Convention of London 1840
When Muhammad Ali defeated the Ottomans and took control of not only Egypt and the Sudan but other Ottoman assets including its own naval fleet Austria Britain Prussia and Russia sought to ensure stability but the French backed Muhammad Ali. Hence the British and Austrian troops attacked Acre to force the peace…
Read MoreWilliam Tyndale
William Tyndale appeared in 1526, determined to translate the New Testament into English but why was this so important? How did King Henry VIII deal with Tyndale was he supportive of him or did he see him as a heretic?
Read MoreEducation Act 1902
The act that provided for the provision of LEA Local Education Authority system and was also a catlyst in encouraging the development of Higher Education.
Read MoreKing Henry VIII and the Catholic Church (Part 1)
How did King Henry VIII and the Catholic church come to so completely at odds over the nullity of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon? Such marriages had been nullified before, so what made Henry’s different?
Read MoreAppeasement as Pragmatic Policy
Appeasement Policy, why did it have any credibility in Neville Chamberlain’s eyes? Could he really believe Hitler wanted peace and when it did unravel was he really surprised and ill-prepared? Would Churchill have handled this period any better and with the position Britain found itself in at that particular point could Churchill really have fared any better by outright confrontation before 3rd Sept 1939?
Read MoreParis Peace Conference 1919
Was the Paris Peace Conference and four months of wrangling amongst the Allies robbing Germany of its Empire a key document that impacts on British Appeasement Policy in 1938 1939 and was it also a major factor in the problems that led to WW2? In full knowledge of its content is Chamberlain all too aware of its implications and seeks to appease Germany’s imperialist pretensions because of it, or in spite of it. Before we judge Chamberlain should we not take a long hard look at Britain in the ‘interwar years’ and how these outcomes constrain the options available as Baldwin resigns and Chamberlain picks-up the poison chalice.
Read MoreThomas Cromwell
Thomas Cromwell, the black clad lawyer who rose to power after the decline and death of the red clad Cardinal Wolsey. King Henry’s advisor and who figaratively wielded the axe across the neck of many Tudor conservatives.
Read MoreNeville Chamberlain Prime Minister
Neville Chamberlain made an error of judgement it is offten argued in seeking a path of appeasement and in particular by seeking to sacrifice other smaller countries in negotiations with Hitler i order to seek to avoid entangling Britain in a further costly war both in human and economic terms that it was currently ill-equipped to fight whilst still recovering from WW1 and the difficult period between the wars that had been book-ended by the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 and the Depression of the early 1930s. In this series we ask questions of wider Britain and its easy criticism of Chamberlain, who was damned for a short period of a career that had largely bee dedicated to public service. But was he individually to blame or part of a wider political history of Britain which wrongly and rashly seeks to attribute blame to a single man, even the Prime Minister. The outcome of war with Hitler may not have changed irrespective of Chamberlain’s actions but would we have been better prepared and avoided some of the early errors in WW2 when Britain as a nation was so ill-prepared for war?
Read MoreParliament Act 1911
The Barons finally give way to democracy and yield their right of veto against democratically approved laws voted on and approved in the House of Commons. An Act of Parliament settles a bitter dispute from the 1909 Peoples Budget and a vital principle that had taken hundreds of years to establish.
Read MoreCrossbones Graveyard
Crossbones graveyard in Southwark is adorned with colourful ribbons, a tribute to those Winchester Geese and others who exist on the margins of society. This burial ground has been in existence since Medieval times.
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