The Mary Rose, one of Henry VIII's most impressive warships, sank in the Solent today with the loss of nearly all its 450 crew. The jury is still out on why she sank but it has been proved beyond doubt by a careful analysis of the wreck, that it was not because it was sunk by the French. The French gunners were aiming, unsuccessfully, at a barn door at the time.
In other news ...
I am barely able to remember the last coronation we had in this great country of ours, but the one I would really have liked to have seen was that of George IV on this day in 1821. Not only did it cost an arm and a leg (see the Olympics 2012) but it was the last time the King's Champion, in full armour, clattered on horseback into Westminster Abbey and threw down his gauntlet as a challenge. How cool was that?
And the scandal was epic too, because the new king's estranged wife, Caroline of Brunswick arrived and hammered on the Abbey doors demanding to be let in as the rightful queen of England. Just brilliant!
