The real Gunpowder Plot was simple, but it went wrong!
The real Gunpowder Plot was simple, but it went wrong! Basically, it was a very simple plan, however, if it had succeeded its effect would have been anything but. It came about as a result of religious passion, frustration, and desperation, by a group of English Catholics who wanted to change the course of history […]
The Great Fire on London
Shortly after midnight on Sunday 2nd September a fire went rogue in Thomas Farriner’s bakery in Pudding Lane in the City of London. Now fires were a regularity in the City of London at this time. Unfortunately, this one, as I said earlier went rogue. It quickly spread to the nearby houses, then to nearby […]
The History of Lotteries
England’s first recorded lottery started on January 11th, 1569, 450 years ago. Where did they start? They started in China around 200 BC, to fund major projects, such as building the Great Wall of China. Then the Romans used them However, to Romans lotteries were a game played at dinner parties. Well, that was until […]
The ‘dancing plague’
Today we dance for fun, we can dance all night, and we think nothing of it, but in the 14th century they thought it was a disease! They called it the “Dancing Plague”. Between the 14th and 17th centuries in European towns people would suddenly start dancing erratically, then others joined them, sometimes this grew […]
What do you know of the Aztecs?
They lived in Mexico from around 1168 to 1521. Their empire was vast, they ruled 12 million people in 38 provinces from the Gulf of Mexico across to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. Originally, they were from Aztlan in northwest Mexico and were nomads with a reputation for brutality and human sacrifice. It is […]
Fairs on a frozen Thames
Behold the Liquid Thames frozen o’re,That lately Ships of mighty Burthen boreThe Watermen for want of Rowing BoatsMake use of Booths to get their Pence & GroatsHere you may see beef roasted on the spitAnd for your money you may taste a bitThere you may print your name, tho cannot writeCause num’d with cold: tis […]
Did they have inflation in the 16th Century
Yes, they did, but it was not inflation as we know it, because prices didn’t rise as fast as they do today. However, in those days they called it the Price Revolution, which they blamed on the Spanish and then called it the Spanish Price Revolution. Basically, it was a series of economic events that […]
What was the biggest company in the world between 1600 and 1750?
It was the East India Company. What was it? It was a company that was so powerful that it effected the global balance of trade, moving between the east and the west. This was because by the mid-1700s it appeared to have become involved in half the world’s trade. This British company, was part owned […]
Letter of marque – legal pirates
A letter of marque was given by governments in the 16,17 & 18th Centuries as a licence for a private person to attack and capture ships of a nation with which that government was at war. They legalised piracy. It is the only way to describe it, it was that, legalised piracy. Some governments did […]
The history of Glasses
The picture above shows the first depiction of someone wearing glasses. That was in 1352, however well before this the Romans were using a glass tube of water as a magnifier to read books. Then in the Middle Ages it is said that monks used a glass full of water to magnify what they were […]