26th August

I tell the story to my GCSE classes and AS aspirants every year. At Crecy on this day in 1346, Edward III and his son the Black Prince took on a French force twice their size and destroyed it. At one point when the Prince's flank was under heavy attack, he sent a messenger to his father asking for reinforcements. The king said, 'Let the boy win his spurs' and sent him nothing. Why do I tell this story to my GCSE and AS candidates? Because the Black Prince was their age - 16 - at the time.

They don't make them like him any more.

In other news ...
I shouldn't tell half my readers about this in case they create a copy cat situation. Today in 1970 women went on strike in New York and the city stopped. Don't have nightmares, chaps, but can you imagine? No tea in bed? No full English? No cleaned house, ironed shirts, washed car, walked dog, gourmet dinner ... I can't go on because this is a family blog!

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.