belfast were greeted
with much excitement,” says McMichael.
“As the first of the three ships, and as a new
class of vessel, Olympicc was launched to
great fanfare, as was Titanic. Around
100,000 people – about a third of the city’s
population – turned out to watch Titanic’s
62-second descent into the water, with
retire soon after heading-up Titanic’s
maiden voyage – and that, for some, he was
more of a titular head of the ship.”
In fact, prior to his short tenure on Titanic,
Smith had captained Olympicc and had been
involved in a collision in the Solent with a
cruiser, HMS Hawke. An enquiry found
Olympicc to be to blame for the accident,
sucking the Hawkee off course with its speed
and size. These were enormous ships to
manoeuvre but the incident could be seen as
an indication that Smith may not have been
up to the task of handling this new class of
super-ship. Olympicc returned to Belfast for
repairs and was out of action for six weeks,
delaying Titanic’s completion.
The journey begins
But there was certainly no air of foreboding
as Titanicc left Southampton on 10 April,
waved off by throngs of excited bystanders.
Cherbourg in France was the ship’s next port
of call, where the majority of first-class
passengers embarked, many of whom had
travelled from Paris on a special train,
Queen’s Island, Belfast BT3 9EP
쎲 titanicbelfast.com
ships a feeling of being a floating hotel and,
as such tried to reflect the atmosphere of
hotels of the time. Dining at the Café
Parisienne onboard, as well as in the
first-class restaurant, would have been like
dining at the Hotel Ritz or one of the big
London hotels.
“For third-class passengers, the ship’s mod
cons must have been a reflection of the
modern world that was dawning on the
Edwardians. But if you look closely at
photographs of the ship’s interior, you can
often see tiny elements that weren’t quite

tickets sold to raise money for charity.”
The fitting-out process took just under
a year, and on 2 April 1912, with its paint
barely dry, Titanicc left Belfast Lough and
set sail for Southampton to pick up its first
passengers. Some 724 of the ship’s crew
hailed from the Hampshire port, employed
in a variety of roles – from boiler- room
stokers and greasers, to musicians and postal
clerks. Also on board was naval architect
Thomas Andrews, and a Titanicc Guarantee
Group – a troubleshooting team of skilled
workers sent by Harland & Wolff to
accompany the ship on its maiden voyage,
tasked with making essential repairs and
identifying potential improvements.
The ship was captained by 62-year-old
Edward Smith, a long-serving commanding
officer of the White Star Line, with a string
of high-profile commands behind him.
“Smith is an interesting character who has
received a large amount of bad press since
the sinking,” says McMichael. “Certainly he
was a highly respected captain of the White
GETTY/ALAMY/TITANIC BELFAST
anticipating the sort of luxury at sea they finished – something that had not been
were accustomed to on land. painted, or a missing handrail perhaps.”
And they were not disappointed. First- The sheer size of Titanicc meant the ship
class accommodation offered cabins ranging was unable to dock at Cherbourg, so it
from £30, to private suites costing an moored in deeper waters just offshore. The
astronomical £870 – more than £66,000 White Star Line’s tender ship, SS Nomadic,
in today’s money. The ship boasted four built alongside Titanicc and a quarter of its
restaurants as well as electric lifts, a size, was used to ferry first and second-class
swimming pool, gymnasium, squash court
and Turkish baths.
Second-class passengers could enjoy an
experience equivalent to first class on most
other ships of the day, while third-class
passengers – despite staying in what we
might now regard as fairly basic accommo-
dation – still had running water and electric
lighting, a new and exciting experience.
“Many of the ship’s first-class passengers
had been staying in the Hotel Ritz in Paris
so, while we look upon Titanicc as being the
height of luxury, it would have been natural
for them to feel comfortable in the luxurious
surroundings of the ship,” says McMichael.
“The White Star Line wanted to give their

“WITHIN 10 MINUTES THE SHIP’S FIVE FORWARD

COMPARTMENTS HAD FLOODED TO A HEIGHT
OF 14 FEET ABOVE THE KEEL”

