HistoryExtra The official website for BBC History Magazine and BBC History Revealed 2023-04-09T06:57:06Z https://www.historyextra.com/feed/atom/ Emily Briffett <![CDATA[Life in the trenches: everything you wanted to know]]> https://www.historyextra.com/?p=227776 2023-04-09T06:57:06Z 2023-04-09T06:56:34Z

What was it really like to live and fight in WW1 trench? Why was throwing your empty food tins into No Man’s Land a death sentence? And what was the worst care package a Tommy could receive from home? Speaking with Emily Briffett, Peter Hart answers listener questions on life in the trenches – from favourite foods and morale-boosting parades to a soldier’s chances of survival in the face of deadly diseases, gas and explosions.

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Elinor Evans <![CDATA[9 April: On this day in history]]> https://www.historyextra.com/?p=206063 2023-04-09T05:05:03Z 2023-04-09T05:05:00Z

9 April 1511

The foundation charter of St John’s College, Cambridge, was sealed by the executors of the foundress and mother of King Henry VII, the late Lady Margaret Beaufort, who died in 1509.


9 April 1553

French doctor and satirical writer Francois Rabelais died in Paris. He is best known for his Gargantua and Pantagruel, books whose bawdiness and anti-clericalism attracted the displeasure of both the church and Paris’s theological college, the Sorbonne.


9 April 1682

After discovering the mouth of the Mississippi river, French explorer Robert Cavalier de la Salle formally claimed the territory for France, naming it La Louisiane (Louisiana) after the French monarch, Louis XIV.


9 April 1747

Simon Fraser, 11th Lord Lovat, is beheaded for treason on Tower Hill.


9 April 1838

The new National Gallery building opens to the public in Trafalgar Square. It is designed by Norfolk architect William Wilkins to house the national collection which had previously been on display in a town house in Pall Mall.


9 April 1882

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–82) was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator, and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848. Famous for using colour, design and symbolism to reflect his moods and ideas, Rossetti is particularly well known for his depictions of ethereal women.


9 April 1909

Britain’s first covered-top double-decker buses take to the streets in Widnes, Cheshire. The four 34-seater Commer buses, each costing £844, had taken four days to complete the 170-mile journey from Luton where they were made.


9 April 1940

German troops invade Denmark and Norway, ostensibly to protect them from Franco-British occupation. Denmark capitulated within hours but the Norwegian army, with French, British and Polish support, fought on for two months.

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Kev Lochun https://www.historyextra.com <![CDATA[History’s greatest cities: Oslo]]> https://www.historyextra.com/?p=226326 2023-04-08T07:46:07Z 2023-04-08T07:45:15Z

In episode seven of this new series exploring the sights and stories of Europe’s most beautiful, intriguing and historic cities, travel journalist Paul Bloomfield is joined by historian, author and broadcaster Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough for a journey around Oslo. Together, they explore the city’s Viking origins, medieval fortifications, modern museums and its scenic hinterland, and meet some of the characters who influenced its evolution. Plus, Eleanor offers up some top advice for history-loving globetrotters.

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Elinor Evans <![CDATA[8 April: On this day in history]]> https://www.historyextra.com/?p=205503 2023-04-08T05:06:06Z 2023-04-08T05:06:00Z

8 April 1093

The new Winchester Cathedral, built by the normans to replace an earlier anglo-Saxon minster, was dedicated by Walkelin, the first Norman bishop of Winchester.


8 April 1271

The Hospitaller stronghold of Krak des Chevaliers in Syria was captured by the Mameluke Sultan Baibars. Now a World Heritage Site, it is considered one of the most important castles in the world.


8 April 1318: The Scots capture Berwick-upon-Tweed

Robert the Bruce’s men strike a mighty blow against the English

Robert the Bruce appeared unstoppable after his decisive Scottish victory at Bannockburn in 1314. Over the next four years he crushed English power in Scotland, culminating in the capture of Berwick-upon-Tweed in April 1318. This port and stronghold was an important staging point for any invasion north of the border, so losing it was a dagger in the heart to English rule in Scotland.

However, Robert the Bruce was not personally responsible for Berwick’s capture. Rather, it was spearheaded by a Scottish noble called Sir James Douglas, Lord of Douglas, who led a raiding party over Berwick’s walls on 8 April 1318. Fighting broke out inside the town, but Douglas and his men persevered, stoking anarchy among the townspeople and garrisoned soldiers, and ultimately capturing the town for the Scots. The castle itself remained strong for another 11 weeks until it finally capitulated following a harrowing siege – without supplies of food, those inside were forced to surrender.

The recovery of Berwick by the English became a national prerogative. In June 1319, forces mustered at Newcastle but were savagely pushed back by Robert the Bruce as he invaded the north of England. Berwick remained in Scottish control until 1333, when it returned to English hands following the battle of Halidon Hill, during the Second War of Scottish Independence. | Written by Dominic Sandbrook 


8 April 1692

Italian composer, violinist and musical theorist Giuseppe Tartini was born in Piran in the Republic of Venice. His best-known work is the extremely technically demanding Devil’s Trill Sonata for solo violin.


