Archive - Historical essays

Magna Carta: its myths and continued relevance

liberty (noun, 1): freedom or release from slavery, bondage or imprisonment – including arbitrary, despotic or autocratic control [Oxford English…

Jun 15 •

May 2025

John Ball in English History

The priest John Ball (c.1338–1381) was a popular figure around the time of the English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 and known for his preaching against the…

May 25 •

Terrain and Gallipoli, 1915–2025. Part two

In the previous part of this essay we saw that General Sir Ian Hamilton faced considerable challenges in planning to storm the beaches of Gallipoli on…

May 4 •

April 2025

Terrain and Gallipoli, 1915–2025. Part one

The Gallipoli Campaign of 1915 ranks as one of the most controversial of the Great War, a costly gamble intended to knock Turkey out of the war and to…

Apr 26 •

King of the seven nations; High Priest; and Recorder to the thirteen tribes of the Jews: TheaurauJohn Tany (1608-1659)

Now know I am a mad man.

Apr 13 •

March 2025

Digger (noun): one who excavates or turns up the earth with a mattock, spade, or other tool [Oxford English Dictionary]

Mar 23 •

The tragic history of Doctor Faustus

‘ipsa scientia potestas est’ [‘knowledge itself is power’] [Francis Bacon, Meditationes Sacrae (1597)]

Mar 2 •

February 2025

The Fires of London of 1655

‘Fire and water are proverbially said to be good servants, but bad masters’ [Robert Elborough, London’s Calamity by Fire (1666)]

Feb 9 •

January 2025

The Little Ice Age and the River Thames frost fairs of the seventeenth century

climate (noun, 2): the characteristic weather conditions of a country or region; especially as these affect human, animal, or plant life

Jan 12 •

December 2024

Christmas on trial during the English Revolution

Christmas (noun, 1): the festival marking the birth of Christ, celebrated by most Western Christian churches on the 25th of December [Oxford English…

Dec 25, 2024 •

Book burning before and during the English Revolution, 1641–1660

holocaust (noun, 1): a sacrifice entirely consumed by fire; a whole burnt offering [Oxford English Dictionary]

Dec 8, 2024 •

November 2024

‘The Great trappaner of England’: Thomas Violet (1609?–1662), crypto-Jews and Jews during the English Revolution and at the Restoration of…

Trepanner (archaic); one who ensnares; an entrapper, decoy, swindler

Nov 24, 2024 •

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