82 BBC History Magazine


The replica second-class cabin at Titanic
Belfast – a luxury stay for many passengers
passengers out to the waiting ship.
Today, Nomadicc sits in the Hamilton Dry
Dock on Queen’s Island and can be boarded
and explored – the world’s last remaining
White Star Line ship.
Tragedy strikes
After a further stop at Queenstown (now
Cobh) in southern Ireland, where a large
proportion of the ship’s third-class passen-
gers embarked, many bound for new lives in
America, Titanicc set out into the North
Atlantic. But at 11.40pm on 14 April, while
travelling at a speed of over 20 knots (about
23mph) the ship struck an iceberg, ripping
TITANIC BELFAST
its hull open below the waterline to a length
of about 200–300 feet.
For those in their cabins, at a distance
from the rupture, the impact would have
Harland & Wolff shipworkers
leave the huge gantries under
which Titanic and Olympic
were built, 1911
BBC History Magazine
been felt as no more than a shudder. But for
the firemen and stokers working in the
bowels of the ship, water would have poured
in immediately, drowning some and forcing
others to flee for their lives. Within 10
minutes the ship’s five forward compart-
ments had flooded to a height of 14 feet
above the keel.
“There is still a great deal of speculation
and many unanswered questions about
Titanic’s sinking,” says McMichael. “We
know radio messages warning of ice had
been sent from other ships, among them
Californian, but these may not have been
passed on or were perhaps overlooked until
it was too late. Priority over the ship’s
Marconi wireless set was given to first-class
passengers wishing to send radio messages.
“Another factor in the sinking was the
number of lifeboats onboard. Today you can
walk down the slipway at Titanic Belfast and
see the location of the lifeboats marked out
on the boat deck: all 20 of them, with a
capacity to carry 1,178 people – just over half
of those onboard. This was the minimum
legal requirement of the day, but it was a
decision that would see more than 1,500
people lose their lives in the sinking.”
The tragedy was greeted at first with shock
and disbelief, and then immense sorrow at
the scale of the loss of life. How could a ship
dubbed unsinkable by the media have met
its end so tragically? Much of the evidence
given in the two enquiries placed blame on
White Star Line’s managing director, Bruce
Ismay, for both the inadequate number of
lifeboats, and the speed at which the ship
was travelling. Ismay, who was on board the
ship, was personally vilified by the press for
having escaped the sinking in a lifeboat
designated for women and children only.
“More than a century on, our fascination
with Titanicc shows no sign of abating,” says
McMichael. “The ship was a microcosm of
Edwardian society, epitomising its class
system and representing a period of history
that was about to come to an end with the
onset of the First World War. That there are
still so many unanswered questions only
adds to the mystery of the Titanicc story.”
Historical advisor: Dr Aidan
McMichael (left). Aidan is
chairman of the Belfast Titanic
Society: belfast-titanic.com
Words: Charlotte Hodgman
TITANIC:
FIVE MORE PLACES
TO EXPLORE
1 Liverpool, Merseyside
Where the Titanicc dream was born
Liverpool was once home to the head
offices of the White Star Line – a plaque
now marks the site. A memorial to six
senior Liverpool engineers who lost their
lives in the disaster can be found near the
Liver building, as well as a memorial to the
ship’s musicians, outside the city’s
Philharmonic Hall. visitliverpool.com
2 Southampton, Hampshire
Where most of the crew were based
Some 549 Southampton residents lost
their lives in the Titanic tragedy, many of
them part of the ship’s crew, as well as
Captain Edward Smith. A downloadable
Titanic trail map (see web address below)
takes you on a tour of various memorials
including those dedicated to crew,
firemen, musicians, engineer officers and
restaurant workers. The Grapes Pub was a
popular haunt with the ship’s crew and is
still open. discoversouthampton.co.uk
3 Cobh (formerly Queenstown),
County Cork
Where Irish emigrants boarded Titanic
Many Irish families embarked Titanic at
Cobh, bound for a new life in America.
Of the 123 who boarded there, only 44
survived the sinking. Visit the Titanic
Experience and see the remains of the
19th-century wooden pier where passen-
gers boarded tenders that ferried them out
to Titanic. titanicexperiencecobh.ie
4 Dalbeattie, Dumfries & Galloway
Where an officer is hailed a hero
Titanic’s first officer William McMaster
Murdoch was born in Dalbeattie and it was
under his watch that Titanic tried to take
evasive action to avoid the iceberg. In the
1997 film Titanic, Murdoch is shown taking
his own life, an unproven event the film’s
makers later apologised for. A plaque to
Murdoch can be found in his hometown.
dalbeattie.com
5 Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
Where Titanic s dead were buried
Of the 328 bodies recovered from the
wreck site, only 209 were brought ashore
– those too badly disfigured to identify
were buried at sea. Most of the bodies
brought to Halifax were buried in three
cemeteries: Fairview Lawn, Baron de
Hirsch and Mount Olivet. halifaxinfo.com
83
Out & about
MY FAVOURITE PLACE
Munich, Germany
by Ian Kershaw
For the latest in our historical holidays series,
Ian explores the Bavarian city that was the seat of
power of dukes, kings – and the Nazi movement
M
unich is a
vivacious city,
alive with
events and
art – but is
especially appealing to those
with a keen interest in history.
This is a city where having
fun is taken seriously at all times
of year; though known for its
beer-fuelled Oktoberfest, in
December it hosts some 20 festive
markets, including the original
Christmas market dating back
to at least the 17th century.
Munich is also pre-eminently