8 April 1647

The House of Commons orders 85 tons of Suffolk cheese for its army in Ireland.


8 April 1820

A statue of Aphrodite was discovered in an underground cavern on the Aegean island of Melos by a farmer who was digging in his field. Better known as the Venus de Milo, it is now on display in the Louvre in Paris.


8 April 1898

Horatio Herbert Kitchener’s Anglo-Egyptian army defeats Amir Mahmud’s Mahdists, storming their fortified camp near Nakheila on the north bank of the Atbara River.


8 April 1929

Indian independence campaigners Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt throw an explosive device in the central legislative assembly in New Delhi. Nobody is hurt.

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Emma Mason <![CDATA[A brief history of the Good Friday Agreement]]> https://www.historyextra.com/?p=55864 2023-04-07T08:48:20Z 2023-04-07T08:48:07Z

The Good Friday Agreement, reached on 10 April 1998, was a careful balancing act, reflecting the competing demands and aspirations of the different parties to the talks. Yet, despite the widespread euphoria that greeted the deal, this was only a beginning. Implementing the Agreement has been a difficult process, depending on the willingness of the political representatives of Northern Ireland’s two communities to work together. That willingness has frequently been missing…

The Good Friday Agreement: the background

The partition of Ireland in 1921 followed more than a century of unrest between Britain and Ireland. Under the Act of Union of 1800 Ireland lost its parliament in Dublin and became governed directly from Westminster. For much of the 19th and into the 20th century, varying states of tension and conflict developed as unionists campaigned for Ireland to remain part of the UK, while nationalists campaigned for either home rule or an independent Irish state. The issue of Irish home rule dominated domestic British politics from 1885 to the start of the First World War.

In April 1916, the Easter Rising shook Dublin, as a group of Irish nationalists proclaimed the establishment of an Irish Republic and clashed with British troops in the capital. The rising, which resulted in the loss of 450 lives and destroyed much of the centre of Dublin, was ended by the British within a week. However, the public mood shifted decisively when the 15 leaders of the rising were executed by the British authorities in May 1916. The executions and imposition of martial law fuelled public resentment of the British. The next five tumultuous years, including the Irish War of Independence (1919–21), resulted in the end of British rule across most of Ireland.

The Government of Ireland Act, which became law in May 1921, split Ireland. Northern Ireland was formed from the six predominantly unionist counties in the north-east of the island. The remaining 26 predominantly nationalist counties formed the ‘south’, becoming the independent Irish Free State in 1922.

 

Ruins of the Coliseum Theatre, Henry Street, Dublin, destroyed in the 1916 Easter Rising. (Photo by Independent News And Media/Getty Images)

The Good Friday Agreement and the Troubles

For 30 years in the late 20th century, Northern Ireland was wracked by a bloody ethno-nationalist conflict known as ‘the Troubles’, which has left over 3,700 people dead and thousands more injured.

At the heart of the Troubles is the division in Northern Irish society. The majority population in Northern Ireland – the unionist community – identify as British and want Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom. The minority community – the nationalists – want Northern Ireland to be reunited with the rest of Ireland, in an independent Irish Republic. As the nationalist community is predominantly Roman Catholic and the unionist predominantly Protestant, the conflict has often been portrayed as a sectarian one. Certainly, sectarian attacks occurred throughout the Troubles. However, the conflict was a consequence of the competing national identities and aspirations of the two communities occupying Northern Ireland.

As a result, Northern Ireland’s politics did not develop on class lines, as in the rest of the UK. Instead, Northern Ireland’s politics centred on the constitutional question. Following the partition of Ireland, the unionist community generally voted for the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP), which remained in permanent control of Northern Ireland’s devolved government from 1921 until its abolition in 1972. Discrimination against the minority, particularly in housing and employment, led to the growth of a civil rights movement in the 1960s, demanding ‘British rights’ for the nationalist population. However, the civil rights movement was met by a loyalist backlash and violence flared. Finally, in August 1969, the British government was forced to step in and deploy troops in Northern Ireland. They were to remain there until 2007.

Out of the violence, the Irish Republican Army (IRA) re-emerged, and the focus of the conflict shifted from civil rights to the constitutional position of Northern Ireland. The IRA dated to back to the Easter Rising and had launched sporadic campaigns since partition directed at trying to achieve Irish unity. Its recent ‘Border Campaign’ (1956–62) had ended in failure and over the course of the 1960s the IRA came to focus more on extreme leftist united front politics rather than militant republicanism. This caused a split in the republican movement in December 1969, from which the Provisional IRA was born. While most nationalists supported the newly formed Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), who sought to achieve Irish unity by political means, there were those in the minority community who supported the IRA’s ‘armed struggle’, attempting to gain Irish unity by force. Unionists fiercely resisted any moves towards a united Ireland. Loyalist paramilitary groups also formed and contributed to the developing violence. The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) emerged from 1966, and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) and its proxy Ulster Freedom Fighters (UFF) from the early 1970s.

