Newsflash – Punch and Judy is not English!!
I know, we all thought it was a traditional British seaside entertainment, it isn’t. It came from Italy in the 16th-century from the Italian “commedia dell’arte”. While the “commedia dell’art” in fact had roots going all the way back to Roman times. So where did it come from. How did Punch and Judy come to […]
What happened to Alice’s Adventures Under Ground?
Well, it became Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland! It was all Alice Liddell’s fault! All this happened because a girl called Alice Liddell was being rowed down the Isis, (the name of the Thames at Oxford) for a picnic by Charles Dawson, a friend of her father, who was always telling her and her sisters stories. […]
Why in 1588 were there 30,000 soldiers in Calais?
The Spanish Armada failed because the Duke of Parma was late on his meeting with the Spanish Fleet? The Spanish King had a clever plan. He built an armada of ships that were enough to bring 30,000 soldiers across the channel. His plan was to sail the fleet up the English Channel to Calais, there […]
The benefites of Republics over Monachies in the 17th Century?
In Dutch history, the year 1672 is referred to as the Rampjaar (The year of Disaster). In that year the Dutch found themselves at war with all their surrounding countries and even, across the North Sea, with England! They were fighting the French, in what was naturally called the Franco-Dutch War, at the same time […]
Letter of marque- legal pirates
Yes, there were legal pirates. A letter of marque was given by governments in the 16,17 & 18th Centuries as a license for that private person to attack and capture ships of a nation with which that the government was at war . The best way to describe it was that it legalised piracy. Some […]
Steamboat Willie
“I only hope that we never lose sight of one thing – that it was all started by a mouse.” Walt Disney, Disneyland; October 27, 1954 Do you know that Walt Disney himself was Mickey Mouse’s voice in the the first Disney Cartoon with sound? This is why on November 18, 1928 the Disney company celebrates […]
How old is the shield wall the police use today?
Today when a demonstration that goes nasty, we see the police build a shield wall to defend themselves and then slowly move it forward, but when checking our musical 1066 – The Battle of Hastings I realised that the shield wall as been a policy used by armies for hundreds of years. Harold used it […]
The Calcutta Light horse and Operation Creek
If you think that the Home Guard, we now know as Dad’s Army were only in England then you need to learn of Operation Creek by the Calcutta Light Horse in Goa in 1943. The Calcutta Light Horse was formed in 1872 as a part of the Cavalry Reserve of the British Indian Army. By 1943 it […]
The Austrian Army wiped itself out!
Legend has it that at the Battle of Karánsebes in 1788, which took place during in the Austro–Turkish War of 1787 – 91, the Austrian army fought itself and killed over 10,000 of their own soldiers, before the opposition arrived! How could this happen? Well, this was a campaign during the Austrian war with Turkey, […]
Did Pyrrhic victories come from the Pyrrhic Wars?
You see it was the Pyrrhic Wars that led to the term “Pyrrhic victory”. These were wars fought by Pyrrhus, the King of Epirus. He was king of the Greek tribe, Molossians, from the royal house of Aeacid, later he became King of Epirus. In fact, he was one of the strongest opponents of early Rome […]