February 17th - 23rd
On 17th February…
1461 - The second Battle of St Albans during the Wars of the Roses took place in and around St Albans in Hertfordshire, England. The Wars of the Roses were battles between cousin’s fighting over who should be king of England. At the time it was called the Cousin’s War but has since been renamed the Wars of the Roses after the emblems of the two Houses that were fighting. The House of Lancaster had a red rose for its emblem and was originally led by King Henry VI and later Henry Tudor who became King Henry VII whilst the House of York was represented by a white rose and led by King Edward IV and later his brother, King Richard III.
On 18th February…
1478 - George Plantagenet, Duke of Clarence, was executed in the Tower of London for plotting against his brother, King Edward IV. There are rumours that he was drowned in a barrel of wine.
On 19th February…
1473 - Nicolaus Copernicus was born in Poland. He introduced the idea that the earth revolves around the sun.
On 20th February…
1986 - Britain and France announced that they would build the Channel Tunnel. Work didn’t begin until 1988 and it finally opened in 1994. At its lowest point the tunnel is 75m below the seabed, it is nearly 38 kilometres long and cost £9 billion to build. Did you know that it is the longest undersea tunnel in the world? Did you also know that the Victorians began to excavate a tunnel between England and France? Parts of that tunnel still exist today.
On 21st February…
On 22nd February…
1371 - Following the death of King David II, son of Robert the Bruce, King Robert II became King of Scotland starting the Stuart (or Stewart) Dynasty. Initially they were only rulers of Scotland, but in 1603 upon the death of Queen Elizabeth I, King James VI of Scotland (Elizabeth’s cousin) also became king of England. From then the Stuart Dynasty ruled over both England and Scotland.