The Viking Pirates
Pirates have a long and fascinating history, stretching back thousands of years. In fact, long before we came up with the word “pirate” ancient civilizations were already struggling with seaborne raiders who plundered ships and coastal settlements. The Mediterranean Pirates For example, in the Mediterranean, both Greek and Roman ships were frequently harassed by […]
The Story of Sutton Hoo
One that links Mrs Edith Pretty, a Suffolk landowner, to an Anglo Saxon warrior King, thought to be Raedwald, a powerful Anglo Saxon King. It is about one of the most influential and important archaeological discoveries ever found in Britain. It links two periods of our country’s turbulent history. One ends mysteriously 1,400 years ago […]
After the Romans and before 1066 who invaded England?
During this period England was open to be conquered by any north European tribe, therefore the Germans, the Vikings and then the Danish invaded. First came the Germans As soon as the Romans left in 410AD we started to be invaded by raiding parties of Germans. It wasn’t a large invasion, just tribes, such as […]
William the Conqueror died in France not England!
On September 7th 1087 William the Conqueror died in Rouen, but why Rouen? Even though he had conquered England, he was also Duke of Normandy and he had to spend more time in France protecting his kingdom in Normandy than he did here. In fact, it’s reported that at one point he spent five years […]
The Triple Entente failed to stop WWI
At the beginning of the 20th century the major nations of Europe formed two grand alliances, in which they pledged to support each other in the event of one of them being attacked. There was one between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy, called the Triple Alliance, and the other was the Triple Entente between France, Russia […]
Who was the Lady of the Mercians?
You will have heard of the Warrior Queen Boadicea but have you ever heard of Aethelflaed? She led her troops in the Battle of Tettenhall. You probably haven’t heard of that Battle, have you? Well, she was described as the Lady of the Mercians, who was the oldest daughter of Alfred the Great, and […]
On December 5th 1456 a bigger earthquake hit Naples
We’ve all heard about the explosion of Vesuvius on 24th August AD79 that wiped out Pompeii, which is just by Naples. Did you know that an even bigger earthquake hit Naples, just next to Pompeii, on 5th December 1456 killing 35,000 people? It does make you wonder when the next big one will hit southern […]
Have the Danes ever successfully invaded England?
Yes, throughout the 9th and 10th centuries BC. Despite the dangers, between 20,000 and 35,000 Danish Vikings chose to uproot and migrate to England between the 9th and 10th century. They started as raiding parties seeing what they could take, but as their raids continued, more and more of them decided to stay, they liked […]
Was 1066 the last invasion of England?
No, it wasn’t! The Dutch tried it twice, unsuccessfully in 1667 then, yes, successfully 1688, however, we modified history to say it wasn’t invasion. However, the most interesting invasion was by the French unsuccessfully in February 1797. The Dutch invasion of England 1667 “And, the truth is, I do fear so much that the whole kingdom […]
The Battle of Copenhagen
The Battle of Copenhagen went down in history because Horatio Nelson pulled off one of the boldest and most iconic acts of disobedience in naval history. In the battle with the chaos of war raging around him, Nelson, ever the maverick, put his telescope to his blind eye and quipped, “I see no signal.” This […]