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 […]
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 […]
Lying on the beach have you ever thought who started the Package Holiday?
It was a man called . More interestingly it was 180 odd years ago in 1841 when a cabinet maker from Leicestershire, called Thomas Cook, launched the first travel package trip. Yes, a cabinet maker came up with the first one! How did it all start? It all happened because he believed that alcohol […]
Why do we hang stockings at Christmas?
Did you know: That we hang them up because of Saint Nicholas, the Christian Bishop of Myra? So, who was this man whose actions we celebrate every year? Well, first of all where is Myra? It was, it is no more, on the south Mediterranean coast of Turkey, near the modern town of Demre. At […]
What was the Silk Road?
What was the Silk Road? The Silk Road was a network of trade routes from China to Europe that ran from the second century BC until the mid-15th century. It went for more than 4,000 miles becoming the major route for economic, cultural, political, and religious interaction between the East and West. Why was it […]
The man who sold the Eiffel Tower twice!
The man who sold the Eiffel Tower, twice! This is the story of Victor Lustig, who went down in history as the man who sold the Eiffel Tower not once, but twice. This isn’t just about how he sold the Eiffel Tower twice, but the story of his life, his techniques, and his broader legacy. […]
All for love and it failed!
How much have you spent to win someone’s heart? Robert Dudley spent £10m Would you believe that Robert Dudley really did spend more than £10M in today’s money to win the heart of Queen Elizabeth the First. He was one of the Queen’s closest advisors, then Queen Elizabeth gifted him Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire, and, […]
Do you know the story of Ignatius Sancho?
Ignatius was born on slave ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean, his mother died not long after in the Spanish colony of New Granada, while his father took his own life rather than live as a slave. His father’s owner bought the two-year-old Ignatius to England, where he gave him to three unmarried sisters in Greenwich. Now he met […]
Was the Hanseatic League the forerunner to the EU?
When did it start? Would you believe that it started as early as the 12th Century when a group of Northern European medieval towns decided to trade between themselves. So, isn’t it interesting that the European Union wasn’t the first time European countries decided that there could be a benefit to all of them […]
The Galileo Affair
Galileo Galilei was an unknown, north Italian professor of mathematics, a lover of good wines with a razor-sharp wit until 1609, when he got a telescope. It changed his and our lives for ever. He learnt the world went round the sun! It led to “The Galileo Affair” that began in 1610 and ended in […]