As the conflict deepened, the death toll rose rapidly. Events like Bloody Sunday, 30 January 1972 – in which British troops killed 13 unarmed civilians and injured several more (one of whom later died from his injuries) while taking part in a protest march – acted as a catalyst to the increasingly bitter conflict.

The coffins of the 13 people who were shot dead by British troops in Derry on Bloody Sunday, 1972. (Photo by Independent News and Media/Getty Images)

The prelude to the peace process

Over the course of the Troubles, British governments attempted to develop political initiatives that sought to end the conflict. Edward Heath’s government (1970–74) developed an ambitious programme, resulting in the Sunningdale Agreement of December 1973. This combined a devolved assembly for Northern Ireland, involving power-sharing between unionist and nationalist parties, with the creation of a Council of Ireland to institutionalise links between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. However, this was brought down by a two-week general strike in May 1974, as the unionist population rejected the involvement of the Irish government under the cry that “Dublin is just a Sunningdale away”.

Margaret Thatcher’s government (1979–90) was more modest in ambition, with Mrs Thatcher’s focus on securing cooperation from the Irish government in tackling the IRA. In exchange the Irish government was given the right to put forward its views on Northern Ireland’s affairs. This again infuriated the unionists, who sought to bring the Agreement down.

However, as the 1980s progressed, some significant developments began to reshape the approaches of the participants in the conflict.

Republicans increasingly saw the benefits of combining a political strategy with the armed struggle. Sinn Féin, the IRA’s political counterpart, began contesting elections, and regularly polled between 10 and 15 per cent of the vote. This caused deep concern in both the British and Irish governments and influenced the negotiations leading to the Anglo-Irish Agreement. The ‘bullet and ballot box’ strategy caused tensions within the republican movement that had to be carefully managed by Gerry Adams, who became Sinn Féin president in 1983. Experience of the drift to far left politics in the 1960s and the ingrained abstentionism – the refusal to accept the legitimacy of, or to take seats in, political institutions in the Republic, Northern Ireland, or Westminster –  in the republican movement made many suspicious of political engagement.

The IRA had not been defeated and a flow of weapons was reaching Ireland from Libya. Significant IRA attacks continued, such as the attempt to assassinate Margaret Thatcher and her cabinet in the 1984 Brighton Bombing. However, Sinn Féin could achieve electoral legitimacy by contesting elections, for example through Adams’s election as a Westminster MP in 1983. In addition, in 1988 Adams began a series of talks with John Hume, leader of the constitutional nationalist SDLP. While the Hume-Adams talks had no immediate successes, they were influential in steering the British and Irish governments towards the Downing Street Declaration, which would come in 1993.

There was also some movement from the British government. Influenced by Hume, the Northern Ireland Secretary, Peter Brooke, delivered a speech in November 1990 in which he declared that the British government had “no selfish strategic or economic interest in Northern Ireland”. Instead it was for the people of Northern Ireland to decide its constitutional future. Coupled with this change in mood music, Brooke also approved the opening of a secret communication channel between MI5 and the republicans.

Brooke also sought to get Northern Ireland’s constitutional parties talking to each other. He proposed that inter-party talks should cover three strands: the first dealing with relationships within Northern Ireland; the second dealing with relations between the two parts of Ireland; and the third dealing with links between the British and Irish governments. The talks began in April 1991, but quickly became bogged down in procedural disagreements. But the three-strand format was to be at the heart of the Good Friday Agreement.

The Downing Street Declaration and IRA ceasefire

The peace process picked up momentum in 1993. The British prime minister, John Major, worked closely with the Irish Taoiseach [prime minister], Albert Reynolds, on a joint declaration that was hoped would form the basis of a peace initiative. This resulted in the Downing Street Declaration of 15 December 1993. The declaration recognised the two different traditions in Ireland and stated that peace could only come through reconciling the differences between them. The two governments committed themselves to building that process of reconciliation and creating appropriate political structures to facilitate it.

British prime minister John Major (left) and Irish prime minister Albert Reynolds address a press conference in London prior to issuing a joint declaration to bring peace to Northern Ireland, 15 December 1994. (Photo by Gerry Penny/AFP/Getty Images)

In parallel to the Downing Street Declaration, Reynolds worked to persuade the IRA to declare a ceasefire. Both Reynolds and Hume were convinced that tying Sinn Féin into a cross-nationalist coalition would show them the benefits of using purely political means. This would involve nationalists in Northern Ireland, the Irish government, and Irish America, and would provide the republicans with access to the highest political levels in Washington.

