Julius Caesar (10)

What did Julius Caesar find when he came to Britain?

First he found the people were not the wild savages he had expected and then that they were very good fighters.

What happened after he became Roman emperor?

Altgough he ruled well some were not happy and he was eventually assassinated by Brutus and Cassius.

See if you can find pictures of some Romans

By Albert Kretschmer, painters and costumer to the Royal Court Theatre, Berlin, and Dr. Carl Rohrbach., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The 15 Heroes and Heroines of Days of Adventure

The book Days of Adventure is in three sections. It's  bit of ragbag really. The last 15 chapters look at homes through the ages and the second 15 (sounds like a rugby team) life in the middle ages. The first and most interesting section is headed heroes and heroines and I seem to remember doing this section when I was in primary school. Those covered are

Caradoc

Boadicea

Hereward the Wake

Llewellyn

Joan of Arc

Richard Grenville

General Wolfe

Clive of India

Lord Nelson

Florence Nightingale

David Livingstone

Mary Slessor

Scott of the Antarctic, etc

Edith Cavell

Hunt, Hillary and Tensing

Brilliant list and all presented in the usual way.

Hammurabi (03)

1. What did Hammurabi do that made him famous?

We know the name of Hammurabi today chiefly because of the laws he made., because of what has been called his eponymous code. Unlike earlier Sumerian law codes, which had apparently focused on compensating the victim of the crime, the Law of Hammurabi was one of the first law codes to place greater emphasis on the physical punishment of the perpetrator. It prescribed specific penalties for each crime and is among the first codes to establish the presumption of innocence. They were intended to limit what a wronged person was permitted to do in retribution. People often compare Hammurabi's law with Moses' law, highlighting similarities.

2. What was the name of Hammurabi's city? Where was it?

Babylon in Mesopotamia.

3. Tell what you know of the story of Abraham

We know from the Bible that Abraham was originally from Ur (see map). God called him out of utter paganism to the Promised Land which he came to via Harran.

For an article on Hammurabi see here.

Bonnie Prince Charlie 1720-1788 (35)

 

1. Who was Bonnie Prince Charlie

Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart and grandson of James II (VII in Scotland) and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1766. During his lifetime, he was known as "the Young Pretender" and "the Young Chevalier" and in popular memory, he is known as Bonnie Prince Charlie. Born in Rome to the exiled Stuart court, he spent much of his life in Italy. In 1744, he travelled to France to take part in a planned invasion to restore the Stuart monarchy under his father. When the French fleet was partly wrecked by storms, Charles resolved to proceed to Scotland following discussion with leading Jacobites. This resulted in Charles landing by ship on the west coast of Scotland, leading to the Jacobite rising of 1745. The Jacobite forces under him initially achieved several victories in the field, including Prestonpans (September 1745) and Falkirk Muir (January 1746). However, in April 1746, he was defeated at Culloden, which effectively ended the Stuart cause. There were subsequent attempts such as a planned French invasion in 1759 but Charles was unable to restore the Stuart monarchy. With the Jacobite cause lost, Charles spent the remainder of his life on the continent, except for one secret visit to London. He lived briefly in France before he was exiled in 1748 under the terms of the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle. He eventually returned to Italy, where he spent much of his later life in Florence and Rome. He had a number of mistresses before marrying Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern in 1772. In later life, Charles's health declined greatly and he was said to be an alcoholic. However, his escapades during the 1745/46 uprising, as well as his escape from Scotland, led to his portrayal as a romantic figure of heroic failure. His life and the once possible prospects of a restored Stuart monarchy have left an enduring historical legend that continues to have a legacy today.

2. Why did he stop marching to London?

By November 1746 Charles had reached as far suth as Derby but the lack of English Jacobite and French support was unnervung as was the rumour that the government was amassing large forces. Charles had to admit to the Scots Jacobites that he had heard nothing from the English Jacobites since leaving France although he had claimed to have done so. This caused his relationship with some of the Scots to irretrievably break down. On December 6 the Jacobites and Charles left Derby and began their long march north back to Scotland.

