Julius Caesar
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You might wonder what the above 1855 painting (from Gunby Hall, Lincolnshire) has to do with the summer solstice, but it’s taken from this National Trust article, which emphasises the magical aspect of this particular time of the year. It also illustrates the sort of books I read as a child. Today’s adults underestimate…
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My first acquaintance with the term the Ides of March was a school visit at the age of nine, when I was one of hundreds of schoolchildren watching it in an RAF hangar in West Germany. “Beware the Ides of March!” Well, I simply accepted the soundtrack and at that age certainly didn’t stop to…
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This year is a leap year, when tradition has it that on 29 February we women are permitted to propose to the men of our choice. Well, I doubt that much of that goes on these days, not least because marriage itself seems to be on the decline. Oh, and if you were born on…
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HENRY “TUDOR” IN THE 21ST CENTURY?
“Tudor” justice, “wives”, Abraham Lincoln, Agrippina, Alexander the Great, Anastasia, Anne Boleyn, Augustus, Caligula, Catherine of Aragon, Catherine Parr, Christina of Denmark, Edmund “Tudor”, Elisabeth of Austria, Elizabeth I, executions, facial reconstruction, Grace Kelly, Henry VII, Henry VIII, Isabel of Castile, Jane Austen, Julius Caesar, Louis XIV, Louis XV, Madame de Pompadour, Marie Antoinette, Mary Stuart, Nefertiti, parsimonyWith advanced computer technology, more artists and other interested people are doing their own ‘facial reconstructions’ of famous historical figures, often giving them modern hair styles and clothes to let people see how they might have looked if they lived in the present day. The following article has 30 such images, and is interesting because…
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I know there are always lists of this and that, and a compilation of important battles pops up from time to time. On this occasion, however, when Bosworth is dealt with, it’s an objective assessment, and worth reading. You’ll find it on History Today.
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The truth about the Christian New Year’s Eve….
Admiral Villeneuve, Antipopes, Charles “III”, Constantine, conversion, decimal system, Edmund of Rutland, Eglise St. Germain Rennes, Gregorian Calendar, Hogmanay, Horatio Nelson, Janus, Julian Calendar, Julius Caesar, Mary Stuart, Naval warfare, New Year’s Eve, paganism, popes, Richard Duke of York, saints, St. Sylvester, suicide, Trafalgar, WakefieldNew Year’s Eve now and New Year’s Eve in the mediaeval period actually refer to two different calendar days. Old New Year’s Eve was 24th March. For an easy-to-understand explanation, please go to here, but whichever the day, it was still New Year’s Eve. We now celebrate it with much fun, laughter and hope, but…
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During the Wars of the Roses, was there ever a deliberate policy of depopulation? By that, I cannot think of an example. Destruction, yes. Killing off the other side’s armed forces, yes. But the annihilation of towns and villages? Or of castles and strongholds, which were surely regarded as great prizes. So how could there…
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Recent archaeological excavations in Kent by the University of Leicester have pinpointed the probable landing point for Caesar’s invasion of Britain. No full study on this important historical event has taken place in the last 100 years and it was widely thought amongst academics that both of Caesar’s incursions into Britain had been regarded as…
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To mark the 1900th anniversary of Hadrian’s accession, here is a map of Britain’s Roman Roads. Thanks to www.VisitateLindumColoniam.com – and here is our mediaeval map of London.
The New Murrey and Blue blog 