To show Sinn Féin the benefits of constitutional politics, Reynolds lobbied the US president Bill Clinton to grant Gerry Adams a visa to visit the United States. Clinton agreed, and Adams was granted a 48-hour visa to visit America in February 1994, despite most of Clinton’s senior advisors being against the move, and much to the fury of John Major. The visa was important as part of the wider choreography of peace making. But it did not lead to an immediate IRA ceasefire. Indeed, a month later the IRA demonstrated its continued reach by attacking Heathrow Airport. However, the visit was important as part of the process of debate within the republican movement, and finally, on 31 August 1994, the IRA announced its ceasefire. The ceasefire was followed in October 1994 by a ceasefire called by the loyalist paramilitaries.

However, the ceasefires did not lead directly to all-party talks. Instead, the peace process quickly became bogged down over the question of arms decommissioning – the hand-over, or verified disposal, of weapons. The IRA would not consider anything that could be perceived to be surrender and Sinn Féin argued that decommissioning should be negotiated as part of a process of ‘demilitarisation’. But neither unionist politicians nor the British government would countenance talks with Sinn Féin until decommissioning had taken place. Unionists had been disconcerted by republican celebrations following the announcement of the IRA ceasefire; they were not willing to take Sinn Féin at their word.

In an attempt to break the impasse, the British and Irish governments created an international decommissioning body, chaired by former US Senator George Mitchell. This was part of a ‘twin-track’ approach, with decommissioning to accompany political talks rather than precede them. Mitchell delivered his report in January 1996, setting out six principles that should be endorsed by all parties to the talks. This included a commitment to exclusively peaceful means. Mitchell recommended that all parties should sign up to these principles and that some decommissioning could take place during the talks. However, this was not enough to prevent the slide back to violence. On 9 February 1996, the IRA released a statement announcing the end of its ceasefire. An hour later a massive explosion rocked Canary Wharf, killing two people.

What was the Good Friday Agreement?

The election of Tony Blair’s Labour government, on 1 May 1997, was transformational. Blair was as committed to the peace process as Major had been, but had the advantage of being able to approach Northern Ireland without the baggage that Major had accumulated over seven years of talks.

The IRA renewed its ceasefire on 20 July 1997, opening the way for Sinn Féin to be included in the inter-party talks that had begun under Mitchell’s chairmanship. The question of decommissioning remained though, and the British and Irish governments sought to fudge the issue rather than allow it to derail the process again. This led to Ian Paisley’s hard-line Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) walking out of the talks, never to return. The DUP rejected the notion of making any concessions on the constitutional position of Northern Ireland or negotiating with Sinn Féin, whom they considered terrorists. While deeply unhappy, the more moderate UUP remained in the talks. Given the DUP’s declared desire to break the talks, Mitchell wrote later in his memoirs that their decision to walk out actually helped the process of reaching an agreement. However, it was to have a lasting impact on the politics of Northern Ireland, as the DUP’s opposition to the Good Friday Agreement severely hindered its implementation. Sinn Féin entered the all-party talks on 15 September 1997, having signed-up to the Mitchell Principles.

After marathon negotiations, agreement was finally reached on 10 April 1998. The Good Friday Agreement was a complex balancing act, reflecting the three strands approach. Within Northern Ireland, it created a new devolved assembly for Northern Ireland, with a requirement that executive power had to be shared by parties representing the two communities. In addition, a new North-South Ministerial Council was to be established, institutionalising the link between the two parts of Ireland. The Irish government also committed to amending Articles 2 and 3 of the Republic’s Constitution, which laid claim to Northern Ireland, to instead reflect an aspiration to Irish unity, through purely democratic means, while recognising the diversity of identities and traditions in Ireland. Finally, a Council of the Isles was to be created, recognising the ‘totality of relationships’ within the British Isles, including representatives of the two governments, and the devolved institutions in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Referendums were held in both Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland on 22 May 1998. In Northern Ireland 71 per cent of voters backed the Agreement, with 29 per cent voting against. While this was a significant endorsement, an exit poll for the Sunday Times found that 96 per cent of nationalists in Northern Ireland backed the Agreement, compared to just 55 per cent of unionists.

What is the legacy of the Good Friday Agreement?

The Good Friday Agreement was hard won. But it has faced considerable challenges over the 20 years since its signing.

On 15 August 1998, 29 people were killed when dissident republicans exploded a car bomb in Omagh. This represented the largest loss of life in any incident in Northern Ireland since the start of the Troubles. While the Omagh bombing was committed by republicans opposed to the Agreement, it returned the spotlight to the question of decommissioning paramilitary weapons, which the Good Friday Agreement had stated should happen within two years. Unionist anger at the refusal of the IRA to give up its weapons was combined with frustration at the refusal of Sinn Féin to accept the reformed Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

David Trimble, chief minister for the Northern Ireland Assembly, surveys the damage at the bomb site in the northern Irish town of Omagh after dissident republicans exploded a car bomb killing 29 people. (Photo by Paul Vicente/AFP/Getty Images)