a city of culture, with world-class
orchestras and opera, famous art
galleries, and architecture
ranging from red-brick Gothic
through baroque and rococo to
neoclassical and avant garde.
A short tram ride west of the
city centre lies Schloss Nymphen-
burg, symbolic of the wealth of
the Wittelsbach dynasty, rulers of
Bavaria for over seven centuries,
at the height of their power.
Dating largely from the
18th century, the palace’s
extensive gardens include
several beautiful
pavilions, of which the
Amalienburg is a
rococo masterpiece.
Back in the city
centre, history can be
found on every corner.
Serious bomb damage
sustained in the Second
World War has been
84
reversed with tasteful restora-
tion, notably to major churches
including the late Gothic
15th-century cathedral called
the Frauenkirche (Church of
Our Lady) and the Michaels-
kirche (St Michael’s Church).
In the crypt beneath Michaels-
kirche lie the tombs of Wittels-
bach rulers including Ludwig II,
the ‘Fairytale King’ best known
for building the romantic
Neuschwanstein Castle in
Schwangau to the south-west.
My own favourite church is the
beautiful, lavishly decorated
baroque Asamkirche (St Johann
Nepomuk) in Sendlinger Strasse.
The city’s elegance, much of it
reflecting the ambition of
Bavaria’s 18th and 19th-century
rulers, is embodied in the grand
buildings flanking the main
boulevard, Ludwigstrasse,
between Odeonsplatz and the
triumphal arch of the Siegestor
(Victory Gate), and in the
neoclassical architecture in and
around the Königsplatz. Be sure
to visit the Cuvilliés Theater,
part of the royal Residenz on
Odeonsplatz – a jewel of the
rococo built in the 1750s and
restored after near total destruc-
tion during the war. For those
more interested in the history of
science, the Deutsches Museum,
opened in 1925, is a must – an
important display of German
technological development.
Obviously, there is a darker
side to the city’s history. Munich The domed towers of the
was, of course, the birthplace of Frauenkirche (Church of Our
Lady), Munich’s cathedral,
Hitler’s Nazi Party, and during loom above the city. Like
the Third Reich officially labelled many other monuments,
the capital city of the movement. it was badly damaged in
When I first started visiting, bombing raids during the
Second World War
it seemed that great efforts were
being made to airbrush that era
from the city’s consciousness. rightwing aristocrat in February
There was a small monument to 1919. I eventually found it tucked
the victims of Nazism (at the away by a tram-track. And
edge of a car park), but otherwise nowhere in the Festsaal of the
little attempt to recognise Hofbräuhaus, the most famous
Munich’s turbulent modern beer hall, will you find any
history. I remember my indication that this was where, in
difficulty in locating the February 1920, Hitler announced
memorial to Kurt Eisner, the programme of the Nazi Party.
DREAMSTIME/HERIBERT POHL
the Jewish socialist and Munich’s reluctance to confront
prime minister of Bavaria its recent past has, however, now
after the 1918 revolution, relented. Near the town hall is a
who was murdered by a plaque indicating the site from
where the nationwide Kristall-
A memorial at Munich’s
university commemorates
nachtt pogroms of 9–10 Novem-
the anti-fascist leaflets of ber 1938 were launched. At the
the White Rose movement edge of Königsplatz an excellent
BBC History Magazine
 There is a darker side to the city’s
history: Munich was, of course, the
birthplace of Hitler’s Nazi Party
new museum, NS-Dokumenta-
tions-zentrum (Documentation
Centre for the History of
National Socialism), focusing on
Nazism in Munich, has been
built on the site where Nazi
headquarters, the ‘Brown House’,
once stood. Adjacent is the
so-called Führerbau, now the
school of music, where the
Been there…
Have you been to Munich?
Do you have a top tip for
readers? Contact us via
Twitter or Facebook
twitter.com/historyextra
facebook.com/
historyextra
notorious Munich Agreement
was signed in 1938. Nearby, once
stood the Ehrentempel (Temples
of Honour), built to commemo-
rate Nazis killed in the failed
‘beer hall putsch’ of 1923. On
Odeonsplatz, where the putsch
met its violent end, you’ll find a
small plaque commemorating
the four policemen killed in
suppressing the planned uprising.
Another moving memorial, in
Munich University, honours the
student members of the White
Rose movement, executed in
1943 for protesting against the
regime’s inhumanity. Another
powerful memorial to the
resistance can be found in
the Hofgarten. A visit to Munich
reveals the worst of its past and
the best of its present.
Ian Kershaww is the author of
To Hell and Back: Europe 1914–49
(Penguin, 2015)
Read more about Ian’s
experiences in Munich at
historyextra.com/bbchistory
magazine/munich
Next month: York Membery
visits Vancouver, Canada
ADVICE FOR
TRAVELLERS
BEST TIME TO GO
Every season has plenty to
offer visitors. Summer is
best for sitting in street
cafes and beer gardens,
while the city gets busy with
Oktoberfest attendees from
mid-September. Christmas
markets run from late
November to Christmas Eve.
GETTING THERE
Various airlines fly direct to
Munich from several UK
airports in around two hours.
WHAT TO TAKE
Gloves, a scarf and a hat
are advisable in winter;
summers are warmer than
in the UK but a raincoat is
worth packing, because
heavy rain is common.
WHAT TO BRING BACK
A Keferloher, a barrel-
shaped stoneware beer mug.
READERS’ VIEWS
The Deutsches Museum is
extraordinary… Summers
simply relaxing in Marien-
platz… a shopping spree of
the Christmas markets
with a few sips of glühwein
is marvellous
Reena Nand Gupta
Munich is not far from
Dachau. It’s well worth the
train ride to the [former
concentration] camp.
Jesse Dalton
See Alter Peter [old St
Peter’s Church] and the
beautiful town hall with
its ornate clock
Bel Brown
85
CHRISTMAS 1

