Blog Archives - Meandering Through Time

Treasure Island and Coinsciendences

26/4/2020

Life is full of coincidences. One particular one springs to my mind are the events of a family holiday to Lanzarote a few years ago.

As our plane taxied down the runway of East Midlands airport, the pilot introduced himself as Captain Benbow, nearly all of the passengers sniggered, including me. What was probably going through their mind, as it was mine, was the thought he may have looked a bit like Long John Silver from Robert Louis Stephenson's book Treasure Island.

Many of you will know that Stephenson's wonderful story is the tale of Jim Hawkin’s quest for buried treasure that begins at his father’s inn.

Can any of you remember its name?

Yes, that's right, it is the Admiral Benbow.

I was even more excited when I found out that the island of La Graciosa, the smallest island in the Canaries, which you can see from Lanzarote's mountain restaurant Mirador del Rio, (where incidentally they do a great paella) is thought to have inspired Stevenson to write his book.

How fantastically coincidental is that?

English naval officer John Benbow died on the 7th of November in 1702 following complications to a wound to his leg. It was Benbow who Stephenson named the pub after in Treasure Island. You can read more about John Benbow here:

www.nmrnportsmouth.org.uk/sites/default/files/John%20Benbow.pdf

The Birth and Death of William Shakespeare

23/4/2020

On this day, the 23 April 1616 William Shakespeare died, the 23rd of April may have even been the day he was born too. His baptism appears in the parish register for the 26th April 1564, babies were usually baptised a few days after their birth so it is in the realms of possibility.

William Shakespeare was one of our greatest playwrights, (I forgave him for the hatchet job he did on Richard III years ago!) and would like to write a piece on him myself but his life and his works are much covered and in a way I could never aspire to. However, I found this lovely comic line supposedly said by the man himself and thought, "this is my piece on Shakespeare."

"No I have drunk with Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston, Haunted Hillboro’, Hungry Grafton, Dodging Exhall, Papist Wixford, Beggarly Broom and Drunken Bidford and so, I will drink no more."

The line supposedly originates from when he was visiting Stratford, Shakespeare is said to have gone on a Elizabethan 'pub crawl' setting out with a party of friends with the intent of out drinking a drinking club from the neighbouring village of Bidford on Avon. Drinking, all night, in no less that eight ale houses in the same number of villages, including Marston, Exhall and Wixford, Shakespeare finally fell asleep under a tree, where he was woken in the morning by his drinking friends who asked him join them the following evening, to which Shakespeare is said to have replied with the above sentence.

There is no proof that Shakespeare actually had the conversation but still, it may have come from his lips. We know he wrote comedy using such things as slapstick and practical jokes, and this statement is a fine example of Shakespeare talking in a quick and witty manner.

What a great pun! Only a man with the talent of William Shakespeare could have said that surely.here to edit.

Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat

17/4/2020

History records Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, a loyal British army officer support of the government, a spy and a Catholic convert. He was also a turncoat, who switched sides during the Jacobite uprisings.

Lord Lovat in 1767, as painted by William Hogarth.

After fleeing the battlefield Culloden in 1746, Fraser was found hiding in a hollow of a tree. He was tried for high treason in the August of that year and convicted on that count. He was executed on the 9th April the following year.

Lovat went to his death on Tower Hill. The block and the axe on display in the Tower of London was used for his execution, he was the last person to be beheaded in Britain. Several people, who gathered to watch the beheading, died after the scaffold they were on collapsed. Of this, it is said Fraser found the incident so funny that his death led to the phrase "laughing your head off." However, there is no record of this.

Fraser, according to a sympathiser, died an honourable death with the words
'For those things, which were done either by our fathers or ancestors, and in which we ourselves had no share, I can scarcely call our own.'

April 14th, 2020

14/4/2020

For whom the possessed sea littered, on both shores,
Ruinous arms; being fired, and for good,
To sound the constitution of just wars,
Men, in their eloquent fashion, understood.

Relieved of soul, the dropping-back of dust,
Their usage, pride, admitted within doors;
At home, under caved chantries, set in trust,
With well-dressed alabaster and proved spurs
They lie; they lie; secure in the decay
Of blood, blood-marks, crowns hacked and coveted,
Before the scouring fires of trial-day
Alight on men; before sleeked groin, gored head,
Budge through the clay and gravel, and the sea
Across daubed rock evacuates its dead.