Under these circumstances, power-sharing proved impossible to sustain. Meanwhile, voters in each community started to turn away from the moderate parties, and instead support for Sinn Féin and the DUP increased, displacing the SDLP and UUP in the process. For a significant part of the decade following the Good Friday Agreement, devolution was suspended because of the inability of the largest parties from each community to reach agreement on power-sharing. Progress was made on decommissioning, which was confirmed to have been carried out in September 2005, but political agreement remained elusive. Eventually, the British and Irish governments hosted crunch talks at St Andrews in October 2006. There, Sinn Féin finally agreed to accept the PSNI, while the DUP agreed to share power with Sinn Féin. In May 2007, an Executive comprised of the DUP, Sinn Féin, UUP and SDLP was finally able to take office. This time, the institutions created under the Good Friday Agreement were to remain in being until the current political crisis led to the collapse of the Executive in January 2017.

Despite the fragility of the institutions created and the continuing bitterness between politicians representing the two communities, the Good Friday Agreement remains an important landmark in Northern Ireland’s history. The Good Friday Agreement was able to bring to an end 30 years of violence, and allows Northern Ireland’s two communities to pursue their contrasting aspirations by purely political means.

Dr Alan MacLeod is a historian of modern Britain and Ireland and Lecturer in Modern British History at the University of Leeds. He is the author of International Politics and the Northern Ireland Conflict: The USA, Diplomacy and the Troubles (IB Tauris, 2016).

This article was first published by HistoryExtra in April 2018

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Dr Sam Willis <![CDATA[Murder and mayhem in Georgian Britain: the scandalous work of Johnson’s General History]]> https://www.historyextra.com/?p=227690 2023-04-06T08:58:03Z 2023-04-07T08:05:05Z

In the collections of the British Library is a first edition of, what is for me, one of the most remarkable books ever published: A General History of the Lives and Adventures of the Most Famous Highwaymen, Murderers, Street-Robbers, &c. To Which Is Added, a Genuine Account of the Voyages and Plunders of the Most Notorious Pyrates.

It was written by one Captain Charles Johnson and published in 1734. On the surface, this is a collection of fascinating stories about various bloodthirsty rogues.

But scratch a little deeper, reading carefully its narratives of murder and mayhem, and you’ll discover that this book actually raises questions that go to the very heart of what we know about the past – and the present.

Who was Captain Charles Johnson?

Johnson was a literary phenomenon in the early part of the 18th century. He first roared onto the London publishing scene in 1724, in a cacophony of swearing and violence, with a book recounting the “true” lives of pirates, building on a tradition of criminal biographies that can be traced back to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. A decade later, he saw the opportunity to bring together the stories of diverse criminals in one book – the literary equivalent of Newgate Prison, each villain occupying his own cell-like chapter.

Charles Johnson’s identity remains a mystery (that name presumably being a pseudonym), but one thing is certain: he was a masterful storyteller and historian. He weaves fact with fiction and glorifies in his own trickery, celebrating his role as a historical fraudster. At the same time, he often tells the truth – or at least the truth as he wishes it to be remembered.

To read his book is not only to be educated and entertained by a rich cast of criminals going back over a number of centuries, but also to be educated and entertained by life in Britain in the mid 1730s, and by the anonymous author’s beliefs and understanding of his world. In particular, it provides fascinating insights into attitudes towards criminals and wider society in the early Georgian era.

Why did he focus on highwaymen?

As Johnson’s book makes abundantly clear, criminals could strike anywhere. But nowhere were people more vulnerable to crime’s depredations than when they were on the move. For centuries before the Industrial Revolution – with its gates, turnpikes and road patrols – roads were a source of intense anxiety, presenting numerous hazards. Settlements were spread out, dislocated from one another. To travel was to become isolated for long periods of time.

The landscape was more awkward than it is today, with thick forests here, unwadeable streams there, and bogs and thickets regularly blocking the way. Watchmen provided a degree of security in some towns and cities, but there was no formal police force until the Metropolitan Police was established in London in 1829. Roads, even on the outskirts of major cities, were dangerous.

A painting shows robbers ambushing a carriage. Criminals were a source of terror – and lurid fascination – in Georgian Britain (Photo by Fine Art Images/Heritage Images/Getty Images)

Johnson explores danger on the roads in his chapter on a highwayman called Sir Gosselin Denville, who plied his trade not in the author’s own time but back in the 14th century. Among other exploits, this rogue robbed two cardinals sent to England from Rome to negotiate with Edward II. Johnson gleefully describes his predations:

“The continual preys he and his men made on all travellers, put the whole country into a terrible pannic; for there was no such thing as travelling with any safety; and the great number of persons, of whom his gang was composed, plainly shewed, that they defied the laws, and every thing else. What they could not obtain on the highway, they sought for in houses, monasteries, churches, and nunneries, which were rifled without any distinction; and the most valuable and sacred things carried off.”

Did he present the criminals in a positive light?