GIFT GUIDE
The holidays are coming and it’s the perfect time to treat
family and friends to something special. Here you will find
a selection of options for the history lover in your life.
1
A
ABOUT TIME
About Time
T is the history trivia game that
allows you to triumph when you’re almost
right! If no one has the precise date the closest
wins. Everyone plays in every round so there’s
no waiting. Travel back in time and rediscover
what you’d forgotten and learn much more.
Multi-award winning with a high quality
game-board, historical character pieces and
more than 1,000 questions.
info@playabouttime.com 2
www.abouttimeboardgame.com

2 H
HALL OF NAMES
A perso
personalised coat of arms and surname
history makes the perfect gift at any time of
3
year. Each scroll contains fascinating facts
and intriguing details about the history of the
name, including its earliest known coat of
arms. Many other beautiful gifts available.
Use our exclusive code ‘PERFECT GIFT’ for
an exclusive £5 discount (expires January
31st). Treat yourself or a loved one to a
truly personal gift.
01984 632120
4
www.hallofnames.org.uk

3
TIMES OF OUR LIVES
T
Fascina
Fascinating jigsaws and posters created from
our original historical collages featuring key
social and cultural events of the 20th century.
Choose from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s and 20th IMAGE CREDIT: Grant Wyness
century. Full index of images is included to help
identify those faces and events you can’t quite
name, ensuring that you enjoy piecing together 5
the past!
www.timesofourlivesart.co.uk 6

4 5 T
RAIG Y NOS CASTLE
Craig Y Nos Castle based in the Brecon Beacons
is an ideal base for Accommodation especially
for walkers, explorers and dog walkers. With
great cooked breakfasts, a well stocked bar with
great open fires and evening meals served in our
Function Room or Bar. Why not stay for 2 nights
at just £150 per room based on 2 sharing.
01639 731167
info@craigynoscastle.com
www.craigynoscastle.com
www.dogfriendlywales.com
THE ADVENTURE OF THE
CHRI STMAS PUDDING
At Greenway, Agatha Christie’s beloved holiday
home, her story ‘The Adventure of the Christmas
Pudding’ has inspired the Christmas decorations.
Follow in Poirot’s footsteps as he enjoys his
first ‘old-fashioned Christmas’ complete
with Christmas puddings. Enjoy decorations
throughout the house and follow the family trail
for the stolen ruby. Pre-booked parking essential.
01803 842382
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/greenway
6
Y LEATHER MANBAG
MUSTA
MUSTANG CRAZY HORSE 16 inch leather briefcase
(£99). Why not treat someone this Christmas to
something that they can treasure? Our luxury
bags are made from the finest leather. With a wide
selection, from messengers and travel bags to
wallets and iPad covers, you might just even want to
buy yourself an early Christmas present. Beautiful
bags, exceptional service and Free Delivery. Please
use code HISTORY15 for 15% discount.
0333 1234 104
www.myleathermanbag.com

11
IMAGE CREDIT: Ton
8
7 8 C
PIC MILITARIA
Our im
impressive replica Leather Jackets are
inspired by WW2 designs, with the high quality
of the leather giving them a luxurious feel.
Our range of iconic British, American and
German designs include the RAF Fighter Pilot,
American B3 and A2 designs you can see here,
and with prices from £120 you’re sure to find
the perfect Christmas present for your loved
one at Epic Militaria.
0800 772 3448
www.epicmilitaria.com
10
y Cobley
9 engines with prices starting from only £60.00.
7 03300 669700
COUNCIL FOR BRITISH
ARCH
ARCHAEOLOGY MEMBERSHIP
Feed someone’s passion for the past with
membership of this educational charity
campaigning to promote and protect Britain’s
archaeology. Membership includes a
subscription to ‘British Archaeology’ magazine,
a printed newsletter, regular e-bulletins and
access to exclusive member events and ofers
bringing them even closer to Britain’s history.
01904 671 417
new.archaeologyuk.org/gift
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11T
THE KIRKLEES
LIGH RAILWAY
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The Kirklees Light Railway near Huddersfield,
ofer the opportunity to purchase a gift with a
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Search the world’s largest original newspaper
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9
OLETON AGLOW
This Christmas
Ch National Trust Coleton
Fishacre’s garden is aglow with festive and
dramatic lighting. Discover Coleton Fishacre
in a new light, as the house, streams, beautiful
trees and exotic features of the garden are lit
for Christmas. Inside the house it is dressed
for 1930s festivities, and the café and shop are
filled with treats to tempt you.
Booking essential.
01803 842382
www.nationaltrust.org.uk/coleton-ishacre
 MARKETPLACE Telephone Scarlett Baverstock: 0117 314 7447
PUBLISHERS MODEL KITS CLOTHING E D U C AT I O N

Dynasties, Households
Palaces, Patronage

Clothing and Accessories JOURNAL

for Lovers of Antiquity LECTURES
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around the world. www.courtstudies.org
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EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS

NE
A Silver Lining Through W
*
the Dark Clouds Shining : NO EXH
ANAESTHESIA W IBI
HERITAGE
CENTRE the riddle of shock OP TIO
EN N
*A line
li from
f Keep the Home-F
Fires Burning by Ivor Novello

©IWM (Q2858) The Anaesthesia Heritage Centre is producing a series

of four temporary exhibitions honouring the work of
the doctors who gave anaesthesia and pain relief to
THE wounded during the First World War.
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BOE QBJO SFMJFG BOE IPX UIF TUBUVT PG BOBFTUIFTJB DIBOHFE EVSJOH UIJT UJNF

The second exhibition in the series

will explore the riddle of shock Saline Infusion Set,
1880-1920

DID YOU KNOW?:

