Tag: british history
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Trafalgar : The Royal Navy’s Greatest Ever Victory ?
The Battle of Trafalgar was to witness both the defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte's plans to invade Britain, and the death of Admiral Lord Nelson. It was never going to be any ordinary battle, and quickly acquired a heightened, almost magical, reality.
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Guernsey’s WWI Military & Convalescence Hospitals
Whilst the RGLI can be considered Guernsey’s ‘official’ response to the war it wasn’t the islands only one. One such contribution was the creation of a number of hospital facilities right here on the island for soldiers who were returning sick or wounded from the trenches.
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Who was Guy Fawkes?
Every year in Britain on November 5th, thousands of us make life-size effigies of pne of the most infamous men in British History – Guy Fawkes. We then proceed to set him on fire and then let off lots of fireworks. But who was Guy Fawkes and what do we know about him ? In this article we explore the life of the conspirator most closely associated with the foiled plot.
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How Far Back in Time Could an English Speaker Go and Still Understand the Language ?
“How Far Back in Time Could an English Speaker Go and Still Understand the Language ?” In a Nutshell : it would be somewhere between 400 to 500 yrs ago. In order to justify this let’s compare how the speech of ‘English’ speakers sounded in Chaucer’s time, the late 14th Century, with that in the late 16th Century – at the time of Shakespeare.
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How to Win a World War – Buy all the Tea in the World!
So, you’re country is engaged in a World War, its stands alone against a ruthless enemy and...
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The British Parliament – “Mother of Parliaments”
The British Parliament is often referred to as the Mother of Parliaments (in fact a misquotation of John Bright, who remarked in 1865 that “England is the Mother of Parliaments”) because the British Parliament has been the model for most other parliamentary systems. In this article we look at 4 other amazing facts about one of our most venerated institutions.
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Coffee – The Revolutionary’s Drink of Choice ?
Did you grab a cup of coffee on your way to work this morning, or drop in to a coffee shop with a friend to gossip whilst savouring the bitter sweet nectar of the that king of all beans the coffee berry ? If you’d done this in the 17th Century then you might have been regarded as either a subversive or or a danger to the moral fabric of society.
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Did You Know … Between AD 208 and 211 the entire Roman Empire was governed from York
A Rare Known Factoid … “Between AD 208 and AD 211 the entire Roman Empire was...
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English Words that Used To Have Vastly Different Meanings To What We Understand Today
How would you rate your vocabulary ? Average; Better than Average ; Exceptional ?
It may not matter how good you think your command of English is because in this article we reveal some surprising revelations about some of the words, you may have thought you had a thorough understanding of, had, in point of fact, some VERY different meanings in the past.
How and When did the American Accent evolve?
How and When did the American Accent evolve? : The answer to this question is somewhat surprising … It’s not so much that their accent evolved as that ours did.
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What did Middle English (the language of Chaucer) Sound Like ?
English, with all its vagaries and annoying inconsistencies, remains the single most important and influential language in today’s world. English language has been subsequently divded into about 5 distinct periods. Middle English, the language of Chaucer, is one of the most notable. But what did it sound like ?
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The Normans – A Timeline
Guernsey and the Channel Islands were very much at the heart of the old Duchy of Normandy and then in 1066 we were propelled into the wider world when our Duke, William the Bastard defeated the English King Harold at Hastings. In this artilcle we outline some of the defining moments in the history of the Norman dynasty.
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Was King John really that bad?
If there’s one English Monarch who’s consistently had a ‘bad wrap’ it’s King John I. He’s the ultimate in abuse of absolute power, an archetypal villan – portrayed as the cruel King oppressing his people with taxes and arbitrary justice. But is this true ? Was his rule really as bad as folklore seems to say ?
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Being British and the Art of Queuing
Being British can be a complex business and there is one part of our identity that will confuse ‘Johnny Foreigner’ no end – Queuing!
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Secrets of The Bayeux Tapestry : Hidden Meanings & Gestures
The Bayeux Tapestry is an historical artifact that never fails to impress depicting as it does such a pivotal moment in British and Channel Island history, that of the invasion & conquest of England by William the Conqueror in 1066. But look closely and you will come across oddities that are hard to explain, mysterious characters, some named, some not, appear in the main body and borders. Add to that some of the cuirious rather theatrical gestures they appear to be making and there emerges a sense of mystery.
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The Day King John Commited Murder and the Channel Islands lost a potential Duke
History can often turn on the actions of a single individual. April the 3rd 1203 was such a day when King John committed murder. If he hadn’t committed this heinous crime then the whole history of Guernsey and the Channels Island could have been radically different.
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1066 and all that … the day the Channel Islands became part of England
On Sunday the 14th October 1066 ‘William the Bastard’, Duke of Normandy (andthe Channel Islands), invaded and defeated the Anglo Saxon king of England, so that henceforth the Bastard was to be forever known as William the Conqueror. In this article we look how at how he won at Hastings.
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