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How the SAS outwitted the Nazis

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BRITAIN’S BESTSELLING HISTORY MAGAZINE

July 2023 / www.historyextra.com

THE GREATEST
PHARAOH?
Was Ramesses II a military
genius or a master of propaganda?

“Diseases provoked
astonishing ingenuity”
Simon Schama on the
global triumph of vaccines

THE TUDOR
TRAVEL BUG

Georgian rebel
The scandalous tale
of Lord Byron’s lover

e long journey to Windrush

Th ?
t at tract ed Caribbe an migrant s to Br itain
Wha
 WELCOME JULY 2023

When I was six years old I took part in a school adaptation of THREE THINGS I’VE
the Exodus story, in which I played the pharaoh who was so LEARNED THIS MONTH
reluctant to let the Israelites go. My historical knowledge was signio-
cantly more limited at that age, but one thing I knew even then was 1. Out of pocket
1. In our piece on the history of timekeeping,
the name of that pharaoh: Ramesses. Of all the dozens of rulers of
I was interested to read that wristwatches were almost
ancient Egypt, Ramesses II’s name has endured more than any exclusively worn by women until the First
other. He9s been lionised by everyone from Herodotus to Percy World War, which encouraged men to
Shelley, and is the only pharaoh to be known as 8the Great9. But does switch away from less convenient
he deserve this exalted reputation? pocketwatches (page 82).
In our cover feature this month, Egyptologist Toby Wilkinson
revisits Ramesses9 extraordinary reign to determine whether he was 2. Stratford sneakery
a brilliant leader or simply a master of propaganda. Turn to page 22 This month’s Q&A section is
for that – and do also listen out for my podcast interview with Toby full of fascinating tidbits,
(available on HistoryExtra.com), where we delve into some more such as the fact that two
fascinating questions about Ramesses, including whether he really future US presidents broke
QʘRCTVQHQPGQH5JCMG-
was awarded a passport by the French government in the 1970s.
speare’s chairs to take
More than 3,000 years aver Ramesses9 reign, legends of a very home as a souvenir on a
diferent kind were being forged in north Africa. As the recent BBC visit to Stratford-upon-
drama Rogue Heroes highlighted, the story of the wartime SAS is an Avon (page 37).
astonishing mixture of courage, ingenuity and tragedy. It9s a story
that historian Joshua Levine has been researching for 3. Mass movement
In our feature on children who
his latest book, and on page 46 he prooles four key campaigned against slavery,
players in the formation of this remarkable unit. I was intrigued to discover that some
COVER IMAGE SHOWS: THE MONUMENTAL STATUE OF RAMESSES II - ALAMY. SAS AND WINDRUSH IMAGES – ALAMY.

I hope you enjoy the issue. 300,000 Britons boycotted goods produced
by enslaved people in the 1790s (page 54).
Rob Attar
Editor

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Simon Schama
“When the pandemic
happened, I decided to
tell a story about the
history of medicine. And
it converged with a long
interest of mine about
the perils of excessive
national defensiveness.”
Simon introduces some of the
early pioneers of lifesaving
vaccines on page 31
Channing Joseph
“Where possible, I think
it’s crucial to describe
people in the way in
which they thought
of themselves, and
using the terminology
that was used in the
period and place in
which they lived.”
Channing considers how
we can share the stories of
LGBTQ people from the past
on page 11
Christienna Fryar
“Perhaps the continuing
reluctance to discuss
Britain’s slavery history
beyond the work of
British abolitionists has
created a tendency to
separate Windrush
from the centuries
that preceded it.”
Christienna retraces the long
and thorny road to HMT
Empire Windrush setting sail
on page 58
Antonia Fraser
“We hear so much about
%CTQNKPGoUNQXGCʘCKTYKVJ
Lord Byron, and how
William Lamb, the man
she married, became
prime minister. And
I thought to myself:
‘I wonder what she
was like, really.’”
Antonia profiles Lady Caroline
Lamb, the learned Georgian
aristocrat who scandalised
society on page 66
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 JULY 2023

FEATURES EVERY MONTH

58
22 The greatest pharaoh? 6 Anniversaries
Toby Wilkinson asks if Ramesses II
was the most successful ruler of The Conversation
ancient Egypt – or just the most
self-aggrandising 11 The challenges of writing about
LGBTQ history
14 How history has been misused in
31 Sickness, science the war in Ukraine
and society 17 Michael Wood TGʚGEVUQP
Simon Schama discusses his Charles III’s coronation
PGYDQQMNQQMKPICVGCTN[GʘQTVUVQ 18 Hidden Histories
tackle infectious illnesses – and the
opposition faced by many pioneers 20 Letters
36 Q&A History questions answered
38 The Tudor travel bug
Books
Lauren Working and Emily
Stevenson highlight six artefacts 66 Interview: Lady Antonia Fraser
TGʚGEVKPIVJG'PINKUJHCUEKPCVKQPYKVJ on Caroline Lamb, the socialite 53
global exploration in the 16th century who scandalised Georgian Britain
70 New history books reviewed
46 The original rogue heroes
Joshua Levine introduces four men
Encounters
who played pivotal roles in the rise of 77 Diary: What to see and do
the SAS during the Second World War this month
82 Podcast: Timekeepers
53 The children’s war 84 Explore: Ad Gefrin
on slavery Anglo-Saxon Museum
86 Historic Cities: Rome
Ryan Hanley and Kathryn Gleadle
EJCTVVJGGʘQTVUQH[QWPIRGQRNGKP
88 Prize crossword
Georgian Britain to bring an end
to the trade in enslaved people 90 My history hero

THE HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE/BBC/GETTY IMAGES

Sir Keir Starmer picks activist and
58 The forgotten history
of Windrush
diplomat Eleanor Roosevelt 66
Christienna Fryar
examines Britain’s
relationship with the
Caribbean in the
century following
the end of slavery

38

4
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5
 HELEN CARR highlights events that
took place in July in history

7 JULY 1307

Edward I dies on
his way to fight
in Scotland
|e end of the English king9s life
echoes that of his hero, Arthur

KPI'FYCTF+KURTQDCDN[EJKGʚ[

K remembered for three things. First,

for his height: he was more than
6ft tall, earning the byname ‘Longshanks’.
5GEQPFHQTPFKPICPFKPVGTTKPIVJGDQPGUQH
King Arthur at Glastonbury Abbey – or so he
CUUGTVGF#PFPCNN[HQTJKUXKEVQTKGUDG[QPF
England’s borders in Wales and Scotland –
earning the epithet ‘Hammer of the Scots’.
The decade following Edward’s invasion
of Scotland in 1296 was marked by bitter
EQPʚKEVDGVYGGPJKUVTQQRUCPF5EQVVKUJ
HQTEGUIJVKPIVQTGVCKPKPFGRGPFGPEGHTQO
an English king. And in 1307, at the ripe old
#.#/;612(161)'66;+/#)'5

age of 68, Edward – a warrior to the end – set

out for yet another campaign in Scotland.
He never made it to the border. Frail and
UWʘGTKPIHTQOF[UGPVGT['FYCTFFKGFQP
7 July at Burgh by Sands in Cumbria, while
being lifted from his bed by his servants. In
light of his passions, the location of his death
may not have been pure chance. Known to
the Romans as Aballava, site of a fortress on
Hadrian’s Wall, Burgh by Sands was,
according to local lore, on the
legendary isle of Avalon
where King Arthur drew
his last breath. It is
possible that Edward,
an Arthurian fanatic,
wished to die in the
same place as the
mythical hero.

Edward I of England,
known as the Hammer
of the Scots for his
campaigns in northern
Britain, portrayed in
a 14th-century
manuscript illumination

6

England defender Jackie
Charlton tackles West German
forward Sigfried Held in the
1966 World Cup final
Nicaise de Keyser’s painting of the
battle of the Golden Spurs vividly
depicts the slaughter of French
cavalrymen by Flemish foot soldiers
THIS MONTH IN HISTORY ANNIVERSARIES
30 JULY 1966
More than 32 million Britons tune in to watch
England beat West Germany and win the
FIFA World Cup. The Queen presents the
coveted Jules Rimet trophy to Bobby Moore
at Wembley Stadium.
11 JULY 1302
French forces are
crushed at the battle
of the Golden Spurs
Flemish infantry innict heavy
losses on experienced French
cavalry in marshy terrain
elow the town walls of Courtrai (now Ko-
B rtrijk in Belgium)VJGʚQYGTQH(TGPEJPQ-
bility lay dead. Golden spurs littered the
battleGNFgleaming in the last rays of the setting
sun. At the turn of the 14th century, the French
CTO[YCUCPGN[VWPGFIJVKPIOCEJKPGmade
up of noblemen trained to serve France from cra-
dle to grave. But on 11 July 1302, this estimable
force was crushed in a clash that became known
as the battle of the Golden Spurs.
Courtrai had become wealthy from the cloth
trade. British wool was imported for textile
manufacturing in Flanders, and Count Guy of
Flanders had forged a military alliance with
English king Edward I. However, the county of
Flanders was nominally part of the Kingdom of
France, and the alliance enraged French king
Philip IV. His army invaded Flanders in 1300,
imprisoning Guy and his sons, and he installed
(TGPEJQʛEKCNUVQIQXGTPVJGTGIKQP;GVYKVJKP
two years, a major rebellion had broken out.
In summer 1302, Flemish noble William of
Jülich mustered the militia of Courtrai, mostly
foot soldiers with steel helmets and gloves,
wielding pikes or spears. This force – numbering
8,000 to 10,000, with only a handful of armed
knights – laid siege to the French garrison at
Courtrai Castle. The experienced French army
CTTKXGFCVCGNFQWVUKFGVJGECUVNGYKVJCTQWPF
8,000 men, almost half of them heavy cavalry
that thundered into the Flemish front line.
Against the odds, however, the French were
crushed. Though no chronicle account emerged
from eyewitness testimony, the Annalist of
)JGPVYTQVGVJCVpVJGʚQYGTQHMPKIJVJQQFe
fell before weavers, fulls and the common folk”,
the marshy ground hindering the French cavalry.
That day, 500 pairs of spurs were collected from
VJGDCVVNGGNFD[VJG(NGOKUJVQDGFKURNC[GFCU
war trophies. The French nobility was decimated
– providing a haunting precursor of Agincourt
just over a century later.
•
7
THIS MONTH IN HISTORY ANNIVERSARIES
6JGUKGIGQH
Jerusalem, depicted in a
IKNVGODQUUGFVJEGPVWT[
manuscript illumination
16 JULY 1627
Barbary pirates
raid Icelandic
islands
Hundreds of captives are
enslaved in north Africa
n the 17th century, the transatlantic slave
8
I trade gained momentum, exporting
African people to the Americas, where
15 JULY 1099
A Christian European army takes Jerusalem
from the Muslim Fatimid Caliphate after a gruelling
38-day siege. On entering the city, the crusaders
slaughter thousands of Muslims and Jews; eyewit-
ness reports describe streets running with blood.
they were enslaved under appalling condi- of the invasion on that fateful July day was
tions. However, Europeans skulking in the unprecedented. Barbary corsairs led by Murat
UGCUQʘVJG#HTKECPEQCUVYGTGPQVVJGQPN[
slave traders at this time. The Mediterranean
Reis the Younger (himself a former slave once
MPQYPCU,CP,CPU\QQPXCP*CCTNGO 
and Atlantic coasts of Europe were harried by
north African corsairs, who carried captives
stormed the beaches. The Icelanders tried to
IJVDCEMDWVVJGUGCUQPGFRKTCVGUYKGNFGF
back to the Ottoman-controlled Barbary
States. And on 16 July 1627, pirates from
their swords with skill and strength, and
anyone who put up any kind of resistance
Algiers made their boldest raid yet, attacking was butchered.
the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago (Westman After three days of raiding, homes on
+UNCPFU Qʘ+EGNCPFoUUQWVJEQCUV Heimaey were reduced to white-hot embers.
6JTGGUJKRUDQDDGFQPVJGJQTK\QPCU More than 200 people, including women and
villagers on the island of Heimaey nervously children, were hauled onto the slavers’ ships;
undertook their morning chores. These 30 more lay dead. The human loot captured
raiders had launched attacks along Iceland’s
coastline from late June. However, the scale
from Vestmannaeyjar and elsewhere in
Iceland tallied around 400 people.
ILLUSTRATION BY JAMES ALBON
12 JULY 1807
Napoleon Bonaparte is reputedly humil-
iated by a horde of rabbits. Thousands
of the furry mammals, rounded up for a
hunt, make a dash for the French emperor,
HQTEKPIJKOVQʚGGKPJKUECTTKCIG
ALAMY/GETTY IMAGES
One of those enslaved was Guðríður
5ÉOQPCTFÏVVKTCUJGTOCPoUYKHGECRVWTGF
from Heimaey along with her son. Guðríður
was sold into sexual slavery in Algiers, and
remained in bondage until, nine years later,
she was one of the few fortunates freed after
Danish king Christian IV paid a ransom
(Iceland being under Danish control at the
time). Guðríður then sailed to Denmark,
where she was re-educated and fell in love
with theology student and poet Hallgrímur
Pétursson, bearing his son. Ten years after her
ECRVWTGUJGTGVWTPGFVQ+EGNCPFCPFJGTTUV
husband having died in the interim, married
Pétursson – after whom Reykjavík’s astonish-
ing Hallgrímskirkja church is named.
5KZVGGPQH#PF[9CTJQNoURCKPVKPIUQHUQWRECPU TUVGZJKDKVGFKP.QU#PIGNGUKP
9 JULY 1962
Campbell’s Soup Cans kickstarts
Andy Warhol’s career
A solo exhibition in LA introduces the New York-based
pop provocateur and heralds a new era in art
series of hand-painted images
A of soup cans doesn’t seem like
the kind of display to revolu-
tionise the art world. But the canvass-
es created by little-known artist Andy
Warhol, headlining the exhibition that
opened on 9 July 1962 at Ferus Gallery
in Los Angeles, did just that.
Gallery owner Irving Blum had
VCMGPCTKUMIKXKPI9CTJQNJKUTUVUQNQ
exhibition that summer. He pinned his
hopes on the 32 images of tin cans,
each individually crafted painting
depicting one of the available varieties
of Campbell’s condensed soup – from
bean with bacon to chicken gumbo.
Blum had been drawn to the emerg-
ing pop artist in spring 1962, having
travelled to New York City to observe
Warhol at work. When Blum invited
the white-haired auteur to exhibit his
paintings in LA, Warhol was hesitant –
after all, New York was where the art
UEGPG\\GF(KPCNN[UWEEWODKPIVQ
the lure of Hollywood, he agreed – and
those repetitive red images secured his
UVCVWUCUVJGIWTGJGCFQH#OGTKECP
pop-art culture. Donna De Salvo, chief
curator of New York’s Whitney Muse-
um of American Art, later observed
that: “When you’re thinking of pop
art... you’re thinking of the soup can.”
%NGCTN[$NWOoUTKUMRCKFQʘ*GJGNF
on to the Soup Cans, occasionally
hanging them in his dining room to
impress guests at dinner parties.
Helen Carr is a historian and writer.
Her latest book is |e Red Prince
(Oneworld, 2021)
9
 COMPILED BY MATT ELTON

THE CONVERSATION

LEFT TO RIGHT: Men kiss in a medieval illumination;

a participant in the 2022 Pride in London Parade; the
Chevalier d’Éon, an 18th-century French soldier and
spy who lived as a woman in later life

BIG QUESTIONS

Are some LGBTQ histories

being overlooked?
Exploring the lives of historical people with diverse sexualities and gender identities
can be revealing – but also fraught with dioculties. MATT ELTON spoke to
ove historians, who cover a range of time periods, to discuss some of these issues

What challenges are there in charting
the experiences of LGBTQ [lesbian, gay,
bisexual, transgender and queer] people
in the periods you study?
Florence Scott: I work on England in the
early medieval period, and the biggest
REUTERS/BRIDGEMAN/ALAMY
focus. Hence individual people9s lives, and
their experiences of gender and sexuality,
are captured only very rarely in the written
source record. |at9s a huge pitfall with
studying LGBTQ people in this period,
because the lack of source material can lead
people to assume everybody had a hetero-
experiences of their sexuality. Instead, we
oven have to use legal records drawn up in
the diferent courts, particularly in England,
in which you can see LGBTQ people inter-
acting with the law. |ere are a couple of
famous examples. One is the questioning of
Eleanor Rykener, a 8cross-dressing9 sex

challenge I have is a lack of evidence. |ere
are very few surviving written sources for
this time compared with other periods, and
those that exist tend to be religious docu-
ments. As the church was very wealthy, it
was the biggest producer of written material
at this time, so most documents pertain to
the elites in society, and have a religious
sexual or cisgender [having an identity
aligning with their sex at birth] experience.
Tim Wingard: I focus on the later Middle
Ages, and encounter many of the same
issues that Florence does. |e lack of source
material is a huge problem: there9s not much
evidence ofering insights into people9s own
worker, in one of London9s courts in 1395.
|e limitation with this material is that
it9s very much written about LGBTQ
individuals by other people, and tends to
take a very hostile stance towards them. So
we have to work quite creatively to actually
understand these people9s own experiences
of themselves and their identities.
11

THE PANEL
THE CONVERSATION
Florence Scott
is completing a PhD on gender
and queenship at the University
of Leeds and is the author of
the Substack newsletter and
podcast Ælfgif-who?
Tim Wingard
is a lecturer in late medieval history
at the University of York, whose
work focuses on nature, gender
and sexuality in medieval England
and north-western Europe
Channing Gerard
Joseph
is a journalist and queer
historian whose work focuses
on sexuality and gender identity
from the American slavery era
to the early 20th century
Fleur MacInnes
is a third-year history PhD student
at the University of Oxford looking
into trans-feminine experiences of
the women’s liberation movement
KP$TKVCKPKPVJGUCPFU
Anthony Delaney
is honorary research fellow at
the University of Exeter. His work
explores gender and sexuality,
particularly same-sex households,
in 18th-century England
discussed in that period, says Anthony Delaney
12
A broader view of LGBTQ history
Listen to the full conversation on the HistoryExtra
podcast: historyextra.com/lgbtq-history-pod
Channing Joseph: As Tim says, you have
to be creative with the records in order to
understand people9s experiences. I oven start
with journalistic sources that ofer glimpses
into early queer culture in the United States,
including drag balls and arrests of their
participants. I then try to learn as much as
I can about the people described in those
reports and, through them, about the world
in which they lived and the communities of
which they were a part.
Even if you did have letters or diaries
written by LGBTQ people, it9s unlikely they
would have written <I identify as…=, with
the blank olled in. |e focus in previous
centuries was not on identity or emotion,
but on how they were enacting their identi-
ties in the world. We oven approach the past
from a single contemporary perspective and
ask: <How did these people identify? Were
they gay, were they trans, were they non-bi-
nary?= And the answer to that is there is
no answer. It9s a bit like asking: <What was
New York like 500 years ago?= |ere was an
island, but no New York City. In the same
way, our modern terms for identities may
not have existed in the past, but people
behaved in recognisable ways. |is approach
can ofer us insights into what I call queer
ancestors and the precursors to identities we
use to make sense of the world today.
Fleur MacInnes: My research looks at the
1970s and 80s, so a lot of the people I focus
on are still alive. |at in itself raises a whole
set of historical issues, especially when it
comes to ensuring that I don9t cross any
boundaries by telling stories about people in
a way they might not agree with, or put them
in danger by revealing information they
don9t want made publicly available. Because
even though the events could have happened
40 or 50 years ago, those are still people9s
lives, and the way in which their stories are
told can still afect them to this day.
Anthony Delaney: I9m generally
quite lucky in my area of exper-
tise, because there was a fair bit
of discussion about gender and
sexuality in the Georgian era.
|is means there are quite a
lot of 18th and 19th-century
sources on LGBTQ people,
and in many cases they echo
a lot of the discussions we9re
having in the present day.
A same-sex kiss depicted in
a 19th-century illustration. Issues
surrounding sexuality were widely
We’re required to go
to great lengths to justify
that the individuals we’re
looking at are actually
part of queer history
ANTHONY DELANEY
One of the things I do ond inconvenient
is that the burden of proof for discussing
and analysing queer histories is far higher
than it is for other histories. So, for instance,
we are required to go to great lengths to
justify and quantify that the individuals or
relationships we9re looking at are actually
part of queer history. |at burden of proof
is just not there for what we refer to as
8normative histories9 – though I ond that
term a little reductive. We seem to just
assume that identities and relationships in
the past were heterosexual and, in order to
deviate from that, the responsibility as queer
historians is far higher. I9m not sure why.
Are there people whose stories don’t
get told, or particular people who do or
don’t get to tell LGBTQ stories?
FM: |e answer to both questions is yes. In
my research, for instance, little of the history
of trans people aver the 1950s focuses on
people who didn9t medically transition in
some way. I think that9s because our modern
understanding of trans people is oven
deoned by that medical process – but it
means that it9s very diocult to ond accounts
of non-binary people. If our understanding
is deoned by moving from one oxed gender
identity to another, there9s not much space
for people whose gender identities may not
have ot within those parameters.
Moving on to who tells these stories:
as a young, white, non-binary person who
has only ever lived in Britain, I have a very
specioc view of transness and queerness
and, as much as I try, I9m never going to have
a full range of understanding. So it9s really
important to be aware of who is talking
about LGBTQ history. It9s particularly hard
to ond stories of black trans women in the
UK, because those communities are even
more marginalised, due perhaps to the ways
in which issues of ethnicity and gender and
class intersect. |ere are also very few black
female historians – yet such missing groups
WELLCOME
of people would be able to research those
histories better than I can because they9re
part of those communities.

