Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2023 i History Extra

“In 1307 the world of the Knights Templar came crashing down. Targeted by the pope and the kings of France and England, they were arrested, interrogated, tried, tortured, and – in many cases – executed. But what was behind this savage attack on the military-religious order? Were the Templars really guilty of the vicious charges they were accused of? In our cover feature this month (page 22), historian Steve Tibble looks back at the trials to consider the strengths – and weaknesses – of the case against them. While (spoiler alert) the Templars were often tried for crimes they hadn't committed, the opposite was the case in the aftermath of the Second World War. Although some senior Nazis were brought to justice, the vast majority never faced the consequences of…

LETTER OF THE MONTH Down and out Reading about Roger Mortimer's 14thcentury escape from the Tower of London (The King of Folly, August) reminded me of another remarkable breakout from the fortress – with equally dramatic consequences. In April 1660, John Lambert, the Roundhead major general imprisoned by the new pro-royalist government, clambered down a silk rope which had been smuggled into his cell and slipped away on a boat waiting for him on the Thames. A chambermaid wearing Lambert's nightcap took his place in his curtained bed and prevented the alarm being raised until the next morning. Lambert, once a key adviser to Oliver Cromwell and tipped to succeed him as lord protector, called an Easter Sunday rendezvous of his men at Edgehill, scene of the first bloody clash…

New technology enabled letters to be produced without writing by hand. In November 1910, somebody typed a warning to depositors at a London bank. Signing their letter “A Friend”, the author wrote: “I beg you to withdraw your deposit from the Birkbeck Bank, as I have heard on sound authority that the company are in very low water and there may be a run on the bank any day.” As a result, anxious account holders rushed to withdraw their savings, forming lengthy queues at the bank. Using a typewriter was by no means an infallible method for evading identification. A machine's alignment and the condition of the type created consistent artefacts on a typed page that could be used as evidence of authorship – provided the typewriter could be found…

In Assyria, Eckart Frahm explores the rise, fall and afterlife of the Assyrian state between 2500 and 609 BC, considering whether it can be counted as the world's first empire. Precisely when a state crosses the threshold to empire depends on how the term is defined. For Frahm, an empire requires sustained cohesive power over faraway countries. Earlier near eastern kingdoms only ever became “aspirational empires”; what enabled the city of Ashur to cross this threshold is complex and uncertain. Nevertheless, Frahm offers clear answers on life in that empire, the causes of its precipitous fall, and its enduring legacy. The first writing from Ashur (2100 BC), a provincial town on the Tigris river, describes political structures that appear democratic, mercantile and conflict-averse – a stark contrast to the bellicose…

Around 5,000 years ago, a Neolithic sculptor meticulously carved a long, thin sliver of boar tusk into a silkworm caterpillar. By the time this ancient artefact was unearthed in China perhaps a decade ago, scientists were investigating the possibilities of creating smart silk that could stabilise drugs, revitalise paralysed vocal cords or deliver medications deep inside a patient's body. In Silk: A History in Three Metamorphoses, Aarathi Prasad celebrates the timeless allure of this lustrous material and investigates human attempts to cultivate the creatures that produce it. Like the fabric itself, Silk invites luxurious enjoyment, wrapping its readers in lyrically narrated anecdotes, intriguing life stories and wondrous facts. Rather than giving a chronological account, this book is structured as three sections, each overflowing with information loosely connected to its central…

Have you any reflections on the origins of In Our Time? In Our Time began after I had been fired from Start the Week. When I was put in the House of Lords, the powers in charge of the BBC decided that a Labour peer could not introduce Start the Week. There were some comments about it being a political programme, which it certainly was not! But I had had a good run and didn't moan. After some protest in the press, James Boyle, then-controller of BBC Radio 4, offered me what was cheerfully known as ‘the death slot': Thursday morning at nine o'clock. I wanted to make programmes about scientists and biographers; about religion and, above all, about history – and to speak to academics. There were some stumbles…

To beard or not to beard? Whether it's styled into a handlebar moustache, left to grow into a long wiry beard, or clean shaven, men's facial hair can tell us a lot. Back in 2021, Alun Withey appeared on our podcast to explore what grooming trends can reveal about changing ideas surrounding masculinity, hygiene and men's bodies. He also revealed why shaving was so tricky in the past, and how the failure to grow a beard could be a damaging social impediment. historyextra.com/beard-pod Style down the ages How has the ideal body shape changed across history? Why did women in China bind their feet for centuries? And did Georgian women really make fake eyebrows using mouse fur? As part of our Everything You Wanted to Know series, Lucy Jane Santos…

