March 24th - 30th
On 24th March…
Death of Queen Elizabeth I
1603 - Queen Elizabeth I died bringing an end to the Tudor reign of England.
Elizabeth I had no children and left no heir to the throne, so King James VI of Scotland, her second cousin and closest relative, became King James I of England; with his rule, the reign of the Stuarts began.
On 25th March…
1306 - Robert the Bruce became King Robert I of Scotland. At his lowest point he hid out in a cave after being defeated in battle, he was about to give up when he watched a spider try and fail and try again to build a web. This inspired him to regroup his troops and march into battle once more with the now famous phrase, “If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again.”
1807 - The slave trade was abolished in the UK. This meant that anybody transporting or selling slaves was breaking British law although slavery itself wasn’t abolished in the UK until 1834.
On 26th March…
1945 - David Lloyd George, the politician who was Prime Minister of Britain during World War I died of cancer.
Burial fit for a king
2015 - King Richard III’s body was buried in Leicester Cathedral. The king had died at the Battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 and his body had lain in an unmarked grave that was found underneath a car park in Leicester. DNA testing proved the skeleton to be that of King Richard III and he was finally given a proper burial with all the grandeur fit for a king.
On 27th March…
Charles I became King of England
1625 - King Charles I became King of England when his father James I died. Charles I is the only English monarch to have been tried and executed for treason.
1968 - Yuri Gagarin, the first man in space, crashed and died whilst on a training flight.
On 28th March…
Vikings attacked Paris
845 - Vikings attacked the city of Paris on Easter Sunday. They arrived in a fleet of about 120 ships with about 4,000 men and plundered and ransacked Paris until the king gave them 7,000lbs (about 3175kg) of silver to leave.
On 29th March…
Battle of Towton
1461 - The bloodiest battle ever to take place on British soil occurred in freezing temperatures and a snowstorm. Around 28,000 men were killed at the Battle of Towton during the Wars of the Roses. The Wars were battles between cousins over who was the rightful king of England; Richard Duke of York, and then his son Edward of York (whose emblem was the white rose) fought King Henry VI of Lancaster (whose emblem was a red rose). This particular battle was won by Edward who rode into York and removed the head of his dead father which had been placed on a spike at a gateway to the city. Richard had been defeated in a battle three months earlier and his head was stuck on a spike as a warning to others. Things were definitely very messy back then.
1981 -The first ever London Marathon took place. Out of the 7,741 runners who started the race only 6,255 people finished. In 2024 over 53,000 runners completed the London marathon.
On 30th March…
Berwick upon Tweed was stormed by King Edward I
1296 – King Edward I ordered his troops to sack the city of Berwick upon Tweed killing over 7,000 men, women, and children during the course of several days. Edward was angry that Scotland had signed a treaty with France called the Auld Alliance. To show his rage he began by attacking Berwick upon Tweed, which at the time was an important and large city. Edward had given the city a chance to surrender before he attacked, but the officials of the city decided not to give up and took their chance at survival. I guess they regretted that decision pretty quickly when the soldiers stormed the city.