#UEGPGHTQOFQEWOGPVCT[ NOParis Is Burning, which explores the drag ball culture of 1980s New York City.
%TGCVKXGWUGQHUQWTEGUHTQOUWEJEQOOWPKVKGUECPQʘGTXCNWCDNGKPUKIJVUKPVQ.)$63NKXGUCTIWGU%JCPPKPI,QUGRJ
AD: It9s really hard, in Britain, to unravel
queer histories that include people of colour
and, to some extent, working-class people.
To get around that second issue, I9ve been
getting cravier with how I approach histori-
cal sources, and focusing on material
relating to houses and homes – where they9re
situated, and what they were surrounded by.
For instance, many of the working-class
men we can learn about due to the raids
on Margaret Clap9s molly house [a London
tavern for gay men] in the 1720s also lived
there, so that9s an example of a community
for queer people who weren9t part of the elite.
I also think it9s vital, as queer historians,
to not dismiss our 8queerdar9 when it comes
to the source material. We all bring our-
selves into our work anyway, so why do we
need to deny that element of ourselves when
it comes to researching something intangi-
ble such as queerness that you somehow
know is there? Dig a little deeper, see where
you can go, ond out what you can unravel.
CGJ: It9s obviously the case that some stories
get overlooked, and it9s my goal to
tell some of those stories. I think that, if you
have an interest in telling a story, you should
put it out there. If you say: <I9m not the right
person to tell the story,= there9s a risk that
no one else has the time or interest, or has
even noticed there9s a story that needs to
be told. If there are other people who are
better qualioed to do the telling than you,
they always have the option of taking on
the momentum from you.
ALAMY
I grew up in a time and place where there
was no discussion – not at school, not in the
media – of the experiences of people in the
past who were attracted to members of their
own sex. |e idea that people in history
experienced same-sex attraction or non-
standard gender identities was a concept
totally foreign to my education, and it gave
me a sense that there were no people like me
in the past. It9s distortion by omission.
|ere are many people who we would
now describe as queer, whose same-sex
relationships, cross-dressing or involvement
in events such as drag balls were innuential
to cultural movements and traditions that
still exist in America today. By not including
discussions of them, we misrepresent what
actually happened and what was important
to creating the world that we live in.
FS: My research explores political, establish-
ment sources to ond queer themes within
them. I think there9s sometimes an expecta-
tion that, if you9re doing 8serious9 political
history, you9re not going to be doing a queer
interpretation – or that if you want to do
queer history, it should be social history.
The issue of who is
represented in history can
turn into a battle between
marginalised people
FLORENCE SCOTT
Medieval history has, in the past, attracted
some quite extreme conservative views, so I
do sometimes wonder if I9m the orst person
to have interpreted some of the sources I
work with in a queer way.
|e issue of who gets to be represented
in history can oven turn into a battle
fought between various groups of marginal-
ised people. Gains in the recognition of
particular sexualities or gender identities
can sometimes unfairly overshadow other
interpretations of history: someone claiming
that a historical ogure was trans or gender
non-conforming can be interpreted as
erasing other identities. |at9s a real prob-
lem, because there should be room for
everybody9s narratives and interpretations
to exist in history.
TW: |ere is a huge problem with just how
under-represented trans people are in the
discipline of history. I9ve seen statistics from
a year or two ago that suggested that there
was only one out trans or non-binary person
in a permanent position in medieval history
at any university anywhere in the world. As
this conversation demonstrates, there are
more people at other, earlier-career stages of
the profession – but there are still huge
barriers to trans people accessing academia.
|at9s partly down to attitudes. You run
into a view that queer history is not worthy
of research. Sometimes that9s well-inten-
tioned – you9re told: 8You shouldn9t be
studying trans history because there9s no
market for it; you ought to do something
more serious to get ahead9 – and sometimes
it comes from a more hostile place. But the
other aspect of this is wealth. |e trans
community is disproportionately more
likely to be alienated from family, so lacking
family support or substantial income or
onances themselves. |at makes the career
progression from undergraduate to post-
graduate study inonitely more diocult.
|is is obviously something that9s
not exclusive to the trans community, and
has just as serious an impact in preventing
black people, disabled people and working-
class people from becoming researchers.
And it doesn9t have to be the case that
everyone who works on every historical
topic has to have a personal identiocation
with their material. But it still results in a
situation – particularly for medieval studies
– in which a very large amount of the work
being produced about medieval trans people
is by cisgender people. I think it9s really
important that communities are able to
take ownership of their own histories –
to play, if possible, the most important part
in telling their own stories. •
13
THE CONVERSATION
INTERVIEW
“2WVKPoUOKUTGCFKPIQHJKUVQT[
is a major contributing factor in
how this war has progressed”
As the war in Ukraine continues to rage, with losses
mounting ever higher on both sides, Matt Elton speaks
to 5'4*++|2.1-*; about his new book exploring the
connict9s historical origins and their consequences
Your book charts the current war, and the
ways in which it’s informed by the past.
How did the origin stories Russia tells
CDQWVKVUGNHHGGFKPVQVJKUEQPʚKEV!
History is written all over this war, starting
with the way it was justioed by Russian
president, Vladimir Putin. In summer 2021,
he published his article 8On the Historical
Unity of Russians and Ukrainians9, pushing
an argument that goes way back to the
Kyivan Rus9 [the Slavic state that dominated
north-eastern Europe from the 10th centu-
ry, with its capital in Kyiv, and from which
both Russia and Ukraine claim descent].
So when I was writing my book, it was
important for me to start with the origin
myth that links Russia to Kyiv.
Much of the current connict, and wider
Russian-Ukrainian relations, is based on
associated mythology. |at9s important not
just because it shows Putin9s misuse of
history, but also because it speaks to the
concerns that arose in the 20th century with
the disintegration of the Russian empire, and
ideas that Putin is now trying to bring back.
14
Similarly, can we pinpoint the birth of the
Ukrainian national project, which is also
ETWEKCNVQWPFGTUVCPFKPIVJKUEQPʚKEV!
Ukrainians also claim the Kievan Rus9 as
the beginning of their history – aver all, the
capital of Ukraine today is Kyiv. But the
modern Ukrainian national project comes
from roughly the same period as those of
most of its neighbours, the 19th century –
the idea of Ukraine not as part of the Russian
empire but as a key member of the Slavic
Federation of Nations. |at was the time
when language, culture, history and politics
all came together in the minds of thinkers,
historians and people who collect folklore.
You write that “not until the 19th century
did the Russian empire encounter an
enemy that it could not defeat – and the
name of that enemy was nationalism”.
How far did Ukrainian nationalism show
4WUUKCVJCVKVEQWNFPoVCNYC[UUWEEGGF!
|e encounter with Ukrainian nationalism
proved hugely challenging for both Russian
imperialism and Russian nationalism.
Bitter legacy
7MTCKPKCPUQNFKGTUTGCV4WUUKCPVTQQRU
/C[*KUVQT[KUDGKPIYGCRQPKUGFKP
VJGEWTTGPVEQPʚKEVCTIWGU5GTJKK2NQMJ[
What we see in the current war is not just
the Russian imperial project encountering
Ukrainian national identity, though. |e
war was justioed by Putin with the claim
that Russians and Ukrainians are one
and the same people. And that wasn9t just
a piece of propaganda – it9s something that
Putin apparently continues to believe.
One of the reasons for his miscalcula-
tions, and why the war has gone so badly for
Russia, is the expectation that Ukrainians
would welcome Russian troops with nowers.
|at was based on the idea that Ukrainians
were really Russians who had been captured
by a bunch of nationalists, Nazis and so on.
Putin started the war with the imperial
notion of a Russian nation including all
East Slavs or all Russian speakers. Yet it has
not only strengthened Ukraine9s separate
identity, but also sent a clear signal in the
form of tens of thousands of deaths that
Ukraine is not Russia – and that it9s time
for Russia to rethink its view of the history
and geography of who is and is not Russian.
So you feel that Putin’s misreading of
history meant he misread the extent to
which Ukrainian national identity is
TQQVGFKPKVUJKUVQT[!
Exactly. It9s bad history. Putin9s misreading
of history is a major contributing factor not
only to the start of the war but also to how
the war has progressed. Ukrainians have
REUTERS
surprised Russia –and much of the world
– with their resistance and resilience.
 Why are the events of 1993 key to this war?
Hear more of Serhii’s thoughts about how the past is shaping
VJGEWTTGPVEQPʚKEVQPQWTRQFECUVhistoryextra.com/podcast
+VoUVKOGHQT4WUUKC
VQTGVJKPMKVUXKGYQH
VJGJKUVQT[CPFIGQITCRJ[
QHYJQKUsCPFYJQKU
PQVsn4WUUKCPo
+UVJKUKUCEQPʚKEVKPYJKEJJKUVQT[KU
being weaponised – and are historians
ETWEKCNKPOCMKPIUGPUGQHGXGPVU!
Yes – and that9s one of the reasons I decided
to write this book. Looking at this war from
a historical perspective can ofer us insights
unavailable via any other profession. I write
in the introduction that I onally convinced
myself that this was a good project to take on
by drawing on the old maxim that historians
are the worst commentators on contempo-
rary events – except for everyone else.
I believe that to be true in this case.
What other historical moments should
YGUVWF[KPQTFGTVQWPFGTUVCPFVJKUYCT!
You can9t ignore the Second World War.
Per capita, Ukraine sufered among the
biggest losses, and its modern borders
are very much the result of that connict.
|e next key moment was the disintegra-
tion of the Soviet Union. In the referendum
of December 1991, a great majority of
Ukrainians voted for independence. Within
a month, the USSR was over: its leaders didn9t
believe there was any sense in continuing the
Russian imperial project without Ukraine,
the second most populous Soviet republic.
Boris Yeltsin initiated the process of
disintegrating the Soviet Union, but also
looked for ways to maintain Russia9s presence
AKG-IMAGES/GETTY IMAGES
in and control over the post-Soviet space
– and so the Commonwealth of Independ-
ent States [CIS] was created, dominated by
Russia. Ukraine was one of the organisa-
tion9s co-founders but never formally joined,
instead viewing the CIS as an instrument for
what was known as 8civilised divorce9.
From the beginning, then, there were
very diferent expectations from Russia and
Ukraine. Russia looked at the CIS as the
instrument to maintain its control, while
Ukraine participated in its activities only to
the extent that it thought would allow it to
negotiate a peaceful exit. |at story is very
important for understanding today9s war,
because it9s the point at which these diferent
visions and expectations clashed.
In April, the German president drew
parallels between the Nazi crushing of
the 1943 Warsaw ghetto uprising and
the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Do you
VJKPMUWEJEQORCTKUQPUCTGWUGHWN!
|ere is a taboo about comparing Nazi
Germany to Russia – or, indeed, to any other
country. I certainly understand that point
of view. But as a historian, my feeling is that
we can9t just ignore the historical parallels.
We have to be dispassionate, of course – it9s
important not to politicise history. But there
are so many parallels between the projects
of 8Greater Germany9 and 8Greater Russia9.
Ignoring that would be irresponsible and, to
a certain degree, betray the principles of our
profession. So although I can understand
taboos in public discourse, when it comes
to historical research those taboos should
not be there – because otherwise we9d fail
to draw lessons from history that help us
understand what9s happening today.
Serhii Plokhy is professor of Ukrainian
history at Harvard University. His new book is
|e Russo-Ukrainian War (Allen Lane, 2023)
1TKIKPUVQTKGU
-[KXCP4WUoNGCFGT8NCFKOKT+ UGCVGF 
CUUGGPKPCVJEGPVWT[FGRKEVKQP
$QVJ7MTCKPGCPF4WUUKCENCKO
FGUEGPVHTQOVJCVOGFKGXCNUVCVG
*+5614;0'95
IN BRIEF
Indian history textbook
edits spark controversy
The debate over how history is taught
in Indian schools has been reignited by
the deletion of a chapter on Mughal
rulers from a textbook. The National
Council of Educational Research and
Training undertook a syllabus “rational-
isation” exercise which also saw some
references to the assassination of
Mahatma Gandhi removed from new
books. Critics have raised concerns at
what they see as erasing history about
the Mughals – viewed by some Hindu
nationalists as violent foreign invaders.
9KNFʚQYGTUVQDNQQOCV
historic sites in England
Charles III’s coronation is being marked
with the establishment, restoration
QTGPJCPEGOGPVQHYKNFʚQYGT
meadows at historic sites managed
by English Heritage (EH). Over the
PGZVFGECFGʚQYGTTKEJITCUUNCPFU
will be worked on at sites including
Stonehenge and London’s Jewel Tower
– “helping our visitors to step back into
history and experience something with
which the sites’ historic occupants
would have been familiar”, says
EH chief executive, Kate Mavor.
'PINKUJ*GTKVCIGJCUCPPQWPEGFRNCPUVQKPVTQFWEG
YKNFʚQYGTUUWEJCUVJGUGKPVQUQOGQHKVUJKUVQTKEUKVGU
&CXKF1NWUQICRTGUGPVGF
with special Bafta award
Historian, author, broadcaster and
former BBC History Magazine columnist
David Olusoga has been awarded with
an honorary Bafta for “outstanding
commitment to television”. Olusoga,
presenter of series including Black
and British: A Forgotten History and
A House Through Time, was awarded
the prize at the Bafta’s TV event in May.
Presenting the award to Olusoga, the
actor David Harewood said: “His
work has transformed how we
view history, interrogate national
narratives and invigorated how we
see our present.”
15
 CAESAR
DEATH OF A DICTATOR
A MAJOR NEW HISTORYEXTRA PODCAST SERIES

On the Ides of March, 44 BC, the most famous Roman in history was
GETTY IMAGES/DREAMSTIME

murdered. In our new six-part podcast series we explore the rise and
fall of Julius Caesar and reveal how his assassination ushered in
centuries of imperial rule. BBC History Magazine subscribers can
listen to the whole series ad-free on historyextra.com from 15 June
 MICHAEL WOOD ON…
THE CROWNING OF CHARLES III
The coronation felt like a watershed
in our relationship with the crown
SO THE CORONATION IS OVER, AND WE ENTER
a new era for the monarchy and the nation. What struck
me orst was how religious the ceremony was – conducted
by the archbishop of Canterbury and entirely framed in
the language of the church. An Anglo-Saxon time travel-
ler would have felt perfectly at home with the core of the
service – though back then, of course, it was conducted in
Latin, with the coupling of royal law with 8the law of god9.
But I had a lingering sense of a cognitive dissonance
(as the psychoanalysts call it). Britain is now, we are told,
among the world9s least religious societies. In a time of
crisis, can an archaic religious service still express the
Michael Wood central constitutional fact of our body politic? |e cere-
is professor of mony spoke to many of the continuity of our past, but it
public history at was also about nostalgia, class and deference, compound-
the University ed by the ill-judged idea that we should swear allegiance in
of Manchester. front of our TV sets.
He has presented As a medievalist, I was enthralled by watching rituals
numerous BBC that might have been seen a thousand years ago. |e
series, and is the Garter King of Arms and his helpers – which include
author of several Rouge Dragon, Bluemantle, Portcullis and Rouge Croix –
books including were created in the Middle Ages. And the consecration
|e Story of China itself, with sword, sceptre, rod and crown – the king
(Simon & Schuster, stripped down to his shirt for the anointing – went back
2021). His Twitter to the service devised late in Alfred9s reign for his son
handle is Edward, and then used for Æthelstan and the other
@mayavision 10th-century kings.
|ese early medieval coronations, of course, were not
for the people. No one saw the king crowned, save those
FRAN MONKS
present at the ceremony in Kingston upon |ames or
Bath. Coronations were political: invented to ensure the
succession for Alfred9s branch of the royal kin in deoance
of rivals with better claims to the crown (who included the
sons of Alfred9s older brothers). |e pointed repetition in
the ceremony of <our undoubted king= is a reminder of the
threat that these rival claimants posed.
|at9s where the Church of England comes in. |e
church no longer has power over our daily lives, but the
coronation underlined its central role in the Middle Ages.
It was the church that conferred kingship. In more recent
centuries, the Protestant monarch has had to swear to
guarantee the Protestant faith – a stark political statement
about power. For an Old English visitor, this would
have come as a shock. |e Tudors may have claimed
that they were returning the faith to its true roots.
But, for our medieval ancestors, the ecclesia anglicana
was Rome, or nothing.
But does any of this have meaning today, or is it now
divorced from British life in the 2020s, save for the appeal
to patriotism and nostalgia? Critics have described the
coronation as pompous and entitled. Some argue that its
primary purpose is to uphold a damaged institution and
a religion only a minority now follow.
|ese criticisms capture the future dilemma for the
royal family and its advisers. We are in new territory. Most
of us have only known one queen. |ere are those – even
on the lev – who see the royals as a valuable aid to stabili-
ty, somehow still embodying national identity and
cohesion. |e conjuring trick by the late queen was to
maintain that illusion. But will it continue to work?
Britain is still a society largely deoned by class, with a
monarchy that underpins it. But is the nation beginning
now to question that essential makeup of modern Britain?
|e night before the coronation, I watched Lenny
Henry9s extraordinary one man show August in England.
It is a tale of a Windrush Briton and the Home Ooce9s
agonising betrayal of his generation, many of whom
are still struggling to receive compensation for their
sufering. Did the coronation speak for them?
|e coronation weekend, then, suddenly feels like a
watershed. Following local elections in which alterna-
tive parties, notably the Greens, made signiocant
gains, I wonder if our old deferential country is
beginning to change in the face of issues that are
transforming Britain9s political landscape: Brexit and
its associated culture wars; the war in Ukraine; the
climate crisis.
|e people are stirring. Are the British still
content to be subjects? Or would we rather now be
citizens? History, as always, does not stand still. And
we are entering very interesting times.
ILLUSTRATION BY FEMKE DE JONG 17
 HIDDEN HISTORIES
KAVITA PURI explores lesser-known stories from our past
THE CONVERSATION
These men are a key part of our
story. Their portrait should be seen
WHEN THE RENOWNED ANGLO-HUNGARIAN
painter Philip de László died in 1937, an unusual double
portrait was found in his private collection. It depicts two
Indian men in military uniform, standing in a dignioed
pose, both wearing khaki turbans. |e piece – pictured
below – clearly stood apart from much of his work, which
chieny involved painting the most wealthy and powerful
Kavita Puri in European society, including monarchs and nobles.
is a journalist Today the importance of this painting is being recognised
and broadcaster – and not just by art historians.
for BBC Radio 4 On 14 April this year, the Department for Culture,
whose history Media and Sport posted a plea on its Instagram page:
series include <|is rare… painting is valued at £650,000… It is at risk
|ree Pounds in of leaving the UK unless a domestic buyer can be found.=
My Pocket. She is |at post identioes the sitters as <Troop commanders in
also the author of the British Indian Army9s Expeditionary Force – Risaldar
Partition Voices: Jagat Singh and Risaldar Man Singh – [who] fought in the
Untold British battle of the Somme.=
Stories (Blooms- |ese soldiers sat for László two months before that
bury, 2019) clash in 1916 – two of many from across the British empire
who came to oght in the war in Europe. In a handwritten
note accompanying the painting, each of the men gave his
name, regiment and rank.
Philip de László’s portrait of Indian soldiers Jagat Singh and Man Singh, painted
in 1916 just two months before both fought in the battle of the Somme
18
In 2014, the painting was displayed at the Empire,
Faith and War exhibition presented by the UK Punjab
Heritage Association (UKPHA) in London9s Brunei
Gallery. Working with the National Army Museum
and its archives, the UKPHA did some digging to learn
more about these two soldiers.
Man Singh – on the right of the picture – joined the
Indian Army on 1 March 1890 as a Sowar (cavalry trooper).
He was awarded the Indian Order of Merit, |ird Class
for his gallantry during the attack on Camp Wano in
Waziristan, then on the north-west frontier of India, on
3 November 1894. On 1 May 1910 he was promoted to the
rank of Jemadar (junior Indian oocer) in the 21st Prince
Albert Victor9s Own Cavalry, before further promotion
to Ressaidar (lieutenant) in the 20th Deccan Horse on 11
April 1916. He seems not to be listed aver 1917, though he
is not recorded among the dead in the Indian Army Lists.
Jagat Singh (on the lev of the portrait) joined the
Indian Army on 26 February 1905 as a Jemadar in the
12th Cavalry, and was promoted to Ressaidar in the 18th
King George9s Own Lancers on 11 April 1916. He was
subsequently promoted to Risaldar (roughly equivalent to
a British captain) on 11 August 1918, when he is listed in
During the First World War there were many tempo-
Among the trenches and wire of the front line there
It9s believed that the sitting was brief, lasting two
|is important painting gives a face to men who
are a key part of our national story, and their portrait
ALAMY
deserves to be seen and remembered generations aver
their image was captured by László here in Britain.
 ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE

WITH AGE
With lifespans of up to 3,000 years, yews are the
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Y
ew trees have witnessed some
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under the Ankerwycke yew – the same yew
believed to have been a meeting place for
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn. Incredibly,
yews need to be about 900 years old before
they can be classed as ancient (oak trees,
by comparison, only need to be 400), and
if protected, they can thrive for thousands
of years. Read on to discover some of the
oldest in the UK.
Fortingall yew
Considered to be the oldest yew in the
UK, it9s estimated to be between 2,000 and
3,000 years old. It9s set within a churchyard
in Perthshire, and in 1854 it was reported
funeral processions passed through the
arch formed by the split trunk. Today, the
tree is protected by a wall and the trunk
has split into several parts, so it no longer
looks like one tree, but many.
St Cynog’s Church yew
Another tree vying for the oldest yew title
is nestled in a churchyard in Defynnog. It9s
a similar age to the Fortingall yew, although
some believe it could be 5,000 years old.
Ankerwycke yew
Some estimates put this tree – which lies
close to the ruins of St Mary9s Priory, a 12th
century Benedictine nunnery in Berkshire –
at 2,000 years old. If they9re correct, the yew
could already have been more than 1,000
years old when Magna Carta was sealed at
the site by King John in 1215, and later when
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are said to
have met there while courting.
|is yew in Surrey, like so many of our
ancient yews, can be found in a churchyard.
What makes it stand out though, is the fact
the centre of the tree was otted with benches,
a table and a door in the mid-19th century.
A cannonball was even found inside the tree,
believed to have been there since the English
Civil War in the 17th century.
The original Irish yew
While not as old as the common yews listed
here, this is the oldest Irish yew (Taxus
baccata ‘ fastigiata’). It dates back to the late
1700s, when tenant George Willis found two
unusual yews, which grew more upright than
the common yew. George gived one to his
landlord, the Earl of Enniskillen, who planted
it on the family estate at Florence Court. Here
it nourished and cuttings were propagated,
and you9ll now ond this variety widely planted.

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 LETTERS
LETTER OF THE MONTH
Message from above
Robin Ashcrov’s excellent account of the
1953 conquest of Everest (June) reminded
me of how the happy news eventually found
its way back to London. |e Times newspa-
per had acquired the rights to reports on
the expedition’s progress, but was unsure
about the safest way to receive their exclu-
sive reports. For reasons both political and
practical, they rejected the idea of using
carrier pigeons or beacon ores, and opted
instead to use Sherpa runners. |ese
runners would carry messages carefully
encoded to protect them from the eyes of
rival news agencies.
When James Morris, the newspaper’s
expedition correspondent, orst learned
that the climb had been successful, he
dispatched a Sherpa with a coded message
to the village of Namche, from where
a radio transmitter could safely be used
to pass it to Arthur Hutchinson, another
Times correspondent, in Kathmandu.
Hutchinson then raced with the news to the
British embassy, which used a diplomatic
wire to transmit it to London.
If any Sherpa runners had been waylaid
with the coded message, nobody would have
guessed that the gloomy sounding <Snow
conditions bad stop advanced base aban-
doned May 29 stop awaiting improvement
all well= actually meant <Everest successfully
climbed by Hillary and Tensing May 29=.
Ian MacDonald, Essex
We reward the Letter of the
Month writer with a copy of
a new history book. This issue,
that is A History of Ancient
Egypt, Volume 3 by John Romer.
You can read our review on page 70
20
A murderous rampage
I was interested to read the special coronation
issue, and especially Tracy Borman9s article
(How to Stage a Coronation, June).
Coronations can indeed go seriously
wrong – as was the case with the coronation
of Richard I in 1189, when a delegation from
the kingdom9s Jewish community arrived at
Westminster Hall, bearing givs for the new
king. Although they were refused entry, some
of the delegation were swept up by the excited
crowd and pushed inside. |is was enough to
agitate the watching hordes, and several
members of the delegation were beaten or
trampled to death before they could escape.
|at wasn9t the end of the matter, either.
Having convinced themselves that Richard
had authorised the wholesale extermination
of London9s Jewish community, the crowd
went on the rampage. |e king sent his
justiciar, Ranulf de Granville, to try to calm
things down, but this proved inefective and,
by the end of the day, it was estimated that
30 members of the Jewish community had
been murdered, including the eminent Rabbi
Jacob of Orleans, newly arrived from Europe.
|e riots attracted considerable sympathy
in the antisemitic atmosphere of the era, to
the extent that it wasn9t thought advisable to
take serious measures against those involved.
Nevertheless, some of the ringleaders were
arrested and three were hanged – one for
robbing a Christian and two because the ore
they had lit burned down a Christian church.
David Harris, Harrow
Monarchical myth?
One does not expect to see this magazine
of one repute perpetuating the myth that
Richard III <seized the throne for himself=
(How to Stage a Coronation, June). Has the
act of parliament known as Titulus Regius,
which established his right to the crown,
been once again conveniently forgotten? Or
has the editorial team been caught napping
(or stirring)?
Pamela Hider, Bedfordshire
Nuclear futility
|e review of Julie McDowall9s book Attack
Warning Red! (June) reminded me of a real-
life illustration of the state of mind of local
government preparing for potential nuclear
armageddon in the 1970s and 1980s. At the
time I was clerk to the parish council of our
village in rural Devon, and there was much
discussion about the expectations imposed
by the district and county councils on our
community. Shelter, welfare, water supplies
and many other subjects came up repeatedly,
A replica of the Matthew.
Was America named
after a sponsor of
John Cabot’s ship?
and a temporary parish warden was appoint-
ed. However, almost every discussion ended
in laughter as councillors recognised the
futility of any actions they might take!
PJ Walter, Somerset
Across the ocean
|anks for another entertaining crossword
(June). However, I believe that the clue for
19 across wrongly attributes the naming of
America to Amerigo Vespucci. Places are not
usually taken from orst names, but from
second names or surnames – Rhodesia, for
instance. A more likely source is, I think,
Richard Ameryk (or Amerike), a British mer-
chant who partly sponsored John Cabot9s
explorations of what became North America.
Tim Smith, Edinburgh
Unrepresentative democracy
Your article on conspiracies (May) mentions
the advent of <mass democracy= in the UK
in 1918. However, the Representation of the
People Act 1918 excluded women under 30
and women over 30 who did not meet
minimum property qualiocations. A large
number of women remained without the
vote, which was not strictly 8mass democracy9.
In 1928, all women over 21 obtained the vote,
bringing them to electoral equality with men.
Elizabeth Wild, Woking
Fade to grey
I must disagree slightly with Katja Hoyer9s
article about East Germany (Kaleidoscopic
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21
Ramesses II was a genius in the art of self-promotion.
Epic palaces, jaw-dropping temples and sycophantic scribes
all projected his brilliance. But, asks Toby Wilkinson, do the
achievements of Egypt’s ‘king of kings’ truly justify the hype?
 Aura of invincibility
This head and upper body of
a monumental statue of
Ramesses II has been
exhibited at the British
Museum since the 19th
century. Few pharaohs
invested so much energy
projecting their power – and
few did it so successfully
ALAMY

•
23
 Ramesses II: the greatest pharaoh?

$WKNFKPICNGICE[
The ‘Ramesseum’, Ramesses’ memorial temple on the
banks of the Nile. Centuries later, the pharaoh’s building
RTQLGEVUNNGF)TGGMCPF4QOCPQDUGTXGTUYKVJCYG

5VC[KPIRQYGT
The sarcophagus of Ramesses II. Until the
discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb, he was
the most celebrated of all pharaohs

n the long annals of ancient Egyptian innovations in literature, art, architecture

history, only one pharaoh is accorded
the epithet 8the Great9: Ramesses II,
third ruler of the 19th dynasty, who
reigned for 66 years and two months
in the 13th century BC (1279–1213).
Lauded, like all pharaohs, during his
lifetime, Ramesses also achieved
lasting, posthumous fame as an
exemplar of royal majesty and might. Before
the discovery of Tutankhamun9s tomb a
century ago, Ramesses II was without doubt
the most famous pharaoh. When writers
wanted to conjure up the world of ancient
Egypt – its divine kingship and monumental
architecture, its abundance and imperial
grandeur – they thought of Ramesses.
A simple list of his achievements is
impressive enough: he sired more children,
and lev behind more monuments, than any
other pharaoh; he celebrated 13 jubilees and
When writers wanted
to conjure ancient
Egypt’s divine kingship
and scholarship. But other pharaohs could
– and did – claim similar accomplishments.
What made Ramesses II a truly great king?
To examine that question we might orst
turn to the opening ove books of the Hebrew
Bible, compiled 700 years aver Ramesses9
death, where the pharaoh is mentioned by
name no fewer than four times. |e Greek
writer Herodotus, now regarded as the 8father
of history9, recounted tales he had heard about
a pharaoh called 8Rhampsinitus9 and claimed
to have seen some of the king9s constructions
in the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. In
the orst and second centuries AD, the Roman
authors Pliny and Tacitus mentioned 8Ram-
ses9 and 8Rhamses9 respectively.
Most innuential, in terms of Ramesses9
enduring reputation, was the orst-century BC
Greek historian Diodorus Siculus. He had
heard of a pharaoh called 8Remphis9. Yet
GETTY IMAGES/ALAMY

lived into his nineties; he fortioed Egypt9s

borders, and maintained its commercial and
diplomatic innuence; he negotiated the
earliest known comprehensive peace treaty in
history with Egypt9s arch-enemy, and presid-
ed over a glittering court which drove
24
and imperial grandeur,
they naturally thought
of Ramesses
when writing about his magniocent memori-
al temple on the west bank of the Nile
opposite modern Luxor (a building known
today as the Ramesseum), Diodorus referred
to it as the <tomb of Osymandyas=, a garbled
Greek rendering of Ramesses9 throne-name,
 &QOKPCPVIWTGU
Two monumental statues of Ramesses
at Luxor Temple. The complex predated
the pharaoh by a century, but that didn’t
stop him putting his stamp upon it
Usermaatra. |us the legend of Ozymandias
was born. Diodorus claimed (octitiously) to
have read an inscription carved into the
stones of the temple: <King of Kings am I,
Osymandyas. If anyone would know how
great I am and where I lie, let him surpass
one of my works.=
|ese lines would later prove the inspira-
tion for Shelley9s famous sonnet: <My name is
Ozymandias, king of kings / Look on my
works, ye mighty, and despair!=
Ozymandias was published in January
1818, as a colossal bust of Ramesses II (pic-
tured on page 23), hauled from its resting
place in the Ramesseum, was making its way
to England to become the prize exhibit at the
British Museum. Its acquisition conormed
19th-century Britain9s own aspirations: a new
empire basking in Ramesses9 aura.
|e excitement surrounding Ramesses
and his achievements was rekindled, too,
GETTY IMAGES/ALAMY
in the 20th century. In the 1960s, the Unesco
campaign to salvage the monuments of
Nubia from the rising waters of Lake Nasser
was exemplioed by the rescue of Ramesses9
great temples at Abu Simbel. In 1976, the
French brought the mummioed body of
Ramesses to Paris, for conservation and
scientioc study. |e dead pharaoh was
received with full military honours at Paris9s
Le Bourget airport; his return journey to
Cairo the following year was in a casket
draped with a mantle of deep blue velvet,
adorned with the water lily and papyrus
(symbolising Upper and Lower Egypt)
embroidered in gold thread. Intoxicated with
Ramesses9 legend, the wilder elements of the
press ran the story that he had been issued
with his own passport, listing his occupation
as <King (deceased)=.
Imperial dominance
Setting aside the hype and hyperbole, does
Ramesses II deserve his reputation as 8the
great9 or perhaps even the greatest pharaoh?
He certainly had the good fortune to reign at
a time when Egyptian power was at its zenith.
|e New Kingdom (1539–1069 BC) was a
period of imperial dominance, when the
kings of Egypt ruled a territory that extended
from Syria to the fourth Nile Cataract, a
distance of more than 1,000 miles. Within
this vast realm, the pharaohs had access to
the great timber stands of Lebanon, the
copper mines of Sinai, the gold reserves of
Nubia, the trading networks of the near east,
and the ports of the eastern Mediterranean.
Egypt under Ramesses was the richest and
most powerful it would ever be.
Ramesses used this unprecedented wealth
and innuence in keeping with the age-old
ideal of Egyptian kingship, but also with
new-found zeal. |e orst deoning theme of
his reign was the projection of Egyptian
power in the near east, in particular against
Egypt9s arch-rival, the Hittites.
Born around 1304 BC, Ramesses himself
came from a military family. His grandfather
and founder of the 19th dynasty, Ramesses I
(reigned 1292–1290), aver whom he was
named, had forged a successful career in the
army before being named heir to the throne.
Meanwhile, his father, Seti I (r1290–1279),
was a successful warrior-pharaoh, leading
a series of campaigns to secure Egyptian
hegemony in the near east, and restoring
Egypt9s reputation on the international stage.
When Ramesses II came to the throne in
1279 BC, a tall, striking, red-haired man in
his mid-twenties, he felt the need to maintain
– and if possible enhance – his father9s and •
25
 Ramesses II: the greatest pharaoh?