3. How did Flora MacDonald help the prince?

Flora MacDonald 1722-1790 is best known for helping Bonnie Prince Charlie evade government troops after the Battle of Culloden in April 1746. MacDonald was visiting Benbecula in the Outer Hebrides when the Bonnie Prince and a small group of aides took refuge there after the Battle of Culloden in June 1746. One of his companions, Captain Conn O'Neill from County Antrim, was distantly related to MacDonald and asked for her help. MacDonald of Sleat had not joined the Rebellion and Benbecula was controlled by a pro-government militia commanded by her step-father, Hugh MacDonald. This connection allowed her to obtain the necessary permits but she apparently hesitated, fearing the consequences for her family if they were caught. She may have been taking less of a risk than it appears, since witnesses later claimed Hugh advised the Prince where to hide from his search parties. Passes were issued allowing passage to the mainland for Flora and a party of eight, including Charles disguised as an Irish maid called Betty Burke. On 27 June, they landed near Sir Alexander's house at Monkstadt, near Kilbride, Skye. In his absence, his wife Lady Margaret arranged lodging with her steward, who told Charles to remove his disguise, as it simply made him more conspicuous. The next day, the Prince was taken from Portree to the island of Raasay, while MacDonald remained on Skye. They never met again. Two weeks later, the boatmen were detained and confessed; MacDonald and Kingsburgh were arrested and taken to the Tower of London. After Lady Margaret interceded on her behalf with the chief Scottish legal officer, Duncan Forbes of Culloden, she was allowed to live outside the Tower under the supervision of a "King's Messenger" and released after the June 1747 Act of Indemnity. Aristocratic sympathisers collected over £1,500 for her, one of the contributors being Frederick, Prince of Wales. She allegedly told Frederick she helped Charles out of charity, and would have done the same for him. Arrested and held in the Tower of London, she was released under a general amnesty in June 1747. She later married Allan MacDonald and the couple emigrated to North Carolina in 1773.

The Black Hole of Calcutta 1756 (36)

 

1. Calcutta

2. The Black Hole of Calcutta

The Black Hole of Calcutta was a dungeon in Fort William, Calcutta, measuring 14 by 18 feet (4.3 m × 5.5 m), in which troops of Siraj-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, held British prisoners of war on the night of 20 June 1756.  John Zephaniah Holwell, one of the British prisoners and an employee of the East India Company, said that, after the fall of Fort William, the surviving British soldiers, Indian sepoys and Indian civilians were imprisoned overnight in conditions so cramped that many people died from suffocation and heat exhaustion and that 123 of 146 prisoners of war imprisoned there died. Some modern historians believe that only 64 prisoners were sent into the Hole, and that 43 died there. Some historians put the figure even lower, to about 18 dead, while questioning the veracity of Holwell's account. Fort William was established to protect the East India Company's trade in the city of Calcutta, the principal city of the Bengal Presidency. In 1756 India, there existed the possibility of a battle with the military forces of the French East India Company, so the British reinforced the fort. Siraj ud-Daulah ordered the fortification construction to be stopped by the French and British and the French complied while the British demurred. In consequence to British indifference, Siraj ud-Daulah organised his army and laid siege to Fort William. In an effort to survive the battle, the British commander ordered the surviving soldiers of the garrison to escape, yet left behind 146 soldiers under the civilian command of John Zephaniah Holwell, a senior bureaucrat of the East India Company. once a military surgeon. Desertions of Indian sepoys made the British defence of Fort William ineffective and it fell to the siege of Bengali forces on 20 June 1756. The surviving defenders who were captured and made prisoners of war numbered between 64 and 69, along with an unknown number of Anglo-Indian soldiers and civilians who earlier had been sheltered in Fort William. The British officers and merchants based in Kolkata were rounded up by the forces loyal to Siraj ud-Daulah and forced into a dungeon known as the "Black Hole". In memory of the dead, the British erected a 15-metre (50') high obelisk, now in the graveyard of St John's Church, Calcutta.

The Battle of Trafalgar 1805 (39)

 

1. Who was Napoleon?

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), also known as Napoleon I, was a French military leader and emperor who conquered much of Europe in the early 19th century. Born on the island of Corsica, Napoleon rapidly rose through the ranks of the military during the French Revolution (1789-1799). After seizing political power in France in a 1799 coup d’état, he crowned himself emperor in 1804.

2. What was Nelson's famous signal?

"England expects that every man will do his duty" is the signal sent by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson from his flagship HMS Victory as the Battle of Trafalgar was about to commence on 21 October, 1805.

3. What happened at the Battle of Trafalgar?

Cape Trafalgar is on the Atlantic coast in Spain, between Cadiz and the strait of Gibraltar. The Battle of Trafalgar is one of the most famous naval battles in British history. Nelson led Britain to victory over a combined French and Spanish fleet, but was shot and died during the battle. The British captured 18 enemy ships, most of which sank in a storm the next day. They lost 449 sailors, with another 1,217 wounded. The French and Spanish had 4,408 killed, 2,545 wounded and 20,000 taken prisoner.

Croesyceiliog Juniors

This is the school where I first encountered Days of Glory. My class teacher was Mr Rees. This was in 1969 when the book was already a few years old. It first came out in 1961 and was republished in 1964. My book would have been stamped with the Monmouthshire County Council Education Committee stamp.