Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 139 i All About History

There’s a certain amount of cleaning up that has gone into the recording of history. When you start lifting up the rug and running your finger over the mantelpiece, you realise there’s a lot more dirt here than first appeared to be the case. So it goes with the Tudors under Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Figures such as Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Francis Drake have echoed through time as powerful and influential heroic figures. But, when you delve further what you begin to see is a history of criminality, thievery and bloodshed done in the name of patriotism, but going some way to enrich its perpetrators as well. This is what has drawn us to examine the story of English maritime activities this issue. These privateers working under the blessing…

Although the Vikings had numerous types of ship, it is the longship that has become eternally associated with the marauding warriors. Indeed, longships were incredibly important to the Vikings’ success and were a dominant force in Northern European naval warfare for over 1,500 years. While variations were used for trade, the longship is perhaps best remembered as the ship of choice for Viking raids and with these remarkable craft, the Vikings were able to travel to such distant lands as Greenland and even North America. We have no evidence of Viking seamen using maps. They would have navigated by other means, such as looking for birds or seeing if they could smell land. They also had a device known as a Sun compass that could determine the direction of travel.…

On 7 September 1592, the Madre de Dios was brought into the harbour at Dartmouth. Seven decks high and weighing some 1,600 tons, it was the largest ship England had ever seen. It was also the most treasure-filled. Its hold was packed with luxury goods: silk, damask, taffeta, calico; carpets, quilts, canopies; pepper, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon; frankincense, camphor; ivory, ebony, and items of porcelain. The Madre de Dios belonged to Portugal, a Spanish dominion since 1580. It was bringing merchandise back from the East Indies. Early on the morning of 3 August, to the west of the Azores, it had been spotted by a fleet of some seven English ships, most dispatched for just such a purpose by Sir Walter Raleigh. By 10am, the English were close enough to open…

The Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE was propelled into the pop-culture stratosphere by Zack Snyder’s 2006 hit movie 300. Based on the 1998 comic by Frank Miller, it sticks fairly closely to the tale told by Herodotus, writing some 50 years after the battle. Herodotus’ story, sometimes mistaken, sometimes exaggerated, and now and again entirely false, is almost universally accepted. It is the standing narrative everyone knows about what is arguably the most famous battle in human history. This narrative is almost certainly common knowledge to readers of this magazine: that the Spartan Agiad king Leonidas boldly advanced to hold the pass with just 300 Spartans, fated to die by the pronouncement of the Oracle at Delphi. He bravely held the pass against unimaginable odds, facing down the numberless…

The Battle of Lake George was actually three connected engagements, fought on 8 September 1755, which resulted in a victory for the British. A British expedition to capture the fort at Crown Point, in the north-east of New York province, became a cat-and-mouse game with French forces, with roughly equal numbers fighting a fierce, costly series of actions. Although the French had the better of the early fighting after ambushing a marching column, the British turned things around to claim a solid tactical triumph and solidify their position around Lake George. BACKGROUND As the French and Indian War (1754-63) got underway, the British had ambitious plans to turf the French out of North America once and for all. A major expedition, under General Edward Braddock, was organised in the summer…

Today, mac and cheese is a staple dish in the United States, often served as a side with barbecue across areas of the southern states, made lovingly to a passed-down family recipe or, perhaps more frequently, straight out of a packet. Of course, its origins lie in Italy with the first recipe close to the dish we know today being from Liber De Coquina (The Book of Cookery) from the 14th century. It's thought that Thomas Jefferson took an enslaved cook named James Hemings to France to learn his trade and they brought the dish back with them (along with a pasta machine to make the macaroni) to the US around 1789. However, pioneering cookbook author Elizabeth Raffald's version of the dish predates their attempt. Her book, The Experienced English…

28 January 1986 CHALLENGER EXPLODES Carrying seven members of crew onboard, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds into its journey. The shuttle had taken off from Cape Canaveral in Florida as part of America’s Space Shuttle programme. None of the crew members survived the explosion. As a result of the accident, the Space Shuttle programme was suspended for 32 months during which time the incident was investigated. 27 January 1945 LIBERATION OF AUSCHWITZ After capturing the Polish city of Kraków in the Vistula-Oder Offensive, the Soviet Red Army arrived at the nearby Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp on 27 January. They liberated around 7,000 severely sick, malnourished and traumatised prisoners who had been left behind by Nazi soldiers to die. The rest of the prisoners had been sent on death…

What evidence, both archaeological and literary, do we have for female Viking warriors? In 1878, on the Swedish isle of Birka, an archaeologist unearthed a Viking warrior seated on a saddle surrounded by weapons. For over 100 years, this burial, numbered Bj581, was considered the ultimate Viking warrior’s grave. In 2017, DNA tests proved the bones were female. Five years earlier, in 2012, near the village of Hårby in Denmark, an intricately detailed figurine of gilded silver, about an inch tall, in the shape of a woman carrying a sword and shield was discovered. Similar depictions have been found throughout northern Europe. These archaeological finds mirror the dozens of women warriors found in medieval Icelandic and Old Norse histories, laws, sagas, poetry, and myths. But the manuscripts containing these texts…