GETTY IMAGES

Towering achievement
Some of the 134 columns of the Great Hypostyle Hall
in the Karnak Temple Complex. It was begun by Seti I
and completed by his son, Ramesses II

26

One-man war machine
Ramesses slays his Hittite foes
in a carving commemorating his
‘triumph’ at the battle of Kadesh
grandfather9s legacy. Aver a small-scale
operation to test the battle readiness of his
troops, he launched a major ofensive in the
spring of 1274. Its bold objective was to
recapture the strategic city of Kadesh,
situated on the river Orontes in northern
Syria, which had fallen under Hittite control.
Over the previous 50 years, the Hittite
kingdom had expanded from its heartland in
central Anatolia to become the dominant
power across a vast swathe of the near east.
|is brought it into direct confrontation with
the Egyptians. |e clash between the two
powers at Kadesh would prove the deoning
event of Ramesses9 reign.
In the nick of time
In simple, military terms, the battle of
Kadesh was a strategic failure and a near
disaster for Egypt. Misinformation relayed by
Hittite spies lulled the Egyptian army into a
false sense of security. One of the pharaoh9s
four divisions was attacked as it headed
unsuspectingly towards camp, and panic
GETTY IMAGES
ensued, troops scattering in all directions.
Ramesses himself, at the vanguard of his
army, was lev dangerously exposed, sur-
rounded by enemy chariots. Only the nick-of-
Is Ramesses II history’s greatest
self-publicist? Listen to Toby Wilkinson discussing
the pharaoh on our podcast: historyextra.com/podcast
Coming to terms
A Hittite copy of the Kadesh
peace treaty, which bought
Ramesses time to future-proof
Egypt’s western defences
Seat of power
A cartouche at the city of Abydos,
where Ramesses built temples to
honour his father – and himself
time arrival of an Egyptian reserve force
saved the day for the pharaoh; the following
morning, the Egyptian and Hittite armies
fought each other to a stalemate. Ramesses
failed to recapture Kadesh, and his army
headed home, its tail between its legs.
Ramesses9 genius was to transmute defeat
into a myth of his personal heroism, and then
to promulgate that myth – in word and image
– for the rest of his reign, in a relentless
propaganda campaign. Royal scribes com-
posed a prose account of the battle (which
Egyptologists call 8the Bulletin9) and a much
longer, epic poem (8the Poem9). Both took as
their central theme the leadership, sang froid
and bravery of the king, which were pointed-
ly – and repeatedly – contrasted with the
cravenness and cowardliness of his army:
|ere was no oocer with me, no
charioteer,
No soldier of the army, no shield bearer.
My infantry and my chariotry ran away before
them [the enemy];
Not one of them stood orm to oght
with them…
I am all alone and there is nobody with me!
My great army has deserted me; •
27
 Ramesses II: the greatest pharaoh?
Not one of my chariotry looks out for me.
I keep shouting for them,
But none of them heeds my call
|is approach was unprecedented in Egyp-
tian literature: earlier kings had asserted
superhuman powers of insight and leader-
ship, but always in comparison with foreign
enemies, never at the expense of their own
subjects. Ramesses9 very personal propagan-
da campaign broke new ground.
It was also pursued with unparalleled
intensity. |e mythologised events of the
battle of Kadesh were depicted in two large-
scale artistic compositions, with the king at
their centre, which were then carved on the
walls of major temples the length and breadth
of Egypt, oven on the outside where they
could be seen by the general population.
Indeed, the second, deoning theme of
Ramesses9 reign was the projection of his own
image – in word, art and, above all, architec-
ture. In pursuit of this objective, he became
the greatest builder in ancient Egyptian
history. He appropriated huge numbers of his
predecessors9 temples and statues, carving his
name over theirs in hieroglyphs cut so deeply
that no successor would be able to erase them.
(Tourists to Egypt soon learn to recognise the
names of Ramesses II, from this feature
alone.) He also commissioned a record
number of new monuments, on a grander
scale than anything seen before or aver.
His favourite wife
|e list of Ramesses9 building projects is
astonishing. In Nubia, he constructed a series
of eight rock-cut temples, foremost among
them the twin temples at Abu Simbel dedicat-
ed to the king and his orst (and favourite)
wife, Nefertari. In western |ebes, in addi-
tion to the Ramesseum, he commissioned
Ramesses’ obsession
with burnishing his
image turned him into
the greatest builder in
the whole of ancient
Egyptian history
28
seven royal tombs: for himself, his chief wives
and his children. |e tomb of Nefertari ranks
as perhaps the most beautiful in Egypt, while
the tomb excavated for Ramesses9 sons is the
largest discovered in the Valley of the Kings.
On the opposite bank of the Nile, Ramess-
es completed the Great Hypostyle Hall at
Karnak – the temple9s most impressive
feature – and added a new court and façade
to Luxor Temple, complete with a pair of
obelisks and two colossal statues of himself.
At Abydos, cradle of Egyptian kingship, he
completed his father9s memorial temple and
built another for himself. He made extensive
additions at the temples of Heliopolis and
Memphis, and he added new shrines at sites
from Buto in the north-western Delta to
Gebel el-Silsila in the southern Nile Valley.
Brand new temples were erected at Herakleo-
polis and Sheikh Ibada, and a string of forts
constructed along Egypt9s border with Libya.
Surpassing all these was Ramesses9 most
ambitious project, begun at the start of his
reign: the transformation of his father9s
summer palace in the north-eastern Delta
into a vast new imperial capital. It was
named, with typical bombast, 8|e House of
Ramesses beloved of Amun, great of victo-
ries9. Per-Ramesses, as it is known today,
covered an area of some 250 acres. It was a
city of waterways, extensive residential
neighbourhoods and grand temples; its
numerous places of worship catering to a
multicultural and multi-faith population,
constituted perhaps the greatest collection
of religious foundations ever built by a single
ruler. Per-Ramesses also had a magniocent
complex of palace buildings, complete with
ornamental pleasure gardens and a royal zoo.
<It is a very beautiful place that, although
it resembles |ebes, has no equal,= observed
an early visitor named Pabasa. <Life in the
residence is pleasant; its oelds abound with
all sorts of good produce; each day it is well
endowed with good food. Its canals are olled
with osh, and its marshlands with birds… Its
granaries are olled with barley and wheat.=
And that was not all. Per-Ramesses was
also designed, from the outset, as a military
base. It had a royal stud with stabling for
460 horses, a huge chariotry garrison, and
a bronze foundry covering more than seven
acres (the largest known from the ancient
world), complete with specialised, high-tem-
perature furnaces for the production of
weapons. Military-industrial complex, royal
residence, commercial centre, religious and
ceremonial capital: Per-Ramesses epitomised
the vaunting ambition of its royal creator.
The living god
From the moment he came to the throne,
Ramesses had one eye on his inheritance – •
 WARRIORS, SHOWMEN AND TYRANTS
Five other pharaohs vying for the status of the ‘greatest’

THE FATHER OF THE PYRAMID AGE VGORNGCV-CTPCMCPFVJGTUVOGOQTKCN

Rock of ages
One of the two rock-cut
temples at Abu Simbel
dedicated to Ramesses and
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These are widely considered
among the greatest of all the
pharaoh’s building projects
Glorious death
The deity Horus leads Nefertari
by the hand in the queen’s
tomb, which “ranks as perhaps
the most beautiful in Egypt”
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Djoser (reigned c2650–2620 BC) KUGFEWNVUVJTQWIJQWV'I[RV*GEQPSWGTGF
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THE SUPREME UNIFIER

THE SOLAR POWER

decisive victory), reorganised the
Mentuhotep built the earliest
GETTY IMAGES/ALAMY
Amenhotep III
(reigned c1390–1353 BC)
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of pharaonic civilisation. Reaping the rewards
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at western Thebes dwarfed its predecessors,
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at its entrance.
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own divine birth, and the jubilee celebrations
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unprecedented in their scale, featuring gilded
DQCVUUCKNKPIQPXCUVCTVKEKCNNCMGU

29
 Ramesses II: greatest pharaoh?
Dignity in death
Ramesses’ red hair is visible in
this image of his mummy at the
Egyptian Museum in Cairo
determined to prove a worthy successor to his
father and grandfather – and another on his
legacy – determined to ensure the legitimacy
and continuation of the dynasty. |ese two
preoccupations coloured the tenor of his
reign and all his major decisions: to cam-
paign against the Hittites at Kadesh; to
mythologise the outcome of the battle; to
build on an unprecedented scale; to commis-
Like rulers before
and since, Ramesses
created his own
myth, adjusting the
facts to suit his
desired narrative
30
Royal treatment A container carrying Ramesses’ mummy at Paris–Le
Bourget Airport, 1976. The mummy was given full military honours when it
YCUʚQYPVQVJG(TGPEJECRKVCNHQTUEKGPVKEVTGCVOGPV
Trouble ahead
Ramesses’ 13th son, Merenptah,
who succeeded his father to the
throne. By producing so many
QʘURTKPI4COGUUGU
condemned Egypt to a series
of succession crises
sion his own historical research (the
compilation of Egypt9s most accurate lists
of kings); to promote his own deiocation,
in his own lifetime; and to father a record
number of ofspring (at least 50 sons and
as many daughters).
For all the self-aggrandisement and
jaw-dropping architecture, Ramesses9 record
of achievement was mixed. On the positive
side of the ledger, the battle of Kadesh,
though a strategic failure, paved the way for a
diplomatic triumph: a comprehensive peace
treaty with the Hittites which ushered in an
era of stability across the near east. |e 8peace promoted during his long years on the
dividend9 enabled Ramesses to concentrate throne, endured for centuries. Like rulers
on his building projects, including the before and since, he created his own myth,
fortiocation of Egypt9s western frontier, thus adjusting the facts to suit his desired narra-
safeguarding the country from invasion a
century later when many other civilisations
tive. It is surely Ramesses9 achievements
as a self-propagandist, given concrete form
of the eastern Mediterranean succumbed. through an astonishing architectural legacy,
On the negative side, Ramesses9 urge to
father a dynasty had the unintended conse-
that justify his claim to greatness.
quence of destabilising the line of succession
in subsequent generations, when countless
Toby Wilkinson is an Egyptologist and prize-win-
ning author. His latest book, Ramesses the Great:
royal ofspring emerged as possible claimants
to the throne. (Ramesses himself outlived
Egypt’s King of Kings, was published by Yale in May
GETTY IMAGES
three of his designated heirs, eventually being
succeeded by his 13th son, Merenptah.)
Greg Jenner and guests lifted the lid on
Ramesses II for an episode of BBC Sounds’
Yet, for all the triumphs and failures, You’re Dead to Me: bbc.co.uk/
Ramesses II9s own reputation, so assiduously sounds/play/p09tvhv8
 INTERVIEW / SIMON SCHAMA

Spreading fear
A contemporary depiction
of the impact of smallpox
on America’s Indigenous
people. Simon Schama
charts how such diseases
URCTMGFUEKGPVKEKPIGPWKV[

Diseases such
as smallpox were
hugely contagious –
and apocalyptically
terrifying
For centuries, scientists have striven to combat
a whole host of infectious diseases. Yet, as
Simon Schama explains in his new
book, they have often met with
considerable opposition
INTERVIEW BY MATT ELTON
ALAMY/GETTY IMAGES

•
31
 Interview / Simon Schama
Matt Elton;QWYTKVGKP[QWTPGYDQQM
VJCV[QWCTGCEWVGN[EQPUEKQWUQHDGKPI
CPGYEQOGTVQOGFKECNCPFUEKGPVKE
JKUVQT[9JCVFTGY[QWVQVJKUUWDLGEV!
Simon Schama It won9t surprise anybody
to learn that the pandemic played a large role.
I thought: if there9s a moment when national-
ism needs to be set aside for the common
good, it9s now, when people need to share
vaccines. I was quickly disabused, of course,
by nations leapfrogging over each other to
secure supplies of vaccines in advance.
But that disappointing moment led me,
via the World Health Organization9s website,
to the International Sanitary Conferences
held from the mid-19th century, which were
the orst example of international organisa-
tion outside religious institutions, military
alliances or peace conferences. |is, sudden-
ly, felt very much like the right subject for
a book. My wife is a biologist, so I asked
her: <Is this ridiculous? Will I perish with
a terminal case of imposter syndrome?=
But she encouraged me. I think something
happens when you9re a really old geezer, too:
you either want to escape completely into
a hobby – Byzantine coinage in the 11th
century, perhaps – or, if you9re like me, you
only want to do history with an immediate
link to what9s happening right now.
6JGTUVUGEVKQPQH[QWTDQQMHQEWUGUQP
VJGIJVCICKPUVUOCNNRQZ*QYFKUTWRVKXG
YCUVJCVFKUGCUGCVKVURGCMKP'WTQRG!
It was extraordinarily contagious and
apocalyptically terrifying. It ran amok in
crowded urban environments, killing as
many as one in three people who contracted
it. Plague had been even more frightening
in the late Middle Ages and 17th century,
but had somewhat retreated by the early
18th century, so people had been lulled into
a false sense of security.
Within 100 years, fortunately, there
was a great breakthrough against smallpox:
the orst mass campaign to persuade people
to get inoculated. It seemed such a counterin-
tuitive thing to do: put inside your body the
very thing responsible for so many deaths.
|is benevolent self-poisoning was an
astonishing psychological barrier, and it9s still
amazing to me that people have eventually
come to accept it in such large numbers.
9JCVYGTGVJGMG[HCEVQTUKPRGTUWCFKPI
RGQRNGVJCVKPQEWNCVKQPYCUCIQQFVJKPI!
It helped – in Britain, in particular – that
the royal family was converted. Lady Mary
32
*QYFKF+PFKCPOGFKEKPGTGCEJVJGYGUV!
Hear more of Simon Schama’s conversation about infectious
diseases on our podcast: historyextra.com/podcast
Wortley Montagu, the wife of the British
ambassador to Constantinople, had survived
a terrifying attack of smallpox herself, and
had also heard stories of women escaping
death from the disease. Her curiosity led her
to believe that the process of inoculation
– taking pus from a smallpox victim and
pre-emptively injecting it into yourself –
would save you. She was a born publicist with
lots of important social and literary connec-
tions and, when she came back to Britain in
1718, she converted Caroline of Ansbach, the
Princess of Wales, to her cause. Smallpox was
a real worry among the royal dynasties of the
time, because it was mowing down princes
and empresses around Europe.
|en, because the royal family was doing
it, the press started reporting what was
happening. |ere was, of course, committed
opposition – particularly from clerics, some
+PQEWNCVKQPKPʚWGPEGTLady Mary Wortley
Montagu (top) persuaded Caroline of Ansbach (below)
to have her children inoculated against smallpox
of whom preached that inoculation was
interfering with God9s judgment. But by the
1720s, the cause had been taken up by various
doctors and had become more than a mere
fashion. One of the ogures in my book is
|omas Nettleton, a doctor in Halifax who
inoculated as many people as he could in the
area. Crucially, such individuals sent their
results to the Royal Society, which collected
the data – that struck me as very modern.
;QWTDQQMRTQNGUCUGTKGUQHTGOCTMCDNG
KPFKXKFWCNUUWEJCU/QPVCIW$WVCTG
VJGTGYKFGTEWNVWTCNHQTEGUCVRNC[VQQ!
|e 18th century was a very interesting
moment in the relationship between science
and religion. I think the extent to which the
period was non-religious is sometimes
overstated, because the rise of evangelical
faith was a very important aspect of the
century. However, it9s true to say that facing
pandemic aver pandemic had weakened
people9s willingness to be passive in the face
of 8divine judgment9. |ere was a growing
belief that science and human ingenuity
might be able to do what God seemed
indiferent to or incapable of doing. So this
was a real sea-change moment.
;QWCNUQGZRNQTGVJGVJEGPVWT[URTGCF
QHEJQNGTC9JCVYCUKVUKORCEV!
Cholera was pretty unknown in Europe until
the early 19th century so, again, people were
unprepared for this horrifying disease. If you
caught it, you quickly died a very unpleasant
death, losing all of your bodily nuids.
One of the paradoxes that runs through
my book is the fact that the key aspects of
progress that brought power and wealth and
happiness to people in Europe and the west
– new forms of transport and extensive travel
networks – also created the ideal conditions
for pathogens to spread and nourish.
Aver London doctor John Snow deter-
mined that a water pump dispensing faecally
contaminated water in Broad Street (now
Broadwick Street, Soho) was the epicentre of
a major cholera outbreak – and therefore that
cholera was a water-borne disease – it seemed
that cleaning up water sources would solve
the problem. In fact, people in trains or
horse-drawn carriages might invisibly soil
the upholstery, putting the next person to use
the carriage at risk of catching cholera. So the
conditions that brought economic prosperity
and interconnectedness and commercial
ALAMY
progress were also increasing the likelihood
of spreading terrifying infectious diseases.

It was only when the cholera bacillus was
discovered in the 19th century that scientists
realised how disastrously and speedily the
bacillus itself could travel.
1PGRCTVKEWNCTN[KPVTKIWKPIEJCTCEVGTKP
[QWTDQQMKU#FTKGP2TQWUV*QYKORQT
VCPVYCUJKUYQTM!
Adrien Proust – father of renowned author
Marcel – was a doctor who became a key
ogure at the International Sanitary Confer-
ences. He promoted the idea that it wouldn9t
be possible to get to grips with cholera
without imposing a lockdown or serious
quarantine on particularly vulnerable areas.
He believed that some kind of international
public health organisation was needed
– an idea that sowed the seeds of
what later became the World
Health Organization. So he had
a far-sighted and benevolent side,
but was also classically imperialist
and defensive: his primary
concern was to prevent cholera
coming to western Europe, so he
called for a cordon sanitaire against
its spread from Asia.
One of his specioc
concerns was about the
GETTY IMAGES
Hajj – the pilgrimage
to Mecca. |at9s not
because it was a
Muslim or Asian
5NWOUKEMPGUU
A Court for King Cholera,
a cartoon published in
Punch in 1852, depicting the
kind of conditions where
this disease thrived. Dr John
Snow’s discovery that
cholera is water-borne
helped stem infections
thing – it wasn9t simple prejudice – but
6JGTGYCUC because the Hajj involved hundreds of
ITQYKPIDGNKGHVJCV thousands of people lodging together in
very tight quarters on small boats with no
UEKGPEGOKIJVDG sanitary provisions, which was a paradise
for microbial reproduction.
CDNGVQFQYJCV)QF |ere were two huge problems with taking
UGGOGFKPECRCDNG this tack. One was that the British empire
was, in the middle of the 19th century,
QHFQKPI beginning to make a huge amount of money
from its Indian enterprise. So the British
didn9t want to stop traoc coming through
the Suez Canal, and were the last to accept
the science about cholera transmission and
germ theory. |ey maintained that it wasn9t
a contagious disease, so could be resolved by
local disinfection with no need to interrupt
the empire9s international trade routes. |e
other problem was that the Indian uprising
of the late 1850s had a very strong religious
element, so the British were, quite rightly,
nervous about interrupting the pilgrimage
5EKGPVKERKQPGGT to Mecca, which might light a tinderbox of
Adrien Proust as depicted in a insurrection that could bring down British
19th-century portrait. The French imperial presence not just in India but across
epidemiologist’s ideas seeded the region. So the science had to pass a test of
the creation of the political acceptability – as it still does.
World Health
Organization *QYOWEJKUVJCVTGNCVKQPUJKRDGVYGGP
UEKGPEGCPFRQNKVKEUCTGEWTTKPIVJGOG!
One would love to think that science could
be accepted as non-ideological, as disinterest-
ed in politics, even when it leads to
•
33
 Interview / Simon Schama

inconveniences such as lockdowns, the

shutting down of trade routes and so on. But
that9s not the case, even today.
You can see the attitude forming in those
19th-century dialogues, in which science was
somehow held to be – hence the title of my
book, Foreign Bodies – an alien thing: that
it belonged to international organisations of
elite scientists who might have suspicious
motives. At the sad core of my book is this
extraordinary paradox: we celebrate and
marvel at the extraordinariness of human
ingenuity and the speed at which science
can achieve practical results, while the most
irrational and feverishly prejudiced biases
and suspicions about that ingenuity endure.
So what enlightened minds of the 18th
century thought would happen – that, one
day, knowledge itself would be responsible
for eliminating sickness and ignorance and
poverty – never came about. |ere seems
to be something hardwired into our shared EGPVWT[GRKFGOKE#NCDKPVJGEKV[JGCFGFD[9CNFGOCT*CʘMKPGTGURQPFGFD[RTQFWEKPIXCEEKPGUQPCJWIGUECNG
cultures, from one end of the world to the
other, that wants to resist that development
– to see science as some sort of plot. gave Haoine the opportunity to work there. Calcutta9s slums, then trained Indian doctors
When Haoine reached India, he discov- in inoculation, explaining why and how to
#PQVJGTRKXQVCNIWTGKP[QWTDQQMKU ered that the medical service there did not do it. |is is an extraordinary untold chapter
9CNFGOCT*CʘMKPG%CP[QWDTKGʚ[ want to know. |ey assumed that simply in imperial history, when a gun-running
KPVTQFWEGJKOCPFJKUYQTM! disinfecting contaminated water would Ukrainian-Russian Jew from a laboratory in
Haoine was an extraordinary ogure: a Jew combat the problem, and weren9t interested Paris was working in India.
from Odessa who, in the second half of the in learning about microbiology or germ Haoine became famous in Britain, where
19th century, was running guns in an theory, in understanding the deep science of people such as Joseph Lister lauded him as
attempt to protect the Jewish community how these organisms live and multiply, or in a hero. In 1899, he began work in Bombay
from pogroms. Odessa was one of those rare how disease can be contained. So Haoine (now Mumbai) heading up the orst mass
places in the Russian empire in which Jewish had very little support and even fewer funds. production line of vaccines, against plague.
people were not trapped in a kind of Fiddler Despite such reticence from the local med- |e disease had returned in a major way,
on the Roof world, and could enjoy a secular ical community, Haoine set to work inocu- killing approximately 12 million people
education. So Haoine became a student lating not just Europeans in India but also the between the mid-1890s and early 1920s,
at the new university in Odessa, where he poorest of the poor. He began with people in mostly in India and China. Haoine9s lab
was tutored by another extraordinary ogure: sent out tens of thousands of doses each day
the avant-garde microbiology professor across India, saving huge numbers of people.
Ilya Mechnikov. In 1889, Haoine joined Haoine was constantly dogged by
Mechnikov at the recently founded Pasteur suspicion and hostility in India, though,
Institute in Paris. |ere he was given the task because this was the era of the Great Game
of developing a vaccine against cholera. [when the British and Russian empires vied
And, aver a great struggle, he succeeded. for dominance in Asia]. Because of his
Cholera, at that point, was onally receding Russian origins, he was oven viewed as
somewhat from Europe. So Haoine decided eccentric or suspicious, and even at one point
that the only way he would be able to demon-
strate the acceptability of a vaccine to the
+VUGGOUVQ thought of as being a spy. And then, in 1902,
a tragic catastrophe occurred. In the tiny
public was with a series of controlled experi- DGJCTFYKTGFKPVQ village of Mulkowal in Punjab, 19 people died
ments. He would recruit a cohort of subjects, of tetanus poisoning caused by one contami-
half of whom would get inoculated and half QWTUJCTGFEWNVWTGU nated batch of plague vaccine. It was discov-
WELLCOME IMAGES

of whom wouldn9t. At that time, the British
ambassador in Paris was the Marquess of
Duferin, who9d been viceroy of India; he
was also extraordinarily interested in the
possibility of inoculation against cholera, so
ered much later that the contamination
VQUGGUEKGPVKE actually happened not at the Bombay produc-
FGXGNQROGPVCU tion facility but in the village. A rubber
stopper had been dropped on the ground –
UQOGMKPFQHRNQV inoculations in rural districts oven took

34

place in oelds, in the open air – but, rather
than being passed through heat sterilisation,
as Haoine had insisted, it was simply
swished around in a carbolic solution.
Blame was directed at Haoine, who was
suspended and then ored in disgrace. |e
viceroy of India, Lord Curzon, was beside
himself with rage: he held Haoine respon-
sible for what he viewed as a disaster that had
undermined the credibility of the British em-
pire. |is was a period, aver all, in which the
empire wanted to be seen as tough and strict
and paternalistic but also interested in the
physical welfare of its Indian subjects. Curzon
went so far as to declare that Haoine should
be tried and hanged for his actions. |ere
was, of course, a strong whif of antisemitism
surrounding this, although it wasn9t explicit.
Haoine tried to plead his case – giving
lectures in Paris, writing to the great and
the good – initially to no avail. |en another
extraordinary ogure, Ronald Ross – who
had discovered that Anopheles mosquitoes
transmitted the malaria parasite – launched
a campaign that resulted in vindication for
Haoine, though not until 1907. Too late: his
career and life had been ruined.
*QYFQGUVJCVUVQT[TGʚGEVVJGYKFGT
KUUWGUQHRQYGTCPFUQEKGV[CVVJGVKOG!
It happened in an era of great pomp and
ALAMY
circumstance – Elgar composing music,
Kipling writing stories – but also at a moment
when imperial authorities in India were
beginning to feel the ground shiv beneath
their feet in ways that made them uneasy.
|ey were concerned that the government,
both in India and in the colonial ooce in
London, should be seen to be doing things for
the good of Indians themselves. And they
were correspondingly eager to scapegoat
someone or something – the someone being
Haoine, the something being the new
science of microbiology – that had, as they saw
it, rashly discarded the cult of disinfection.
Cholera was constantly on their minds,
but when plague came along – a disease that
has nothing to do with contaminated water
but everything to do with microorganisms
living in neas that bite and infect humans –
a completely diferent mindset was needed
to ogure out what it was and how to deal with
it. |e authorities continued their policy of
disinfection, however, tracking down any-
body suspected of showing symptoms and
inspecting people as they stepped of trains.
|ey tore down houses, burned furniture and
clothing, and separated families – oven
impoverished families – taking children
from parents and husbands from wives.
Haoine pointed out that none of this was
doing any good. When you destroy a house,
the rats simply leave – and the neas leave on
the rats, carrying with them the microorgan-
isms, spreading plague rather than getting
rid of it. |e authorities, of course, did not
Equal opportunities Vaccine pioneer
9CNFGOCT*CʘMKPGKPQEWNCVGURGQRNGCICKPUV
EJQNGTCKPVJG%CNEWVVCUNWOU+PURKVGQH
JKUNKHGUCXKPIYQTMVJG7MTCKPKCP4WUUKCP
,GYYCUFQIIGFD[UWURKEKQPCPFJQUVKNKV[
want to listen, and Haoine was regarded
as committing a heresy against the accepted
method for containing infectious disease.
*QYYQWNF[QWNKMG[QWTDQQMVQEJCPIG
QWTXKGYQHQWTQYPRCPFGOKEOQOGPV
CPFQWTTGNCVKQPUJKRYKVJVJGYKFGTYQTNF!
|is book is a passionate statement on behalf
of science. I referred earlier to the paradox
in which we9re trapped: on the one hand,
humans are a marvel of ingenuity and
astonishing resourcefulness. Yet at the same
time, we seem to exist in this great pond of
primitive terror and paranoia and supersti-
tion. So I would love it if this book could act
as an antidote to some of the mistrust and
suspicion that surrounds science, and to the
sense that scientists are involved in some
kind of scheme that only beneots themselves.
If this history moves the dial even a tiny bit
through the stories it tells, then that will
make an old geezer marginally happier.
Simon Schama is professor of art history and
history at Columbia University, New York. His
latest book is Foreign Bodies: Pandemics, Vaccines
and the Health of Nations (Simon & Schuster, 2023)
Catch up with some of Simon Schama’s BBC
television series, including
A History of Britain, on BBC iPlayer:
bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b008qpzn
35

