All right, this is the one you've all been waiting for. Balaclava Day, 1854. When 678 men of Lord Cardigan's Light Brigade (most of whom are sitting in 54mm replica in my attic) rode into the Valley of Death and into legend after a confused order took them the wrong way.
'It was a mad-brained trick, men,' Cardigan said to the survivors afterwards, 'but it was no fault of mine.'
'Go again, sir?' an anonymous soldier asked him. Makes you proud to be British, doesn't it?
In other news ...
It was a good day for a battle today - Agincourt was fought in 1415 in the mud of Northern France. The French nobility were all but wiped out by a much smaller force, largely of archers, under Henry V. A while ago there was a move to have October 21 (Trafalgar Day) or October 25 (Agincourt Day) declared a public holiday in Britain, but that was shelved in case it upset our French colleagues in the EU. Actually, on the basis of that there ought to be no public holidays because I can't think of a day when we didn't knock seven bells out of them.
Showing posts with label Agincourt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Agincourt. Show all posts
Thursday, 25 October 2012
Monday, 21 May 2012
21st May
The 'perfect' murder was committed today in 1924 when Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold killed 14 year old Bobby Franks just for the hell of it. Fascinated by the Nietzschean concept of superman, Leopold and Loeb believed they were just that, except that one of them dropped his glasses at the crime scene (ah - always the one little mistake!). The case gave lawyer Clarence Darrow his finest hour and put the cause of antisemitism in the USA back fifty years.
In other news ...
Poor old Henry VI died today in 1471. Since he was under arrest in the Tower of London and his opponent, Edward IV, was king, it is likely the sad old bloke was murdered on the king's orders. Henry was a poet and saintly to the point of imbecility. He was the son of Henry V, the victor of Agincourt and all-round tough nut. Isn't it funny how often the great general's kids fall short of expectations? For example, Napoleon's son, the Emperor of Rome, caught a chill reviewing some troops and died.
Talk about chips and old blocks.
In other news ...
Poor old Henry VI died today in 1471. Since he was under arrest in the Tower of London and his opponent, Edward IV, was king, it is likely the sad old bloke was murdered on the king's orders. Henry was a poet and saintly to the point of imbecility. He was the son of Henry V, the victor of Agincourt and all-round tough nut. Isn't it funny how often the great general's kids fall short of expectations? For example, Napoleon's son, the Emperor of Rome, caught a chill reviewing some troops and died.
Talk about chips and old blocks.
Thursday, 22 March 2012
22nd March
Anthony van Dyck was born today in 1599. Famous for his court portraits of Charles I. He later went on the star in his father's long-running TV series Diagnosis Murder.
In other news ...
Today in 1906 the first international rugby match took place with England beating France 35-0. The England team had already scored pretty heavily at Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt, Ramillies, Malplaquet, Sahagun, Badajoz, Toulouse and Waterloo. An earlier result at Hastings, where the French unaccountably won, was deemed to be because they played with the roof open.
In other news ...
Today in 1906 the first international rugby match took place with England beating France 35-0. The England team had already scored pretty heavily at Crecy, Poitiers, Agincourt, Ramillies, Malplaquet, Sahagun, Badajoz, Toulouse and Waterloo. An earlier result at Hastings, where the French unaccountably won, was deemed to be because they played with the roof open.
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