In 1642, King Charles I and the elected Parliament of England went to war over the future of the Stuart kingdom. Over the next nine years three Civil Wars would be fought, devastating the populations of England, Scotland and Ireland and claiming a death toll of an estimated 800,000 people, including King Charles I himself. […]
Mary Stuart was born into a powerful royal dynasty that was at war with the rest of Europe and with itself. Mary’s ascent to the throne was disarmingly easy and she reached adulthood completely unprepared for the plots and betrayals she would be subject to. As the head of a resolutely unstable country, Mary struggled
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The gifted W.B. Yeats wrote of his own people “even a newspaperman, if you entice him into a cemetery at midnight, will believe in phantoms, for everyone is a visionary if you scratch him deep enough. But the Celt, unlike any other, is a visionary without scratching.” This introduction to Celtic Mythology will serve the
The Marquis de Lafayette may be a name that sounds vaguely familiar. If you’ve studied even a little American history, you’ll recall Lafayette as George Washington’s right-hand man during the American Revolution. This remarkable man was just a teenager when he ventured across the seas from France to fight in a conflict that he was
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Charles Darwin thought he would be a clergyman after an uneventful childhood, where he hated school but loved the natural world. All that would change when he was allowed to be a part of a worldwide expedition to faraway lands. He was able to collect specimens and keep notes on all he experienced. Inside you
“A splendid little war “- that’s how one contemporary observer described the Spanish-American War, a war that is arguably one of the most important wars ever fought. The duration was short and the victory decisive, thus little and splendid, the latter, at least, from the victor’s point of view. The impacts of the war, however,
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The Battle of Waterloo has become synonymous with the word “defeat” but who lost, and why was it important? In 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte left the island of Elba, and in a space of 100 days took power, and challenged the entire world to meet him on his terms. When that failed, he offered them a fight,
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The bloodiest battle of the Civil War was also its turning point. From this point onwards, the Confederate forces would never gain a hold in the North again. Inside you will read about… ✓ Before July there was Lee✓ Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?✓ Rumours of War✓ Hooker’s Last Stand✓ Everything Comes Together✓ Day 1:
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In this brief introduction to the subject of Egyptian Mythology the author has given a lot of thought to the context of the subject. This makes it an easy read. There is a useful Historical Timeline which allows the reader to follow the complexities of Egyptian history and locate the mythology within the development of
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George Washington, the first president of the United States, is much more than a monument on Mount Rushmore. Who was Washington, the general, president, and husband? He was first and foremost a man of impeccable honor which, despite military adversity and political wrangling, never abandoned him. The Founding Fathers who squabbled and competed amongst themselves