Is it true that there are more
pyramids in Sudan than in Egypt?
If you9re thinking of super-sized
royal funerary monuments, then yes:
perhaps 180 or more such pyramids
were built in Sudan, compared with
about half that number in Egypt.
However, pyramids surviving in both
countries are diverse in size and form.
|e word 8pyramid9 tends to conjure
up images of the vast monuments that
still loom over Cairo, especially the 147-
metre-high Great Pyramid built at Giza
for the pharaoh Khufu in the 26th
century BC. Pyramids continued to be
elements of royal burial and memorial
complexes in Egypt until around 1550
BC, when rulers began instead to be
buried in the Valley of the Kings in
|ebes (now Luxor).
It was another 800 years before kings
and queens were again interred in pyra-
mids, a practice that then continued for
another millennium. |ese monuments9
creators ruled Kushite kingdoms in
36
A selection of
historical conundrums
answered by experts
what9s now Sudan and, for a time, Egypt.
|eir pyramids were comparatively
small, most less than 30 metres high,
with steep, oven stepped sides, built in
dense 8pyramidscapes9 together with
others for members of their households.
|e largest cluster is at Meroë, some 130
miles north-east of Khartoum.
|ese cemeteries are reminiscent of
those of Egyptian elites aver 1550 BC,
when high-ranking individuals incorpo-
rated pyramids into monumental tombs.
Some poorer families marked simpler
burial places with miniature pyramids.
If you include these, the ogures explode.
Instead of comparing numbers in
modern countries, though, it9s more
interesting to wonder what signiocance
pyramids had for diferent people, and
how and why those meanings changed.
Elizabeth Frood, associate professor
of Egyptology, University of Oxford
Pyramids at Meroë, Sudan, built for scores
of kings and queens of the Kushite kingdom
Edward the Confessor, portrayed in an
illustration in an early 14th-century chronicle
Why isn’t Edward
the Confessor
called Edward I?
|e convention of numbering
English kings did not begin until the
late Middle Ages. Before this, the
usual way to identify individual
monarchs was to style them 8x, son of
y9 – for example, 8King Edward, son of
King Henry9. In the 14th century,
however, the succession of three
consecutive Edwards caused confu-
sion, leading some writers to call them
Edward the First, Edward the Second
and Edward the |ird. |ese numbers
stuck, even though they didn9t take
into account the earlier Edwards who
had ruled in Anglo-Saxon times.
People who were aware of this prob-
lem tried to square the circle by
adding 8since the Conquest9, to
indicate that rulers before 1066 were
not included in the reckoning.
Even had pre-Conquest kings been
counted, however, Edward the Con-
fessor would not have been Edward I.
He had two namesake royal ancestors,
GETTY IMAGES/ALAMY
Edward the Martyr (975–78) and
Edward the Elder (899–924).
Marc Morris, historian and author of
|e Anglo-Saxons: A History of the
Beginnings of England (Hutchinson, 2021)

How common was press-ganging?
|e system of forcible impressment
by a 8press gang9 was used by European
navies in the 17th and 18th centuries, to
crew their neets at the outbreak of war or
to replace men lost to death or desertion.
In principle, the impress was no difer-
ent from military conscription. It was
intended to solve a basic problem: that
during wartime there were never
enough professional seamen to crew
both a fully mobilised navy and the
merchant neet.
Men could be impressed ashore or
from ships at sea. Only seafaring men
between the ages of 18 and 55 could be
GETTY IMAGES/ALAMY
impressed; the navy had no trouble
recruiting unskilled 8landmen9 by
ofering a bounty. Ocean-going seamen
accepted the press as an occupational
hazard and, when caught by a press
gang, most took the cash bounty and
ILLUSTRATION BY @GLENMCILLUSTRATION
higher rating in the navy. |ough
violence was threatened, it was used only
rarely: dead or injured sailors were of no
use in the neet. Even so, the press was
unpopular because it took men from
better-paid jobs on merchant ships.
|ough last used in 1814, press-
ganging remained legal for another half
century, despite a public campaign for
abolition. |e government retained the
right to impress until the 1860s, when it
created an efective Naval Reserve to
crew the neet in an emergency. Modern
research has challenged the more
extreme claims of impressment9s critics,
but it was a common occurrence: few
professional sailors escaped a period in
naval service between 1793 and 1815.
Andrew Lambert, Laughton professor of
naval history at King9s College London
DID YOU KNOW…?
Shakespearean souvenirs
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Dim idea
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TGEGPVFGECFGU
Nick Rennison, writer
and journalist specialis-
ing in history
A reconstruction of the face of
a Neanderthal. They were once
thought to lack intelligence
37
 The Tudors’ global obsession

The 16th century saw England

truly waking up to the possibilities
of global trade and exploration –
and that had a huge impact
on tastes and fashions back
home. Lauren Working and
Emily Stevenson introduce six
artefacts that speak to the Tudor
fascination with world travel

38
▲
on the tiniest of scales
The Tudor era was one in which
the world grew smaller – in more
ways than one. As travellers
embarked on voyages to distant
destinations, they stoked a
burgeoning obsession with global
HTQOʚQWTRCUVGVQRTQVGEVVJGO
from humidity at sea.
/QN[PGWZoUYQTMTGʚGEVU
England’s evolution into a major
RNC[GTKPVJGGNFQHGZRNQTCVKQP
his globe features the circumnavi-
gations of English adventurers
Francis Drake and Thomas
Cavendish, depicted in red.
Globes such as Molyneux’s
captured vast networks of
OQDKNKV[KPOKPKCVWTGCYQTNF
covered by the criss-crossing lines
of global travellers, yet small
GPQWIJVQVKPCUJKRQTCNKDTCT[
•
39
 The Tudors’ global obsession
▲ WORDS OF WARMING
This Sámi word list was designed to help English
traders thrive (and survive) in Arctic Russia
When the Tudor explorer Stephen
Burrough embarked on a journey
to Russia in 1557 he returned with
a list of words from the Ter Sámi
language, the earliest known
documentation of a Sámi tongue.
Burrough’s list aimed to help
future travellers strike lucrative
deals with people in Russia’s
Arctic north – and included
translations of words and
phrases such as “what call you
this?”, “whither goe you?”,
“wollen” and “linnen cloth”.
40
WIKIPEDIA/ ALAMY
Yet a basic knowledge of Ter
Sámi not only had the potential
to boost the earning power of
English explorers – in a destination
as perilous as the Arctic it also
promised to save their lives. Those
perils were illustrated by the fate
of Sir Hugh Willoughby who, in
1553, had led one of Tudor
'PINCPFoUTUVVTCFGXGPVWTGUVQ
Russia, only to disappear. When
his ship, the Bona Esperanza, was
found the following year, its crew
were dead, frozen like statues.
Want to learn more about the Tudors?
Sign up to our Tudor newsletter, curated by
Rhiannon Davies: historyextra.com/newsletters

▲
THE WORLD ON
HER SHOULDERS
Fashionistas flaunted their
refined taste with accessories
from across the globe

6JKURQTVTCKVQHCPGN[FTGUUGFYQOCP
from 1569 is thought to depict Helena
Snakenborg, one of several courtiers who
accompanied Princess Cecilia of Sweden
to London in 1565. The 1560s saw the
Swedish king, Erik XIV, attempting to win
Elizabeth I’s hand in marriage. Erik failed
to win over the English queen but the two
nations enjoyed good relations for much
of Elizabeth’s reign, as evidenced by the
diplomatic visit of 1565.
Snakenborg remained in England
following the visit, probably because
she was being courted by William Parr,
Marquess of Northampton. She eventually
became maid of honour to Elizabeth –
TGʚGEVGFRGTJCRUKPVJGXKDTCPVTQUG
embroideries on her clothing (the combi-
nation of red and white roses was a key
Tudor emblem).
The intricate decorations in Snaken-
DQTIoUQWVVUJQYQʘJGTEQPUKFGTCDNG
wealth. They include two gold chains,
feathers, hat buttons, a pearl-encrusted
golden oak leaf pendant, an enamelled
gold pendant in the shape of a woman
holding a large gemstone, and golden
rings in the shape of roses.
These pearls, jewels and gold were
brought from overseas through mercantile
and colonial networks. The weighty
pendant around her neck may be an
emerald sourced in the mines of
distant Colombia.

•
41
 The Tudors’ global obsession
▲
ENGLAND’S CURIOUS MEDICINE
It wasn’t long before the Tudor addiction to tobacco
began to blight Indigenous people’s lives
6QDCEEQYCUVJGTUVHQTGKIP
intoxicant of mass consumption in
early modern England. Brittle clay
pipe fragments like those shown
right can still be found in gardens
and riverbanks across Britain,
indicating how widespread
smoking had become among all
social classes by the 1630s.
“In the ale-houses, tobacco [is]
obtainable,” wrote a Swiss
traveller to London in 1599. The
traveller added that the English
“regard it as a curious medicine
and as a pleasure. The habit is so
common with them, that they…
light up on all occasions.”
1TKIKPCNN[UQWTEGFKPVJG
Americas, and cultivated by
42
▲
FLIGHT OF FANCY
The first wave of Tudor explorers helped spark
a fashion for collecting Indigenous artefacts
similar to this exquisite fan from Peru
In 1597, travelling through the Along with other Indigenous
Amazon rainforest, William Davies artefacts (such as canoes),
noted that “the king of every featherwork became a recognised
river… wears upon his head a marker of Indigenous cultures
crown of parrots’ feathers, of in Elizabeth England, and
several colours”. soon began appearing in
The 16th century saw a wave cabinets of curiosity – none
of English adventurers such as more famous than Walter Cope’s
Davies chronicling their encoun- collection of global marvels in
ters in the Americas. It wasn’t London’s Holland Park.
long before they realised that, in The Tudor fascination with
the societies they encountered genuine objects crafted in the
there, feathers conveyed sover- Americas also triggered a surge of
eignty, divinity and exquisite appropriations and imitations. In
craftsmanship. These were 1613, 50 gentlemen dressed up as
qualities that seized the imagina- “Virginia priests and princes” for a
tions of their compatriots back in court masque. As the performers
England, who collected and wrote processed through London to the
about artefacts similar to the royal palace, onlookers marvelled
cotton, feathered and knotted CVVJGYC[VJGKTHGCVJGTGFTWʘU
XGIGVCDNGDTGHCPUJQYPJGTG glittered in the night.
enslaved peoples in the Caribbean
and eventually England’s budding
North American plantations,
tobacco tangibly connected
Elizabethans to Indigenous groups
that had gathered knowledge
about its properties and value for
thousands of years.
While the spread of plantations
dispossessed Native peoples of
their homelands, late Elizabethan
poetry celebrated tobacco as a
commodity that ushered in the
golden age. It was, so the poet
John Beaumont observed, when
“great tobacco pleas’d to show her
powers” that the inspiration
behind “this blest age of ours”
could begin.
 ▲ DANGEROUS BEAUTY
Merchants put their lives on the
line in the quest for ceramics
They were fragile, luminescent, incredibly rare
– and few English artisans had unlocked the
secrets to manufacturing them. Is it any
wonder, then, that ceramics such as this
porcelain bowl – fashioned by Chinese potters
in Jingdezhen in c1585 – were highly prized by
Tudor traders?
So great was the demand for these delicate
artefacts that English merchants established
networks with traders and interpreters across
Europe and Asia. Yet the quest for ceramics was
fraught with danger: on land, travellers faced
mountains and deserts; at sea, voyages took
VJGOCETQUUVJG2CEKECPF+PFKCPQEGCPU
MET MUSEUM PUBLIC DOMAIN/LAUREN WORKING/PUBLIC DOMAIN (CC0)

where they were menaced by storms, ship-

wrecks and piracy.
A milestone in the Tudors’ relationship with
ceramics arrived in 1592, when the English
capture of the Portuguese ship Madre de Dios
ʚQQFGFVJGTGCNOYKVJURKEGUVGZVKNGU1VVQOCP
carpets and many “porce-
lain vessels of China”.
These treasures made their Emily Stevenson and Lauren Working are both
way into Elizabethan shops lecturers at the University of York. |ey will be
and display cabinets, hosting a discussion of Global Travel in the Age of
including Queen Elizabeth’s Shakespeare at the York Festival of Ideas soon. For
private collection. more details, go to yorkfestivaloodeas.com/2023
London silver and
goldsmiths – often French,
Dutch and German artisans In Radio 3’s We Other Tudors, Jerry Brotton
– then transformed bowls looked at how people from around the world
such as this one into cups, made Tudor England their
adding elaborately decorat- home. Listen here: bbc.co.uk/
ed mounts and handles. programmes/m001l4dc

43
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to the digital edition

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 BBC History Magazine is Britain’s bestselling
history magazine. We feature leading historians
writing lively and thought-provoking new takes
on the great events of the past.
 SAS trailblazers

It’s a story of extravagant lies, homemade

bombs and adrenaline-pumped commandos.
Joshua Levine charts the formative years
of the SAS through the exploits of four
extraordinary servicemen

46
 TOPFOTO

47
 SAS trailblazers

Tomb with a view

#$TKVKUJRNCPGʚKGUQXGTVJGR[TCOKFUQH
Giza in the 1930s. During the Second
World War, proto-SAS schemes were at
YQTMKP'I[RVCUVTCVGIKECNN[KORQTVCPV
location in the Middle East theatre

1 Fake news
in fancy dress
How MICK GURMIN
became a member of the SAS
before it even existed

n 1941, a young British trooper based
I in Palestine was sent on an unlikely
mission. Together with a fellow
soldier named Smith, Mick Gurmin was
dispatched to Cairo with instructions to
spread an elaborate yarn around restaurants,
bars and tourist hotspots. For the mission,
Gurmin was issued with a uniform liberally
sewn with parachute badges, to back up his
membership of the 1st Special Air Service
(SAS) Battalion parachute unit, which was
completing its training in Transjordan.
It was an intriguing costume – because the
1st SAS didn9t exist.
Both battalion and uniform were inven-
tions of Lieutenant Colonel Dudley Clarke.
He had recently arrived in the region, having
been summoned by his friend and supporter
Sir Archibald Wavell, British commander-in-
chief for the Middle East. Clarke9s task was to
deceive the enemy about British intentions –
and the capture of an Italian oocer had pre-
sented him with an opportunity. |e oocer9s
diary revealed an Axis belief that British
parachute troops were present in the Middle
East. In truth, there were none – but Clarke
spotted the chance to exploit an existing
fear. He schemed a plot to convince ene-
specialists in vehicle sabotage, had arrived
in the region. |is deception operation was
codenamed 8Abeam9, and Gurmin9s carefully
staged performance was a key element.
Gurmin and Smith – also in fake uniform
– were to leak 8evidence9 of a crack parachute
unit while seeming reluctant to do so.
Clarke9s admonition made clear the impor-
tance of getting their mission spot-on: <Any
carelessness or indiscretion on your part may
well upset carefully arranged and important
plans and have far-reaching consequences.=
Spreading rumours
In the event, Gurmin and Smith had a one
old time. |ey visited the pyramids, watched
a football match, and went to a cabaret, the
cinema and a dance. |ey walked around
Cairo Zoo and travelled north to Port Said.
Wherever they went, they frequented cafes
and restaurants where they attracted atten-
tion with their badges, talking with disarm-
ing conviction about a job they had never
done and which didn9t exist.
Operation Abeam seems to have been a
success: certainly, rumours of a parachute
unit began to spread. Curiously, the fake unit
lent its name to the real SAS that was soon to
be formed, thereby adding authenticity to
Clarke9s deception.
For Gurmin, the consequences were
profound. Just months earlier, before joining
up with the Stafordshire Yeomanry, he had
been an apprentice engineer in Wolverhamp-
ton. Now his impressive performance
resulted in another commission. He initially
joined the Middle East Commando and then,
in the autumn of 1942, became an oocer in
the genuine SAS. He journeyed far across
the Sahara desert, eventually reaching the
Mareth Line, a system of fortiocations in
Tunisia, and later took part in the assault on
Sicily. None of the celebrated servicemen
whose ranks he was joining realised that
Gurmin had been a member – of sorts –
long before they had.
Aver the war, Mick Gurmin returned to
Britain and worked in the steel industry.
When he died in 1978, at the age of 58, it
transpired that he had never told friends or
family about his wartime deception work.
To this day, the SAS archive holds an
GETTY IMAGES/NATIONAL ARCHIVES

my intelligence that 500 parachutists, all

Gurmin had to leak

‘evidence’ of a crack
new parachute unit
while seeming
reluctant to do so
48
 2 Back with a bang
JOCK LEWES9 return from the sidelines changed
the course of the war in north Africa
n the early summer of 1941, Dudley
I Clarke decided to boost his decep-
tion eforts by staging genuine
parachute drops over Egyptian airoelds. In
the meantime, a determined, God-fearing
young commando oocer, Jock Lewes,
(pictured above right) was planning his own
parachute drops in the same area. |e two
men9s plans overlapped fortuitously.
Lewes had arrived in the Middle East as a
member of Layforce, a composite comman-
do force that had recently taken part in a
series of failed raids on targets such as Crete
and the Libyan port of Bardia, and which
now found itself sidelined. Some frustrated
members, such as the 70-year-old Sir Walter
8Tich9 Cowan – surely the army9s most
unlikely oghting commando – transferred
elsewhere. Others returned to their original
units or languished in the Guards Depot.
A few enterprising souls – like Jock Lewes
– dreamed up new roles for themselves.
Lewes9 plan was to create a desert-based
parachute unit capable of mounting surprise
raids on enemy targets. Having assembled
a small group, he was granted permission to
carry out trial jumps – which could double
as Clarke9s deception drops – from a Vickers
Valentia over Fuka airoeld on Egypt9s
Mediterranean coast. In the event, however,
the authorities put an abrupt end to Lewes9
experiment. |e jumps, they decided, were
not demonstrating suocient potential.
Lewes9 scheme seemed onished.
IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM/TOPFOTO
Yet the project was soon saved from the
scrap heap by an unlikely scavenger. David
Stirling was an aristocratic Scottish idler
whom Lewes had grudgingly allowed to join
his party. |e 8Giant Sloth9, as Stirling was
known to his fellow Commando oocers, was
unlike Lewes in almost all respects – but he
possessed talents and advantages that Lewes
lacked. He was, notably, immensely persua-
sive and hugely well-connected.
Stirling had been injured while jumping
from the Valentia and, as he lay in his Cairo
hospital bed, he formulated a more detailed
version of Lewes9 plan. On his discharge,
with the help of his brothers, he draved
a memorandum intended to sell the idea to
Sir Claude Auchinleck, newly appointed
commander-in-chief in the Middle East.
Desert drops
Stirling9s plan involved parachuting small
groups behind enemy lines to raid lines of
communication, aerodromes and other
vulnerable sites. |e men – sidelined
commandos desperate to put their skills and
initiative to productive use – would lie up
unobserved in the desert before striking.
|e scheme would be economical in terms
of manpower and supplies.
Stirling had to win the support of Lewes,
whose knowledge and technical ingenuity
would be essential. Initially, Lewes refused:
in his eyes, Stirling9s idea was merely an
extension of his own – and he feared placing
it in the hands of a half-hearted socialite.
But as he recalled in a letter to his father:
<I trusted in God that night… and when
David came again in the morning I said yes
though I know not why, for I had made no
decision in the night.=
Auchinleck also agreed to the plan, and
the unit took shape. As it did, Lewes9 respect
for Stirling grew, praising his new-found
<enthusiasm, his energy, his conodence=, and
admitting that <he appreciated the long-
term value of my experiment more accurate-
ly than I.= Stirling was happy to give credit
for the formation of the unit to Lewes.
Whoever founded it, the organisation
needed a name – and who more appropriate
to provide it than Dudley Clarke? He wanted
the new organisation to merge seamlessly
with his elaborate fake. So, as his most recent
oction had been 8K Detachment, Special Air
Service Brigade9, the next unit formed would
logically be 8L Detachment, Special Air
Service Brigade9.
Jock Lewes duly became L Detachment9s
training oocer, turning his vision into a
reality. His entirely improvised but im-
mensely gruelling training programme
set about creating an organisation in his own
image. When army ordnance experts
decreed that a light and simple bomb could
not be provided for SAS use, Lewes simply
invented his own. His mixture of plastic
explosive, thermite and engine oil – dubbed
the Lewes bomb – was pivotal in unlocking
the unit9s potential. He even designed the
SAS parachute badge, inspired by a cod-
Egyptian motif above the reception desk
at Shepheard9s Hotel in Cairo.
Jock Lewes was killed at the end of 1941
while returning from a raid on Noolia
airoeld near Libya9s Mediterranean coast.
His loss was a great blow to the young
organisation – as well as a huge personal loss
for his co-founder, David Stirling.
Stirling work
An SAS patrol is greeted on its return from the
FGUGTVKPD[&CXKF5VKTNKPIYJQOCFGVJG
KFGCsRTQRQUGFD[,QEM.GYGU RKEVWTGFCDQXG 
sQHCETCEMRCTCEJWVGWPKVCXGT[CEVKXGTGCNKV[ •
49
 SAS trailblazers
Mike Sadler, pictured after his long
slog through the desert evading
capture by the Germans
3 Hitting the target
To destroy Luvwafe airoelds, the SAS orst had to ond them.
|at9s where MIKE SADLER came into his own
he orst raid launched by L Detach-
T ment – Operation Squatter – was a
disaster. Dozens of men were
parachuted into the desert in November
1941, in weather conditions so stormy and
treacherous that no targets were reached,
and fewer than half the men who jumped
escaped death or capture.
In the avermath, David Stirling and Jock
Lewes agreed that, for the time being at least,
the SAS would not parachute onto targets.
Instead, the Long Range Desert Group
(LRDG), a motorised desert unit, would act
as L Detachment9s taxi service, carrying
them by truck to and from operations.
Natural navigator
One member of the LRDG, Mike Sadler,
became invaluable to the SAS. On leaving
school in England, Sadler had travelled to
southern Africa, where he worked as a farm
assistant. When war broke out he became an
anti-tank gunner, then, aver a chance meet-
ing in a bar, joined the LRDG and trained as
a navigator. <I was so tickled,= he says, <by
the idea of being able to ond where you were
by looking at the stars.=
Sadler used a theodolite and wireless
receiver by night to mark his position, and
a sand compass by day to remain on a
bearing. He found his relationship with the
landscape constantly evolving. <You were
continually shoved of course by hills or
rocks or boulders,= he says.
During the orst half of 1942, Sadler took
part in both LRDG and SAS operations.
|at summer, though, Stirling got hold of
50
some tough American vehicles known to
British soldiers as 8Willys Bantams9 – the
earliest Jeeps. |e SAS could now drive to
and from raids – but this posed two prob-
lems. First, very few SAS members, many of
whom had been raised in relative poverty
during the Depression, knew how to drive.
Second, the LRDG had provided not only
transport but also navigational expertise.
How would the SAS ond its way?
|e orst problem was solved by hastily
arranging driving lessons, the second by en-
gaging Sadler as L Detachment9s senior nav-
igator – though he was never actually asked
if he wanted to join the SAS. <All I knew,=
he says, <was that David Stirling decided he
wanted me – and somehow he got me.=
|is was how the Jeep – a relatively late
addition to L Detachment9s desert compen-
dium – became the most instantly recog-
nisable symbol of the wartime SAS. Sadler9s
deoning moment as navigator – his <onest
hour=, according to colleague Jim Almonds –
probably came in July 1942. On an ambitious
mission, he guided numerous Jeeps and
their adrenaline-pumped crews across the
desert to Sidi Haneish airoeld in north-
western Egypt, a key link in the supply chain
for Axis forces in the region.
<Where9s this bloody airoeld, then,
Sadler?= asked Stirling, aver many hours of
driving. <I think it9s about a mile ahead,=
answered Sadler – at which moment a
brilliant array of landing lights switched on
precisely where he was indicating. In the
ensuing raid, dozens of Luvwafe aircrav
were destroyed by ore from 68 Vickers K
We lucky few
Some of the few men who returned from
Operation Squatter, L Detachment’s
WPUWEEGUUHWNTUVOKUUKQPYJKEJUCY
them parachuted into the north African
FGUGTVVQCVVCEM#ZKUCKTGNFU
guns as the SAS party9s Jeeps moved steadily
across the airoeld in tight formation.
|e SAS was gaining a fearsome reputa-
tion. As Stirling had envisaged, the psycho-
logical impact of a shapeless threat destroy-
ing aircrav and breaking lines of
communication had been profound. Now, as
Rommel9s forces ned west in late 1942 follow-
ing their defeat at El Alamein, Stirling
spotted an opportunity to harry them. Not
only would this assist the Allied efort, but it
SALLY SADLER (DAUGHTER OF MIKE SADLER)/FAMILY OF THE LATE LT-COL “JAKE” EASONSMITH
would advertise the SAS as a force deserving
of a major role in any coming theatre of war
– particularly if it could become the orst
element of Eighth Army to meet up with the
Anglo-American force, which would be
moving east aver its invasion of French-held
territories in Morocco and Algeria.
Narrow escape
But then disaster struck. In January 1943,
Stirling was captured by the Germans;
Sadler narrowly escaped the same fate,
slogging through the desert on foot before
reaching safety at a French Foreign Legion
outpost. Sadler and two SAS colleagues were
handed on to an American unit at Gafsa,
becoming almost certainly the orst members
of Eighth Army to make contact with the
Americans. |is deeply symbolic encounter
was witnessed by journalist AJ Liebling, who
oled a piece for |e New Yorker magazine.
Sadler had inadvertently fulolled Stirling9s
desire to advertise the SAS, even if his boss
wasn9t on hand to see it happen.
Mike Sadler is, at the time of writing,
alive and well at the age of 103.

