Histominoes

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November 11th - 17th


On 11th November…


On 12th November…

1912 - Captain Robert Scott’s body was found with his diary in the Antarctic.

Captain Scott had set out with a group of eleven other men in a race to reach the South Pole. The team were beset by problems, and before they had reached their destination, they had fallen to just five men; the others having to return to base camp. The remaining men managed to reach the South Pole on January 17th, 1912 but found that Roald Amundsen, a Norwegian, had already beaten them to it. Frustrated that they had been beaten, they started their return journey only to be battered by exceptionally bad weather which kept them inside a tent for nine days. Their supplies of food ran out and slowly the men starved to death knowing that another food supply was less than eleven miles away. Captain Scott kept a diary of their exploits, his final entry was on March 29th, 1912. Searchers for the men found their bodies in their tent along with the diary. The men were buried where they were found.


On 13th November…

1093 - King Malcolm III of Scotland died in battle at Alnwick. He was trying to gain land for Scotland and reclaim the English throne for his brother-in-law Edgar, whom he believed was the rightful heir to the English throne, following the Norman invasion.

1642 - The Battle of Turnham Green took place just outside London between the royalist troops of King Charles I and the men of the Parliamentarian army during the English Civil War.

1839 - The last Stamford Bull Run was held in Stamford, Lincolnshire. The event was held every year on St Brice’s Day or 13th November and had been a custom since the days of King John. A large bull was chased through the streets of Stamford and into Bull Meadow across the river where it would be slaughtered, and its meat given to the poor people of Stamford.


On 14th November…


On 15th November…

655 - The pagan King Penda of Mercia died at the Battle of Winwaed. He was defeated by the Christian King Oswiu of Bernicia, another kingdom of Anglo-Saxon England. Oswiu’s win helped him to gain power over the northern kingdoms in England uniting them into the larger kingdom of Northumbria.


On 16th November…

42BCE - The Roman Emperor Tiberius was born in Rome. He was the second Roman Emperor and the adopted son of Augustus Caesar, also known as Octavius, who was the first Emperor of Rome.


On 17th November…

680 - Hilda of Whitby died. She was the great-niece of King Edwin of Northumbria and was one of the most famous figures of Christian Anglo-Saxon England. She was the founding abbess of Whitby Monastery which was home to both monks and nuns. Local legend says that Hilda rid the area of snakes and evil serpents by praying to God to remove the snakes’ heads and to turn their bodies to stone. When she caught the snakes and threw them off the top of the Abbey Cliff and the snakes all turned to stone in the heat of her anger. There are many ammonite fossils along the beach below that resemble headless snakes, could the legend be true?

1292 - John Balliol became King of Scotland following the deaths of both King Alexander III and his 7-year-old granddaughter, Margaret, the Maid of Norway. John was proclaimed King of Scotland by King Edward I of England who had been called upon to help the Scottish nobles decide on a new king because they could’t all agree. Unfortunately for John Balliol, the king of England had made John submit and recognise Edward I as John’s superior. Edward expected John to be loyal to England. This angered the Scottish nobles who then insisted that King John Balliol sign a treaty with France and refuse to help England with its war against the French. King Edward was furious at the Scottish betrayal and marched an army into Scotland where he defeated John Balliol at the Battle of Dunbar and stripped him of his royal status. Edward also removed the Scottish Stone of Destiny, where the Kings of Scotland were crowned, to try and stop Scotland from being able to make another king. This action marked the beginning of the Scottish Wars of Independence.