From the 1950s, a singer began to tell the world through her music about the injustice being faced in South Africa. This woman later came to be referred to as Mama Africa – a moniker that highlighted the unity she inspired in the fight against the Apartheid policies that enforced racial segregation across South Africa, as well as the fondness with which she was considered by millions around the world. During her lifetime, Miriam Makeba rose to prominence and brought the fight of Black South Africans to the forefront of the international consciousness, while also introducing and exposing the Western world to African culture and music. She was honoured by numerous world leaders, met with the Pope on several occasions and became the first African recording artist to win a…

Considered one of the greatest rappers ever, Tupac Shakur is still a larger–than-life legend nearly 30 years after his death. Born in New York City in 1971 to Afeni Shakur and Billy Garland, active members of the Black Panther Party, he was raised by his mother, who had spent part of her pregnancy in jail for a Black Panther-related bombing she was later acquitted of. Tupac didn’t know his father growing up and was raised by the Black Panthers. He was named after an 18th-century Peruvian, Tupac Amaru, who was executed after leading an uprising against Spanish rule. A fitting nom de guerre for the polarising man Tupac would become. From the jump, Tupac was a very artistic child, getting involved in theatre and even performing in Shakespearean plays. After…

From the early 1960s the fight against oppression, inequalities, injustices, and discrimination in the lives of Black and other non-white American citizens gathered pace, spearheaded by Martin Luther King Jr. Through his passionate, charismatic and measured public speaking – and courageous acts of passive defiance – the US, and the world, were beginning to listen. Undaunted by abuse, prejudice, ridicule and even imprisonment, his influence and determination to right the wrongs of America’s tainted history opened the door to those at the very pinnacle of power, only for a life of such promise to be callously cut short. But what if there had been more time? With more years what might have been achieved to change America, and the world, for the better? How do you think King’s political influence…

The game of chess has its roots in 7th century India, but it soon spread across the Islamic world and into Europe via Spain and Italy. The game pieces themselves morphed to reflect the different societies in which the game was played, with Indian sets containing pieces like war elephants and Islamic sets using abstract shapes to avoid representing the human form. As such, the Lewis chess pieces, which date from the late 12th to early 13th century and were discovered in 1831 on the Isle of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides, offer a window onto the societies surrounding the North Sea during the Central Middle Ages. Popular among the nobility due to its military-style tactics, European chess sets contained pieces relevant to the medieval court, such as kings, queens,…

1 L’ANSE AUX MEADOWS NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR, CANADA On the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula on Newfoundland Island lies the first and only confirmed location of Viking settlement in the Americas. The site features eight Viking-style turf structures, similar to other Atlantic migration sites in Greenland and Iceland, four workshops, three dwellings, and a forge. Artefacts found at the settlement after archaeological digs suggest to historians that it was likely this site was used for woodworking, ironworking and as a place for Viking settlers to explore further south. Today L’Anse aux Meadows is a UNESCO World Heritage site maintained by the Canadian and Provincial Governments. Explorers of this unique Canadian historical location can view some of the site’s artefacts in the Visitor Centre exhibitions, be immersed in…

Love is a phenomenon that has permeated all human life since ancient times through to the modern day. It has been the cause of marriages and alliances as well as war and conflict. It affects everything and everyone and always has. So, how do you condense all that history into one study? Well, that is exactly what author Edward Brooke-Hitching has done, by examining love through the ages via the lens of some of the most extraordinary objects left behind by the people of the past. Love: A Curious History In 50 Objects covers the romantic to the ridiculous in its effort to summarise the history of love. Featuring incredible artefacts, stunning paintings and intricate tapestries, Brooke-Hitching’s self-proclaimed “museum of curiosities” is a beautiful and engaging romp through historical love.…

12 YEARS A SLAVE Director: Steve McQueen Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Lupita Nyong’o Country: USA Year: 2013 A case of fact being horrific enough without the need for fiction 01 Solomon Northup (Ejiofor) is a free man and violinist who is drugged by gentlemen named Brown and Hamilton while having a drink with them in Washington DC. Northup wasn’t certain about being poisoned until a witness was able to corroborate his story years later. 02 Northup’s first master is William Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch). Northup actually found Ford to be a much more empathetic figure than the film does, calling him kind and noble. However, he was brutalised by a carpenter named John Tibeats. 03 Northup is sold to Edwin Epps (Fassbender), a brutal and sadistic plantation owner, who is…