t 5IF (SFBU 8BS TBX VOQSFDFEFOUFE OVNCFST PG DBTVBMUJFT BSSJWJOH BU
$BTVBMUZ $MFBSJOH 4UBUJPOT DMPTF UP EFBUI GSPN TIPDL
Visitor information: t 5IF BQQFBSBODF PG B TPMEJFS DMPTF UP EFBUI XJUI B QBMF TLJO GFFCMF QVMTF
The Anaesthesia Heritage Centre, AAGBI Foundation, BOE CFBET PG TXFBU XBT XFMM LOPXO CVU QPPSMZ VOEFSTUPPE
21 Portland Place, London W1B 1PY. t 4PMEJFST OFFEFE CMPPE BOE nVJET 8JUI UIJT SFBMJTBUJPO
DBNF B NFUIPE GPS USFBUJOH TIPDL
Open Monday to Friday t #Z NPEFSO TUBOEBSET TPMEJFST XFSF HJWFO B QBMUSZ BNPVOU PG CMPPE CVU JU
10am until 4pm (last XBT FOPVHI UP TBWF TPNF PG UIFN GSPN UIF EBOHFST PG TIPDL
admission 3.30pm).
Appointments are
recommended: email
heritage@aagbi.org or 0SBM IJTUPSZ JOUFSWJFXT MJOLJOH QBTU UP QSFTFOU BSF BMTP GFBUVSFE 5IFTF MJWJOH IJTUUPSJFT
phone 020 7631 8865. IJHIMJHIU IPX USFBUJOH XPVOEFE QFPQMF JO XBSUJNF IBT MFE UP EFWFMPQNFOUT JO QB BJO
Admission is free. Group
visits for up to 20 people
SFMJFG BOE BOBFTUIFTJB
can be arranged at a
small cost per person.

Registered as a charity in England & Wales no. 293575

and in Scotland no. SC040697
Visit www.aagbi.org/heritage for further information
Telephone Scarlett Baverstock: 0117 314 7447 MARKETPLACE
EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS S O C C E R H I S T O RY P RO D U C T S

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 MISCELLANY Q&A
Q What was the
Britannia Statue?
A The colossus that was – or, rather,
would have been – one of London’s most
extraordinary sights was the brainchild of
the sculptor John Flaxman. His entry in
a 1799 competition to design a national
monument celebrating Nelson’s victory
in the battle of the Nile was a plan for a
70 metre (230ft)-high figure of Britannia
Triumphant – nearly 25 metres (80ft) taller
than the Statue of Liberty – who would
stand atop Greenwich Hill and gaze out
over the city. Sadly, the huge sculpture
was never commissioned – in fact,
Flaxman withdrew his entry. But the
design, in which Britannia proudly holds
a spear and shield while a lion peers from
behind her skirts, can still be seen in an
engraving by his pupil and friend William
Blake in Oxford’s Bodleian Library.
Nick Rennison

ILLUSTRATION BY GLEN MCBETH

Q Who was the

Winsted Liar?
A Lou Stone was born in 1875 in the
Q Is it true that, because of laws
small town of Winsted, Connecticut.
While still a teenager he began working
passed during the rule of Oliver
as a reporter on the Winsted Evening
Citizen and, finding that the stories he
Cromwell, it is still illegal to eat
was expected to write were insufficiently
exciting, he took to inventing tall tales
mince pies at Christmas?
about the flora and fauna of the
Alan Smith, Kent
neighbourhood. According to Stone,
Winsted was home to a tree that grew
No, it’s not true – and it never Plum Pudding riots that broke out in
baked apples, a cow that produced
ice cream after being locked in an ice
house, and – his most famous yarn –
A was. Christmas was an important
festival in the 17th-century calendar: a
Canterbury in 1647.
The laws and ordnances proscribing
a wild man that roamed the local woods. 12-day event marked with sports, games, the celebration of Christmas do not
The reports of the ‘Winsted Liar’ gained feasting, drinking and – traditionally once mention mince pies, which were
national notoriety and put his home town at New Year – the exchange of gifts. probably also eaten at other times
DREAMSTIME

on the map. After his death in 1933, a Recusants and secret Catholics allegedly
bridge was named after him... spanning celebrated it with special enthusiasm.
a stream called Sucker Creek.
For Puritans, though, Christmas did
Nick Rennison
not just epitomise immoral excess and
ungodly behaviour, it was also a relic of
popery. In Civil War-era London, and
then in the interregnum parliaments,
various laws were debated (though not
always passed) and ordinances issued to
stop the observance of traditional holy
days including Christmas.
A cow locked in
But Christmas continued to be
an ice house celebrated, and local authorities trying
produced ice to enforce the ban were often met
cre
eam – or did it? with disorder, such as the so-called
during the winter. Even if parliament
had specifically outlawed mince pies
(usually served as a single large dish,
as opposed to the little morsels we eat
nowadays), ordinances concerning holy
day observances were torn up at the
Restoration in 1660 anyway.
Yet the idea that Cromwell ‘banned’
mince pies is one of our unshakable
urban legends, along with assertions
that it’s ‘still legal’ to kill Welshmen in
Chester, or that sticking a stamp with the
Queen’s head upside down is treason.
Eugene Byrne, author and journalist

BBC History Magazine 91

Miscellany

Q&A
Every issue, picture editor
Samantha Nott brings you a
recipe from the past. This month
it’s a delicious Victorian alternative
to traditional Christmas pudding