One of the most eye-catching aspects of Johnson’s book is that he reserves some of his most stinging criticism not for highwaymen themselves, but their victims. He is keenly aware of the deficiencies of the criminals we meet in the book, describing one such rogue, Thomas Dun, as a man of “very mean extraction” who “had contracted thieving so much from his childhood, that every thing he touch’d stuck to his fingers like birdlime”.

Yet the victims of criminal acts are, in Johnson’s estimation, often as culpable as those who commit them. Throughout his book we encounter sly lawyers, grasping politicians, crooked tradesmen and quack doctors, each presented as a parasite on society. The author also notes the villainy of those in power, arguing that “A Great Villain may commit more Depredations in a short time, than a hundred little ones can in a long Course of Years,” and claiming that: “It is not unprecedented for a very great knight to be a very great robber.”

Victims of criminal acts are, in Johnson’s estimation, often as culpable as those who commit them. Throughout his book we encounter sly lawyers, grasping politicians, crooked tradesmen and quack doctors, each presented as a parasite on society

Johnson takes great glee in scolding hypocrites. It is telling that he quotes at length a passage in the Bible in an early chapter from the gospel of Luke in which everyday criminals are named:

“Servants when they embezzle the Goods of their Masters: Nay, Apothecaries, and Taylors, when they make unconscionable Bills; Butchers, when they blow their Veil; Millers, for taking double Toll; Shoemakers, for stretching their Leather larger than their Consciences; Surgeons, for prolonging a Cure; Physicians, for taking away the Lives of their Patients; and Lawyers, for taking Bribes on both Sides: I say, that all these are no better than Thieves, and such as they, nor Covetous, nor Drunkards, nor Revilers, nor Extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God.”

A cartoon satirises gluttony in 1799. For Johnson, the rich and powerful were every bit as capable of villainy as highwaymen (Photo by Heritage Art/Heritage Images via Getty Images)

In his life of Ned Wicks, a highwayman executed in Warwick in 1713, Johnson reserves particular ire for a miserly landlord who relentlessly demanded rent from a poor widow, driving her to ruin. In Johnson’s account, Wicks comes across the weeping widow, discovers her story and hunts down the landlord on the road, whereupon “he did not only bid him stand and deliver, but presenting him also with a whole volley of first-rate oaths, he so frightened him out of his wits, that he delivered all the money he had lately received, and as much more to it.”

How interested were Georgians in tales of criminals?

Johnson’s book demonstrates that true crime sold well in the 18th century, just as it does today. Many of his subjects were not just criminals plucked from obscurity but well-known personalities – celebrities, even.

In 1724, the year Johnson published his first book – a compendium of the lives of pirates – four criminal biographies were printed about the notorious thief Jack Sheppard. He had been hanged that winter at Tyburn in London; almost immediately, chapbooks, ballads and plays appeared telling his story. Meanwhile, the previous year had seen the publication of biographies of the Scottish outlaw Rob Roy and John Stanley, a murderous early 15th-century knight-errant.

Johnson’s writings give glimpses into the private lives of criminal “celebrities” in a period when the public were quite happy not to draw a line between fame and infamy. The most flamboyant stories were preserved and retold time and again, to the great joy of listeners and readers all over the country. There is perhaps no finer example than that of Claude Du Vall, the very essence of a 17th-century gentleman thief.

The gallant highwayman Claude Du Vall charms a gentleman and lady while holding them up, as depicted in a contemporary illustration (Photo by Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo)

When he stopped “a knight and his lady” travelling with £400 in their coach – a fortune at the time – the lady began to play a flageolet, a type of early flute. Inspired, Du Vall whipped out his own flageolet and responded with a tune of his own. “’Sir,’ says he to the knight, ‘your lady plays excellently, and I make no doubt but she dances as well: will you please to step out of the coach, and let me have the honour to dance one courant with her on the heath?’

“’I dare not deny any thing, Sir,’ the knight readily replied, ‘to a gentleman of your quality, and good behaviour…’ It was surprizing to see how gracefully [Du Vall] moved upon the grass; scarce a dancing master in London, but would have been proud to have shewn such agility in a pair of pumps, as Du Vall shewed in a great pair of French riding boots. As soon as the dance was over, he waits on the lady back to the coach, without offering her the least affront; but just as the knight was step ping in, ‘Sir,’ says he, ‘you have forgot to pay the music.’

“His Worship replied, that he never forgot such things; and instantly put his hand under the seat of the coach, and pulled out a hundred pound in a bag, which he delivered to Du Vall, who received it with a very good grace.”

How did Johnson write about more serious crimes?

Claude Du Vall may have been a rogue, but he was dashing one. That wasn’t the case for all of Johnson’s protagonists. There was a darker side to his General History, most especially when it was recounting acts of shocking violence against women. The most powerful example of this was an episode in the life of Patrick O’Bryan. This criminal, we are told, was born in Galway and served in the army under Charles II. He ran up debts, borrowing “with the common defence of his countrymen, a front that would brazen out anything, and even laugh at the persons whom he had imposed on, to their very faces”.

