May 9th - 15th
“A royal reward; a life-saving vaccine; exiled to Australia; a terrible defeat; and two assassination attempts in one day... Want to find out more? Read on...”
On 9th May…
1671 - Thomas Blood, an Irish adventurer better known as ‘Captain Blood’ was caught trying to steal the crown jewels from the Tower of London. Thomas Blood was a Parliamentarian during the English Civil War and had his estates taken from him when the monarchy was restored in 1660. Instead of being executed for his treasonous act, Thomas Blood was made a member of the Royal Court and had his land and estates returned to him by Charles II who was impressed by his sheer audacity. Whoever said crime doesn’t pay never met Thomas Blood.
1949 - Britain’s first launderette opened in Bayswater, London.
On 10th May…
King Edward I loses Battle of Loudon Hill
1307 – King Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeated King Edward I’s English troops at the Battle of Loudon Hill. The Scottish army of about 600 men was far outnumbered by the English which had roughly five times as many men in its ranks (quick maths … 600 x 5 = 3,000) but that didn’t deter the brave Scots.
Instead of facing the English in a large-scale battle, the Scots waged guerrilla warfare and attacked the English army in small hit-and-run style ambushes. This forced the English troops to take a narrow route towards the Scots who were on higher ground; the English were hemmed in on one side by a river and on the other by thick, wet, boggy marshland. Their cavalry charged towards the Scots but fell into the hidden ditches that had been dug out to trap the horses and their riders, the horses behind were galloping too fast to be able to stop and landed on top of those already fallen. It was a disaster for the English from the start.
1940 - Winston Churchill replaced Neville Chamberlain as Prime Minister of Britain, leading the coalition government through World War II.
On 11th May…
1812 - The British Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval, was assassinated by a deranged businessman who was angry at his failure to get any government assistance whilst he was wrongly imprisoned in Russia for five years for an alleged debt. The assassin, John Bellingham was executed a week later despite being declared insane.
Spencer Perceval is the only Prime Minister to have been murdered.
On 12th May…
Florence Nightingale born
1820 – Florence Nightingale, the British nurse famous for her contribution to nursing, was born in Italy. She was known as the ‘Lady with the Lamp’ by the soldiers she cared for during the Crimean War. Did you know she was named after the city where she was born?
George VI crowned King
1937 - The coronation of King George VI took place in Westminster Abbey. George VI is the father of Queen Elizabeth II and only became king when his brother Edward VIII abdicated.
On 13th May…
Mary Queen of Scots loses the Battle of Langside
1568 - Mary Queen of Scots was defeated at the Battle of Langside. Mary had been forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son, James and was trying to reclaim her crown from the Earl of Moray, Lord James Stewart who was the Regent acting on behalf of the young King James VI of Scotland. After the defeat Mary fled to England where she was imprisoned for nineteen years before being executed by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I.
1787 - Captain Arthur Philip set sail from Portsmouth to Australia with a fleet of eleven ships to set up a new penal colony. The fleet of ships which became known as the ‘First Fleet’, contained convicts, supplies and naval personnel and took 252 days to reach Australia. Captain Arthur Philip later became the founding governor of the Colony of New South Wales.
On 14th May…
1796 - Edward Jenner, a British doctor, discovered the vaccine for smallpox which was one of the most deadly and contagious diseases known to man. It is the only disease (to date) to have been totally eradicated by vaccination. Jenner’s vaccine was the first successful vaccine to be developed.
1881 - Mary Jane Seacole died in London. She was born in Jamaica to a Scottish father and a Jamaican mother and began to learn healing skills using local herbs and plants from her mother who looked after injured soldiers. Mary added to her knowledge of traditional medicines when she travelled around the Caribbean and learnt about Western or European medicines. She travelled to England and asked to be sent to the Crimea as an army nurse where there was a shortage of medical facilities. Mary was refused, but undeterred she paid for her own travel and set up a British Hotel to provide a comfortable place for sick and injured soldiers. She became known as ‘Mother Seacole’.
On 15th May…
King George III survives to tell the tale.
1800 - There were two assassination attempts on King George III. The first attempt of the day was whilst he was in Hyde Park reviewing a troop of soldiers. The king was shot at and the bullet narrowly missed him.
The second attempt took place the same evening when the king, who was not worried or alarmed by the first attack that morning, visited a theatre. He was shot at again as he entered the Royal Box at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London. As the culprit was caught and detained, the king insisted that the show continue as planned.
Would you have been brave enough to go out the same evening if somebody had tried to kill you earlier in the day?