Nesselrode pudding
If you fancy something a
little different for Christmas
lunch this year, why not try
Nesselrode pudding, a
Victorian ice-cream-style
dessert packed full of
chestnuts and fruit.
This pudding was created
especially for 19th-century
Russian diplomat Count
Karl Von Nesselrode. I have
seen several different
recipes but food historian
Annie Gray’s recipe (taken
from historian Lucy
Worsley’s website –
lucyworsley.com – and
based on Eliza Acton’s
recipe of 1845) looked like
a great one to try.
INGREDIENTS
• Approx 30 chestnuts
(recipe states tinned are
best; I used a pack of
cooked chestnuts which
worked well)
• 1 pint single cream
• 2–3oz sugar
Add the chestnut flour to
½ pint of single cream and
put to one side.
Heat (but don’t boil) ½
pint of single cream with the
peel of ½ lemon and sugar.
Add the vanilla pod or
extract to the hot single
cream, lower the heat and
leave to infuse for 20 mins.
Soak gelatine sheets in
cold water.
Add the hot cream to the
chestnut mixture and leave
to cool.
Add the dried cherries
and mixed peel to the thick Johann Sebastian Bach handwrote this score
(cooled) cream. for his Cantata No 9 in the 1730s
Grease a mould and add
the cold mixture. Freeze or
chill for five hours according Q When and why did musical
to taste.
notations and scores irst appear?
Tip:
O Adamberry,
y Gibraltar
Ensure cream has thickened
before you add the fruit so it
The writing down of lyrics served as a foundation for
doesn’t sink to the bottom.

• 1/3 chopped vanilla pod
or 3 tsp vanilla extract
• 4–6 gelatin sheets
soaked in water
• 2oz dried cherries
• 2oz mixed peel
• the peel of half a lemon
METHOD
Take the chestnuts and
either force through a wire
sieve or blitz in a food
processor
processor.
TEAM VERDICT
“A fresh-tasting alternative
to Christmas pudding”
“A lovely subtle taste”
Difficulty: 3/10
Time: 35 mins
preparation,
five hours chilling/
freezing
Recipe courtesy of Annie
Gray: anniegray.co.uk
A – a type of notation –
can be traced back to c4000 BC,
but it was between 500 BC
and AD 1000 that most forms
of music notation, using
letters to indicate pitches, or
syllables (do, re, mi, etc), were
developed. Graphic notations,
indicating performance details
such as enunciation and timing
of words, also developed
during that period.
In the 11th century these
graphic signs were placed on
lines to dictate pitch. Between
1025 and 1028 the Italian
music theorist Guido of Arezzo
developed a particularly elegant
system in which neumes (a sign
for one or a group of successive
musical pitches) were arranged
modern western notation.
By the 1200s certain neume
shapes indicating more than
one pitch were redeployed
to indicate regular rhythmic
patterns. Around 1260 a
system of individual note
shapes developed – and is still
used in western music.
Scores were used for multi-
voice music from c1150–1260.
When more-precise rhythmic
notations developed, scores
were not commonly used
in vocal music, but some
instrumental notations were
still presented in score. It was
in the late 16th century that
scores again became popular.
Dr William Flynn, lecturer in
GETTY

on a staff of four lines. His medieval Latin at the University

principles of musical theory of Leeds

92 BBC History Magazine

Miscellany

CHRISTMAS QUIZ BY JULIAN HUMPHRYS

ROUND BRITAIN WHITE
1. What hangs on the wall of the Great Hall, the last CHRISTMAS
remaining part of Winchester Castle? 11. Who was ‘The
Take our 2. What links Moel T^y Uchaf in Denbighshire, Castlerigg in White Queen’ in
Quiz of Philippa Gregory’s
the year Cumbria and the Ring of Brodgar on Orkney?
ON THE 3. It’s in London, was completed in 1884 and runs for book of that name?
PODCAST 17 miles (27km). What is it? 12. Which besieged
4. The first FA Cup final in 1872 saw Wanderers beat the city did Sir George
Royal Engineers 1–0. Where was the match played? White defend during
5. Which Lollard priest was hanged, drawn and quartered in the Boer War?
St Albans in July 1381 after taking a prominent part in the 13. Which sensational
Peasants’ Revolt? Wilkie Collins novel
6. Britain’s oldest example of what dates from 1909 and can was first serialised
be found in Letchworth Garden City? in 1859–60?
7. During the Napoleonic Wars a series of round forts was 14. Britain’s oldest
built along the English coast to defend the country against what can be seen at
invasion. What are they known as? Uffington in Berkshire?
8. Which group of English writers and clerics met in an 15. Why did Russian
Oxfordshire village in the 1630s? soldiers fear the White
9. Where did Dorothy Round achieve glory in 1934 and 1937? Death in the Winter
10 10. Where is this unusual round tower? War of 1939–40?

IIT HAPPENED IN 2015...

19 1 What did the Queen describe as
16.
““an event of great national and
international significance”?
17. What were briefly brought together
1
in the British Library in February?
18. What opened in Newark in May?
1
19. Which place, site of an important
1
British military engagement, opened
B
itts gates to overnight guests in June?
20. What did archaeologists announce
2
in September that they had found
buried under the earth banks of the
b
Durrington Walls henge in Wiltshire?
D

2016 ANNIVERSARIES
21. (1000th) Which battle fought
on 18 October 1016 proved to
be a key moment in the Danish
conquest of England?
22. (800th) The lengthy siege
of which English castle began
in mid-July 1216?
23. (500th) Which work of
political philosophy by Sir
Thomas More was first
published in 1516?
24. (400th) Which woman,
later to become
a Disney heroine,
arrived in England
in June 1616?
25. (350th) “A woman
could piss it out.”
About what
major episode
of 1666 was 17th-century lord
mayor of London Thomas
Bloodworth talking?
26. (300th) What was the actual
first name of the gardener
‘Capability’ Brown (left) as
baptised on 30 August 1716?
27. (200th) Which monstrous
creation was first described in
June 1816 at the Villa Diodati
near Lake Geneva?
28. (150th) Which writer and
illustrator was born in Kensing-
ton, London, on 28 July 1866?
29. (100th) What made
its battlefield debut on
15 September 1916?
30. (50th) Which TV series
began its mission ‘to boldly go’
on 8 September 1966?
34
WINTER WONDERLAND
31. In which 1968 film did Timothy Dalton play King Phillip II
of France?
32. More than 50 of these items were made between 1885 and
1917, the most expensive of which was ‘Winter’. What were they?
33. Who famously interviewed former US president Richard
Nixon in 1977?
34. Which Wars of the Roses battle was fought in a blizzard?
35. Which 1941 novella is set at the time of the evacuation
from Dunkirk?
36. Which chemist and civil servant wrote the Strangers and
Brothers novels, many set in a fictional Cambridge college?
37. What was last held in London in 1814?
38. Why is Lewes’s Snowdrop Inn so named?
39. Which political term was first coined by George Orwell in
an essay in October 1945?
40. Which country formally declared independence from
Spain on 12 February 1818?

