Category History Podcasts

Prince Rupert was the foremost Royalist military commander in the English Civil War. Prince Rupert was very much a cavalry soldier and the Royalists may have lost the war a lot sooner had it not been for his military ability. Prince Rupert was born in 1619. He was the third son of Frederick of the Palatinate and Elizabeth, the daughter of James I.

The Cavalier Parliament first sat in April 1661. The Cavalier Parliament carried on the work done by the Convention Parliament - the first of Charles II's parliaments. Both parliaments were instrumental in creating what became the Restoration Settlement - the Convention Parliament started the process up to December 1660 when it was dissolved while the Cavalier Parliament carried on with its work.

1599 Oliver Cromwell was born in Huntingdon, Cambridge 1616 Cromwell joined Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University 1617 Cromwell's father died. Cromwell left Cambridge University and returned to Huntingdon 1620 Cromwell married Elizabeth Bourchier 1628 Cromwell was elected Member of Parliament for Huntingdon 1629 Cromwell attacked bishops in a parliamentary speech 1640 Cromwell elected MP for Cambridge 1642 The English Civil War started.

The Earl of Danby (Sir Thomas Osbourne) was one of the leading politicians in the reign of Charles II and William III. During his career, Danby was to acquire a number of titles: Viscount Latimer, Marquis of Carmarthen and Duke of Lords being among them. Perhaps the main claim to fame that Danby had was that he was one of the founders of the Tories.

Plague was not a new disease for London in 1665. In that year it just happened that conditions meant that all was in place for an epidemic: a mild winter that did not massively decrease the rat population as would be normal and a hot spring and summer meant many female rats gave birth to two litters.

Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, was a senior political figure in the reign of Queen Anne. Harley became her senior minister and acted as Secretary of State (1704 to 1708) and Lord Treasurer (1711 to 1714). The death of Anne and the succession of the Hanoverian George I effectively ended Harley's political career.

The Tories, a name given to them by the Whigs, were first led by Danby when Charles II was king. The party was formed in the last months of the Cavalier Parliament and the Exclusion Crisis. The names 'Tory' or 'Tories' were initially terms of abuse used by Whigs - also initially a term of abuse - and it meant 'Irish Catholic Bandits'.

Samuel Pepys was born on February 23 rd 1633 near Fleet Street in London. Pepys is best known for his diaries written between 1660 and 1671 that include descriptions of major events such as the coronation of Charles II, the impact of the plague in London in 1665 and the Great Fire of 1666. Pepys was educated at Huntington Grammar School before moving to St.

The Lancashire cotton industry - and its success in the Industrial Revolution - was based on seven features that were effectively unique to Lancashire at the time. Before the development and growth of factories across Great Britain, domestic industry had been common throughout the land. As factories caused this to rapidly decline, Lancashire found that it had a skilled workforce already in the area as prior to the Industrial Revolution, Lancashire had been famous for the number of people who worked in its woollen industry.

Henry VII equated overseas trade with an extension of his power. A successful trade policy that led to expansion abroad could only make England more wealthy and Henry knew that if he had more wealth, he could use it to expand his own power - especially in the years immediately after 1485 when his position was precarious.

Roads, for longer than people could remember, were nothing more than dirt tracks that turned to mud in the winter and baked rock hard in the summer. Either way, movement along these 'roads' was difficult and at certain times of the year, practically impossible. By law, every parish had to look after the 'roads' that ran through their area.

1914 Witnessed the start of World War One after the build up of international tension throughout Europe that had occurred during 1914. June 28 th : Franz Ferdinand assassinated at Sarajevo. July 5 th : Wilhelm II of Germany promised Austria-Hungary support if they took action against Serbia. July 25 th : Austria-Hungary severed diplomatic ties with Serbia.

The causes of World War One are complicated and unlike the causes of World War Two, where the guilty party was plain to all, there is no such clarity. Germany has been blamed because she invaded Belgium in August 1914 when Britain had promised to protect Belgium. However, the street celebrations that accompanied the British and French declaration of war gives historians the impression that the move was popular and politicians tend to go with the popular mood.

The balance of power in 1914 Europe was a major issue when World War One was declared in August 1914. The major protagonists believed that they held the balance of power when war was declared and the statistics seemed to bear this out if each nation studied its own strengths. Unfortunately, the combination of old tactics and new weapons led to the horrors of trench warfare and all that is associated with it - something the powers had failed to add into their calculations with regards to the balance of power in Europe.

The Black Hand movement wanted Serbia to be free from Austro-Hungarian rule. The Black Hand movement was founded by Captain Dragutin Dimitrijevic, better known as 'Apis'. Gavrilo Princip (see photo), the assassin of Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie at Sarajevo on June 28 th 1914, was a member of the Black Hand movement.

Joseph Joffre was France's most senior officers in World War One. It was Joffre who replaced the popular Pétain during the Battle of Verdun in 1916. While in North Africa, he won distinction in 1894 when, as a lieutenant-colonel, he led a column of men across the North African desert to capture Timbuktu.

World War One ended in November 1918. During 1918, two major offensives took place on the Western Front, both based on movement as opposed to the trench mentality of the previous years. January 14 th : Great Yarmouth bombarded by the German Navy. January 24 th : Russia rejected Lenin's peace at all costs for Trotsky's “no war, no peace.

Kaiser Wilhelm II was de facto head of Germany during World War One. When World War One broke out in August 1914 Wilhelm was emperor with great power. When the war ended it ended for Wilhelm with a self-imposed exile in the Netherlands and little if any influence in Weimar Germany. Wilhelm was born in 1859.

Field Marshal Herbert Plumer was commander of the 2 nd Army in the Ypres Salient between 1915 and 1917. Plumer was the principal planner behind the highly successful attack on Messines Ridge in June 1917. As an officer who had come up through the ranks of the infantry, Plumer had sympathy for the plight of the front line troops under his command.

Machine guns inflicted appalling casualties on both war fronts in World War One. Men who went over-the-top in trenches stood little chance when the enemy opened up with their machine guns. Machine guns were one of the main killers in the war and accounted for many thousands of deaths. Crude machine guns had first been used in the American Civil War (1861 to 1865).