Johnson’s attitude is a reminder of the power of anti-Irish sentiment in the 18th century. So it comes as no surprise when he accuses his subject of an act that, you sense, Johnson sees as the worst crimes imaginable. Having described how O’Bryan shot and dismembered one of his victims, Johnson then ascribes to him a gang rape and mass murder.

We know that Patrick O’Bryan was a historical figure who committed terrible crimes because he hanged for them in 1689. Yet readers have to take some of Johnson’s other accounts with a pinch of salt

With four accomplices “as bad as himself”, O’Bryan heads to the home of Lancelot Wilmot in Wiltshire, an isolated house known to contain substantial wealth. Having broken in at night, they set to work:

“… they ty’d and gagg’d the three servants, and then proceeded to the old gentleman’s room, where he was in bed with his lady. They served both these in the same manner, and then went in the daughter’s chamber. This young lady they severally forced after one another to their brutal pleasure, and when they had done, most inhumanly stabb’d her, because she endeavoured to get from their arms. They next acted the same tragedy on the father and mother, which they told them, ‘was because they did not breed up their daughter to better manners’.

“Then they rifled the house of every thing valuable which they could find in it, that was fit to be carried off, to the value in all of 2500 [pounds]. After which they set the building on fire, and left it to consume with the unhappy servants that was in it.”

In a 1751 print by William Hogarth, titled Cruelty in Perfection, a man is apprehended for murdering his pregnant mistress (Photo by GSinclair Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

We know that O’Bryan was a historical figure who committed terrible crimes because he hanged for them in 1689. Yet readers have to take some of Johnson’s other accounts with a pinch of salt. He tells us that we can “depend” on the “authenticity” of his tale, but then he peppers it with episodes that are implausible or outright fictional.

For the implausible, look no further than Sawney Bean, whom Johnson introduces thus: “The following account, though as well attested as any historical fact can be… is almost incredible.” The author then urges us to believe the story of a cannibal tribe, a near-50-strong family born of incest, living in a cave on a headland in the Firth of Clyde in the 16th century. This clan survived, he writes, by ambushing people on the road near their cave and then eating them, pickling the leftovers in barrels.

Less dramatic, but entirely fictional nonetheless, is Johnson’s chapter on the life of John Falstaff, a character invented by William Shakespeare. We are told that he was born in Bedfordshire, and “flourished in the reigns of Henry IV and V”. Johnson also includes Robin Hood among his cast, recounting splendid stories of the outlaw hoodwinking traveller after traveller in the guise of “a very honest and worthy person”.

There is no doubt that Johnson wrote this book with his tongue firmly in his cheek. In our modern world, beset with fake news, to avoid falling prey to credulity we must all learn the skills of the historian. So it is with Johnson’s magnificent book: a reader must be willing to be entertained, but also be sceptical. The moment you open the cover, you have placed yourself in the open palm of a master manipulator. It’s an uncomfortable experience, but one to savour – because it summons the past as does no other book I have ever read.

Sam Willis is a historian, archaeologist and broadcaster. He wrote the introduction to the recent reissue of Johnson’s General History (British Library Publishing, 2020)

This article was first published in the March 2023 issue of BBC History Magazine

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Matt Elton <![CDATA[Nuclear apocalypse in Britain]]> https://www.historyextra.com/?p=227773 2023-04-07T06:53:06Z 2023-04-07T06:52:40Z

If – or when – a nuclear bomb was dropped on Cold War Britain, the nation was primed to react fast. When the sirens sounded, children would run home from school using the quickest familiar route. Families would wait out the nuclear fallout under the stairs, while political leaders would evacuate to bunkers across the country, ready to launch the regeneration plan. But were all these plans actually just a load of nonsense? Julie McDowall tells Matt Elton about Britain’s nuclear response plans, and questions their effectiveness when faced with the reality of instant annihilation.

 

Julie McDowall is the author of Attack Warning Red! How Britain Prepared for Nuclear War.

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Elinor Evans <![CDATA[7 April: On this day in history]]> https://www.historyextra.com/?p=205502 2023-04-07T05:06:18Z 2023-04-07T05:06:00Z

7 April 1739

Notorious highwayman Dick Turpin is hanged in York. On the day of his execution, Turpin becomes a celebrity: members of the public visit his cell to speak with him, apparently buying drinks from his gaoler. He hires five professional mourners to follow him to the gallows.


7 April 1770

Birth in Cockermouth of Romantic poet William Wordsworth. The large Georgian house in which he was born is now in the care of the National Trust.


c 1823

Death of French inventor, physicist and balloonist Jacques Alexandre Cesar Charles. In 1783 he and Nicolas Louis Robert became the first men to fly in a hydrogen-filled balloon. Charles’s Law, which describes how gases expand when heated, is named after him.