4 The warrior with wanderlust
From Sicily to Normandy to the heart of Germany, JOHN TONKIN was on the frontline of SAS
operations across various theatres in Europe, marking a new phase in its development
y summer 1943, the SAS had
B destroyed more than 300 enemy
aircrav in north Africa, and had
been made the 1st Special Air Service
Regiment. Now its war moved to Sicily.
With the unit was John Tonkin, who had
orst arrived in the Middle East as a Royal
Northumberland Fusilier. Bored with
constantly running up and down sand hills
to stay ot, he volunteered for the comman-
dos before joining the SAS in late 1942.
Several months later, Tonkin became an
oocer in the Special Raiding Squadron
(SRS) commanded by Blair 8Paddy9 Mayne,
the organisation9s pre-eminent ogure aver
the capture of David Stirling (and perhaps
for some time before).
|e SRS was one arm of the regiment,
the other being the Special Boat Squadron
commanded by George Jellicoe. |e SRS9s
orst action, on 10 July 1943, saw 287 men
landing at Capo Murro di Porco on the
south-east coast of Sicily with the job of
knocking out the enemy9s artillery defences.
With its deployment in Sicily, the SAS
had to adapt. Its men were now used as
JANE STOREY (DAUGHTER OF JOHN TONKIN)
*QY$TKVKUJEQOOCPFQUVGTTKGFVJG0C\KU
Joshua Levine explores the wartime SAS on our podcast.
Listen out for the episode at: HistoryExtra.com/podcast
shock troops, thrown at the enemy ahead of
the arrival of the main invasion force. |is
commando role was quite unlike anything
the SAS had been created to do. In truth, the
organisation – viewed by many as a local-
ised desert sabotage unit with no wider
application – was fortunate to have survived
the end of the north Africa campaign.
Several days aver the landing at Capo
Murro di Porco, Tonkin and his men
attacked the port of Augusta on Sicily9s east
coast. Jumping ashore from their landing
crav as machine-gun bullets rattled the
vessel9s armoured side, they headed up a
6QPMKPQRGPGFTGQP
COCPTWPPKPIFQYPVJG
EQPPGEVKPIUVTGGVsQPN[
VQTGCNKUGVJCVVJGOCP
YCUJKUQYPUGTIGCPV
seemingly abandoned street, kicking in
doors and periodically dropping down to
shoot from low level. Reaching a junction,
Tonkin opened ore on a man running down
the connecting street – only to realise that
the man was his own sergeant.
Finally, the party reached a crossroads
where they ran into heavy enemy ore.
Suddenly the oring stopped. Tonkin
remembered that: <We heard this shuf-
ning… and this peasant woman appeared.
She was very old, and she was just walking
quietly… down the middle of the road… it
was only aver she had completely disap-
peared that the oring started up again.= |e
war had stopped so that one old lady could
cross the road. |is small but intensely
human moment afected Tonkin deeply.
Bolting for freedom
At the start of October, during the SRS
attack on Termoli – a town on Italy9s
Adriatic coast – Tonkin was taken prisoner
by members of the German 1st Parachute
Division. Shortly averwards, while being
transported through the countryside in the
back of a truck, he prised back the canvas
canopy, jumped and bolted for freedom.
With the help of a succession of sympathetic
Italian civilians, he reached Allied lines.
A fortnight aver his capture, he rejoined his
SRS colleagues in Bari.
In early 1944, the SAS achieved brigade
status and prepared for operations in
France. |e unit9s operational instructions
for the upcoming invasion of Normandy
indicated that members would parachute
behind enemy lines to impede the movement
of German forces by attacking roads,
bridges and railway lines, and by calling in
RAF air strikes. In an entirely new theatre,
the SAS would again be performing the role
for which it had been created. Tonkin was •
%QPVKPGPVCNEJCNNGPIG
Members of the SAS during the attack
at Capo Murro di Porco in south-east Sicily,
part of the Allied invasion of the Italian
island in July 1943
51
 SAS trailblazers
Thirst for action
John Tonkin, standing second right,
pictured with his SAS unit in Libya in
late 1942 or early 1943 before their
redeployment to Sicily
placed in charge of Operation Bulbasket,
which involved dropping men near Poitiers,
in the Vienne department of western France.
On arrival in France, he met the local SOE
agent with whom he would be working
closely. Together they agreed that they would
allow the SAS9s presence to become known
locally, to attract the maximum information
about enemy activities.
Clearly, this might have negative ramio-
cations as well as positive – but it soon paid
of: a railway worker arrived with news that
petrol tankers belonging to the German
army were standing in local railway sidings.
Tonkin immediately sent a junior oocer
(dressed in clichéd French costume) to check
that the report was genuine. It was – and
the following evening, 12 Mosquito oghter-
bombers destroyed the tankers.
Discovery and disaster
Subsequent events, however, led to the enemy
discovering the location of the Bulbasket
camp – and, on the morning of 3 July 1944,
it came under attack by hundreds of troops
of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division.
Tonkin and several other men escaped; most
of the SAS men were, though, captured. Four
days later, the prisoners were placed in
trucks, driven to a quiet spot in the woods
52
The prisoners were
placed in trucks, driven
to a quiet spot in the
woods and murdered
by their captors
and murdered by their captors.
John Tonkin onally returned to England
on 7 August 1944, but his war was far from
over. In March 1945, he crossed the Rhine as
the SAS pushed into Germany in support of
Allied parachute landings. Here the unit
carried out a combined commando and
sabotage role, driving through enemy lines
before shooting at them from the rear.
|e following month, he was part of the
SAS party that liberated the concentration
camp at Belsen. He remembered arriving at
a camp that seemed, from the outside, to be
merely a well-maintained military installa-
tion. He had absolutely no idea of the horrors
that he was about to encounter.
Aver the war, Tonkin worked for Shell Oil,
and moved to Australia in the 1950s where he
became general manager of a uranium mine
near Darwin. He died in 1995, having been
awarded an Order of Australia Medal for his
services to Aboriginal peoples.
|e SAS was disbanded at the end of the
war – or so it seemed. However, an SAS War
Crimes Investigation team under Major Eric
8Bill9 Barkworth remained in force to investi-
gate the murders of SAS men in France, as
did a series of SAS Mobile Teams sent to
Greece to examine the roles of local people in
the rescue of Allied servicemen. |ese teams
were still in existence in 1947, when the name
and concept was revived with the creation of
21st SAS Regiment. SAS troops have since
served in numerous operations across the
JANE STOREY (DAUGHTER OF JOHN TONKIN)
globe. Any report of the SAS9s demise in 1945
was, perhaps, an exaggeration.
Joshua Levine is a historian and bestselling author.
His latest book, SAS: |e Illustrated History of the
SAS, was published by William Collins in May
Catch up with Rogue Heroes, the high-octane
drama about SAS exploits in the Second
World War at: bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/
p0d5z0xy/sas-rogue-heroes
 The children’s
war on slavery
They boycotted sugar, signed petitions and played abolitionist
board games. Ryan Hanley and Kathryn Gleadle
introduce the young people who took a stand against
the slave trade in Georgian Britain

Show of support
A boy signs a petition against
slavery (bottom left) in a satirical
cartoon from 1826. Young people
were active participants in the
abolition campaign, but not
everyone welcomed their opinions
GETTY IMAGES

•
53
 Britain and slavery / Children against the slave trade

oung boys can be notori-
ously untidy – dirty, even.
So perhaps it should have
come as no surprise to
Shropshire diarist Kather-
ine Plymley when, in 1792,
she noticed that her seven-
year-old nephew Panton9s shoes were <looking
very brown=. What raised her eyebrows was
the reason, discovered by questioning the
servants, why he9d refused to have his shoes
shined. He had heard that the polish con-
tained sugar produced on plantations worked
by enslaved people. Panton9s scruoness wasn9t
due to indolence or carelessness, but – as he
saw it – a moral stand against slavery. And he
was far from alone among his peers.
Long before Greta |unberg orst raised
her head above the climate change parapet,
children and younger teenagers were being
heralded as moral champions in mass
movements for a better future. Notably,
during the campaigns for the abolition of
slavery and the slave trade, children were
applauded by many not just as participants
but as leaders. But was this just win-
dow-dressing by canny abolitionists, keen to
Hard labour
An 1823 depiction of enslaved people at
|e roots of the anti-slavery movement work on an Antigua sugar plantation. By
go back at least to the eforts of 17th-century now, children across Britain were voicing
Quakers, but it was only aver the establish- their opposition to the slave trade
ment of the Society for Efecting the Aboli-
tion of the Slave Trade in 1787 that British
activists began to explicitly seek wider public
support. |anks in part to orst-hand ac-
counts by formerly enslaved people such as
Olaudah Equiano and Mary Prince, and to
the tireless eforts of travelling lecturers such
as |omas Clarkson and William Dickson,
the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade –
and, later, of slavery itself – became a hugely
popular political and moral cause.
In 1792, many consumers in Britain (more
than 300,000, by Clarkson9s estimate) boy-
cotted goods produced by enslaved people,
bringing politics into the home. |at num-
ber was even higher during a second wave of
boycotts in the mid-1820s, when women took
the lead. |ough the direct economic impact
of these 8anti-saccharite9 movements on the
system of slavery was probably not great, they
represented an important barometer of public
opinion and a signiocant weapon in the aboli-
tionist campaigning arsenal.
BRITISH MUSEUM

shame adults into taking more meaningful
action? Were children only acting in accord-
ance with the wishes of their parents? Or
were young people truly innuential anti-slav-
ery activists in their own right?
A battle for the ages
In 1807, an act was passed in parliament
abolishing the transatlantic trade in humans.
Further victories did not come easily. In
1833, following decades of uprisings in the
A taste of virtue
A “not made by slaves” sugar bowl dating
from the 1820s. In 1792, perhaps as many as
300,000 British consumers boycotted goods
produced by enslaved people

54
 The empire and slavery Christer Petley discussed
the history of the slave trade in the British empire on our
podcast. Listen here: historyextra.com/slave-trade-pod

The suffragette and heroic sacrioce= that guided her political

Emmeline Pankhurst
recalled attending
anti-slavery bazaars
with her parents
Caribbean and political reforms in Britain,
another act was passed to abolish slavery it-
self – while also compensating 8slave-owners9
to the tune of £20m (around 40 per cent of
entire government expenditure in 1833) for
the loss of their 8human property9.
|roughout these hard-fought campaigns,
many abolitionists came to realise that their
vision of a world without slavery would take
the eforts of more than one generation to
make reality. So, as part of the campaigns
in Britain, dozens of children9s books and
poems about the evils of slavery were pro-
duced. |e Black Man9s Lament by Amelia
Opie, brightly illustrated and published in
1826, opens with a plea to its young readers:
<Ye tender hearts, and children dear!… Oh!
try to end the griefs you hear.=
Anti-slavery ideas were also introduced
into puzzles and games, including John
Wallis9s 1796 board game Complete Voyage
Round the World. Anyone unlucky
enough to land on space 22, representing
the Senegal river, would have to <stay one
turn here, to lament the great traoc
which is carried on by European vessels
in the negro trade=. |ere were even
collectible trading cards. In 1828,
11-year-old Anne Capper noted in her
diary that: <My cousin Mary Bevan was
so kind as to give me, a dozen cards, on
the cruelty of the slave trade, each of
them having a pretty copper plate.=
outlook throughout her life.
Even more innuential were the abolitionist
sugar boycotts of the 1790s and 1820s that
swayed young Panton and led him to reject
shoe polish. Many 19th-century notables
recalled taking part as junior 8anti-saccha-
rists9. Looking back on her Bristol childhood
of the 1820s, pioneering doctor Elizabeth
Blackwell observed that <children voluntarily
gave up the use of sugar= because it was a
<slave product=.
Scientist Mary Somerville remembered
taking <the anti-slavery cause so warmly to
heart= as a girl that she <would not take sugar
in my tea, or indeed taste anything with
sugar in it=. |omas Fowell Buxton – who,
in the 1820s, took over from William Wilber-
force as the leader of the parliamentary
abolitionist campaign – claimed that he was
orst made to think about slavery as a young
boy because his sister Anna participated in
the boycotts.
Many later emphasised how much they
sufered for their convictions. Recalling the
boycott of the early 1790s, writer Lucy Aikin
complained of the <bitter persecutions we
poor children underwent in the children9s
parties we frequented, for the ofence of Youth market
denying ourselves on principle the dainties Illustrations from Amelia Opie’s
which children most delight in=. Mary-Anne The Black Man’s Lament (1826),
Schimmelpennick, who went on to become a brightly illustrated book about the
a noted anti-slavery writer, complained that iniquities of slavery designed
to appeal to young people

Future pioneers
|ere is little doubt that childhood
exposure to anti-slavery ideas made a
lasting impression on future pioneers.
Sufragette Emmeline Pankhurst
claimed that her earliest memories
GETTY IMAGES/BRIDGEMAN

were of attending anti-slavery bazaars

in Manchester with her parents, and
of her mother reading to her Harriet
Beecher Stowe9s abolitionist novel
Uncle Tom9s Cabin. In her autobiogra-
phy, Pankhurst credited these early
experiences with awakening the
<admiration for that spirit of oghting •
55
 Britain and slavery / Children against the slave trade
+PURKTKPIIWTG
A portrait of Olaudah Equiano from his
autobiography, The Interesting Narrative.
The freedman and activist’s accounts of the
evils of slavery in his memoirs was a call to
action for abolitionists young and old
56
even her family and governess had mocked
her for her sugar abstention as a child.
In her 1839 history of the abolition
movement, Esther Copley went so far as
to say that children had <introduced into
whole families the system of abstinence=.
Yet, though it is clear that many children
who abstained from slave-grown sugar grew
up to be leading lights in abolitionism and
other reform movements, the extent to
which they took the initiative on their own
is less clear-cut.
Certainly, some pro-slavery advocates
suggested that children were being coerced
by unscrupulous adults. On 30 March 1792,
|e Times published a letter written – so the
paper claimed – by a boy <under six years
old= who had been pressured by an abolition-
ist <Lady L= to stop eating West Indian sugar.
Now he had been convinced by some other
adults that this was folly, and that the aboli-
tionist <saints= were hypocrites. <I am sure,=
the regretful boy had apparently written to
Lady L, <you did not mean to impose on me,
but have been imposed on yourself by the
naughty people, who told you so for some
wicked purposes of their own.=
|is remained a minor but consistent
theme of the pro-slavery (or, rather, anti-
abolitionist) argument. In Cruikshank9s
%T[HQTEJCPIG Protesters at a climate strike,
.QPFQP6QFC[oU[QWPIRGQRNGCTGPoVVJGTUVVQ
raise their heads above the parapet of political debate
One campaigner
complained that
even her family had
mocked her for her
sugar abstention
as a child
chaotic 1826 caricature John Bull Taking a
Clear View of the Negro Slavery Question
(shown on page 53) an abolitionist can be
seen directing some credulous young boys to
sign a petition while their toys lie on the
ground nearby. We should, of course, treat
any pro-slavery argument with scepticism,
but the extent to which grown-ups used their
authority over children to persuade them to
participate in anti-slavery activities
is worth considering.
Schools are a case in point. Many adult
abolitionists were interested in a broad
spectrum of social reform, including provid-
ing religious education to poor children. |e
famous anti-slavery writer Hannah More
established a number of schools around
Bristol and Bath with the encouragement of
William Wilberforce. In 1833, Liverpool
abolitionist James Cropper built a school in
Warrington, the opening of which was timed
to coincide with the declaration of emanci-
pation in the West Indies on 1 August 1834.
Many more establishments were set up by
dissenting Christian groups with links to the
anti-slavery movement, including Method-
ists and Quakers. It is hardly surprising,
considering who ran them, that some of
these schools appear to have been incubators
for juvenile abolitionism.
Feeling the pressure
|e scattered surviving references to day-
to-day teaching suggest that children were
indeed sometimes placed under considerable
emotional pressures to declare their support
for the cause. An 1816 report from the
Nether Chapel Sunday School near Sheoeld
recounts how one girl was quizzed by her
teacher aver reading an anti-slavery tract:
<Being further examined concerning what
GETTY IMAGES/ALAMY
she thought the best means of destroying
slavery, she replied: 8If everyone knew Jesus
Christ there would be no slavery.9=
|is does not mean, however, that young
people were simply doing as they were told.
Even within abolitionist families, children

took action in ways that surprised their
parents and carers – Katherine Plymley9s
nephew Panton, with his unpolished shoes,
providing one example. Young Panton and
his sisters Jane and Josepha were clearly
encouraged to think for themselves about
slavery. Plymley recorded how they spent
time chatting and putting together a jigsaw
puzzle of Africa with her friend, notable
abolitionist |omas Clarkson. Aver discuss-
ing the issue, young Jane declared that she
would eat sugar grown only in the new
abolitionist territory in Sierra Leone – where
Clarkson9s brother, John, was governor.
Clarkson was a regular visitor to the
house, and always spent time with the
children. But he was not the only famous
abolitionist to talk about the slave trade with
Panton, Jane and Josepha. During one of his
nationwide book tours in 1793, the famous
black writer and activist Olaudah Equiano
also visited the family, giving a copy of his
autobiography, |e Interesting Narrative, to
the children, and playfully asking if they
would like to visit Africa with him one day.
Plymley recorded in her diary that <|e little
people were much pleased with him.=
Clearly, children have long negotiated
their own positions on contemporary politi-
cal issues. |is does not mean that they acted
completely independently of the adults in
their lives, as some retrospective personal
accounts were keen to suggest. But neither
does it mean that these 8juvenile abolitionists9
were thoughtlessly doing as their parents and
teachers instructed. |ey certainly took an
interest in what adults had to say about the
issue, but evidence suggests that their own
views were also heard.
What, then, was the impact of children9s
participation in the British anti-slavery
movement? Economically, of course, they
could not do much. |e account books for
women9s anti-slavery societies show occa-
sional contributions – for instance, <a little
boy= donating his shilling pocket money to
the Birmingham Female Society for the Relief
GETTY IMAGES/BRIDGEMAN
of British Negro Slaves in 1830. But, as we
have seen, children9s actions – especially
when they involved a degree of personal
sacrioce – could be potent symbols of the
moral purity of the abolitionist campaign,
and quickly became part of the national and
personal mythologies that surrounded
British anti-slavery.
Kathryn Gleadle is professor of gender and
women9s history at Mansoeld College, University
of Oxford. Ryan Hanley is a lecturer in history
at the University of Exeter, and author of Beyond
Slavery and Abolition: Black British Writing,
c.1770–1830 (CUP, 2018)
THE YOUNGEST
FREEDOM FIGHTERS
How enslaved children fought
back against their oppressors
The most active juvenile abolitionists were,
unsurprisingly, enslaved children. Though
British abolitionists often depicted these
children as passive victims, in fact they
commonly resisted their enslavement.
Abolitionist and black British radical
Ottobah Cugoano recalled participating in
a failed plot to blow up the ship on which
he was transported to the Americas when
he was around 13 years old. “It was the
women and boys which were to burn the #PGPUNCXGTQʘGTUCTGYCTFHQTVJGTGVWTPQH
ship,” he recalled, “with the approbation CTWPCYC[UNCXG9CUJKPIVQP&%E
and groans of the rest.” 5WEJRQUVGTUUWIIGUVVJCVVJGGPUNCXGF
In the British West Indies, children TQWVKPGN[CVVGORVGFVQGUECRGVJGKTDQPFCIG
frequently got into trouble with the colonial
authorities for insubordination, stealing
supplies and alcohol from plantation stores,
and using “violent and indecent language” 15-year-old girl named Minetta was put to
toward enslavers in the streets. death in Jamaica for attempting to poison her
It’s worth remembering that colonial ‘owner’. And advertisements describing
NGIKUNCVWTGUQHVGPICXGPQZGFFGPKVKQP so-called ‘runaway slaves’, including children,
of a ‘child’ for enslaved people, so there abounded in West Indian newspapers.
was no guarantee of protection for young Intriguingly, enslaved young people
QʘGPFGTUHTQOVJGYQTUVDTWVCNKVKGUQH brought to Britain by their masters also
corporal or even capital punishment. frequently escaped, as demonstrated by
Research into these everyday forms of many adverts in British newspapers collected
resistance by children remains sparse, but in a new database by researchers at the
it is clear that even fairly common youthful University of Glasgow (runaways.gla.ac.uk).
acts of rebellion and testing boundaries – 6JGTGYCUHQTGZCORNG[QWPI4QDGTVpHTQO
being a normal child, in other words – Jamaica, about 12 Years of Age”, wearing
required tremendous personal bravery “a blue Coat turn’d up with red, and red
for enslaved children. Holes”, who ran away from a house in
As historian Colleen Vasconcellos has Brentford-Butts in December 1739.
noted, the terror of the plantation system Alone and unprotected in a strange
did not prevent some children from country, these young people risked
undertaking more serious forms of everything to make a new life. Their bravery
insurrection. Plantation owner and novelist ultimately contributed to the economic and
Matthew ‘Monk’ Lewis recorded how one OQTCNTCVKQPCNGQHVJGIJVCICKPUVUNCXGT[
'PUNCXGFRGQRNGEWVVKPIUWICTECPGKP
VJG9GUV+PFKGU;QWPIRGQRNGYQTMKPI
QPVJGRNCPVCVKQPUHTGSWGPVN[HQWIJV
DCEMCICKPUVVJGEQNQPKCNCWVJQTKVKGU
57
 The forgotten
history of
Windrush
Complements
the BBC Radio 4
series Windrush:
A Family Divided

ALAMY

58
The famous voyage of the Empire Windrush from
Jamaica to Britain 75 years ago was the product of
a tumultuous century in Britain’s relationship with
the Caribbean. Christienna Fryar reveals how
a region was transformed following emancipation

Alternative visions
A street scene in Bridgetown,
Barbados, c1900. In the decades
that followed emancipation, Black
Caribbeans “constantly rejected
British expectations of the ways
they should organise their lives”

59
 Britain and slavery / Before Windrush
n autumn 1854, a Jamaican
woman arrived in London: Mary
Seacole. She hoped to travel to
Crimea as an army nurse support-
ing British troops, but her applica-
tions at the War Ooce were
rejected, so she paid her own
way. Once in Crimea, she set up a hotel near
Sevastopol that became popular with
British soldiers, many of whom called her
8Mother Seacole9.
|e mixed-race nurse who tended to
wounded troops during the Crimean War
is now familiar to many. What9s less well
known is that this wasn9t her orst visit to the
imperial metropole, nor even her second.
An avid traveller, Seacole had spent her
teenage years imagining what it might be like
to visit London. As she wrote in her famous
autobiography |e Wonderful Adventures
of Mrs Seacole in Many Lands: <I was never
weary of tracing upon an old map the route to
England; and never followed within my gaze
the stately ships homeward bound without
longing to be in them.=
In her memoir, she9s cagey about what
took her to London the orst time – indeed,
she does not share when she went, though
it seems to have been in the early 1820s –
but she travelled with relatives and stayed
for about a year. Shortly aver returning to
Jamaica, she ventured to London once more,
this time spying a business opportunity.
She took with her <a large stock of West
Indian preserves and pickles for sale=.
|ese two trips are not as well-known as
her third, but they do hint at an important
and oven neglected point. |e arrival of the
Empire Windrush at Tilbury Docks in Essex
on 22 June 1948, carrying 1,207 passengers
– of which more than 800 gave their last
country of residence as somewhere in the
Caribbean – is oven cited as the start of
a wave of migration to Britain from the
region. Yet, in fact, Black West Indians
descended from formerly enslaved people
had felt the pull of Britain for at least the
preceding century – many of them following
that lure and travelling to the <mother
country=, as the calypsonian Lord Kitchener
famously sang on arrival in 1948.
To the extent that a prehistory of the
Empire Windrush is told, that story oven
extends only as far back as the Second World
War, or occasionally the 1930s. It rarely
connects the historical forces that made
possible Mary Seacole9s journey to Britain
and then Crimea with those that shaped the
arrival of the Windrush.
It9s easy to speculate why. Perhaps the
continuing reluctance in Britain to discuss
Britain9s slavery history beyond the work of
British abolitionists has created a tendency to
60
London calling
Mary Seacole, pictured in c1850, was one of the
many West Indians to be drawn to Britain in the
century before the arrival of the Empire Windrush
separate the story of the Windrush genera-
tion from the centuries of history that
preceded it. It9s also true that historians
studying Britain9s connections to the Carib-
bean have tended to end their interest in the
mid-19th century – turning instead to the
growing empire in India, Africa and the
Pacioc – rather than carrying it through into
the 20th. Whatever the reason, the artiocial
separation has been unfortunate, because
perhaps one of the most interesting ways to
think about the Empire Windrush is as an end
of an emancipation history rather than the
beginning of a more modern story.
The cost of freedom
Slavery ended in the British Caribbean in
1834, but Antigua was the only sugar colony
that chose to proceed immediately to legal
freedom. In the rest of the British West
Indies, apprenticeship – an Abolition Act
provision – followed slavery.
Formerly enslaved people were required
to work where they had been enslaved, no
longer as slaves but not as free people, either.
Now they were apprentices, though not in the
traditional sense. |ey were not learning
trades under the aegis of a master ushering
them into a guild. Instead, apprenticeship
required that formerly enslaved people work
for 40.5 hours a week without pay. Any work
beyond that would be compensated.
Apprenticeship9s other provision was that
punishment would ostensibly be taken out of
the hands of masters. A new class of British
oocials called stipendiary magistrates
travelled around each colony in circuits,
meting out punishments. In the words of
James Williams, an 18-year-old Jamaican
whose story was published in an abolitionist
pamphlet, <I have been very ill treated by Mr
Senior and the magistrates since the new law
come in. Apprentices get a great deal more
punishment now than they did when they
was slaves; the master take spite, and do all
he can to hurt them before the free comes.=
As a slow doling out of freedom, appren-
ticeship signalled that the British architects
of emancipation saw freedom as something
for which Black people in the Caribbean were
not ready. It was also an attempt to ensure
that the Caribbean colonies still served their
purpose within a growing empire. For the
orst decades aver emancipation, imperial
oocials in Britain and the Caribbean colo-
nies were desperate to keep the plantation
economies thriving. Apprenticeship tried to
acclimatise apprentices into wage work –
though without paying them.
Apprentices such as James Williams and,
eventually, abolitionists saw this punitive
system for what it was, <slavery by another
name=. Another round of campaigning led
to the abolition of the apprenticeship
system in 1838. At one event in Jamaica,
participants buried a 8colonial slavery9 coon.
For them, slavery was not at an end until
apprenticeship was.
Britain, of course, wanted to keep the
Caribbean colonies producing prodigious
quantities of plantation goods, and plantation
estate owners tried to force freedpeople to
stay on the sites of their enslavement.
For freedpeople, however, their autonomy
was paramount. In Jamaica, enslaved people
had been given small plots of land known
as provision grounds where they grew their
own food. |is system did not spring from
enslavers9 largesse but was, rather, a sign of
their ruthless calculations. |e more food
enslaved people produced for their own
sustenance, the less planters had to spend
on provisions. Aver emancipation, many
A new class of
British officials
travelled around
each colony in
circuits, meting
ALAMY
out punishments
 David Olusoga on the arrival of the
Windrush: Read the historian’s take on the events
of 75 years ago: historyextra.com/windrush

Isolated island
A 19th-century depiction of missionary
buildings in Antigua, which was the only
sugar colony in the Caribbean to enjoy
legal freedom immediately following
the abolition of slavery

plantation owners tried to use these plots

as leverage to keep freedpeople working.
In addition to stingy wages, they oven
insisted that freedpeople could keep their
provision grounds only if they worked on
the plantation full-time.
But land ownership was a critical part of
the autonomy Black people were cultivating.
Under the right arrangements, many would
have been willing to keep working on planta-
tions, though perhaps not full-time. But as
plantation owners refused to budge, Jamai-
can freedpeople ned plantations and created
their own free villages, sometimes with the
help of British Protestant missionaries who
had been in the region since the early 19th
century. Versions of this transition happened
across Britain9s colonies in the region, though
the Jamaican economy was hit the hardest.

