Questions tagged [britain]
An island in North-Western Europe. Questions with this tag should refer to the history of the island of Great Britain, such as the relationship between the historical states of Britain. A separate tag exists for questions on history of the modern polity known as the United Kingdom.
182 questions
6
votes
1
answer
221
views
What is the relationship between these two merchants' marks?
I have attached the images of two Merchants' Marks, from around the year 1500. One is on a memorial stone in Dorchester Abbey, the other from Thame Church. Both of these are in Oxfordshire, about 11 ...
- 61
19
votes
2
answers
5k
views
Did US troops insist on segregation in British pubs?
Can anyone refresh my memory on this? Wikipedia is no help, as I cannot remember the name of the incident, and any search terms would be too wide.
I understand it involved attempts by USA troops to ...
- 8,171
-3
votes
1
answer
125
views
What did "Price Fourpence The Three" mean? [closed]
From the cover of a 1842 book published in Manchester and London (The Three Prize Essays on Agriculture and the Corn Law):
What did the above mean? (In particular what did "the Three" mean?)...
- 1,340
9
votes
2
answers
5k
views
What is the earliest known example of triplets?
I have just come across the case of a woman who had triplets (a boy and two girls) baptised in Edinburgh on 9th April 1709. How long they survived after this, I don't know, but they survived to ...
- 529
9
votes
4
answers
679
views
Why was the BEF so ill-prepared for WW1?
I'm reading Peter Hart's The Great War: A Combat History of The First World War. I'm very new to studying history, but making my way. One thing that's stood out to me is how ill-prepared the British ...
- 273
2
votes
0
answers
180
views
Did James I of England have both male and female lovers?
I've read multiple biographies of James, and there is no consensus on whether he was bisexual. He had four children with his wife, Ann of Denmark, but he also had many repeated male favorites, some of ...
- 21
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Where did France build up its fleet in 1805-1814?
I was reading about The Battle of Trafalgar and found this interesting section about the consequences:
Napoleon instituted a large-scale shipbuilding programme that had produced a fleet of 80 ships ...
- 17.3k
1
vote
0
answers
296
views
What happened to the British universities during WWII?
For one of my courses at university, I chose to work on the topic of British students during the Second World war.
I suppose many of them interrupted their studies to go and fight, but what was the ...
- 11
7
votes
2
answers
2k
views
What is the exact meaning of England vs. Britain before/during/after the formation of the Kingdom of England in the Middle Ages?
I have been reading for the past few hours about all the various players in Western/Northern Europe:
Celts
Gauls
Germanic People
Anglo Saxons
Britons
Iberians
Aquitani
etc.
Wikipedia says of the ...
- 2,337
4
votes
1
answer
996
views
How did one get accepted into university in 19th century England?
So, here's all I (believe to) know on this topic and some follow up questions:
Only the more wealthy (upper and middle class) did have the resources to send their offspring (of course mostly only the ...
- 305
5
votes
2
answers
318
views
What office or status did these individuals hold in Roman-Britain based on their attire?
I saw this Roman period wall painting in The Dorset County Museum. It was recovered from a mid-fourth century mausoleum located in a Roman cemetery from Poundbury between 1969 and 1970.
The wall ...
7
votes
2
answers
2k
views
When did the Royal Navy start to fill a given rank of admiral with more than one officer?
Admirals in the Royal Navy used to follow the coloured-squadron system. If I have understood correctly, when this practice first arose in the seventeenth century, there really were precisely nine ...
- 725
28
votes
1
answer
4k
views
How likely is it that any non-Celtic language was spoken in the British Isles when the Romans invaded?
We know from Roman writers the names (or Latinized versions of them) of many ancient British tribes that they encountered, the Iceni, Parisi, Trinovantes etc. but the Romans were rarely interested in ...
- 5,631
4
votes
0
answers
145
views
Did anyone in the 19th century deliberately use bank runs to bankrupt their competitiors like in *Tai-Pan* by James Clavell?
In James Clavell's semi-historical novel Tai-Pan, Dirk Struan and Tyler Brock head two competing British merchant companies that earn their income by trade with China around the time of the Opium Wars:...
- 141
13
votes
1
answer
1k
views
What were "prison-bars" (some sort of "amusement" or "athletic exercise")?
Richard Guest, A Compendious History of Cotton Manufacture (1823):
The amusements of the people have changed with their character. Athletic exercises of Quoits, Wrestling, Foot-ball, Prison-bars and ...
user54367
2
votes
0
answers
114
views
In light of genetic genealogy, are there any new theories for the introduction of Goidelic to Britain and Ireland
There is DNA evidence of two major waves of Indo-European migration to Britain and Ireland.