94 BBC History Magazine

 PLACE THAT PICTURE 2
Match each object with its home museum::
A. Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, Glasggow
B. Victoria and Albert Museum, London
C. Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle
D. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
E. British Museum, London
F. Ulster Folk and Transport Museum, Cultra
G. Science Museum, London
H. National Museum of Wales, Cardiff
I. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
1 J. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

3 5

8
6 7 10

9
ALAMY/SCRAN IMAGES

SOLUTION TO OUR NOVEMBER
CROSSWORD
Across: 6 Nissen 11 Arkwright 12 EOKA B
13 Airship 14 Godunov 15 Yeoman 17
Truman 21 Rebecca 23 Sejanus 26 Tithe
27 Ceausescu 28 Whistler 29 Picts.
Down: 1 Ankara 2 Hearth 3 Scutage
4 Calendar 5 Nye Bevan 7 Sukarno 9
Token 15 Yorktown 16/10 Ancient Egypt
18 Mines Act 19 Marches 20 Isaac 22
Butlin 24/8 Joseph McCarthy 25 Sousse.
FIVE WINNERS OF THE FACE OF
BRITAIN BY SIMON SCHAMA
A Millar, Dundee; I Barford, Clwyd;
A Redmore, Bristol; B Wyman, Surrey;
A Moir, West Midlands
QUIZ ANSWERS
ROUND BRITAIN:
1. A medieval round table 2. They are all
prehistoric stone circles 3. The Circle Line
4. Kennington Oval 5. John Ball 6. Traffic
roundabout 7. Martello Towers 8. The Great
Tew Circle 9. At the Wimbledon tennis
championships, where she won the women’s
singles title 10. Brechin Cathedral, Angus
WHITE CHRISTMAS:
11. Elizabeth Woodville 12. Ladysmith
13. The Woman in White 14. A white horse hill
figure 15. ‘White Death’ was the nickname
of Simo Häyhä, a Finnish sniper who claimed
more than 500 victims
IT HAPPENED IN 2015:
16. The reinterment of the remains of Richard
III at Leicester 17. The four surviving original
copies of Magna Carta 18. The National Civil
War Centre 19. Hougoumont Farm, Waterloo
20. A row of 90 large standing stones
2016 ANNIVERSARIES: 21. Assandun
22. Dover Castle was besieged by the French
23. Utopia 24. Pocahontas 25. The Great Fire
of London 26. Lancelot 27. Frankenstein’s
monster, the literary creation of Mary Shelley
28. Beatrix Potter 29. The first tank
30. Star Trek
WINTER WONDERLAND:
31. The Lion in Winter 32. Fabergé eggs
33. David Frost 34. Towton, 1461 35. The
Snow Goosee by Paul Gallico 36. CP Snow
37. A frost fair on the frozen river Thames 38.
It commemorates a disastrous avalanche that
killed eight people in Lewes in 1836 39. Cold
War 40. Chile
PICTURE ROUND:
1. B – Great Bed of Ware
2. H – A bronze cast of Rodin’s Kiss
3. J – Guy Fawkes’ lantern
4. C – The Silver Swan automaton
5. G – Stephenson’s Rocket
6. I – Afterr by Hogarth
7. A – Sir Roger the Asian elephant
8. F – Cruckaclady Farmhouse
9. E – Anglo-Saxon helmet from the Sutton
Hoo ship-burial
10. D – The Queen Mary Harp

BBC History Magazine 95

Miscellany

She was a star BUMPER

attraction of which CROSSWORD
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PRIZE
WIN an
You may photocopy this crossword expert tour
Across at Hampton
9 One of Britain’s most Court
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10 Sub-genre of Gothic
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11 Charles II’s Declaration
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committed during the
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13 Third largest of the
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 NEXT MONTH
MAGAZINE JANUARY ISSUE ON SALE 4 JANUARY 2016
EDITORIAL
Editor Rob Attar robertattar@historyextra.com
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Picture editor Samantha Nott samnott@historyextra.com
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ADVISORY PANEL
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BBC History Magazine 97

