November 14th - 20th
“Three royal births, four royal deaths, a royal marriage, two huge fires, and over 100 protestors arrested this week in history...”
On 14th November…
King William III is born in The Hague
1650 - King William III of England was born Prince Willem of Orange in The Hague, Netherlands. He was a son of Mary the daughter of King Charles I and married Mary his cousin, who was daughter of King James VII & II. both he and his wife Mary were asked to take the throne when the English Parliament were not happy with how King James VII & II was ruling England.
Charles III is born
1948 - King Charles III was born in London. He is the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II was the oldest person to become King of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
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, the first man to become Emperor of Rome.
King Henry III dies
1272 - King Henry III of England died. Henry was only nine years old when his father King John died leaving him to become King Henry III. A council of regency was set up to help him rule the kingdom because he was so young.
In 1264, Henry III and his eldest son, Edward, were captured by English barons, led by a baron called Simon de Montfort. They were unhappy with the king’s reign and once they had caught King Henry and were holding him prisoner, they began to rule England in the king’s name. This meant that they ruled the country pretending the king had agreed to everything they said.
Prince Edward managed to escape and raised an army to defeat the barons at the Battle of Evesham where he successfully killed Simon de Montfort and released his father. When Henry III died his son, Edward became King Edward I.
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 snake’s heads and to turn their bodies to stone, she then threw them off the top of the Abbey Cliff and then 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.
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 by King Edward I of England who had been called upon to help decide on a new king for Scotland by Scottish nobles who couldn’t agree who should be the next king. Unfortunately for John Balliol the king of England had made him submit and recognise himself as John’s superior and expected John to be loyal to England. This angered the Scottish nobles who insisted that King John Balliol refuse to help England with its war against France and instead sign a treaty with France. 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 stop Scotland from being able to make another king. This began the Scottish Wars of Independence.
Queen Mary I dies
1558 - Queen Mary I of England died. She was 42 years old and died without children which meant that her half-sister Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth I.
On 18th November…
1477 - William Caxton printed the first dated book in England using the printing press. It was called ‘Dictes and Sayenges of the Phylosophers’.
1910 - More than 100 female protestors were arrested when Suffragettes tried to storm the Houses of Parliament on what became known as Black Friday. Suffragettes were women who were fighting for the rights of all women to be able to vote. Violence raged between the demonstrators, police, and crowds of on-lookers. All the women were released without charge the next day. Reports of the day given in the newspapers by journalists, by the police and by Suffragettes all differed drastically, each side manipulating the story to their advantage.
1987 - A fire on the London Underground at Kings Cross Station killed 31 people including a senior fire-fighter. The fire is believed to have started when a lit match dropped through a gap on the wooden escalators and set fire to grease and litter beneath. After the tragedy new safety measures were brought into place; smoking was now banned on the Underground and all wooden escalators in every station were replaced with metal ones.
On 19th November…
King Charles I is born in Scotland
1600 - King Charles I was born in Dunfermline in Scotland. He was the second son of James VI & I and did not expect to become king. It was only after his older brother Henry died that Charles was destined to rule. Unfortunately, his reign did not go too well, and England was drawn into a bitter and bloody Civil War between Parliamentarians and Royalists. The Royalists lost the war, and King Charles I was executed. The monarchy was replaced by a Lord Protector of England - Oliver Cromwell.
On 20th November…
869 - King Edmund, a Saxon king of East Anglia was killed by Vikings who had tied him to a tree, shot him with arrows and then beheaded him. He was killed after being defeated in battle and because he refused to give up his Christian faith; because of this he became known as both Edmund the Martyr and St Edmund. Before his death, King Edmund had fought alongside King Alfred the Great in battle and his remains were moved to Bury St Edmunds where King Athelstan founded a shrine to him. The shrine became a place of national pilgrimage. Did you know that he was the original patron saint of England before St George was adopted as the patron saint?
Queen Elizabeth II marries Philip Mountbatten
1947 - Queen Elizabeth II, who was still a princess at the time, married Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten at Westminster Abbey. The BBC recorded and broadcast the event which was shown to 200 million people around the world. Did you know that her wedding cake was 2.75 metres tall?
1992 - A fire broke out at Windsor Castle when a faulty spotlight set fire to a curtain. The fire damaged 115 rooms, burned for 15 hours and took 225 firefighters to put out. Luckily nobody died and only two works of art were destroyed as many pieces had been removed in advance of works being carried out. Windsor Castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world and is an official residence of Queen Elizabeth II.