4th April

Francis Drake became Sir Francis Drake today in 1581 when he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth at Deptford on the deck of his ship, the Pelican, renamed the Golden Hind. He had left Plymouth on 13 December 1577 with 5 ships and a total crew of 160, as well as various sponsors.
He was now able to state conclusively that the world was indeed round as Magellan had already proved and Columbus believed. Presumably, if Drake had been knighted on 1 April, he would have told the queen the earth was flat.

In other news ...
Ben Hur won 11 Oscars today in 1960 and rightly so. I was still of very tender years when I saw this one and I loved every minute. There was rugged, gritty Charlton Heston, every boy's hero; gorgeous Haya Harareet as the love interest; Stephen Boyd as a thoroughly nasty Messala and of course that superb chariot race which still has me on the edge of my seat. it was probably the last film that coyly didn't show the face of Christ - just his lovely red hair from the back. For film trivia buffs and quiz compilers out there, the actor who played him was Claude Heater and wasn't even in the credits. Sheik Ilderim was played by Welshman Hugh Griffith and the wise man Balthazar by a Scotsman, Findlay Currie, but they were both excellent. Add in the Irish Stephen Boyd and it should come as no surprise to learn that Pontius Pilate (boo! hiss!) was played by an Australian, the onomatopoeic Frank Thring.

The only other film to do as well in Oscar terms was Titanic. Oh per-lease!

24th March

Queen Elizabeth I (Gloriana to her friends) died today in 1603 ushering out the Tudors and ushering in the Stuarts. Her last words were 'All my possessions for a moment of time'. Which got me thinking about last words generally. There was Prime Minister William Pitt's 'I could just eat one of Mrs Bellamy's meat pies'. There was General Robert E Lee's 'Strike the tents!'

And we mustn't forget Harold Godwinson's famous line at Hastings just before the arrow got him - 'Things are definitely looking up.' Some people of course claim that his last words were 'Watch that bloke with the bow and arrow - he could have somebody's eye out' - but that would be plain silly.

In other news ...

Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery hung up his baton today in 1976. He was an arrogant so-and-so who for reasons best known to himself wore an RAF flying jacket and a beret with two badges. If that doesn't scream schizophrenia, I don't know what does. Every member of his 8th Army I've ever met, not excepting my dear old dad, hated him.

But he won battles.

25th February

The French Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born today in 1841. He is quoted as saying, 'I never think I have finished a nude until I think I could pinch it.'
Other people of course have been trying to pinch Renoirs for years.

In other news ...
432 years ago today Pope Pius V got his chasuble in a twist and excommunicated Elizabeth I. Calling her 'the Jezebel of England', he effectively put out a contract on the queen, saying it was perfectly understandable if good Catholics decided to kill her. Can I just remind you, Seven Queue Gee that Pius (the name means holy) was the head of a Christian church that believed in love, charity, forgiveness and generally being nice.
What had Elizabeth done to upset his Munificence? She'd been born out of wedlock - that's a place in Shropshire, Seven Oh Jay - what are the Geography Department teaching you these days?

8th February

'A dead woman bites not' said Lord Grey with astonishing perspicacity. He was talking about Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, a pleasant enough woman who was never known to have bitten anybody, even when alive. She was beheaded on this day in 1587 at the castle of Fotheringay (now a ruin) on the reluctant orders of her cousin, Elizabeth Tudor, Queen of England. The two never met, despite that scene in the film where Vanessa Redgrave and Glenda Jackson have a go at each other with riding crops) and Elizabeth instantly regretted having it done.
What did it achieve? Nothing. The Stuarts got the throne of England after all, giving rise to Ramsay MacDonald, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and the West Lothian Question.
Who knew?

In other news ...
The Boy Scouts of America was founded today in 1910, along the lines of the British movement of two years earlier set up by Colonel Robert Baden Powell, the hero of Mafeking. Isn't it a pity that his book Scouting for Boys is so widely misunderstood today and the mafeking is strictly contrary to EU regulations.
On the other hand, the Colonel's penchant for wearing rather fetching day dresses is widely accepted now on both sides of the Atlantic, drag though it is.