Across 1 Weapon, such as the Springfield named after the Massachusetts city (5) 4 Town of central France, named after the Lemovices, a Gallic tribe (7) 9 20th-century ‘chanteuse' who began as a street singer in Paris, later achieving international fame (5,4) 10 A colleague (later a rival) of Sir Richard Burton in the quest for the source of the Nile (5) 11 Surname of chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces, historian and TV presenter who recently wrote on Agatha Christie (7) 12 First Russian leader to be elected by popular vote (7) 13 John ____, English lawyer who played a leading role in the trial of Charles I (5) 15 Portuguese king whose sister, Catherine of Braganza, became Queen of England on marrying Charles II (5,2) 18 Empire centred around Anatolia; it is now thought a major…

1. My timbers shivered I found the scale of east Asian piracy revealed in Adam Clulow's piece this month to be quite staggering. For instance, one pirate leader had more than 17,000 pirates under her command in the early 19th century (page 61). 2. Smell you earlier In this month's Q&A (page 55), I was surprised to discover that deodorant only became commonplace around 100 years ago, and swiftly cancelled my plans to build a time machine. 3. Man of the people Our feature on the real story of Dick Whittington is full of interesting details, including the fact that the medieval mayor left his entire fortune (around £7m in today's terms) to charity (page 52).…

"Slavery's effects are still working themselves out in our lives today” SOMETIMES AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIND CAN open a window onto the past so vivid, so immediate, that it comes like a flash of lightning. This summer, a discovery was made at an archaeological dig in the small town of Abandze on the coast of Ghana, 70 miles west of Accra. The dig was inside the ruins of Fort Amsterdam, built by the Dutch in the 17th century on a hill above a beach fringed with coconut palms, where Atlantic rollers crash and painted fishing boats with long, curved prows bob in the surf. The fort was a brutalist rectangle with circular and square corner towers, and for more than 200 years it was used for the slave trade. But now,…

They arrived with no warning, striking swiftly as a guillotine blade. As dawn broke over France on Friday 13 October 1307, hundreds of royal troops stormed the residences of Templar knights, rounded up the brethren and put them in chains. The knights were caught completely unawares – and the charges that were set out against them were extraordinary. Allegations included participating in Satanic initiation ceremonies; spitting or trampling on the crucifix; worshipping idols; and kissing their brothers on the navel, penis, lips and anus in profane masses. It was a spectacular fall from grace for the Knights Templar, a military-religious order that had long been esteemed across Europe and beyond. For nearly two centuries, since the order's foundation in Jerusalem c1119 (see box, right), the Templars had been charged with…

A short, splotchy note suggested that a woman's son, believed dead, should not yet be interred Perhaps in a “trance” or Coma, don't bury yet – the other Curate was reported dead – some time since This note was sent in 1894 to Mary Cokayne, wife of the famous genealogist George, who received it a few days after her son, Morton, had died. The letter implies that Morton, an assistant curate, might have been buried alive. Why send such a note to a grieving mother? Once that moral shock has registered, perhaps the next question is not “Who wrote it?” but “To what other curate does it refer?” Then there are fundamental questions about the document itself. Why did Mary Cokayne retain it? It must have brought her sadness. Was…

leanor Glanville was in her early thirties Ewhen she made a terrible mistake. A wealthy widow, in 1685 she married a second husband who was more interested in her fortune than in marital bliss. He became increasingly violent, kidnapped their own son and turned her family against her. After she died, a judge rejected her will on the grounds that she was “not in sound mind”. The evidence offered for her supposed insanity was that she collected butterflies: apparently it was obvious that “none but those who were deprived of their senses, would go in Pursuit of Butterflies”. Over three centuries later, Glanville remains the only British naturalist to have bequeathed their name to a native butterfly species, the Glanville fritillary. The science of entomology had not yet been established,…

Field was an original member of Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners. This book was first published in 1995 as a response to ongoing debates about gay rights in the UK; in this later edition, Field captures the end of the earlier connection between radicalism and LGBTQ+ politics. Similarly national in coverage, this is a great companion to Gildea's work, drawing together the local and shared experiences of women's involvement in the strike. It also includes the stories of women who supported miners who continued to work. Milne published his account of government, security forces and press involvement in the strike in 1994. He revisited it 20 years on, following the release of previously secret cabinet papers and ex-MI5 boss Stella Rimington's memoirs.…

