Elizabethan Parliaments 1559-1601
Michael Graves provides a clear summary of conflicting interpretations of Elizabethan parliaments and presents a new perspective, striking a balance between business and politics.
Elizabethan Parliaments 1559-1601
Fact of the Day
A wealthy early modern London merchant asked his agent to send him '2 or 3 apes' from Africa, but didn't write the 'r'. The order was interpreted as 203 apes, the first cargo of 80 of which arrived with the promise of more to come.
Quote of the Day
"Democracy means government by discussion, but it is only effective if you can stop people talking.
"
~ Clement Attlee
On This Day
490 BCE The Athenians fought the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.
1440 Henry VI founded Eton College for 25 poor scholars, but beware those with ill-kempt heads, unwashed faces and foul clothes!
1846 Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning eloped to Italy. Elizabeth's father disapproved of her marriage and she was disinherited.
1914 The First Battle of the Marne ended. Allied forces had stopped the German offensive in France, but had also prevented any hope of a mobile war, leading to the stalemate and trench warfare that characterised the First World War.
1919 On a mission to report on potentially disruptive groups, Hitler attended a meeting of the German Workers' Party (DAP in German). Angered by a speaker, he entered into an argument that impressed Anton Drexler so much that Hitler was invited to join the party. Less than a week later, Hitler became the '555th' (in reality 7th) member of the DAP.
1922 The Episcopal Church removed the word 'obey' from the bride's section of the wedding vows.
1943 Ex-Dictator of Italy Benito Mussolini was spectacularly rescued from house arrest in Abruzzi by German commandos during the Gran Sasso raid.
1990 The two German states and the four powers occupying Germany at the end of the Second World War signed the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany. In it, the four powers renounced all rights they held in Germany, paving the way to German reunification.
2012 The Hillsborough Independent panel concluded the 1989 football stadium disaster, in which 96 men, women, and children died, was due to 'a lack of police control'.