Geoffrey Hill, 1932 - 2016

Isambard Kingdom Brunel

14/4/2020

Click here to In 1843, while performing a magic trick for his children, Isambard Kingdom Brunel accidentally inhaled a half sovereign coin, which became lodged in his windpipe.

The first attempt to free the coin by using as special pair of forceps didn't work, however, the second effort seems comical now, but no doubt wasn't then, involved a machine devised by Brunel (I'm not too sure that it was designed for this purpose) that eventually shook it loose.

Thank goodness this great man didn't choke to death, or we would not have had that wonderful bridge that spans the River Tamar between Devon and Cornwall or The Great Western Railway terminus at Paddington.edit.

Death of James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell

14/4/2020

I took a bit of a fancy to James Hepburn the 4th Earl of Bothwell while still at school and the attraction hasn't waned since seeing him portrayed by Kevin McKidd in the 2004 mini-series Gunpowder, Treason and Plot.

Bothwell was a staunch supporter of the regency under Mary of Guise and his support continued when Mary's daughter arrived from France to take the Scottish throne, however, he was unhappy with her marriage to Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley.
Darnley, by all accounts, was a disreputable young man that history describes as a heavy drinker, vain, arrogant, self-centred, egotistical and violent he was also disliked by many of his peers. Both Mary and Bothwell were suspected of being involved, in Darnley's murder - Bothwell was tried but was cleared.

After Mary was forced to abdicate and incarcerated, it was Bothwell's intention to rescue her, but circumstances forced him to flee to Norway where he was questioned about monies owed to Anna Throndsen, a woman who he had abandoned years earlier. He was held first at Copenhagen Castle and by 1573 he found himself in solitary confinement in Dragsholm Castle
also in Denmark.

I still dither in my opinion of him, I'm not sure if he was ambitions and power crazy or a true noble of Scotland who put his country first?

It was at Dragsholm Castle that James Hepburn died on the 14th April in 1578 insane, weakened and degraded allegedly chained to a stone pillar and unable to stand.

In a gruesome end to his tale we find that his mummified remains were displayed in the church in the village of Faarevejle until finally buried some four centuries later.

April 12th, 2020

12/4/2020

On the 2nd August in 1894, Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt, Chancellor of the Exchequer and Home Secretary introduced the tax of Death Duty, we know it as Inheritance Tax.

This new law was introduced to raise money to pay off a four million pound government shortfall.

In the story of Downton Abbey, it was taxes and a medieval inheritance system that was the real root of the families troubles. Both together, these two things threatened to ruin the life that Earl of Grantham's ancestors had built up over many years.
Robert Crawley and his wife had daughters and no sons and because of the laws of primogeniture, none of them could inherit their father's title, house, or land. It was Robert's first cousin James and his son Patrick who stood to inherit, but when they died on the Titanic, it was Matthew Crawley, Robert's third cousin once removed, who became heir presumptive.

Primogeniture is centuries old however the taxation of a person's wealth at the time of their death dates from the the
end of the 17th century.

It's a good job a person wasn't taxed on the amount of names he had isn't it?

The Wyatt Rebellion

11/4/2020

I often wonder what I would do in a given situation in history, for instance, would I have followed Richard Duke of York against Henry VI? At Henry VIII's separation with Rome would I have stuck with the old religion or taken up the new Protestant one? Nobody knows what they would have done, and I suppose it all depends on who your family were, what positions they held and how they thought the turning of fortunes wheel might affect them.

My 15th century West Country ancestor was a fervent heretic hunter, yet his Catholic son, considered ‘suspect and weak and followed only those noblemen who are dangerous in the county’ conformed to the teachings of the Protestant church. I have to assumes that, if I was with my ancestor at this time I might to have joined him in capturing those men who were not of the same faith as me or maybe I would have been willing to join a rebellion that was taking place in the first few months of the reign of Queen Mary that was known as Wyatt's Rebellion.