Demographic change
Colonial oocials and planters in British
Guiana and Trinidad then took advantage
of a new source of bonded labour. Beginning
BRIDGEMAN/ALAMY

in 1838, these two colonies imported hun-

dreds of thousands of indentured labourers
from India, as well as tens of thousands of
Chinese workers, transforming the demo- Asian arrivals Tens of thousands of Chinese indentured labourers – like those shown here, on
graphics of both countries over time. a sugar plantation in Louisiana – were brought to the Caribbean and the United States from the 1830s

61
 Britain and slavery / Before Windrush
Power games Princess Margaret meets the West Indies and British Guiana cricket teams at the
Kensington Oval, Barbados, 1955. Imperial authorities used sport to bind the people of the Caribbean to Britain
Other colonies in the region took smaller
numbers of Chinese and Indian indentured
workers. Nor was this a phenomenon restrict-
ed to the British Caribbean. Chinese inden-
tured workers were also sent to Cuba and the
US. (Here is another important connection to
the Windrush era, because some of the
Caribbean arrivals to Britain from the 1940s
were of Indian and Chinese descent.)
|ere followed decades of clashes, pitting
the British oocials and Caribbean planters
(who used wages, indentured immigration
and the law to keep plantation economies
running) against Black West Indians who
would not be so forced. Black people con-
stantly rejected British expectations of
how they should organise their lives.
Where they could, they ned to places
estate owners couldn9t reach them.
Vagrancy and squatting
Black people participated in protests
and riots, and found meaning in
community rituals such as Jonkonnu
– now celebrated around the region as
Junkanoo, commonly around
Christmas – and Carnival.
The mixed-race politician George
William Gordon was hastily
GZGEWVGFQPʚKOU[GXKFGPEG
following the Morant Bay
Rebellion of 1865
62
Several were active members of churches and,
though some of these were run by British
missionaries largely in accordance with
European doctrine, others melded European
Christianity with African-derived practices.
Vagrancy and squatting were common,
especially as plummeting land values forced
British estate owners to either sell their land
for far less than they believed it was worth or
abandon it altogether.
|is all culminated in the Morant Bay
Rebellion in October 1865. Led by farmer and
deacon Paul Bogle, a crowd of people de-
scended on a courthouse in Morant Bay,
an important town in south-eastern
Jamaica. Protesting the conviction of
a man for squatting on an aban-
doned estate, they killed nearly
two dozen people. |e governor
of Jamaica, Edward Eyre,
responded by declaring martial
law; government forces then killed
hundreds of Black Jamaicans,
and sham trials of many others
followed swivly. Among
those tried was George
William Gordon,
a mixed-race busi-
nessman and legisla-
tor who represented
the parish where the
rebellion took place,
and who was also
one of Eyre9s
political rivals.
Going live 7PC/CTUQPKPVYQ[GCTUDGHQTG
she began presenting the BBC’s Calling the West Indies
Gordon was hastily tried and executed.
Even within an imperial system comforta-
ble with violence, and prone to accepting
without question arguments about the
savagery of subject peoples, Eyre9s actions were
widely considered extreme. He was recalled to
London and, for the next few years, Britain9s
intelligentsia debated whether his actions had
been justioed. Some leading writers, including
Charles Dickens, |omas Carlyle and Alfred
Lord Tennyson, defended him oercely.
Others, such as John Stuart Mill and Charles
Darwin, wanted him tried. Eyre never again
worked in colonial service, but plans to try
him in court also never came to fruition.
Back in the Caribbean, the rebellion
transformed the very nature of colonial rule.
Islands including Jamaica – but not Barba-
dos, where the legislature resisted its own
dissolution – were placed under Crown
Colony rule: direct governance from London.
Cultural imperialism
By refusing to work on plantations at the
same intensity as they had been forced to
MARY EVANS/BBC ARCHIVES/ALAMY
during slavery, freedpeople had made it
impossible for British oocials to keep the
plantation economies running at the peak
levels of productivity seen during the slavery
era. However, British imperial power still
shaped Caribbean life in other ways.
A key facet of British imperialism in the
region during the late 19th and early 20th
century was cultural – what we would today
classify as 8sov power9. Schools taught an
 Recent arrivals Ralph Lowe (right), a Chinese-Jamaican immigrant to Britain, pictured with a friend in c1950. The Caribbean’s
FGVGTKQTCVKPIGEQPQOKENCPFUECRGKPVJGTUVJCNHQHVJGVJEGPVWT[NGFOCP[VQUGGMPGYNKXGUQXGTUGCU
English curriculum, and churches run by
British missionaries tried to keep other
spiritual traditions at bay. Nonconformist
clergy pushed their congregants to adopt
monogamous Christian marriages validated
by the state (rather than the common practice
of longterm cohabitation) and Caribbean
residents were encouraged to play a host of
British games – none of them more impor-
tant than cricket. In Beyond a Boundary, a
cricket-focused memoir and one of the great
works of sports writing, Trinidadian intellec-
tual CLR James described being taught to
adhere to <the English public-school code=.
|ere were also intense eforts to bind
Caribbean people to Britain by cultivating
a reference for royal ritual and ceremony.
Yet as much as cultural imperialism
succeeded in making many in the Caribbean
feel British – even if few in Britain would have
recognised their claim – the worsening
economic situation in the region led many
to look elsewhere for opportunity. Hundreds
of people lev Barbados for Liberia in 1865.
Others took advantage of opportunities in
Latin America. By the late 19th century, West
Indians were travelling to Trinidad, Venezue-
la, Cuba and Central America, where they
worked on fruit farms and oil oelds, in
goldmines and on the Panama Canal.
London was another popular destination,
HANNAH LOWE
especially in the orst few decades of the 20th
century. Some of those who ended up in the
British capital became important political
ogures, coalescing in various ways around
Many people in the
Caribbean now felt
British – even if few
in Britain would
have recognised
their claim
the ideology of Pan-Africanism – a broad
church, comprising many intellectual strands
and political approaches.
At its heart, Pan-Africanism was a move-
ment through which people of African
descent fought for the liberation of all
Africans and African-descended peoples
around the world. London was a major hub,
where key ogures in the movement lived,
worked and wrote. |ese included CLR
James and Jamaican journalist Una Marson
who, during the Second World War, was
hired by the BBC and, in 1942, began produc-
ing the ground-breaking radio programme
Caribbean Voices. |e Jamaican physician
Harold Moody also moved to Britain, setting
up his own practice in Peckham. In 1931, he
founded the League of Coloured Peoples,
which fought racial discrimination, known
as the colour bar, across the UK.
Like all histories, this prologue to the
arrival in Britain of the Empire Windrush
is selective. |ere are surely other ways of
telling this story, but this one ofers at least
a partial explanation of how, in the decades
aver emancipation, Black people across the
Caribbean fought British attempts to keep
their lives in service of the plantation econo-
my, all while coming to understand them-
selves as British.
As opportunities decreased for social
advancement and economic stability, Black
people began looking elsewhere for work and
education. While many migrated to other
parts of the Americas, the cultural connec-
tions that white oocials and missionaries had
encouraged them to make to Britain also
made it an appealing destination for some,
even though it was much further away.
With social and economic conditions
becoming progressively worse in the orst half
of the 20th century, this dynamic only
continued. And as West Indians continued to
look for opportunities outside the region,
they saw Britain in ways that British oocials
had both hoped for and not intended:
as a place where they had the right to be.
Christienna Fryar is a historian, writer
and broadcaster
9KPFTWUJ#(COKN[&KXKFGF begins on
BBC Radio 4 this month.
Turn to page 78 for more details
63
 ‘Essential reading for anyone wishing to
understand the history of our NHS’
Nick Thomas-Symonds MP,
author of Harold Wilson:The Winner

‘From Clement Attlee to ‘Clap for Carers’, this is a

nuanced account of both the evolution of the NHS
and the myth-making that came with it’
Hannah Rose Woods,
author of Rule, Nostalgia: A Backwards History of Britain

‘Elegantly written, highly original ...

a brilliant, thought-provoking portrait’
David M. Oshinsky,
OUT Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Polio: An American Story
NOW

Yale UNIVERSITY PRESS | yalebooks.co.uk

HELP THOSE
WHO HAVE
GIVEN SO
MUCH
By leaving a gift in your
Will you can give back to
soldiers, veterans and their
families for life.
Find out more about leaving
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and Wales (1146420) and Scotland (039189). Registered
as a company limited by guarantee in England and Wales
(07974609). Registered Ooce: Mountbarrow House, 12
Elizabeth Street, London SW1W 9RB
 EARLY MODERN QUEENS

<Chang shivs the focus

from familiar histories
of kings to the stories
of three women=
Joanne Paul lauds a study of
three royal women who
dominated Europe • page 72

ANCIENT EGYPT

This concluding
volume in John
Romer’s excellent
trilogy surely
confirms his status
as ancient Egypt’s
finest chronicler
Joann Fletcher appraises the
URTCYNKPIǍPCNKPUVCNOGPVQHCUGTKGU
FGXQVGFVQVJGCPEKGPVEKXKNKUCVKQP• page 70

WWII ANCIENT ROME

INTERVIEW
<We voyage through <|e themes of gluttony Antonia Fraser on
Britain9s cultural memory and nattery are prominent Caroline Lamb, the
of the war, from plastic throughout this vivid and rebellious aristocrat
GETTY IMAGES

YJQJCFCPCʘCKT
planes to family stories= engaging drama= with Lord Byron
Dan Todman enjoys an exploration of *CPPCJ%QTPYGNNTGǎGEVUQPCNKXGN[UVWF[QH • page 66
masculinity in the Second World War • page 73 Rome in the Julio-Claudian era • page 73 •
65
 INTERVIEW / LADY ANTONIA FRASER
“Caroline was besotted with Byron.
BOOKS INTERVIEW
But, ungrateful love rat that he was,
JGUGVQʘEJCUKPIQVJGTUq
LADY ANTONIA FRASER talks to Ellie Cawthorne about her biography of Caroline Lamb,
the rule-breaking aristocrat whose afair with the great romantic poet scandalised Georgian society
Ellie Cawthorne: Why did you want to write a biography of
Lamb? What was it about her that intrigued you?
Lady Antonia Fraser: During lockdown, I dusted a room that
I haven9t dusted for years, which is full of books, like every room in
this house. A book fell on my foot, and it was a biography of Lady
Caroline Lamb. You hear about all that stuf with Byron, and how
William Lamb, the man she married, became prime minister. And
I thought: I wonder what she was like, really And as it turned out, she
was a real rulebreaker.
Yes, it seems that she had that reputation as a rulebreaker even
from childhood. Can you tell us a bit about her upbringing?
Caroline [born in 1785] grew up as part of the 8Devonshire House Set9.
On paper, her upbringing was very grand, living across a variety of
great houses such as Chatsworth [Derbyshire] and Spencer House
[Westminster], with countesses as her grandmothers, and a duchess
as an aunt. But in reality it was extremely eccentric. Her mother,
Harriet, and her aunt – the famous society ogure Georgiana, Duchess
of Devonshire – had 10 children between them. |ree of these were
politely known as 8children of the mist9, meaning they were illegiti-
mately conceived with lovers. So from an early age, Caroline was
surrounded by unconventional, strong-minded women.
Caroline herself was a sweet girl but very naughty. She was eccen-
tric, exhibitionist, and loved attention. But in many ways she was very
kind, too. |ere9s one story about her walking
about the beaches where she lived, picking up
little boys and educating them.
What sources do we have that tell
us about Caroline and her life?
Well, we go by the correspondence, and the
aristocrats of the era wrote letters all the time.
|ese have been amazingly well preserved in
the archives of their grand stately homes. I9m
so grateful to those archivists, because those
letters are invaluable – they are very personal
and vivid, which I love.
Lady Caroline Lamb: Caroline married in 1805. What can you
A Free Spirit tell us about that?
By Antonia Fraser It began as a love match, when she fell for
(Weidenfeld & Nicolson, William Lamb, as he then was – he later
224 pages, £25) became Lord Melbourne and prime minister.
66
|ey fell in love but she wasn9t allowed to marry him because at that
time he was just a second son. But then his older brother died of
consumption, meaning he would inherit his father9s title, so she was
allowed to marry him and was thrilled. In those early years, he
educated her, which she liked. |ere are stories of them sharing a
swinging seat and reading poetry together. Her letters oven refer to
them reading Hume, or Rousseau or other philosophers.
But the great romance didn9t last. I think that there was a sort of
diodence in Lamb that wouldn9t allow himself to go the whole way
emotionally, while Caroline wanted the entire thing – full blown love.
So there was perhaps a mismatch there. But even so, he was extraordi-
narily kind to her, and incredibly tolerant in what he allowed her to
get away with.
However, this tolerance wasn’t shared by Caroline’s in-laws, was
it? Can you tell us more about that relationship?
Yes, Caroline lived in a world of really strong women and that9s part
of what drew me to her story. William Lamb had a very commanding
mother, Lady Melbourne, about whom it was once said that she could
not see a happy marriage without wishing to destroy it. He also had a
pretty domineering sister, Emily, who married Lord Cowper, and then
Lord Palmerston. |ey were powerful women, and quite frankly, I
don9t think they liked being around Caroline. |ey thought she was
cheeky, and they didn9t like cheeky. While it was a diocult relation-
ship with Lady Melbourne from the start, I think that Caroline9s
independent attitude made this progressively worse.
When did things began to unravel in the marriage?
When Caroline had a very public nirtation with Sir Godfrey Webster,
a handsome 21-year-old baronet, four years younger than her. Why
she did that, we can only guess. She said, several years later, that they
never actually slept together. So it was more, I think, done to provoke
her in-laws, the Melbourne family – it was done to show of.
Caroline is famous for her relationship with Lord Byron, whom
she memorably described as “mad, bad and dangerous to know”.
What brought her into his orbit?
In 1812, Byron had suddenly become tremendously famous aver
writing a narrative poem called Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, following
the travels of a melancholy and wayward young man, and deemed by
many to have autobiographical innuences. Aver reading it, Caroline
was deeply intrigued by Byron, especially since she was an aspiring
writer herself. And so she wrote to him. |en followed a scene that
GETTY IMAGES/ALAMY

PROFILE

Antonia Fraser is the author

of several bestselling history
books and historical
biographies. The Weaker
Vessel: Woman’s Lot in
17th-century England won the
1984 Wolfson Prize. In 2011, Antonia Fraser pictured next to three of the protagonists of
Fraser was awarded a DBE for her new book (from top): Lady Caroline Lamb, her lover
services to literature. Lord Byron, and her husband William Lamb

67

BOOKS INTERVIEW
Hidden talent
For all Caroline Lamb’s
eccentricities and scandals, we
shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that
she was also an accomplished
novelist, argues Antonia Fraser
had been carefully arranged by Caroline. At a ball she went up to him
and then simply passed him by. She obviously did this on purpose, to
get his attention – and it worked.
Caroline and Byron would go on to have a tumultuous and widely
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OGGVKPIU9CUKVCITGCVTQOCPEGQTOQTGQHCʚCUJKPVJGRCP!
I think that there was one tremendous moment of love. |at involved
a good deal of darting to and fro, with Caroline dressed up as a
page to sneak out and meet Byron for secret rendezvous. She was
obviously in love with him, but I9d stick my neck out and say that
he was also genuinely in love with her, at least for that moment.
But then, ungrateful love rat that he was, he set of chasing others,
including the mesmerising older noblewoman Jane Harley, Countess
of Oxford. So for him it was something of a nash in the pan, but for
her it was an obsession.
*QYFKF%CTQNKPGCPF$[TQPoUTGNCVKQPUJKREQOGVQCPGPF!
|ere wasn9t a hard cut of. Instead, it was a sort of continued nirta-
tion. But aver their initial great moment of love, Caroline began to
feel Byron slipping away. She became increasingly desperate, bom-
barding him with letters and proposing that they should elope.
Caroline9s family dragged her away to Ireland, and Byron carried on
with Lady Oxford, sending a letter to Caroline sealed with Lady
Oxford9s seal, which is rather bad taste.
In later years, Byron spoke quite cruelly about Caroline. I think
this was mainly because of the Gothic novel Caroline wrote, Glenarv-
on. Nobody9s read it nowadays, but it9s frightfully good. It was clearly
about Byron, and everyone knew it was, so Caroline was really
At a ball, Caroline went up to
Byron and then simply passed him by.
She obviously did this to get his
attention – and it worked
68
courting the drama. He9s made out to be a kind of rebellious aristo-
cratic Irish independence hero. Now I9m guessing at his feelings here,
but I think that probably did it for him. |at9s not because it was
unnattering, but more because he felt: <Writing is my game. What is
she doing, writing about me? I should be writing about her!=
9JCVFKFJKIJUQEKGV[CVVJGVKOGVJKPMQHCPCTKUVQETCVKENCF[
JCXKPIUWEJCYGNNRWDNKEKUGFGZVTCOCTKVCNCʘCKT!
I think the world regarded the whole afair with fascination and
enjoyment, as the world does. |ey liked the gossip.
And Byron wasn9t Caroline9s only afair – as well as her nirtation
with Sir Godfrey Webster, she also had a relationship with an adven-
turer called Michael Bruce. Bruce was known for his escapades during
the Bourbon Restoration, when he helped to smuggle the Comte de
Lavalette, a supporter of Napoleon Bonaparte, out of France, dis-
guised in his wife9s clothes.
;QWOGPVKQPGF%CTQNKPGoUTUVPQXGNGlenarvonYJKEJYCUC
PCPEKCNUWEEGUUDWVPQVYGNNTGEGKXGFETKVKECNN[CVVJGVKOG
0QPGVJGNGUU%CTQNKPGYGPVQPVQRWDNKUJVJTGGOQTGPQXGNUCPF
RQGVT[VJCVOKOKEMGF$[TQPoUUV[NG9CUUJGCIQQFYTKVGT!
Yes. Ada Reis, in particular, is a very good novel. She just had a short
burst of writing. Aver Glenarvon in 1816, she published two further
big novels (Graham Hamilton and Ada Reis) in the 1820s. But then her
health started to decline.
I think that9s partly why she isn9t taken more seriously as a literary
ogure. Caroline never advertised herself as a great novelist, but when
she could get close to leading a literary life, she did. She enjoyed
getting to know literary people and moving in those circles.
9JCVECP[QWVGNNWUCDQWVVJGPCN[GCTUQH%CTQNKPGoUNKHG!
|roughout her afairs, Caroline9s husband maintained a sort of
charm and indolence. It9s unclear whether he had afairs of his own
when they were together – it seems he may have held back. It was an
interesting dynamic in their relationship, because despite it all I think
he really loved her, and always defended her against his mother.
But in 1825 the pair formally separated – an event that was sad
rather than acrimonious. It wasn9t led by either of them, rather his
family insisted – his sister especially agitated for it. Averwards, he
went of to become chief secretary for Ireland.
Caroline died just a few years later, in January 1828. She spent the
majority of the onal years of her life at Brocket Hall, a beautiful house
in Hertfordshire. She loved being on the lake and riding, but it was a
very curtailed existence. It9s thought that she had dropsy – possibly as
a result of her long use of laudanum. It was a rather unpleasant
condition [suferers of dropsy experience swelling, due to nuid
retention, and it can oven be a sign of heart failure]. She was just
42 when she died.
%CTQNKPGFKFOCP[QWVTCIGQWUVJKPIUKPJGTNKHG9JCVFQ[QW
VJKPMYCUVJGOQUVCWFCEKQWU!
Well, I think it would probably have to be dressing up as a man to
sneak into the House of Commons. Women weren9t allowed in as
spectators at the time, and Caroline wanted to hear her husband9s orst
ever speech in the house. I think that was pretty brave – it shows her
independent spirit.
*QYUJQWNFYGNQQMDCEMQP%CTQNKPGVQFC[!
I think we should look back on her as somebody who should have
had more chances at independence, which she was denied as a woman
at that time. She was a very bright person with lots of enthusiasm for
ALAMY
life who just didn9t have the opportunities. I admire her spirit, her
guts. She was like a little pug dog.
BOOKS REVIEWS

Divine devotion
Osiris, god of the underworld, is worshipped
by an Egyptian married couple, Merit and Kha.
John Romer’s selective use of evidence relating
to their remains is one of the weak points in his
new book, says Joann Fletcher
ANCIENT EGYPT

Tale of the centuries

JOANN FLETCHER is engaged but occasionally frustrated by the third volume
of a study of dynastic Egypt9s dramatic past

A History of Ancient of his subtitle). It covers the six centuries to
Egypt, Volume 3: the end of the |eban monarchy, more
From the Shepherd usually dubbed the New Kingdom, in c1070
Kings to the End of BC – although the book9s onal section throws
the Theban Monarchy in another four centuries for good measure.
by John Romer I9d already read and loved pretty much all
Allen Lane, 704 pages, £45 of Romer9s earlier work, which is populated by
the 8real9 Egyptians still all too oven ignored
by much of the Egyptological establishment.
|is new volume is prefaced by 10 pages in
which Romer <turns a critical eye on Egyptol-
ogy itself [to] correct prevailing narratives
which cast the New Kingdom as an imperial
state power in the European mould=. And this
he does by repeatedly citing the Egyptologists
who apparently shaped the subject: Gaston
Maspero, Adolf Erman, James Breasted,
<Petrie, Burckhardt and the like=. Long lists of
GETTY IMAGES

|e third – and appar- And I9ve also read the orst two instalments of
ently onal – volume in his History of Ancient Egypt trilogy, my main
John Romer9s epic saga begins c1660 BC with criticism of them being the lack of women
Egypt9s Hyksos dynasty (the 8Shepherd Kings9 mentioned within either lengthy tome.
70
eminent men such as Édouard Naville, <with
his strong scholarly reputation=, are frequent-
ly namechecked. Meanwhile, <popular author=
Amelia Edwards, who set up the UK9s orst

Amelia Edwards’ death
at 60 was in no small part
due to exhaustion from
dealing with the egos
of many of the male
Egyptologists with whom
she had to work
two major Egyptological institutions, surely
deserves rather more credit than her usual
epithet <indefatigable=. (Her death at 60 was
in part due to sheer exhaustion from dealing
with the egos of many of the aforementioned
men with whom she had to work.)
Romer then turns to the evidence available
to these early Egyptologists as they began to
construct Egypt9s ancient history. Much of this
evidence dates from the point at which his new
volume begins: the time of the Hyksos dynasty
and all their Biblical baggage – the story of
Joseph and the migration of the 12 tribes of
Israel to Egypt, attributed to that time – that
made them so fascinating to early scholars.
And then we9re of, trying to keep up with
Romer9s majestic progress through the
historical narrative. He takes us around the
Hyksos city of Avaris in Egypt9s eastern Delta,
describing at great length the many layers of
rich detail still being uncovered in ongoing
excavations at this most intriguing of sites.
|en we travel south with him to |ebes
(modern Luxor), where he explains the
crucial role played by the local |eban rulers
who drove out the Hyksos to re-establish an
independent Egypt, thereby initiating the
18th dynasty comprising some of ancient
Egypt9s best-known rulers, Hatshepsut,
Tuthmosis III, Akhenaten and Nefertiti.
As we travel through time alongside him,
Romer demonstrates an unrivalled breadth of
knowledge which remains as impressive as
ever. Only every now and then does he trip
over a few of the tiny details his publishers
describe as the <broken artefacts in ruined
workshops= that inform a tale of <internation-
al trade, cultural exchange and sophisticated
art=. A case in point is the description of
colourful wall scenes coated with <perfumed
varnish= which the text and endnotes claim to
be derived from <pistachio=. But that nut of
the cashew family originated in central Asia,
whereas those ancient artists were applying
FURTHER READING
pistacia resin obtained from Syria, Palestine
and the Greek island of Chios – with rather
Joann Fletcher
diferent ramiocations for ancient trade links. recommends three
Similarly disconcerting is a lack of relevant
scientioc ondings when discussing mummi- more books on
oed remains. For example, a major 2015 study
combining chemical analysis, digital X-rays
ancient Egypt
and earlier CT scans to better understand the
still-wrapped bodies of the working couple,
tomb builder foreman Kha and the housewife
Merit, was ignored by Romer in favour of a
general X-ray study from 1989.
Most disappointing of all, though, is a
reluctance to engage with the physical The Rise
remains of some of Egypt9s most familiar and Fall of
ogures, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun and Ancient Egypt
their close family, largely relegating them to by Toby Wilkinson
an endnote that directs readers to consult (Bloomsbury, 2011)
another work (which, unfortunately, follows
the conclusions of a seriously nawed DNA- Among so many general histories
based study from 2010). of Egypt’s ancient past, Toby Wilkin-
son’s book is hugely readable yet
Tomb concern thought-provoking, explaining things
Romer9s magisterial status is now such that that others fail to mention and
everything he says has the weight of fact, and containing some real gems within
few can compete with his deep understand- KVUPGTFGVCKN
ing of this ancient culture. Yet the words
8possibly9 or 8most likely9 might usefully be
employed a little more oven to indicate when
uncertainty still remains.
For he certainly had the luxury of space
in which to do so: his latest tome extends to
almost 700 pages of text, appendices and The Penguin
notes, making this no light read in terms of Historical Atlas
content or its sheer weight. Its bulky size of Ancient Egypt
could prove challenging for some readers, as by Bill Manley
no doubt will the price, and the quality of (Penguin, 1996)
some of the images. All have been very well
chosen to complement the text, yet some are This is the perfect introduction
so small as to be virtually useless. to the unique landscape that
Ultimately, this concluding volume in produced Egypt’s ancient culture,
Romer9s enormous and overall excellent forming its history and explaining
trilogy surely conorms his much-deserved its relationship with the rest of the
status as 8Ancient Egypt9s onest chronicler9, CPEKGPVYQTNF
even if only as far as the end of the New
Kingdom. For the extent of text devoted to
each subject very much renects Romer9s own
particular interests, stretching from the
predynastic period as far as the beginning of
the orst millennium BC. And at this endpoint 4GǎGEVKQPU
in his epic work, he gives the onal word to of Osiris:
Butehamun, the 11th-century BC scribe who Lives from
starred in Romer9s most engaging work, Ancient Egypt
Ancient Lives (1984). And as this onal section by John Ray
of text really does come alive, it9s good to be 2TQNG$QQMU
back in the old scribe9s company, onishing of
what his publisher describes as the onal Despite its small size, this slim
volume of Romer9s <life-long project=. volume is packed with some of
Egypt’s biggest names, male
and female, rulers and workers,
Joann Fletcher, based at the Department of each described with a lightness
Archaeology at the University of York, is lead of touch underpinned by serious
ambassador for the Egypt Exploration Society UEJQNCTUJKR •
71
 EARLY MODERN EUROPE
We three queens
BOOKS REVIEWS
JOANNE PAUL delights in a portrait of a trio of royal women who
negotiated the treacherous terrain of 16th-century European courts
Young Queens
by Leah Redmond Chang
Bloomsbury, 512 pages, £25
On a hot, sunny day in
late June 1559, the king
of France rode out in
full armour, his horse
trimmed with black
and white, to partici-
pate in a joust. |e
preceding week had been spent celebrating
the wedding of his daughter to the king of
Spain and the hard-won treaty that their
marriage represented. Fatigued, overheated
and sufering from occasional bouts of
vertigo, Henry II demanded one more run
at the lists. He and his opponent thundered
towards each other and struck. A lance
splintered, and a large piece of wood became
embedded in the king9s skull, just above his
eye. He died in agony two weeks later.
|e story told by Leah Redmond Chang,
however, is not about kings, their wars, their
deaths or their rivalries. Young Queens shivs
the focus from these well-known histories to
the less-well-known stories of three women of
this period – queens for whom the demise of
Henry II represented a momentous change in
their lives and relationships to each other.
For Catherine de Medici, the death of her
husband marked the beginning of a new life,
not as queen consort but as queen mother. It
was a title she used with unprecedented efect
in the controlling of French – and, occasional-
ly, pan-European – politics. Her daughter,
Elisabeth de Valois, then just 14, would look
to her new spouse – the 32-year-old Philip II
– to be both husband and father as she
travelled to reign in a new, unknown country.
And Henry9s death saw his young son take the
throne as Francis II – with his similarly
youthful wife, Mary, Queen of Scots, along-
side him. |ese events set Catherine, Elis-
abeth and Mary, who had until this time been
a close family unit, on very diferent – occa-
sionally opposing – trajectories. Soon aver-
How powerful were Renaissance queens?
.GCJ4GFOQPF%JCPIFKUEWUUGFJGTPGYDQQMQPQWT
podcast: historyextra.com/renaissance-royals-pod
72
wards, these women, who had spent much of
their lives together, would part ways, never to
Topics such as
see each other again. menstruation, illness, sex
Young Queens is an exquisitely written
biography of these three queens, tracing their and rape are subjected to
stories from Renaissance Italy through
Reformation France to war-torn Scotland and
deep analysis, as is their
beyond. |is is not just a parallel biography connection to politics
but a study of relationships, ofering a deeper
understanding than a focus on just one of
these women could provide.
Chang tells a vivid, visual and compelling
story, furnished with stirring details from the
countless letters penned by and about these
women. Not everyone can make such sources
sing as this author does, providing not only
emotional charge but subtle psychological
insights into these women and the dramatic
GETTY IMAGES
choices they made.
Perhaps the book9s greatest contribution is
in the treatment of women9s bodies, and their
relationship to political power. Topics such as
menstruation, illness, sex and rape are
subjected to deep analysis, as is their connec-
tion to the politics of the time on both a
practical and conceptual level. Chang is at her
strongest when she is weaving together the
threads of emotional motivations, the realities
of female bodies and complex European
politics into a vibrant tapestry. Maintaining
these themes, with three subjects to
represent fully, does require some
jumping forward and backward in
time in a way that some readers
might ond a bit confusing.
Stick with it, though – this is
a masterful, compelling and
signiocant book.
Joanne Paul is a writer, historian and broadcaster
whose latest book is |e House of Dudley
(Michael Joseph, 2022)
Young bride
'NKUCDGVJQH8CNQKURCKPVGFE
KUQPGQHVJGVJTGGTQ[CNYQOGPCVVJG
JGCTVQHCPGPNKIJVGPKPIPGYVTKRNGDKQITCRJ[
 WWII