This is a lucid, compelling and revelatory account of women who, in the 1970s and ‘80s, sought access to information about their own bodies, to tackle medical misogyny, and to achieve gender equality. It not only redirected my intellectual trajectory towards the history of modern and contemporary gender, medicine and healthcare, but also transformed my understanding of feminism as it relates to health and sickness. It prompted me to re-examine my own sometimes frustrating experiences with healthcare professionals, and to understand it in the context of women's longstanding efforts to be taken seriously by medicine. It is the book that has best captured, for me at least, the old adage that ‘the personal is political' – or, in this case, historical. First published in 2010, Kline's book engages with still-pressing…

The spectre of fear has haunted human society throughout history. It is a tool of power, a harbinger of destruction and death – and no one is immune. In 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump infamously contended that “real power is… fear”. Whether fears are deeply individual (for example, agoraphobia) or shared (among people living in a totalitarian state, for instance), they are always political. The objects of, responses to, impacts of and scientific understanding of phobias all change as a result of wider events and political, medical and media commentators. In Fear: An Alternative History of the World, historian Robert Peckham seeks to provide a history of fear's impact. It is an ambitious book, global in focus and spanning the period from antiquity to the present. His central argument is…

The Rubh' an Dunain peninsula juts out like an arrowhead from the south-western corner of the Isle of Skye – narrowing from its base at the foot of the black and brooding Cuillin mountains to a sharp point that aims straight across the Sea of the Hebrides towards the Atlantic Ocean and America. At its very tip, there is a hole, an enclosed circle of water known as Loch na h-Airde. Today, it is a lonely spot, only reachable by a four-mile walk along a beautiful coastal path, beginning on the beach at the southern end of Glen Brittle. Or at least, it's a lonely spot for humans – because wildlife abounds. Golden eagles and sea eagles wheel in the vast skies above; golden plover stalk the tall grasses in…

Across 1 Crabbe 4 Almeida 9 Song 10 Isandlwana 11 Stilwell 12 Ayrton 13 Browne 15 Kuwait 18 Shiloh 20 Reiver 22 Daimyo 24 Gwen John 26 Bucharest 27 Tang 28/19 Bettany Hughes 29 Dresden Down 1 Crofters 2 Angel 3 Bridewell 5 Lydia 6 Edward III 7 Danton 8 Mamluk 14 Wehrmacht 16 Worcester 17 Seahenge 21 Barbie 23 Owain 25 Jutes Two winners of 1964: Eyes of the Storm F Matthew, Beckenham; DV Mansbridge, Hampshire CROSSWORD COMPETITION TERMS & CONDITIONS ● The crossword competition is open to all residents of the UK (& Channel Islands), aged 18 or over, except Immediate Media Company London Limited employees or contractors, and anyone connected with the competition or their direct family members. By entering, participants agree to be bound by these…

IN PROFILE Ignatius of Loyola was a Spanish Catholic priest and theologian who co-founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) and became its first Superior General in 1541. After being injured in battle in his youth, he underwent a spiritual conversion and devoted his life to the church, missionary work and teaching. He was beatified after his death and later canonised. In 1922 he was declared the patron saint of spiritual retreats, soldiers and education. "After being hit by a cannonball, which shattered his right leg, he lay down his sword and embraced the Christian faith” When did you first hear about Ignatius? I went to a Catholic school and as a little girl I had to recite St Ignatius's prayer. Later, as a student, I got a summer job…

Sophie Hay “I continually find myself walking through the streets of Pompeii, so I've become fascinated by the rich archaeological evidence that can reveal the vibrancy of Roman life that took place along them.” Sophie reveals the secrets of the perfectly preserved streets of Rome's doomed city on page 28 Gerald Posner “Whether you're a social justice lawyer or an investigative journalist, nothing gets you quite as focused as the idea that some evildoer has not just gotten away with it, but is enjoying the spoils of what they did – and that was certainly the case with Josef Mengele.” Gerald reflects on his hunt for Mengele on page 35 Emily Cockayne “An investigation of anonymous letters involves a lot of sleuthing, but it reveals rich and intriguing details about past…

