Bonnie Prince Charlie
On 29th November 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite army moved into Manchester and occupied Carlisle. Bonnie Prince Charlie, born Charles Edward Stuart on December 31, 1720, was a charismatic figure who became the symbol of the Jacobite cause to restore the Stuart...
Eleanor
Eleanor of Castile died on the 28th of November 1290. After her death, her husband King Edward I, known as Longshanks, commissioned the famous Eleanor Crosses, a series of twelve lavish monuments erected at the places where her funeral cortege rested on its journey to...
The Berner’s Street Hoax – Getting Talked About
I’m trying to be talked about now. I want my website to attract attention and hopefully sell my books, The Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. But I’m unlikely to be successful as Theodore Hook. The Berner’s Street Hoax was an elaborate prank orchestrated by the English...
Dracula
The On This Day website tell me that on 26th November 1476 Vlad III, known to history as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula, with the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Bathory defeated Basarab Laiota to become ruler of Wallachia for the third time. His legacy is a...
Potatoes
I use the On This Day website for inspiration more than fact. It says that on 3rd December 1586 Sir Thomas Herriot introduced potatoes to England from Colombia. I can’t find a Sir Thomas Herriot, but there was a Sir Thomas Harriot. Harriot became a close associate of...
Elizabeth of Russia
On 25th November 1741 Elizabeth seized Russia from her cousin Anna Ivanovna. Elizabeth Petrovna, known as Elizabeth of Russia, was one of the most intriguing figures of the Russian imperial history. Born on December 29, 1709, she was the daughter of Peter the Great...
Venus
In Fire and Earth, the second book of the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, Standen meets Galileo. In 1609 he was the first man to observe the phases of Venus through a telescope. Astronomy then advanced quite quickly. Jeremiah Horrocks (1618-1641) was a pioneering...
Charlemagne
Apparently Charlemagne never said “Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky” as suggested by Sean Connery in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. But he was the first Holy Roman Emperor. Pope Leo III (reigned 795–816) is best known for his...
Beards and Circumcision
Are beards in? For most of my life I’ve been clean shaven. I grew a moustache for a few months in 1987, but it didn’t suit me. When I walked the Camino de Santiago in 2019 I was saving every ounce of weight in the backpack, so razor and shaving foam were out. The...
Bonnie Prince Charlie
On 29th November 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite army moved into Manchester and occupied Carlisle. Bonnie Prince Charlie, born Charles Edward Stuart on December 31, 1720, was a charismatic figure who became the symbol of the Jacobite cause to restore the Stuart...
Eleanor
Eleanor of Castile died on the 28th of November 1290. After her death, her husband King Edward I, known as Longshanks, commissioned the famous Eleanor Crosses, a series of twelve lavish monuments erected at the places where her funeral cortege rested on its journey to...
The Berner’s Street Hoax – Getting Talked About
I’m trying to be talked about now. I want my website to attract attention and hopefully sell my books, The Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. But I’m unlikely to be successful as Theodore Hook. The Berner’s Street Hoax was an elaborate prank orchestrated by the English...
Dracula
The On This Day website tell me that on 26th November 1476 Vlad III, known to history as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula, with the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Bathory defeated Basarab Laiota to become ruler of Wallachia for the third time. His legacy is a...
Potatoes
I use the On This Day website for inspiration more than fact. It says that on 3rd December 1586 Sir Thomas Herriot introduced potatoes to England from Colombia. I can’t find a Sir Thomas Herriot, but there was a Sir Thomas Harriot. Harriot became a close associate of...
Elizabeth of Russia
On 25th November 1741 Elizabeth seized Russia from her cousin Anna Ivanovna. Elizabeth Petrovna, known as Elizabeth of Russia, was one of the most intriguing figures of the Russian imperial history. Born on December 29, 1709, she was the daughter of Peter the Great...
Venus
In Fire and Earth, the second book of the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, Standen meets Galileo. In 1609 he was the first man to observe the phases of Venus through a telescope. Astronomy then advanced quite quickly. Jeremiah Horrocks (1618-1641) was a pioneering...
Charlemagne
Apparently Charlemagne never said “Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky” as suggested by Sean Connery in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. But he was the first Holy Roman Emperor. Pope Leo III (reigned 795–816) is best known for his...
Beards and Circumcision
Are beards in? For most of my life I’ve been clean shaven. I grew a moustache for a few months in 1987, but it didn’t suit me. When I walked the Camino de Santiago in 2019 I was saving every ounce of weight in the backpack, so razor and shaving foam were out. The...