Conflicted feelings
Men at War: Loving,
Lusting, Fighting,
Remembering 1939–1945
by Luke Turner
Weidenfeld & Nicolson,
352 pages, £18.99

As the Second World War

passes beyond living memory, how should
we think about the men who fought it? In
this nuanced and thought-provoking book,
Luke Turner answers this question via his
own journey of contemplative discovery.
This starts as a voyage through the
ephemera of the British cultural memory of
the war, from plastic aircraft kits and family
stories via war museums and abandoned
CKTGNFUVQVJGUWTIKPIRQRWNCTKV[QH#N/WT-
ray and James Holland’s podcast We Have
Ways of Making You Talk. Whereas other
authors have evoked a blurry nostalgia for
a ‘war culture’ held together by comic strips Male gaze Bernard Montgomery addresses British troops in north Africa in 1942 or 1943. The varied
CPFRQN[UV[TGPGINWG6WTPGTTGʚGEVUQPVJG GZRGTKGPEGUQHIJVKPIOGPFWTKPIVJG5GEQPF9QTNF9CTRTQXKFGVJGUWDLGEVQHCPKPUKIJVHWNPGYDQQM
ambiguities involved in consuming the war
second-hand. By articulating the complicated
meaning of the war for his own masculinity, EKTEWOUVCPEGU+VDGPGVUPQVQPN[HTQO VJGKPVQNGTCPEGQHFKʘGTGPEGCPFKPFKXKFWCNKV[
he opens the door to an exploration of the Turner’s impressive knowledge of source that counterpointed the cohesiveness of Brit-
complexity of men’s experiences at the time. material and secondary interpretation but ish society during and after the war.
At the centre of the book is a historical CNUQHTQOCTGʚGEVKXGCRRTQCEJVJCVCXQKFU As the war recedes, its public memory
investigation based on detailed case studies, the anachronism risked by anyone trying to KUKPGXKVCDN[UKORNKGFVJKUDQQMOCMGUVJG
using diaries, letters, memoirs and oral reconnect present and past. Turner’s discus- case that only by becoming more varied and
histories to explore the breadth of those sion of the experiences of gay and bisexual capacious can it remain relevant.
experiences. It shows how men managed men, in particular, reminds us both of the
the gap between contemporary expectations momentary opportunities that the war of- Dan Todman, professor of modern history
and their own desires, abilities and fered for people to lead diverse lives, and of at Queen Mary University of London

ROMAN and from recipes attributed to Apicius – all
employed to comment on the nature of
Imperial insiders power in the imperial court.
This is not exclusively, or even primarily,
Palatine: An Alternative the story of the Caesars. Rather, Stothard
History of the Caesars immerses us in a world built to facilitate and
by Peter Stothard pander to those ‘big’ men, focusing on the
Weidenfeld & Nicolson, bureaucratic machinery on the Palatine Hill,
336 pages, £22 and the rise and fall of an obscure Italian
family that provided Rome with its short-
lived eighth emperor, Aulus Vitellius.
This story of Rome under Stothard ably handles the dense network
the Julio-Claudian emper- of familial relations; in the rare moments
ors and their immediate successors in the these become confusing and confused
early decades AD features a colourful cast of (Claudius is, at one point, incorrectly
characters. They’re drawn variously from an- described as Tiberius’s uncle), the family
cient Italian farce (the Glutton and the Toady tree and cast list help clarify matters.
TOPFOTO
the imperial court – are prominent through-
out this vivid and engaging drama. Stothard
keeps his short chapters packed with infor-
mation and depth. There is much to appre-
ciate about Rome’s wider cultural and social
structures informing the story of life, death,
theatre and consumption of all kinds at the
palace. That imperial home on the Palatine
Hill forms the main stage on which an ev-
er-growing roster of characters – from slaves
and ex-slaves to kings and courtiers – shape
the narrative.
5VQVJCTFFGHVN[QʘGTUWUCVGORVKPIFKUJ
about the history of Rome’s early principate –
CFKʘGTGPVMKPFHTQOVJCVVTCFKVKQPCNN[UGTXGF
and one that readers will doubtless relish.

being the most prominent), from Aesop’s 6JGVJGOGUQHINWVVQP[CPFʚCVVGT[s Hannah Cornwell, associate professor in ancient
fables adapted and Romanised by Phaedrus, necessary, it would seem, for survival in history at the University of Birmingham •
73
 MIDDLE EAST

Navigating the divide

BOOKS REVIEWS

TARIQ MIR is impressed by a detailed examination of the schism between the two
major branches of Islam and its impacts on the political landscape of the Middle East

The Caliph and the

Imam: The Making of
Sunnism and Shiism
by Toby Matthiesen
OUP, 944 pages, £25

News media, political

pundits and even
presidents have oven
explained away the
contemporary politi-
cal climate in the Middle East as the natural
consequence of centuries of deeply rooted
sectarian connicts. |e truth is, of course,
far more complicated. In his new study, Toby
Matthiesen embraces this complex history
and argues that the prevailing narratives
about the relationship between Sunni and
Shia Islam – a sectarian division frequently
cited as a major contributor to political insta-
bility in the region – has hindered our com-
prehension of the real issues at play. Only by
delving deeply into the history of the schism,
Matthiesen argues, can we gain a more nu-
anced picture of the Middle East9s complex
political, cultural and religious history.
To this end, the book begins with an am-
bitious 400-page history of the split between
Sunni and Shia Islam from its beginnings –
the disagreement about who should succeed
the Prophet Muhammad as the political lead-
er of the nascent Muslim community – to the
orst Covid-19 quarantines in 2020. A journey
through this history paints a very diferent
picture from the usual commentaries. |e
story involves centuries of confessional
ambiguity, identity formation and ambiv-
alent relations as Sunnis and Shias worked
together to contribute to the intellectual, cul-
tural and political ascendancy of the societies
in which they lived.
|ough a historian of the pre-modern
Islamic world may ond fault in Matthiesen9s
rushed 100-page precis of the formative era
(AD 650–1500), it neatly establishes the
context for the remainder of the study, which
focuses on the periods when these sectarian
trajectories onally formalised.
Place of prayer 4QWPFGNUDGCTKPIVJGPCOGUQHVYQMG[IWTGUKPGCTN[+UNCOKEJKUVQT[JCPIKPVJG*CIKC
5QRJKCOQUSWGKP+UVCPDWN#PGYDQQMGZRNQTGUVJGEQPUGSWGPEGUQHVJGURNKVDGVYGGP5WPPKCPF5JKC+UNCO
The story involves
centuries of confessional
ambiguity and ambivalent
relations between Sunni
and Shia Muslims
Empires: the Ottomans, Safavids and
Mughals. |e second, Matthiesen does not
shy away from stressing, is the deepening of
these sectarian divisions as European colo-
nial powers endeavoured to categorise and
control their newly acquired populations for
their own economic and political aims.
|is historical narrative is invaluable. |e
reader may become lost in the sea of names,
historical regions and intellectual move-
1979 Iranian Revolution, and with which
the world continues to grapple.
|e historical narrative also highlights
how foundational stories – the succession
debate and the civil wars that unfolded fol-
lowing the death of the Prophet – continue
to be invoked in the collective memory and
identity formation of contemporary sectarian
players in the region.
|e Caliph and the Imam is undoubtedly
an admirable study. Given its commitment
to explaining the Sunni–Shia split through
a global outlook, nuanced historical analysis
and prodigious (some might say excessive)
footnoting, it is most certainly a scholarly
work. However, it remains an accessible
introduction to the historical context that
underpins the modern Middle East, and cer-
tainly achieves its key aim. Only by turning
the pages of the history of Sunni and Shia
Muslims, by recalling the early history of the
schism, and by recognising the long-lasting
efects of colonial intervention in the region
can we begin to appreciate that politics con-
tinues to have a major hand in complicating
DREAMSTIME

Two notable moments emerge. |e orst ments. However, we quickly understand how religious identities.
is the institutionalisation of Sunni and Shia these key moments in the relationship be-
identities for advancing the state-making and tween Sunni and Shia Islam eventually led to Tariq Mir is a senior teaching fellow in history
cultural projects of the so-called Gunpowder the new geopolitical order that followed the at SOAS University of London

74

ECONOMIC
Bank statement
MARTIN DAUNTON enjoys a detailed but lively look
at the 18th-century Bank of England
Virtuous Bankers
by Anne L Murphy
Princeton University Press,
288 pages, £30
In the 1770s and 1780s,
8economical reform9
was a potentially
dangerous combina-
tion of parliamentary
reform with demands
for greater eociency in public administration.
In 1780, Lord North responded by setting up
a Commission for Examining the Public
Accounts, a pre-emptive strike to show that
the state could mend its ways without parlia-
mentary reform. Scrutiny also extended to the
activities of the East India Company. In 1781,
a secret committee was established to investi-
gate the afairs of the company, and in
February 1783 its chairman introduced
a bill to establish a Board of Control.
Economical reform was also a potential
challenge to the Bank of England, another
private company with public functions. Its
charter came up for renewal in 1781, and
critics complained that the bank9s monopoly
corrupted politics and led to higher taxes and
economic hardship. Dissolving the bank was
not feasible because the state owed it a huge
sum, but its monopoly powers could poten-
tially be reduced by establishing a rival or by
imposing state control. In March 1783, the
directors of the bank embarked on their own
pre-emptive strike by establishing a Commit-
tee of Inspection.
|e minutes of this committee form the
basis of Anne Murphy9s fascinating book. She
makes the technicalities of onancial history
accessible and personal by following the
inspectors from one department to another.
When the bank opened each day, its work
started in the Cashiers Department, which
issued bank notes and discounted bills of
exchange. Later in the morning, the focus of
the bank moved to the Brokers9 Exchange,
which handled the sale of government bonds
and the payment of dividends. In the early
GETTY IMAGES
avernoon, the senior clerks departed and lev
their juniors to complete the ledgers in the
Accountants Ooce, before the bank was
locked and made secure.
The author shows how
clerks at the bank were
kept (reasonably) honest
despite the opportunities
for embezzlement
|e author paints a fascinating picture of
the operations of a major branch of the service
economy, a sector that has been neglected by
historians despite its centrality to British
economic growth. She shows how clerks were
recruited, how they did their work, how they
were remunerated and, above all, how they
were kept (reasonably) honest despite the
many opportunities for embezzlement.
|e book has still wider signiocance in
extending two ideas that have become
commonplace in the history of the long 18th
century. |e orst, the 8oscal military state9,
successfully raised taxes to pay for the army
and navy. It also required the issue of govern-
ment bonds, a ready market to transfer claims
and an eocient system of payment. |e
result was a 8contractor state9 in which private
concerns supplied services ranging from
provisions to the navy to the bank9s manage-
ment of the national debt. |e second idea,
8credible commitment9, gave assurance to
lenders that the state would not default.
Parliament is usually given the central role,
but Murphy shows how the bank was crucial
in mediating the relations between the state
and its creditors.
|e Committee of Inspection onished its
labour with satisfaction that the bank was
<the grand Palladium of public credit= and
deserved <religious veneration=. |is claim
was part of a self-interested strategy of
containing criticism but, as Anne Murphy
shows, the bank was able to sustain both
public and private credit.
Martin Daunton is emeritus professor of
economic history at the University of Cambridge
FROM FACT TO FICTION
Heavy is the head
Alison Weir on Henry VIII:
The Heart and the Crown, her
new novel that shares the
perspective of one of England’s
most famous monarchs
Following your
Six Tudor Queens
series, which is
written from the
perspective of
Henry’s wives,
JQYFKʘGTGPVYCU
KVVQPCTTCVGHTQO
Henry VIII’s point
of view?
It’s always a challenge to
write a novel about an iconic per-
sonage, but I’ve studied Henry VIII
for many decades, and I feel I know him
to a certain extent. I knew where I was
going with the novel. Writing in the
third person worked better than writing
KPVJGTUVVQOCMGVJGOCNGXQKEG
sound authentic.
How do you view Henry VIII?
I feel some sympathy for him. He
started his reign with everything going
for him – and then, as he saw it, God
denied him the one thing he need-
ed most: a son to succeed him. That’s
when things began to go awry, when
frustration turned the king into the
fearsome despot he later became.
You can see this building over the years:
frustration at not having a male heir,
at the pope’s failure to grant him an
annulment, at Catherine of Aragon’s
refusal to consent to that annulment,
and at being unable to consummate
his passion for Anne Boleyn.
&KF[QWUVTC[HTQOVJGJKUVQTKECN
TGEQTFCVCP[RQKPV!
I kept to it as faithfully as I could,
reserving my creativity for emotions,
motives and private passions. There are
UQOCP[ICRUVQNNYJGTGVJGUQWTEGU
leave room for speculation. I hope I’ve
NNGFVJGOETGFKDN[
Henry VIII: The Heart
and the Crown
by Alison Weir
Headline Books, 640 pages, £25
75
 SPECIAL INTRODUCTORY OFFER
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 DIARY By ,QPCVJCP9TKIJV2CWN$NQQOGNFand Samantha Nott
PODCAST 6KOGRKGEGUVJTQWIJJKUVQT[
EXPLORE #F)GHTKP, Northumberland
TRAVEL 4QOGKPXGRNCEGU
WATCH
Generational talent
$QTPKP)WCFGNQWRGYJGPVJG%CTKDDGCP
CTEJKRGNCIQYCUC(TGPEJEQNQP[,QUGRJ
$QNQIPG s sNCVGTMPQYPCUVJG
%JGXCNKGTFG5CKPV)GQTIGUsYCUVJG
KNNGIKVKOCVGUQPQHCYGCNVJ[NCPFQYPGT
CPFCPGPUNCXGF5GPGICNGUGYQOCP
0CPQP/QXKPIVQ'WTQRGCUCEJKNF
$QNQIPGTQUGVJTQWIJUQEKGV[CPFHQWPF
HCOGCUCXKTVWQUQXKQNKPKUVEQPFWEVQT
ALAMY
CPFEQORQUGTDGKPIFWDDGFVJG
n$NCEM/Q\CTVoYJKNG9QNHICPI
#OCFGWUYCUUVKNNCNKXG*GYCUCNUQ
CRTQFKIKQWUN[VCNGPVGFHGPEGTYJQ
UGTXGFCUCPQʛEGTYKVJ'WTQRGoUTUV
CNNDNCEMTGIKOGPV
*QYECPUWEJCTKEJFKXGTUGGXGPVHWN
NKHGDGTGRTGUGPVGFQPVJGDKIUETGGP!
6JGUQNWVKQPCFQRVGFD[FKTGEVQT
5VGRJGP9KNNKCOU Lost, Watchmen CPF
UETKRVYTKVGT5VGHCPK4QDKPUQP Atlanta 
KUVQHQEWUNCTIGN[QPCRGTKQFKPYJKEJ
Kelvin Harrison Jr plays Joseph
Bologne in a biopic of a
musician, composer and fencer
dubbed the ‘Black Mozart’
$QNQIPG -GNXKP*CTTKUQP,T GODCTMUQP
CPKNNHCVGFNQXGCʘCKTCPFHCNNUQWVQH
HCXQWTYKVJ/CTKG#PVQKPGVVG .WE[
$Q[PVQP CPFJGTEQWTV
4QWPFKPIQWVVJGECUV5COCTC
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UVCTUCU.C)WKOCTFCDCNNGTKPCYJQ
NGCFUCTCEKUVECORCKIPCICKPUV$QNQIPG
Chevalier
In cinemas from Friday 9 June
•
77
 A painting of
ENCOUNTERS DIARY
Captain Pugwash,
star of comic strips
and a children’s
television show
that started airing
in the 1950s
VISIT
The art of the steal
Jack Sparrow, Captain Hook, Long John Silver,
Captain Pugwash – buccaneers are commonly
FGRKEVGFKPNKVGTCVWTGNOCPF68CUEQOKEQT
even loveable rogues. But how has their por-
VTC[CNKPRQRWNCTEWNVWTGKPʚWGPEGFQWTWPFGT-
standing of the real pirates of the Caribbean?
A new exhibition uses a diverse mix of
artwork, costumes and interactive elements,
alongside historical artefacts – including ‘pieces
of eight’ – to examine the ways in which pirate
identity has been consumed, appropriated and
remoulded, changing how these often brutal
robbers are perceived today.
Pirates
National Maritime Museum Cornwall, Falmouth /
Until December 2024 / nmmc.co.uk
The 1498 marriage portrait of
Sybilla Artzt and Jakob Fugger,
a rich German merchant who
bankrolled the Habsburg dynasty
78
LISTEN
Was it worth it?
It’s 75 years since HMT Empire
WindrushQPGQHVJGTUVXGUUGNU
to bring large numbers of West
Indian immigrants to the UK,
CTTKXGFCV6KNDWT[&QEMU9CUVJG
journey worth it for those who
crossed the Atlantic to make a
new life in the ‘mother country’?
A new four-part radio series
considers this question through
the lens of a dispute between
a married couple, Jennifer and
Robert. Jennifer thinks those who
Children in west London in
1954, six years after hundreds
of West Indians sailed to the
UK on the Empire Windrush
came to Britain in 1948 would
JCXGDGGPDGVVGTQʘTGVWTPKPIVQ
the Caribbean to rebuild their
PCVKXGEQWPVTKGU5JGYCPVUVQ
OQXGVQ,COCKECYJGTGCU4QDGTV
thinks that the Windrush experi-
GPEGJCUDGGPRQUKVKXGQXGTCNN
The series culminates with
a panel discussion on the topic,
JQUVGFD[%NKXG/[TKG
Windrush: A Family Divided
BBC Radio 4 & BBC Sounds / from 5 June
VISIT
Power couples
HOLBORN MUSEUM, BATH/NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM CORNWALL/TOPFOTO
Weddings are big business, as anyone
who’s paid for photos of their big day is
only too well aware. Five centuries ago,
though, pictures of newly-weds held far
ITGCVGTUKIPKECPEGVJCPOGTGOGOGP-
VQU*KIJRTQNGCTVKUVUUWEJCU*CPU
Holbein the Younger, Nicholas Hilliard
and Antonio Pisanello were recruited to
create images proclaiming the unions of
noble houses, forging dynasties that
could wield power for generations.
A new exhibition displays a dazzling
selection of such portraits along with
related artefacts, exploring how these
CTVYQTMURWDNKEKUGFYGCNVJKPʚWGPEG
and pivotal political relationships in
Renaissance Europe.
Painted Love: Renaissance
Marriage Portraits
Holburne Museum, Bath / Until 1 October /
holburne.org

Writer and broadcaster Afua Hirsch is presenting
a new BBC series exploring how modern African
creatives are drawing on past traditions
WATCH
African stories
reimagined
In Europe, even now we often tell African
stories primarily through the prism of the
colonial era. However, the writer and
broadcaster Afua Hirsch has long sought to
reframe this kind of representation, and her
new series is no exception.
In Africa Rising – in many respects a
follow-up to her 2020 series African Renais-
sance: When Art Meets Power – Hirsch
travels to three of the continent’s biggest
countries, Morocco, Nigeria and South
Africa, to meet young creatives who are
JONNY COCHRANE -EVENING STANDARD -EYEVINE/ALAMY
reinventing their cultures.
While this is essentially an arts series, it
inevitably explores the work of those who
TGCEJDCEMKPVQVJGRCUVKPQTFGTVQPFPGY
ways forward. In Morocco, for example, the
work of female artists Majida Khattari and
Zainab Fasiki addresses the tension between
tradition and a desire for change.
In Nigeria, home to Africa’s largest econo-
my, highlights include Hirsch’s meeting with
Adeju Thompson, who has been pioneering
genderless style to huge international suc-
cess. In Johannesburg, South Africa, Hirsch
visits a theatre workshop to explore whether
township culture can help bring South
Africa’s diverse population together.
Africa Rising with Afua Hirsch
BBC Two / mid-June
Weekly TV & radio
Visit historyextra.com for updates on
upcoming TV and radio programmes
HISTORY ON THE AIRWAVES
“One of the things about baby boomers
is that younger people have disliked
them for a long time”
Satirist JOE QUEENAN (lev) tells us about the
journey of his generation – the 8baby boomers9,
born in the two decades following the Second
World War – through the years
Your new documentary deals with the Cup when we were 26, so now we can take
baby boomers. What’s your take on your the rest of our lives of.= Young people did
own generation? end the war in Vietnam, and many were
It9s a topic where, the more you get into active in the civil rights movement. If you
it, the more complicated it becomes. One have a 8green [farmers9] market9 in your
of the things about baby boomers is that town, or if you have clean air, it9s because
younger people have disliked them for a of the baby boomers, because the people
long time. Part of this is because boomers before us couldn9t care less about that stuf.
colonise everything. If you have cofee But the idealism never extended to eco-
houses, boomers take them over. If a car nomics – the inherent injustice of a system
company designs cars for young people, in which there9s this vast group of people
boomers buy them. And there are just so who are going to be subsidised until they9re
many boomers. Now, though, baby boom- 90 years old by young people.
ers are old. |e question that arises is
whether younger people dislike boomers Is this basically a show about ageing?
because of particular things boomers do, It9s about what happens to a generation that
or just because they9re old. was never equipped to age. A 70-year-old
man rollerblading and wearing a baseball
One idea you touch on is the ‘boomeroc- cap backwards has never realised that you
racy’ – a notion that society is organised have to age gracefully.
for boomers. Is that how you see things?
I went to the Metropolitan Opera recently to Archive on 4: A Brief History of
see La bohème. It9s about poor people, but Boomers will be broadcast on
the only people who could aford to go to BBC Radio 4 on Saturday 24 June
see it were those with lots of money. |ese
sorts of things are organised by this
8boomerocracy9.
<When did you know that the world didn9t
belong to you anymore?= And she said:
<When I saw Elvis on television – I knew
the big bands weren9t coming back.= I9m
not sure that boomers as a generation have
had that moment yet, but I certainly have.
What do you make of the idea that
boomers were idealistic?
Baby boomers were always divided. Don-
ald Trump was never an idealistic person,
for example, and his supporters weren9t.
|e side that was idealistic, which I
wrote about in my 2001 book Balsamic
Dreams: A Short but Self-Important History Young people campaign against the Vietnam
of the Baby Boomer Generation, were like War in 1968. Joe Queenan notes the key role
athletes saying: <Well, we won the World boomers played in protests during the sixties •
79
 HISTORY COOKBOOK
TASTE
Chocolate sauerkraut cake
You’ve tried carrot cake,
perhaps even courgette cake.
How about one with ferment-
ed cabbage? Its origins are
debated, with some certain
the recipe was created by a
Chicago school lunch lady in
1962, and others tracing it
back earlier, to German
immigrants to Texas.
Serves: 12 to 16
&KʛEWNV[ 4/10
Time: 2 hours
INGREDIENTS
170g butter, room temperature
270g granulated sugar,
plus 2 tbsp for ganache
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
IʚQWT
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
VISIT
Birth control
For thousands of years, women have assisted
other women through one of the most thrilling
but dangerous moments of life: childbirth.
Experience was shared within female
communities to improve comfort and safety.
Yet in the 18th century, as medical practice
became more sophisticated – and women
were largely excluded from academic study
– the ‘man-midwife’ increasingly usurped
women in their traditional role. A new
exhibition uses artefacts, documents and
instruments to look at this transforma-
tive period, as well as earlier
folklore and techniques.
In Safe Hands:
The Battle for
Midwifery
Surgeons’ Hall Museums,
Edinburgh / Until Easter 2024
/ museum.rcsed.ac.uk
A mid-18th-century
birthing chair, with
adjustable headrest
and cut-out seat to
allow easier delivery
80
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
50g cocoa powder
ONUVTQPIJQVEQʘGG
140g sauerkraut, rinsed,
drained, squeezed of excess
OQKUVWTGCPFPGN[EJQRRGF
380g dark chocolate, diced
240ml double cream
METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
.KIJVN[ITGCUGCPFʚQWTCDCMKPI
tin (or bundt tin).
2. %QODKPGʚQWTDKECTDQPCVGQH
soda, salt and baking powder in
a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. /KZJQVEQʘGGYKVJEQEQC
powder in a cup or bowl. Stir
until fully combined. Set aside.
4. Using a mixer, cream butter
CPFUWICTWPVKNNKIJVCPFʚWʘ[
Beat in eggs one at a time, and
then add vanilla extract.
5. Beat dry ingredients into the
OKZ9JGPPQʚQWTUVTGCMU
TGOCKPCFFEQʘGGCPFEQEQC
mix until thoroughly combined.
6. Fold in drained sauerkraut
and mix until combined.
7. Pour the cake mixture into the
tin and bake for 40 mins.
Remove from oven and allow to
cool on a wire rack.
8. For ganache, heat double
cream and sugar in a pan over
medium-low heat, whisking
LISTEN
Hairy tales
Could hairy bipeds really be
living in the Himalayas? The
CPUYGTQʘGTGFD[CPGY
series, based around the
VTCXGNUQH#PFTGY$GPGNF
and Richard Horsey, is:
perhaps. We should not,
though, expect to hear the
kinds of tales of ‘abominable
snowmen’ that became
popular in the 1950s, a
characterisation far more
rooted in western culture
than many of us may realise.
Chocolate sauerkraut cake may
have been devised as a way of
using surplus tinned vegetables
until sugar is dissolved and
cream begins to simmer.
9. Gradually add the chocolate,
whisking after each addition
until fully melted. Whisk in
butter, then add a pinch of salt.
10. Transfer to a bowl and keep
whisking until the mixture is
cool but not set. Pour over the
cake and spread.
Adapted from a recipe by
Diana Hubbell and Sandor Katz
on atlasobscura.com
A 20th-century picture
of two yetis created by
a Sherpa artist. A new radio
series explores myths of
the elusive cryptids
+PUVGCFVJKUUGTKGUPFU
the duo meeting locals who
SURGEONS HALLS MUSEUMS/BRIDGEMAN
have reported encounters
with yetis, and seriously
considers the idea there may
indeed be rare – and very shy
– primates living out in the
Asian wilderness. It also has
much to say about how
stories get passed down
through generations.
Yeti
BBC Radio 4 / Saturday 1 July
 WATCH

Adventures in time

WATCH
Celebrity genealogy
It’s tempting to see the return of
Who Do You Think You Are? as
simply a case of: if it ain’t broke,
FQPoVZKV6JGTGoUVTWVJKPVJKUQH
course, but it’s worth adding that
the level of historical research in
GETTY IMAGES/LIONSGATE
ENCOUNTERS DIARY
Perhaps because several seasons are yet to be
broadcast on free-to-air TV in the UK, it’s easy
to overlook just how much of a global hit
Outlander has been. But its success really isn’t
Lesley Manville (left) and too surprising. Based on Diana Gabaldon’s
Bear Grylls are part of bestselling novels, made with high production
the new batch of celebrities values and developed for the screen by Ronald
unearthing their family roots D Moore (Battlestar Galactica), it’s a heady mix
of romance, historical drama and fantasy.
Protagonist Claire Randall (Caitríona Balfe)
KUCPWTUGYJQXKUKVKPI5EQVNCPFKPPFU
herself transported back in time to 1743. In
around are musical theatre the Highlands, she falls in love with warrior
supremo Andrew Lloyd Webber, Jamie Fraser (Sam Heughan) and becomes
actors Claire Foy and Lesley embroiled in the Jacobite uprising. Over later
Manville, comedians Emily Atack seasons, the pair emigrate to the New World
and Chris Ramsey, adventurer and Claire takes further journeys between
Bear Grylls, Strictly dancer Kevin the centuries.

the popular genealogy series has
become both deeper and broader
UKPEGKVTUVCKTGFDCEMKP
As ever, the new season has
star power to spare. Those tracing
their family histories this time
Clifton, science broadcaster twins
Chris and Xand van Tulleken, and
TCFKQRTGUGPVGT&GX)TKʛP
Who Do You Think You Are?
BBC One & BBC iPlayer / early June
Details about the 16-episode seventh
season, released in two parts with the second
to follow next year, were sketchy as BBC
History Magazine went to press. We do know
that it’s based on the novel An Echo in the
Bone, which deals in part with the American
Revolutionary War. An eighth and concluding
series has been commissioned, as has a
prequel about Fraser’s parents, Outlander:
Blood of My Blood.