"Members of the Clapham Sect were both of their time and ahead of it” OFF CLAPHAM COMMON NORTH SIDE, NEAR the Old Town, stands the Anglican Holy Trinity Church. It's an imposing edifice, completed in 1776 near the site of a medieval church – in fact, an act of parliament was required to permit its construction. But its historical importance isn't due to architecture or its older heritage. In the 18th century, Clapham was just a village on the ancient road from London Bridge to Kingston; maps from the period show how green it was. Around the time the church was built, wealthy families were moving to the area – many to houses around the common – to escape unhealthy city life. This village was leafier than London and less…

Letters addressed to an Indian-born clergyman's family led to his son's conviction for a spate of livestock mutilations In the last decades of the Victorian era, a nightmarish volley of letters, likely fuelled by racism, circulated in the South Staffordshire mining village of Great Wyrley. The episode reveals the paranoia that such letters could provoke – and how investigations could provide a cover for prejudice. In 1888, the household of Shapurji Edalji, an Indian-born clergyman, received the first of hundreds of anonymous and pseudonymous letters, with others sent to families nearby. Suspecting the vicar's son, George Edalji – then a schoolboy – of penning the letters, police set watch on the vicarage. One letter sent to the Edaljis' teenage maid explicitly referred to her “Black master”. From 1893, the letters'…

Rob Attar: Your book is titled Triumph and Illusion. Whose was the triumph, and what was the illusion? Jonathan Sumption: It's deliberately ambiguous. The English were on top at the beginning of the period [1422], but they quickly declined and lost everything they'd gained over the previous decade. They then deceived themselves into thinking that there was some way in which they could conserve at least part of what they'd conquered. There were triumphs and illusions on the other side, too. Eventually, the French did triumph: they excluded England from every part of France except Calais. But they had their own illusions. They felt that the English had no support in France except from traitors, but the striking thing is that the English had a lot of support in the…

This new book is a history of the institutions and individuals who sought to manage the global economy over the last century. It is a huge topic, and a big book – but readers need not be discouraged as Daunton makes the story accessible and absorbing, explaining how successive orders begin to fail, break down (often painfully) and then are hesitantly replaced, with the succeeding order modified and adapted to changing circumstances until it, too, begins to weaken. The book opens with world leaders gathering at the 1933 World Economic Conference to plan a response to the Great Depression. The origins of the crisis and the difficulties of moving forward are summarised in John Maynard Keynes' analysis of then-extant capitalism as not intelligent, not beautiful, not just, not virtuous and…

Emma Southon's lively, alternative history begins with the story of Hersilia – one of the abducted Sabine women – who married Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome, in around 750 BC. It ends with the plight of the Christian empress Galla Placida, kidnapped by the Gothic king Alaric during the sack of Rome in AD 410. Both of these women – from the start and end of Roman history, respectively – were victims of male aggression, caught up in wars and politics not of their making. Although denied official roles as soldiers or politicians, they were both integral to the story of their times, able and willing to influence events in their own way. For the Romans, Hersilia was a crucial part of their foundation myth – yet who these…

PODCAST Renaissance beauty EXPLORE Rubh an' Dunain, Isle of Skye TRAVEL Paris in five places EXHIBITION Colour vision As a result of scientific advances made during the industrial revolution, Victorians had access to a dazzling range of affordable pigments – and colour exploded into their lives, from their clothing to their homeware. A major new exhibition at the Ashmolean – Britain's oldest public museum – examines the use of colour in Victorian art, fashion and design, from costume and paintings to jewellery, statuary, pottery and more. Displays feature art by JMW Turner, John Ruskin and James McNeill Whistler, plus Queen Victoria's hallmark (but decidedly less colourful) black mourning dress. Colour Revolution Ashmolean Museum, Oxford / 21 September–18 February / ashmolean.org TV Reading the past Combining literature with travel can help…

HE PODCASTS Every issue we highlight a recent edition of our podcast. You can find it along with more than 1,600 previous episodes at our website: historyextra.com/podcast Highlight your hair, pluck your eyebrows and slather on the anti-wrinkle cream. No, you haven't just accidentally stumbled across the advice page of a women's magazine. These beauty tips date back much further – to the 16th century, in fact. Professor Jill Burke joined us on the podcast recently to delve into Renaissance beauty culture, and from golden waves and hairless legs to perfect skin and rosebud lips, it's striking how familiar some of the beauty standards of the time still sound today. “There was a real obsession with women's looks in the 16th century, and beauty ideals were really narrow,” says Burke.…