The proposed marriage of the newly crowned Queen Mary to Philip of Spain and the fear that many people had that England would once again turn towards the old religion was at the root of Wyatt's rebellion. He had previously been imprisoned for his support of Lady Jane Grey’s claim to the throne but he had managed to escape the executioner's axe. Wyatt's new plan was to remove Mary from the throne and replace her with her Elizabeth, who would then marry Edward Courtenay. Courtenay was never a proven rebel but he was however embroiled in the plot. Peter Carew, a West Country gentleman did take part as did Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk. Many others joined Wyatt but no one seemed to notice that the vast majority of the populace had taken to Mary as their queen.

On entering London Wyatt's rebels were outnumbered by the queen's forces and Wyatt was captured.

While in the tower Wyatt named Edward Courtenay as the instigator of the rebellion and begged Courtenay to admit to it. By implication, Courtenay and Princess Elizabeth were suspected of being involved and they too were imprisoned, when no evidence was found they were both released and Courtenay fled the country but Wyatt was sent to trial at Westminster Hall on 15th of March.

Thomas Wyatt mounted the scaffold on the 11th April in 1554 and was executed for treason.

Following his trial Thomas Wyatt was beheaded on Tower Hill, his body quartered and his bowels and genitals burned. Wyatt's demise was gruesome but the treatment of his remains even more so, his head and body parts were then taken and parboiled and were later displayed for all to see, his head however disappeared.

What of the fate of Carew and the Duke of Suffolk? Carew, like Courteney, escaped abroad he was captured and imprisoned but later released on payment of his debts to the crown. The Duke of Suffolk also escaped but was found on his estate in Warwickshire, where he was betrayed by his gamekeeper.

Fastolfe/Falstaff

9/4/2020

While I was reading about William Montague, one of the twenty six founding Knights of the Order of the Garter, an order in which chivalry and honour where held in high esteem, I discovered that the actions by one man, was consider by another, to have "let the side down" so to speak.

According to Medieval Britain in 100 Facts by Matthew Lewis

"In 1429 France was resurgent against the occupying English, lead by Joan of Arc, and the culmination of this renewed conflict came on the 18th June at the Battle of Petay A smaller French force conclusively crushed the English army, who suffered over 2,000 causalities. John Talbot, who was later created Earl of Shewsbury, was captured at Patay and remained a prisoner in France for four years. Sir John Fastolf had lead a portion of the army but escaped. On securing his release, Talbot immediately accused Fastolf of cowardice and he was suspended from the Order of the Garter pending an investigation. Henry VI's uncle and regent, John, Duke of Bedford led the investigation but found no fault in Fastolf's actions,
reinstating him as a member of the Garter."

Fastolf and this event in his life are thought to have inspired Shakespeare to create Sir John Falstaff the cowardly knight
of his Henry IV plays.

Birth of Edmund of Langley

9/4/2020

On the 5th June 1341 Edmund of Langley, the fifth son of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault, was born at King’s Langley in Hertfordshire.

Edmund was thought highly of by Richard II who left him in charge of the country when he went on campaign in Ireland and it is thought the king intended to make Edmund's son, Edward of Norwich, his heir.

You will know of course, that Richard did not live long enough to enforce his wish.

Edmund was made Duke of York in 1385, and was the first to hold that title. He was the father of Richard of Conisburgh, grandfather of Richard, Duke of York and the great grandfather of Richard III, Edward IV, and George Duke of Clarence.

You could argue that Edmund's character is not unlike that of his grandson, Richard Duke of York. Both were loyal to the throne and both were charged with protectorship of England in the king's absence. Both men advised well (if the speech below is anything to go by) but were ignored.

"Even in condition of the worst degree,
In gross rebellion and detested treason:
Thou art a banish'd man, and here art come
Before the expiration of thy time,
In braving arms against thy sovereign.
Well, well, I see the issue of these arms:
I cannot mend it, I must needs confess,
Because my power is weak and all ill left:
But if I could, by Him that gave me life,
I would attach you all and make you stoop
Unto the sovereign mercy of the king;
But since I cannot, be it known to you
I do remain as neuter. So, fare you well"

It is true that Edmund later supported Henry Bolingbroke and his reasons for doing so are worth exploring. Was it his age? Did he do this to protect his family? - We'll never really know.

Of his last years it has been said - "Jaye styll in his castell, and medled with nothynge of the busynesse of Englande"

Edmund died at King's Langley on the 1st of August 1402.