My history hero
“Henry was a ine archer,
wrestler and athlete – indeed,
in his youth, it was said that
he could outrun a deer and
bring it down!”
Actor Robert Hardy chooses
Henry V
1387–1422
H
enry V was king of England from 1413–22, the
second monarch from the House of Lancaster. The
teenage prince gained valuable military experience
in the campaigns against Owain Glyndŵr during
the Welsh revolt, and was nearly killed by an arrow
at the battle of Shrewsbury in 1403. On becoming king, he
resumed hostilities with France in the Hundred Years’ War,
defeating the French at Agincourt in 1415, and coming close to
conquering the country. He was the first king to use English
in his personal correspondence since the Norman Conquest,
and encouraged its use in government. He died in 1422.
When did you first hear about Henry V?
Long ago, back in the mists of time! In my childhood, for sure
– but I learnt more about him at university and also did research
of my own. I’ve been fascinated by the key figures on the English
side in the Hundred Years’ War, such as the Black Prince and
Henry V, for as long as I can remember.
What kind of person was he?
He was well-educated and well-read, like a lot of nobles at the time.
Yet he was blunt in speech, in action and in his attitude to people
– he got straight to the point. He was also immensely keen on
justice for all. Moreover, Henry was the first monarch to go
against the fashion of the day for speaking and writing in French
– he championed the use of English both privately and in public
life. He was also a fine archer, wrestler and athlete – indeed, in his
youth, it was said that he could outrun a deer and bring it down!
What made Henry V a hero?
He spared no pain in driving himself, and those around him, in
achieving his aims – and that was true of his army at Agincourt,
too. He was tough but he drove his body to such an extent that
he died very young, from dysentery, aged around 35. Another
wholly admirable thing about Henry was his courage, which he
showed in abundance after being struck by a barbed arrow at
Shrewsbury. The arrow head penetrated his skull to a depth of six
inches. Can you imagine the agony of the wound, and of then hav-
ing it extracted? Yet he bore it all! The great medieval historian,
98
A portrait of King Henry V,
a great leader and man of
courage, who “drove his body
to such an extent that he
died very young”
KB McFarlane, argued that Henry was the greatest man that ever
ruled England – which is a hell of a claim!
What was Henry’s finest hour?
Almost certainly, his victory at Agincourt – very much against
the odds, because his forces were so outnumbered by the French.
Henry led from the front, leading his troops into battle and
engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. And his
leadership, character and ability to keep his army – which boasted
thousands of archers – together played a vital role in securing
victory. He was a Napoleon of the battlefield. Incidentally, it’s
almost certainly true that Henry really did give a speech to his
troops on the eve of battle emphasising the justness of his cause,
as Shakespeare wrote in his play.
Is there anything you don’t particularly admire about
Henry V?
It’s hard to admire some of the acts that he perpetrated in war
(notably after Agincourt), which we would nowadays call cruelty.
But the truth is that he simply waged warfare according to the
accepted rules of the age. It’s pointless to judge anybody that
distant in time by the attitudes, laws and softness of today.
Can you see any parallels between Henry’s life and
your own?
Well, I’ve played Henry V on stage, television and film, and
written about his military life. But that’s as far as it goes…
If you could meet Henry, what would you ask him?
As he lay dying I’d ask him how bitterly he regretted that
he wouldn’t be able to finish his extraordinary plan for France
BRIDGEMAN/NEWS SYNDICATION
and Europe; and what he meant when, just before he died, he
shouted out: “Though liest, though liest – my portion is with the
Lord Jesus.”
Robert Hardy was talking to York Membery
Robert Hardy is an award-winning actor of stage and screen. He is also an
expert in the history of archery and is the author of Longbow: A Social and
Military History (JJ Haynes, 2012)
BBC History Magazine
 How Jesus Became God
Taught by Professor Bart D. Ehrman
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILL
LECTURE TITLES
1. Jesus—The Man Who Became God
2. Greco-Roman Gods Who Became Human
3. Humans as Gods in the
E D TIME OF
IT Greco-Roman World

FE
LIM
4. Gods Who Were Human

R
55% 5.
in Ancient Judaism
Ancient Jews Who Were Gods

off 6. The Life and Teachings of Jesus

Y
AR
OR
D 7. Did Jesus Think He Was God?
ER

U
N 8. The Death of Jesus—Historical Certainties
BY 2 JA
9. Jesus’s Death—What
Historians Can’t Know
10. The Resurrection—What
Historians Can’t Know
11. What History Reveals about
the Resurrection
12. The Disciples’ Visions of Jesus
13. Jesus’s Exaltation—Earliest
Christian Views
14. The Backward Movement of Christology
15. Paul’s View—Christ’s Elevated Divinity
16. John’s View—The Word Made Human
17. Was Christ Human? The Docetic View
18. The Divided Christ of the Separationists
19. Christ’s Dual Nature—Proto-Orthodoxy
20. The Birth of the Trinity
21. The Arian Controversy
22. The Conversion of Constantine
23. The Council of Nicea
24. Once Jesus Became God

Uncover the Extraordinary How Jesus Became God

Story of Jesus Christ Course no. 6522 | 24 lectures (30 minutes/lecture)

The early Christian claim that Jesus of Nazareth was God completely changed
the course of Western civilisation. For that reason, the question of how Jesus
became God is one of the most significant historical questions and, in fact, a
question that some believers have never thought to ask. What exactly happened,
such that Jesus came to be considered God? To ask this question is to delve
into a fascinating, multilayered historical puzzle—one that offers a richly
illuminating look into the origins of the Western worldview and the theological
underpinnings of our civilisation.
In the 24 provocative lectures of How Jesus Became God, Professor Bart
D. Ehrman of The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill takes you
deeply into the process by which the divinity of Jesus was first conceived by
his followers, demonstrating how this conception was refined over time to
become the core of the Christian theology that has so significantly shaped
our civilisation.
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 THE C9 5 DAY SMALL-SECOND CHRONOMETER

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