7 April 1862

After a two-daystruggle, Union general Ulysses S Grant drove back the Confederates at Shiloh. Both sides suffered around 10,000 casualties making Shiloh the costliest battle in American history up to that time. | Read more about the American Civil War


7 April 1891

The founder of the LEGO ® construction toy company, Ole Kirk Christiansen, was born in Filso, Denmark.


7 April 1947

Car manufacturer Henry Ford dies aged 83.


7 April 1948

The acceptance of the constitution of the United Nations World Health Organisation by Byelorussia and Mexico gives it the 26 member state ratifications it needs to come into force.

Browse more On this day in history

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Rhiannon Davies <![CDATA[Can you guess the meaning of Victorian slang?]]> https://www.historyextra.com/?p=228201 2023-04-06T13:18:06Z 2023-04-06T12:53:32Z

The Victorians had a rich variety of slang terms – many of which seem incomprehensible to use today.

If you could be transported back in time to walk the streets of 19th-century London, would you know what to say if a street hawker implored you to try their bags o’mystery? Or what if a kindly passer-by pointed out that you’d gotten something on your daddles?

We asked historians Michael Wood, Rana Mitter and Catherine Nixey to put their heads together and try and tease out the meanings of eight slang terms that have fallen out of favour.

Watch the video to see how they fared. And, if you think you could do better, take our Victorian slang quiz below.

Related content

 

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Lauren Good <![CDATA[History TV and radio in the UK: what’s on our screens this week?]]> https://www.historyextra.com/?p=39962 2023-04-06T16:36:09Z 2023-04-06T08:30:00Z

Bettany Hughes’s Treasures Of The World

Channel 4

Saturday 8th April, 6.30pm

Series two of the archaeology series concludes in Azerbaijan. Here, classicist and historian Bettany Hughes heads for Gobustan, where she sees 40,000-year-old rock art. Plus Hughes also visits Shari, on the route of the ancient Silk Road, where weavers are still working in a traditional manner.

Read more


Fortress Britain With Alice Roberts

Channel 4

Saturday 8th April, 7.30pm
 
The Cold War era was characterised by paranoia and the ever-present threat of nuclear war. As Alice Roberts, Danielle George and Onyeka Nubia discover, it was an era that resulted in the government investing in bunkers and subterranean weapons stores. Plus the story of how notorious spies such as Kim Philby leaked secrets to the Soviet Union.

Read more


Archive On 4: The British Bhangra Explosion

Radio 4

Saturday 8th April, 8pm

During the 1980s and 1990s, British Indians rewired traditional Punjabi folk music by adding electric guitars and synthesizers. As to how all this came about, Anita Rani looks back with the help of key figures such as Alaap, Sheila Chandra and Apache Indian.

Read more


The Reunion – pick of the week

Radio 4

Easter Day, 11.15am

Signed on 10 April 1998, the Good Friday Agreement was designed to end The Troubles in Northern Ireland. What happened in the build-up to this momentous day? Key figures – including Jonathan Powell, Tony Blair’s chief of staff, Bertie Ahearn and Monica McWilliams, co-founder of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition – look back. Presented by Kirsty Wark.

Read more


Great Expectations

BBC One

Easter Day, 9pm

Steven Knight’s love-it-or-loathe-it Dickens adaptation reaches episode three. Pip has left Gravesend and gone to work for the lawyer Mr Jaggers, whom it soon becomes clear, if it were’t already, is not the most honest of men. Meantime, Estella learns about Miss Havisham’s scheme.

Read more


Pompeii: The Discovery With Dan Snow

Channel 5

Easter Day, 9pm

The historian heads to Italy to tell the story of how Pompeii came to be rediscovered and excavated. Today, the site is associated with careful archaeology, but those who first dug at Pompeii were essentially treasure-hunters. Tourism, we learn, began as early as the 18th century.


Great Lives

Radio 4

Tuesday 11th April, 4.30pm

King in Prussia from 1740, Frederick the Great survived a brutal childhood to become a musician, a writer and, most of all, a man who took extraordinary military risks. But how do contemporary Germans view a man much admired by Hitler? Historian Christopher Clark nominates Frederick as having lived an extraordinary life.

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In Our Time

Radio 4

Thursday 13th April, 9am

Melvyn Bragg and guests look back to August 1346, when the armies of France and England met outside the town of Crécy in northern France. The French outnumbered the English, but Edward III prevailed. A battle that grew from years of tension between Edward and Philip VI led to decades of further conflict in the Hundred Years’ War.

Read more


Open Country

Radio 4

Thursday 13th April, 3pm

There are around 200 abandoned villages in Norfolk, a county that also has more abandoned churches than anywhere else in the country. Lawrence D’Silva dons his walking boots to discover why this is so, in the process wandering down the grassy outlines of streets that once formed the medieval village of Godwick.

Read more


Pilgrimage: The Road Through Portugal

BBC Two

Friday 14th April, 9pm

The latter-day pilgrims continue their journey through Portugal. Highlights in the second of three episodes include a visit to the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and a stop in Porto, a city where several pilgrimage routes intersect.

Read more

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