William Wallace (28)

1. Which English king wanted to conquer Scotland?

It was Edward I 1239-1307, king from 1272, who wanted to conquer Scotland. (He actually conquered Wales).

2. From which town did Wallace drive the English?

Wallace was able to drive the English out of Strirling in 1297, following the Battle of Stirling Bridge.

3. How did the English capture William Wallace?

Wallae appears to have been betrayed by a fellow Scot (John de Menteith) who revealed that Wallace was hiding in a wood.

Sir William Wallace c 1270-1305) was a Scottish knight of the minor nobility who became one of the main leaders during the First War of Scottish Independence. Along with Andrew Moray, he defeated an English army at the Battle of Stirling Bridge September 1297. He was appointed Guardian of Scotland and served until his defeat at the Battle of Falkirk July 1298. In August 1305, he was captured in Robroyston, near Glasgow, and handed over to King Edward I, who had him hanged, drawn and quartered for high treason and crimes against English civilians.

Since his death, Wallace has obtained a legendary status beyond his homeland. He is the protagonist of Blind Harry's 15th-century epic poem The Wallace and the subject of literary works by Jane Porter and Sir Walter Scott and, most famously, the Academy Award-winning but historically unreliable film Braveheart, starring Mel Gibson.

A modern equivalent for adults

Gimson's Heroes is a book of fifty biographies of British heroes. Days of Glory is more expansive and includes incidents as well as biographies. However, in four instances the subject is exactly the same, namely

King Alfred the Great

Robert Bruce

Sir Walter Raleigh

Lord Shaftesbury

Also, Harold, Drake and Nelson are featured in both books, DoG having chapters on Hastings, the Armada and Trafalgar.

It is a surprise, now I reflect, that DofG doesn't have something on Florence Nightingale or David Livingstone but see Days of Adventure.

One book is for children in the sixties and the other for adults today but they breathe the same spirit, even where the material does not overlap. Both books are specifically designed for readers who want to quickly grasp the essential, narrative facts of British history either for the first time or because they don't quite remember from their school days. I get the impression that Gimson and Purton were cut from the same cloth.

King Alfred the Great (19)

1.Why did Alfred hide in Somerset?

He was on the run from invading Danes

2 How did he learn the plans of the Danes?

He disguised himself as  aminstrel in order to get near to them. The Danes loved music.

3 What great things did King Alfred do?

Alfred did many great things including

• Decisively defeating the Danes at Edington (878).
• He created a Standing Army. He reorganised the fyrd (militia) into a rotating system, ensuring part of the army was always ready to fight while the other half managed farms.
• He built a network of Burhs. He constructed a system of 33 fortified, garrisoned towns (burhs) throughout Wessex, ensuring no part of the kingdom was more than 20 miles from safety.
• He established the "Navy". He commissioned the building of new, faster, larger ships to combat Viking raiders at sea, laying the foundation for a permanent English navy.
• He reclaimed London (886): He reoccupied and restored it, establishing it as a crucial strategic hub against the Vikings.
• He promoted literacy. He insisted that all free-born men of adequate means learn to read English, encouraging a revival of education.
• He translated Latin Texts. He personally translated or commissioned the translation of important Latin books into Old English, including Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy and St. Augustine’s Soliloquies.
• He established a Court School. He set up a school at his court to educate his own children, as well as the children of nobles and commoners.
• He commissioned the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. He initiated this monumental historical record, which began the tracking of English history in the vernacular.
• He codified a Law Code (The Doom Book). He compiled a new code of laws, blending existing Anglo-Saxon traditions with Mosaic law and Christian ethics, aimed at providing fair justice.
• He reformed the coinage. He stabilised the economy by reforming the currency, ensuring high-purity silver, which allowed for better trade.
• He promoted unity. While not king of all England, he styled himself "King of the Anglo-Saxons" after taking London, fostering a common identity that led to the unification of England under his descendants.
• He invented or adopted candle clocks to manage his time for study, prayer and royal duties. He used six specially crafted candles, each 12 inches tall, which burned for 4 hours each, totalling 24 hours to monitor day and night.

Phoenician Sailors (5)

1. What do you know about the Phoenicians?

The Phoenicians were an ancient Semitic people who inhabited city-states in Canaan along the Levantine coast of the eastern Mediterranean, primarily in present-day Lebanon and parts of coastal Syria. Their maritime civilisation expanded and contracted over time, with its cultural core stretching from Arwad to Mount Carmel. Through trade and colonisation, they extended their influence across the Mediterranean, from Cyprus to Iberia, leaving behind thousands of inscriptions.

They emerged directly from the Bronze Age Canaanites, their cultural traditions survived the Late Bronze Age collapse and continued into the Iron Age with little interruption. They referred to themselves as Canaanites and their land as Canaan, though the territory they occupied was smaller than that of earlier Bronze Age Canaan. The name Phoenicia is a Greek exonym that did not correspond to a unified native identity. Modern scholarship generally views the distinction between Canaanites and Phoenicians after c. 1200 BC as artificial.

Renowned for seafaring and trade, the Phoenicians established one of antiquity's most extensive maritime networks, active for over a millennium. This network facilitated exchanges in Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece. They founded colonies and trading posts throughout the Mediterranean.

Phoenician society was organised into independent city-states, notably Byblos, Sidon and Tyre. Each retained political autonomy and there is no evidence of a shared national identity. While kingship was common, powerful merchant families likely exercised influence through oligarchies. The Phoenician cities flourished most in the 9th century BC, but subsequently declined under the expansion of other empires. Their influence nevertheless endured in the western Mediterranean until the Roman destruction of Carthage in the mid-2nd century BC.

 2. Why did they like to trade?

They were well placed for it geographically and lacking farmland or metal deposits but having plenty of timber they cincentrated on trade. By working together the city states that made up Phoenicia were able to trade extensively and so increase revenue. Their skilled craftsmen were also a great help.

3. Which famous city did they build? Where was it?

The Phoenicians built Carthage in North Africa, in what is today Tunisia. The name seems to mean new city.

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.