Outlander
Lionsgate+ / new season streaming from Friday 16 June

Richard Rankin and Sophie Skelton

star in the latest season of
Outlander, which is slated to be
partly set during the American
Revolutionary War

81

PODCASTS
ENCOUNTERS PODCASTS
The advent of portable watches – like this example from the 18th century – revolutionised timekeeping
The passage of time
Our podcast editor ELLIE CAWTHORNE discusses a recent
episode on the 40,000-year history of timekeeping, from
ancient bones to the modern wristwatch
eing able to accurately tell the time is
B
such a fundamental part of modern
life that it9s easy to forget just how
transformative it has been. But speaking to
watchmaker and restorer Rebecca Struthers
on the podcast recently was a good reminder
of how clocks, watches and other marvellous
creations have revolutionised societies9
perception of time through history.
Struthers provided me with a potted
history of timekeepers, beginning with the
earliest contender – a 40,000-year-old bone
found in a cave in the Lebombo mountains
on South Africa9s eastern border. <It9s about
the size of a little onger, with 29 notches,
alternating between 30 spaces, which works
out to a lunar calendar,= says Struthers. <We9ll
never know for sure that was its intended use,
but its creation looks very deliberate.=
From this, we moved on to sundials, sand
timers and clepsydras, or water clocks. <What
is incredible is that clepsydras appear across
the world at around the same time, from
north Africa and China to Europe and North
America,= says Struthers. And, by the ninth
century, Alfred the Great was using candle
clocks to divide his days into neatly
measured chunks of work, sleep and study.
Many of these objects were not just
about function, but also spectacle –
82
Every issue we highlight a recent edition of our podcast.
;QWECPPFKVCNQPIYKVJOQTGVJCPRTGXKQWUGRKUQFGU
on our website: historyextra.com/podcast
THREE HISTORY EXTRA
. PODCASTS ON THE POWER
OF INVENTIVE THINKING
Genius of
the Greeks
“The ancient Greeks
constantly questioned,
contemplated and
debated the world
around them, and
they sought logical,
often mathematical
explanations for its
workings.” Science Museum curator
Jane Desborough joined me last year
to discuss some spectacular artefacts
(from celestial globes to golden
earrings) that reveal how Greek thinkers
sought to understand everything from
the oceans and animals to the cosmos
and the human body.
historyextra.com/greek-thinking-pod
Medieval
marvels
In the popular
imagination, the
Middle Ages is
generally a time of
mud, blood and
turnips. But in many
12th-century Islamic polymath Ismail
ways, it was an era of
al-Jazari created a magniocent water clock startling innovation
shaped like a life-size Asian elephant. and ingenious thinking. Back in 2020,
Magniocence aside, the real revolution historian Seb Falk joined us to discuss
came from making timekeepers portable – his book The Light Ages, which reveals
and afordable. <I like to say that clocks are the surprising sophistication of medieval
bystanders to history, but watches are active UEKGPVKEVJKPMKPIsHTQOCUVTQPQO[VQ
participants,= Struthers told me. In 19th-cen- OGFKEKPGsCPFJQYYGUVGTPUEJQNCTU
tury factories, cheap watches caused a storm were informed by texts and learning
when workers began to realise overseers had from across the globe.
been oddling their shiv hours. But while historyextra.com/medieval-science-pod
<even cowboys wore pocketwatches= (held in
the mini pocket that9s still in jeans today), Precision
wristwatches took longer to catch on. engineering
|e orst documented person to wear a Engineering was
so-called 8armwatch9 (encrusted with jewels) at the heart of
was none other than Queen Elizabeth I, and turbo-charging the
<for a long time, wristwatches were almost industrial age. But
exclusively worn by women=, Struthers all these innovations
explained. <It wasn9t until the First World would have fallen at
War that it was deemed more convenient for VJGTUVJWTFNGYKVJ
men to have the time on their wrist rather out one invisible yet
than in their pocket. But it9s funny to imagine GUUGPVKCNEQORQPGPVsRTGEKUKQP
a time when James Bond wouldn9t be consid- Simon Winchester joined us to explore
ered masculine for wearing a wristwatch.= how high-precision engineering
HCEKNKVCVGFUQOGQHVJGOQUVUKIPKECPV
GETTY IMAGES
Listen now developments of the modern age,
You can hear this episode at from Watt’s steam engine to
historyextra.com/watchmakers-pod mass-produced military materiel.
historyextra.com//engineers-pod
Unlock the past anytime, anywhere
with the new HistoryExtra app

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 EXPLORE… AD GEFRIN, NORTHUMBERLAND
A medieval palace reborn
In England9s far north, an early medieval king9s house has been vividly
reimagined. FIONA EDMONDS visits Ad Gefrin, a museum and distillery
transporting visitors back to the seventh-century kingdom of Northumbria
ENCOUNTERS EXPLORE
he year is AD 627. I pass through a
T door nanked by spears: no one must
wield a weapon in the king9s hall,
decree the ancient laws. A sov glow illumi-
nates the room, revealing interlaced carvings
that snake around the wooden pillars. Taking
my place on a bench, I await the royal party.
King Edwin is in residence, along with Bishop
Paulinus, who will baptise many in the nearby
river. Amid song and story I am made wel-
come in the Great Hall of Ad Gefrin.
|is is not a scene from my historian9s
imagination. Rather, it9s what awaits visitors to
the new Ad Gefrin Anglo-Saxon Museum and
Distillery in Wooler, Northumberland, named
aver the seventh-century palace that stood
less than ove miles up the road at Yeavering.
|at site features in the writings of Bede as
well as in excavation reports, and is crucial to
our understanding of the kingdom – once the
most powerful polity in Britain.
|is inspiration is evident everywhere at
Ad Gefrin, notably in the sustainable modern
buildings with façades designed to echo those
of early medieval halls. Even the signs in the
car park are written in Old English.
Visitors sitting in a reconstruction of the
original Gefrin9s Great Hall enjoy an immer-
sive audiovisual experience. A screen recre-
ates virtually the other half of this vast
chamber in which characters from Northum-
brian history go about their business. Some
stop and talk: Queen Æthelburh (paraphras-
ing Bede) tells us that these are peaceful
times, when a mother with a newborn baby
can walk undisturbed from coast to coast.
|e hall features impressive attention to
detail, with light-bearing bowls suspended
from carved wooden goat-heads – Ad Gefrin
means 8by the hill of goats9. Intricately
A soft glow illuminates
the room, revealing interlaced
carvings that snake around
the wooden pillars
84
embroidered textiles cover the walls, featur-
ing designs reminiscent of early medieval
masterpieces such as the Book of Durrow
and the Sutton Hoo helmet.
Historic gems
As visitors move to the museum next door,
they are greeted by some 50 fascinating
artefacts lent by such organisations as the
British Museum and the Shakespeare Birth-
place Trust. A memorable display of jewellery
features an array of amber, amethyst, glass
and garnet, highlighting the extensive
external contacts of the Northumbrian
kingdom. Another important collection has
been contributed by the Gefrin Trust, custo-
dians of the excavated site at Yeavering.
Fragments of cooking vessels, loom-weights
and wattle-and-daub hint at the daily life of
the original palace. Some of these items were Visitors to the Great Hall at Ad Gefrin are
collected during 2021 excavations, others greeted by 1400-year-old characters
from Brian Hope-Taylor9s Yeavering excava- including Æthelburh, queen consort of
tions of 1953‒62 – digs that uncovered an King Edwin of Northumbria
astonishing complex of timber structures,
including a Roman-inspired auditorium.
Collectively, the museum and the immer-
sive experience help us to overcome one of the
challenges of studying early medieval Britain:
AD GEFRIN ANGLO-SAXON MUSEUM-SALLY ANN NORMAN
a lack of buildings in which to imagine life in
the seventh century. |at era9s intricate
wooden carvings and skilfully embroidered
textiles have mostly perished, but Edwin9s
palace was clearly built to impress.
|e Ad Gefrin initiative also shows how
early medieval history can be a catalyst for
modern regeneration. |e museum is part of
a wider complex developed by a local family
business, featuring a bistro as well as the
distillery. A single malt whisky is expected in
2025; for now, Ad Gefrin9s orst whisky blend
is available, named Tácnbora (Old English for
8standard-bearer9). |at new spirit recalls the
hospitality ofered to visitors at the king9s hall
all the way back in 627.
Fiona Edmonds is professor in regional history Museum displays include
at Lancaster University jewellery as well as fragments
For more information on Ad Gefrin,
of cooking vessels found during
excavations at the original
head to adgefrin.co.uk palace nearby
Light-bowls hang from wooden goat
heads, a nod to the translation of Intricately interlaced designs in newly embroidered wall
Ad Gefrin: ‘by the hill of goats’ hangings recall the style of early medieval masterpieces

85
 HISTORIC CITIES
century BC aristocrat Cecilia Metella,
onto which a 14th-century fortress
was grafted by the Caetani family
Rome
in five places
|e ancient imperial capital has undergone
many transformations over the centuries.
SHUSHMA MALIK highlights ove spots to
visit for insights into Rome9s layered past
1Basilica of San Clemente
What lies beneath
Rome is a giant palimpsest, with successive strata of
history written one on top of the other. There’s a great
example of that in just one building on the Via di San
Giovanni in Laterano. The Basilica of San Clemente,
built from 1108, is a wonderful monument in itself, with
PGOQUCKEUCPFHTGUEQGUKPCUKFGEJCRGN$WVDGNQY
the 12th-century church there’s another, dating from
the fourth century and rediscovered in 1857. And below
thatNKGVYQ4QOCPDWKNFKPIUHTQOVJGNCVGTUVEGPVWT[
One was a house possibly used as a titulus – a clandes-
tine early Christian meeting place. The other contained
a Mithraeum, a temple to the cult of Mithras, of a kind
seen in other parts of the empire, including Britain.
(There’s a Mithraeum in the City of London, and another
at Carrawburgh Fort on Hadrian’s Wall – the cult was
popular with Roman soldiers in that period.) This one
DQCUVUCPGN[ECTXGFCNVCTFGRKEVKPIVJGIQF/KVJTCU
killing a bull, typical of such sites.
1 modern methods to the fourth century BC. It’s quite
The beautiful apse mosaic of the Basilica of San Clemente, built atop a fourth-century church
86
6JGFTWOUJCRGFVQODQH TUV
2 Tomb of Cecilia Metella
From funeral to fortress
This incredible funerary monument on the Via Appia,
RTQDCDN[FCVKPIHTQOVJGNCVGTUVEGPVWT[$%EQPUKUVUQH
an 11-metre-high cylindrical drum. It highlights the status
QHCTKUVQETCVKEYQOGPKP4QOGsURGEKECNN[QPGXGT[
well-connected woman, Cecilia Metella. The inscription
on the tomb tells us she was the daughter of Quintus
Cecilius Metellus Creticus, and the wife of a man called
Crassus. Her father was probably the consul of 69 BC,
and her husband may have been Marcus Licinius
Crassus, another important politician and the son of the
%TCUUWUYJQYCUHCOQWUCUCOGODGTQHVJGnTUV
triumvirate’ along with Pompey and Julius Caesar.
So the monument is fascinating because of who she
was, but also because, again, it’s an example of historical
layering. In the early 14th century, the tomb was
incorporated into a fortress built by the Caetani family,
relatives of Pope Boniface VIII. Parts of that huge
structure still survive today.
3 Servian Wall
Best defence
If you arrive or depart Rome through the central train
station, Termini, look carefully around the surrounding
CTGCsCPFKPUKFG[QWoNNPFDKVUQHCPEKGPVYCNNCOQPI
the fast-food restaurants.
The Servian Wall was one of Rome’s earlier defensive
boundaries. It’s named after the Roman king Servius
Tullius who, according to legend, reigned in about the
sixth century BC, but the structure has been dated using
UQOGVJKPIVQGCVCUNKEGQHRK\\CQTCDWTIGTTKIJVPGZV
to this incredibly old piece of Roman history.
 Who built Rome’s great Colosseum?
Shushma discusses Rome on our new History’s Greatest

DREAMSTIME/GETTY IMAGES/ALAMY/ PAUL HEWITT-BATTLEFIELD DESIGN

Cities podcast series: hexpodcast.podlink.to/Cities

5
1

ENCOUNTERS TRAVEL
4

4Monte Testaccio
Conspicuous consumption
This mound, in the Testaccio district,
is no ordinary hill. Rising to around 4
35 metres, it’s made of the earthenware
shards (testae, in Latin) of amphorae – pottery
jars used to store goods and to transport them around Countless stacked 6JGTGOCKPUQHVJG%CRKVQNKPG+PUWNCRTQXKFGKPUKIJVUKPVQJQY
the Roman empire. They contained all sorts of things, olive oil amphorae ordinary Romans lived and shopped in the early second century AD
HTQOITCKPVQQNKXGQKNXGT[UOCNNCORJQTCGEQPVCKPGF shards make up the
more expensive goods such as perfumes. CTVK EKCNJKNNMPQYP
5 Capitoline Insula
6JGNC[GTUQHVJKUCPEKGPV4QOCPNCPFNNUKVG as Monte Testaccio
excavated so far (most from the second and third High-rise housing
centuries AD), mainly comprise very large containers At the base of the Capitoline Hill, look for a distinctly
in which olive oil was shipped before being poured into GXGT[FC[DWKNFKPICDNQEMQHʚCVU6JG%CRKVQNKPG QT
smaller ones for domestic use. Ara Coeli) Insula dates from the early second century
Monte Testaccio is near the site of an olive oil AD, probably during the reign of Emperor Trajan, which
warehouse, from where these amphorae were taken to also saw the construction of a large marketplace and
be broken up then covered with lime to hide the smell. huge column celebrating his victories. We tend to think
of ancient Roman houses as grand villas. But of course
most people lived in much more basic accommodation,
and this insula features examples of the small rooms or
ʚCVUVJCVQTFKPCT[RGQRNGOKIJVJCXGTGPVGFCVVJG
JGKIJVQHVJGGORKTG6JGDNQEMKUXGUVQTG[UJKIJVJG
TUVVJTGGQHYJKEJJQWUGFUJQRUVJGTGYGTGKPFKXKFWCN
TQQOUQPVJGHQWTVJʚQQTCPFYJCVNQQMUNKMGCP
CRCTVOGPVQPVJGHVJ+VoUCPCOC\KPIKPUKIJVKPVQVJG
urban lives of individuals nearly two millennia ago.

Remnants of the Shushma Malik is Onassis Classics Fellow at Newnham

Servian Wall, College, University of Cambridge, and author of
probably built |e Nero-Antichrist: Founding and Fashioning a Paradigm
around 24 centuries (Cambridge University Press, 2020). She was talking to
3 ago, survive at Paul Bloomoeld, travel journalist and host of our new
Termini train station podcast series, History’s Greatest Cities

87
 PRIZE CROSSWORD
Across
1 Surname of the English clergyman who
fabricated the Popish Plot of 1678 (5)
4 Richard ____, a pseudonym used by
Benjamin Franklin (8)
10 A means of long-distance communication,
VJGOQUVGʘGEVKXGDGKPIVJGGNGEVTKEXGTUKQP
introduced in the mid-19th century (9)
11 Robert, 17th-century English general-at-
sea; also William, 18th–19th-century
XKUKQPCT[RQGVCPFCTVKUV 
12 Present name (acronym) of the combined
American-Canadian air defence organisation
founded in the 1950s (5)
13 At age 43, he became the youngest British
RTKOGOKPKUVGTUKPEGVJGPF'CTNQH.KXGTRQQN
in 1812 (4,5)
14 (QTOGTRTQXKPEGQHVJG&GOQETCVKE
Republic of the Congo; its attempted
secession under Moïse Tshombe in 1960
URCTMGFCXKQNGPVETKUKU 
16 +ORGTKCNWPKVUKPE&CXKF+QH5EQVNCPF
KUUCKFVQJCXGFGPGFCUKPINGQPGCUVJG
YKFVJQHCPCXGTCIGOCPoUVJWOD 
19 ____ Shehu, Albanian premier whose
death in 1981 was declared by the state to
JCXGDGGPUWKEKFG 
21 5GTKGUQHOGFKGXCNOKNKVCT[ICOGU
KPXQNXKPIOQEMIJVUDGVYGGPMPKIJVU 
23 Site on the Nile of the temples of
Ramesses II, relocated in the 1960s (3,6)
25/1 down Arab warrior-queen whose
VTQQRUJGNRGFJGTHQTOGTGPGO[4QOGIJV
CICKPUVVJG)QVJUKP#& 
27 +PFKCoUTUVRTKOGOKPKUVGTCHVGTVJG
partition of 1947 (5)
28 /CLQTIWTGKP%JKPGUGRQNKVKEUHTQOVJG
1920s until his death in 1976 [Wade-Giles
spelling] (4,2-3)
29 Crop ____, traditional method for growing
food to protect soil fertility (8)
30 Name of Roman road connecting London
with Chichester (5)
9JCVKUVJG TUVPCOG
QHVJKUPQVGF#OGTKECP
YCTEQTTGURQPFGPVCPF
PQXGNKUV!(9 down)
Down
1 See 25 across
2 Last name of the Kentish leader
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3 The Roman fort at the eastern end of
88
*CFTKCPoU9CNNPGCTVJG6[PGGUVWCT[PQYKP
modern-day Wallsend (9)
5 One spelling of the name of a west African
MKPIFQOHQWPFGFKPKPYJCVoUPQY
Ghana (7)
6 6GTOHQTCJKIJTCPMKPI/WIJCNQʛEKCNWUGF
for a time for British East India Company
employees returning home with great wealth (5)
7 &GUGTVNQECVKQPQHVYQDCVVNGU
between the Allies and Axis (2,7)
8 /CKPYGCRQPUQHVJG*QRNKVGUQNFKGTUQH
ancient Greece (6)
9 ____ Gellhorn, 20th-century writer,
EGNGDTCVGFHQTJGTNQPIKORTGUUKXGECTGGT
as a war correspondent (6)
15 .CTIGJKIJN[GʘGEVKXGUKGIGOCEJKPGQH
OGFKGXCNVKOGU 
17 Town of north-central France, site of
C(TGPEJXKEVQT[QP0QXGODGTFWTKPI
the Franco-Prussian War (9)
18 #PKPXGPVKQPQHVJEGPVWT[5YGFKUJ
chemist Alfred Nobel (8)
20 ,COGU8++YTQVGCn%QWPVGTDNCUVGo
against this New World commodity (7)
21 %JCTNGUAAAA&WMGQH5JTGYUDWT[C
NGCFKPIIWTGKPVJGTGXQNWVKQPCICKPUV
,COGU++8++ 
22 AAAA.QVJDTQMTGRWVGFN[CHCOGF8KMKPI
YCTTKQTsVJQWIJYGJCXGNKVVNGJKUVQTKECN
GXKFGPEGQHJKUGZKUVGPEG 
24 Indigenous people of Arctic and subarctic
regions who split from the Thule people
around the time of the Little Ice Age (5)
26 A unit of electric potential is named after
#NGUUCPFTQAAAAKPXGPVQTQHVJGDCVVGT[ 
Compiled by Eddie James
Book
worth
£20
for 5 winners
What the Greeks
Did for Us
By Tony Spawforth
The legacy of the ancient
Greeks is writ large in western
and other cultures, from
language – in borrowed words
such as pandemic and phrases
KPENWFKPIn1GFKRWUEQORNGZo
– to art, architecture, drama,
philosophy and more. In this
intriguing new book, Tony
Spawforth explores this
classical heritage and how its
impacts continue to be felt
in the modern world.
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Solution to our May 2023 crossword
Across 1 McCarthy 5 Malta 9 Zenobia 10 Rapu Nui 11/26 Paul
4GXGTG%WOCP'XC(KUJGT0KPGXGJ*WUUCTU%TGUV
515'NDC1-GGʘG+RUYKEJ/CT[+4COGUUGU
Down/C\GRC%QPHWEKWU4WD[*WCUECT/QR.CPIG
#NK2CUJC6TWOCP0CPUGP'*%CTT8KVGNNKWU%JKUJQNO
5QXKGV%QTUKEC2CRJQU5RGGT#UMG($+
Three winners of A History of the World in 500 Maps
'/CRNG9CTGJCO#.WECU&GXQP&&WEM$GTMUJKTG
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 Here’s a selection of the exciting
content that’s available on our
website historyextra.com
NEXT MONTH August issue on sale 6 July 2023

Pax Romana
Tom Holland explains how
the Romans kept
control of their
vast empire

What to look out for when visiting a castle

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GUUGPVKCNGPIKPGGTKPIVQG[GECVEJKPIFGEQTCVKQPU
historyextra.com/castle-highlights

Your questions answered

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sYGoXGJKIJNKIJVGFVJGOQUV
A beloved
RQRWNCTGRKUQFGUKPQWTCTEJKXG institution?
historyextra.com/
Andrew Seaton considers
top-everything-pods
why the NHS came to be
so cherished in Britain
Historical hoaxes
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UQVJG[UC[$WVKVFQGUPoVCNYC[U Medieval rebel
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VTWVJ%JGEMQWVQWTXKFGQQHUQOG Paul Dryburgh tells the astonish-
QHVJGOQUVTGOCTMCDNGJQCZ ing story of Roger Mortimer’s
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historyextra.com/
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Newsletters
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RCUV5KIPWRVQTGEGKXGTGIWNCT The fight for
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civil rights
RQFECUVUCPFXKFGQUVJCVCTG Rhiannon Davies picks out
CXCKNCDNGQPQWTYGDUKVG key moments in the US
historyextra.com/newsletters battle for racial equality
89
 MY HISTORY HERO
Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer chooses
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1884–1962
Eleanor Roosevelt, the
longest-serving First Lady of
the US. “She tirelessly
campaigned for equality,”
observes Sir Keir Starmer
Understanding how universal
values such as human dignity and
respect can shape politics was
central to her way of thinking
90
+0241(+.'
Eleanor Roosevelt was First Lady
of the United States during her
husband Franklin D Roosevelt’s
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1933 and 1945. A mother of six,
she was also a diplomat and
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US delegate to the United
Nations General Assembly
from 1946 to 1952, playing a
leading role in drawing up the
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Human Rights.
9JGPFKF[QWTUVJGCTCDQWV Sir Keir Starmer has served as
'NGCPQT4QQUGXGNV! While Leader of the Opposition, and of
studying law at Leeds University the Labour Party, since 2020. He
in the 1980s I became completely has been the MP for Holborn and
absorbed by the work of the United St Pancras since 2015. He was
Nations in the years aver the Second previously director of public
World War, when the world came to prosecutions from 2008 to 2013.
understand the horrors of the Nazi
regime. Under the guidance of Eleanor Roosevelt, the UN
announced a Universal Declaration of Human Rights to collec-
tively ensure that countries were accountable to each other for
abuses and rights. It was the orst legal instrument of its kind.
9JCVMKPFQHYQOCPYCUUJG! Born into a prominent and
wealthy American family, she was a niece of President |eodore
Roosevelt. She had a rather sad childhood, though: both of her
parents died young and, perhaps as a result, she was a shy child.
|roughout her life, however, she had an inner drive and a keen
sense of social justice that grew as she became older.
9JCVOCFGJGTCJGTQ! First and foremost, her understand-
ing of the power of international global cooperation. Second, the
compassion she showed for America9s unemployed during the
Great Depression of the 1930s when she was First Lady. Finally,
her civil rights activism. She tirelessly campaigned for equality,
particularly in relation to issues afecting black Americans.
9JCVYCUJGTPGUVJQWT! Undoubtedly her pivotal role
in getting the 51 original member states of the UN to adopt the
Universal Declaration in the wake of the extermination of
6 million Jews, and many others, in the Holocaust. She described
it as an <international Magna Carta=, using a very British idea to
introduce this document to the world, and its implementation
became a personal moral cause for her. One of the most impor-
tant threads running through the 8Declaration9 was respect for
human dignity – a value that has driven me all my life.
%CP[QWUGGCP[RCTCNNGNUDGVYGGPJGTNKHGCPF[QWTU!
Yes, in understanding how universal values such as human
dignity and respect can shape politics, and how law and politics
constantly intertwine. Both were central to her way of thinking,
and have also been central to my mission to change the Labour
Party and, when we get into government, to change the country.
9JCVYQWNF[QWCUMJGTKH[QWEQWNFOGGVJGT!
How she would ensure that the names of human dignity and
respect burn as brightly today – when, for instance, we have seen
Russian forces display such barbarism in Ukraine – as they did
in that intense period aver the Second World War.
GETTY IMAGES
Sir Keir Starmer was talking to York Membery
In Radio 4’s Great Lives, guests choose inspirational
IWTGUbbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qxsb
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