The medieval roots of modern British government Most people know that the ancient Greeks invented democracy (demos – ‘the people’ and kratia – ‘power’). But we Brits like to imagine it was us – Westminster is “the mother of parliaments”, and all that. In fact, Iceland’s Althing and Sweden’s Jamtamot date back to the 10th […]
Brits invent parliamentary democracy Read More »
History
The Normans crushed the Saxons and a hybrid culture evolved that became uniquely British Britain changed forever on 14 October 1066. In fact, the defeat of the English (Saxons) under King Harold, by the bastard Duke William of Normandy and his invaders at the Battle of Hastings is one of those events that came to
How the Normans shaped world history Read More »
History
People talk of a north-south divide in Britain, but it was once even more serious than it is now It’s all a matter of power and geography. The Danes had defeated the old Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia. If the Danes had beaten Alfred of Wessex too, maybe the capital of Britain
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History
Terrible portents appeared over Northumbria and miserably frightened the inhabitants: there were exceptional flashes of lightning, and fiery dragons were seen flying in the air. A great famine followed these signs; and a little after that, in the same year on 8 June, the harrying of the heathen miserably destroyed God’s church in Lindisfarne by
Newsflash – Vikings murder defenceless monks Read More »
History
How Britain not only became Christian, but also specifically Roman Catholic Britain, like the rest of Western Europe, has a long Christian heritage. The Church came to wield enormous political and socio-economic power, and religion is such a part of Britain’s continuing story, so it is important to understand a bit about how Christianity arrived.
Christianity and the age of the saints Read More »
History
Romano-British culture is swept aside by foreign invaders. Some history books tell you that the Romans left Britain in 410 AD; full stop. But we must not think that the Romans packed their suitcases, hopped on the first convenient galley to Calais – and that was it, the next bunch of invaders, the Saxons, moved
What did the Romans ever do for Britain – apart from sanitation, medicine, education, wine, law, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, public health… It is sometimes hard to believe that Britain was once part of the Roman world. The Romans conquered all of what is now England (though the extent of Roman
What did the Romans do for Britain? Read More »
History
From nothing to the Roman occupation Once upon a very long time ago, but not necessarily at the same time, Britain was inhabited by extremely large lizards, woolly rhinos, mammoths, sabre-toothed tigers, giant cattle called aurochs, enormous bears, deer with antlers as long as a person – indeed, all manner of wild animals not often
Early British history Read More »
History
There’s a kind of benign magic about Avebury; it’s the sort of place where you can have fun communing with your ancestors. Like faded signposts painted in a language we do not understand, the remains they have left behind are scattered across the countryside in these parts. They point to unknown places and alien lives.
I wonder how many pints of ale have been supped here? Let me see: if just twenty people drank a modest 4 pints every night, that would be, er, 29,200 pints a year – 2,920,000 for every century. But the revenue generated by that amount of beer would not be enough to make the place
The George Inn at Borough Read More »
London
What have William the Conqueror, Shakespeare, Peter Rabbit, the Big Friendly Giant, Bobby Moore and David Cameron all got in common? Answer: they were all associated with anniversaries in 2016. Of course, some anniversaries were very kindly highlighted by publicists, who ultimately decide which momentous dates will be remembered in Britain. 950th anniversary of the
Anniversaries, 2016 Read More »
British Stuff History
We travelled to Bateman’s, Rudyard Kipling’s Sussex home for 34 years, through the impossibly pretty village of Burwash, all whitewash and weatherboard. You reach the house down what Kipling described as “an enlarged rabbit-hole of a lane” to arrive in what is now a car park. I wondered how it had all looked when the