The first wave of migration occurred in the early Bronze Age.
The second wave of migration occurred in the ...
- 29
-1
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How much did King George III of Britain weigh?
I cannot, for the life of me, find out how much King George III of Britain weighs. I would like to know his physical stature, as I am making a rhythmic poem with my class.
user52533
4
votes
1
answer
286
views
How many Scots were present at the Battle of Bauge?
The Battle of Bauge
According to Wikipedia the Battle of Bauge was a decisive battle in liberating France from England during the one hundred years war. Apparently the battle was won by a five ...
- 3,142
2
votes
1
answer
292
views
When and where were British pub games first played?
I've been searching for the answer of the origin/ history of pub games in British pubs. However, this is what I've encountered in some different sources ( including Wikipedia):
In his book, Beer and ...
- 21
3
votes
1
answer
243
views
How were British monarchs educated about military strategy in the Middle Ages and early modern period?
It seems Erasmus and the like gave humanist education in classics and liberal arts. It also seems tactics were taught through childhood games, hunting, and archery contests. But what about the skill ...
- 61
6
votes
1
answer
4k
views
At what age did girls start wearing corsets in 1880s-1890s Britain?
So, I found some contradicting information to answer this on the internet and almost none of it was dated to a specific time of the victorian era, so I would like to know if anyone can answer this ...
- 305
-4
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Why didn't the Allies use a naval invasion to retake Norway?
Norway was captured by Germany during WWII, and been liberated from Germany after Karl Dönitz signed the surrender treaty with the Allies. But there were some chances for Allies to create an assistant ...
- 117
4
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Has a British peer ever come to live in a typically lower class way?
Recognizing that social class in Britain does not correspond to wealth, that that peers have been gambling away fortunes since time immemorial, has a hereditary peer, a duke, marquess, or earl, ever ...
- 195
2
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Were titles in the British Peerage ever connected to land grants, and if so, when did they stop being connected to land?
I have been trying to understand the peerage systems of Britain as of late, and I have a number of questions.
Let's assume we're in the middle ages. A baron-in-chief, Thomas Smith, holds a number of ...
- 75
1
vote
1
answer
127
views
Which 4 states were not present to ratify the treaty of Paris on January 14th, 1784?
Which 4 states were not present to ratify the treaty of Paris on January 14th, 1784
- 19
0
votes
2
answers
237
views
Is there a British equivalent in architectural history to American cabins?
I've been watching a lot of American horror movies, and a big trope is the characters staying in old, abandoned cabins in the woods. Or if not cabins then lodges, or in Westerns or haberdasheries etc. ...
23
votes
4
answers
7k
views
Why did Churchill become the PM of Britain during WWII instead of Lord Halifax?
It looks as though both Churchill and Lord Halifax were considered for the top job in 1940, but Halifax turned it down and Churchill took it.
History is not my area of specialization, so I cannot dig ...
- 397
11
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Did Victorian parents raise their children "sexless" to prolong innocence?
I was reading the (albeit not very historical) Chatelaine article "Can You Actually Raise A Baby Free From Gender?" and came across the statement:
The notion that a boy should have short ...
- 1,666
3
votes
1
answer
467
views
Was it illegal to express sympathy for Nazi Germany during WW2 in Great Britain?
Was it illegal to express sympathy for Nazi Germany during WW2 in Great Britain?
Say you are a citizen and you want your goverment to make peace with Hitler. You even want GB to become a puppet state ...
- 133
0
votes
0
answers
55
views
When did Canada get the rights reserved by the 1867 British North America Act? [duplicate]
After becoming a country in 1867, Canada was not entirely independent. Britain retained 3 important powers: control of Canada’s defense, control of Canada’s foreign relations, and the requirement to ...
- 1
1
vote
1
answer
165
views
What had caused Northumbrian to become similar to Old Danish before the Viking invasions? [closed]
As mentioned here, the difference between the version of Old English spoken in Northumbria around the year 800 and Old Norse as spoken by the Vikings (basically Old Danish) was much less than the ...
- 179
1
vote
0
answers
146
views
Can you identify these military tunes (17th-century)?
Would anyone happen to know the names of two historic tunes (fifth and drum) in the Revolutionary War? I linked the descriptions below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPbn_uipW10&loop=0&start=...
- 119
4
votes
2
answers
256
views
How did Britain and Russia block the railway in Iran?
Karen Armstrong (2000):
[...] both Britain and Russia promoted only the technology that furthered their own interests and blocked such inventions as the railway, which might have benefited the ...
user29153
3
votes
1
answer
689
views
How was sugar consumed by industrial revolution workers?
I seen several times the claim than sugar was an essential nutrient for industrial revolution workers (for example this blog) and even that sugar availability made possible the industrial revolution, ...
- 3,801
4
votes
1
answer
1k
views
What happened to the North Saxons? [closed]
There's an old joke to the effect of "Wessex was the kingdom of the West Saxons, Essex was the kingdom of the East Saxons, Sussex was the kingdom of the South Saxons, Middlesex was the kingdom of the ...
- 8,740
8
votes
2
answers
1k
views
How, where and when did Lily Pettigrew die?
Lily Pettigrew (born Lilian Pettigrew, on 25 Feb 1870, in Portsmouth in the UK) was a famous artist's model in turn-of-the-century London, alongside her equally famous sisters Hetty and Rose. She is ...
- 1,023
5
votes
1
answer
230
views
What did the English people during the Peasants' Revolt know about the Ciompi Revolt?
The Ciompi revolt started in Florence in June 1378 and the Peasants' Revolt started in England in May 1381, just three years later.
Did the news about Ciompi Revolt reach England in three years?
Did ...
2
votes
0
answers
46
views
WW1 trying to identify squadron and aircrew
Recently discovered photo belonging to my grandfather. I was told he took this but not so sure...
He was connected with 57 Squadron but I can find no info about it.
Keen to be able to identify anyone ...
- 21
3
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Did any "tanks in front" tactic exist during WW2?
I am searching for a tactic that would be in service in the British and/or French army during WW2. It would consist in placing the tank on forward position of other elements, especially in front of ...
- 7,392
2
votes
3
answers
596
views
Which factors led to the different casualty ratio betwen British and German forces during the Battle of Normandy?
I take for example the VIIIth corps of the British Army, which was part of multiple operations in Normandy in 1944. If you go through the different operations listed in the article, there are very ...
- 7,392
-5
votes
1
answer
346
views
Are the English Celts? [closed]
I was reading that a "native" English person (the average person tracing their ancestors in England say 200 years at least) has about 30% Anglo-Saxon DNA and 3% Viking DNA.
Presumably the other 67% ...
- 201
9
votes
1
answer
2k
views
A common find of metal detectorists across Britain is the silver "love token", from around 1700. Do any contemporary sources describe the custom?
A typical example. Anecdotally, a young man would give a love token to his intended who would continue to carry it around, or throw it away if she failed to return his affections.
The majority are ...
- 407
10
votes
0
answers
630
views
Do any of the commercially produced Hinton cubes still exist?
In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, British mathematician Charles Howard Hinton developed a system for visualizing the fourth dimension in his books “A New Era of Thought” and “The Fourth Dimension”. ...
- 2,546
16
votes
3
answers
5k
views
Can anyone identify the regiment and rank from this WWI photograph?
I am trying to identify the person in this WWI era photograph. I believe it may be my great great uncle John Hunt Marshall born Dec 29 1893 in Motherwell, Scotland. He graduated with a BSc from the ...
- 425
1
vote
0
answers
155
views
Why did the form Baron OF Somewhere drop out of use?
The Question
In the various British peerages - i.e. the peerages of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom - one finds titles of the form Duke of X, Marquess of X and Earl ...
- 2,385
-4
votes
1
answer
917
views
Why were the British Union of Fascist outfits so bad compared to the Nazis? [closed]
Looking at Oswald Mosley's fascists "blackshirts", it struck me that the tailoring on their costumes was quite bad compared to their German counterparts.
Photos I've seen look like black boiler suits ...
- 201
25
votes
4
answers
12k
views
Was it possible for a message from Paris to reach London within 48 hours in 1782?
I used to have a paperback copy of Diplomacy of the American Revolution by Samuel Flagg Bemis, but now I can't find it. I seem to recall that American diplomats in Paris in 1782 (Franklin, Adams, Jay) ...
- 3,383
2
votes
1
answer
533
views
How many RAF and USAAF/USAF airfields were built in the UK between the mid-1930s and 1960?
Whenever I fly over southern or eastern England I see a lot of runways, many of them disused. The majority were built during WW2 for the RAF and USAAF, others date back to the early cold war years. ...
- 1,358
10
votes
4
answers
478
views
How did American colonial rights and conditions compare to those within the British Isles?
A major point of contention between American colonists and British administrators was that the American colonists, being the descendants of Englishmen, allegedly should have been entitled to ...
user17846
9
votes
1
answer
355
views
What would a Roman education include in the years 77 - 85?
In the year 77 Gnaeus Julius Agricola under Vespasian was made consul and governor of Britannia, among a series of military campaigns into north and west Britain he also pushed for various civil and ...