Favourite Story From History

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The story of how the Muslims took Krak De Chevaliers - a castle that should have been impervious to siege is great.

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Has anybody mentioned the exploits of Alexander John Rae? His life is an amazing story of an intrepid explorer who amongst other things discovered the fate of Franklin's ill-fated expedition to discover the North West Passage.
His leaked report to the navy that the survivors resorted to cannibalism rocked English society, and infuriated Franklin's wife.
She subsequently enlisted the help of Charles Dickens to discredit Rae and his findings - the eloquent Dickens completely assassinated Rae's character. This in turn helped to secure further funding from the Navy for search parties (who verified Rae's original findings).
Rae's reputation and standing in British society never really recovered, and to this day he's not been granted the recognition he deserves for his exploits.
He was an accomplished physician and an intrepid explorer, who often favoured Inuit methods and customs to perform incredible feats of endurance - particularly in overland trekking and small boat navigation.

Anyway, Ken Mcgoogan wrote a great book on his life, called "Fatal Passage". It's a great read, particularly for those who enjoy the stories of contemporaries like Amundsen, Nansen, Shackleton et al.
 
Roylion said:
Certainly one of my favourite stores from history is the story of Richard Couer-de-Lion on the Third Crusade. It had everything. Weddings, shipwrecks, friends becoming enemies, political intrigue, betrayals, assassinations, epic battles and sieges, religious fanaticism, feats of personal bravery, acts of both chivalry and atrocity, moments of triumph and moments of crushing failure, as well as an epic clash of religion with the ultimate prize of the Holy City.
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England's great hero who spent precisely 6 months of his life in England, never learned English, and considered himself French.
 
MaddAdam said:
England's great hero who spent precisely 6 months of his life in England, never learned English, and considered himself French.
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Six months of his reign. He was born in England (at Oxford to be precise) and spent the first eight years of his life there, visiting England periodically during his father's reign.

French was the mother tongue of all English kings from William the Conqueror until Henry IV (1399–1413)
 
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Norwood1878 said:
I'm a huge fan of war escape stories. I love the story of the "Wooden Horse" and life at Colditz Castle.
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My grandfather was in Bomber Command and got shot down and survived.

He said the Australians, Canadians, Kiwis and Yanks all hated the Brits, who were forever trying to escape, and that when one of their plots was uncovered, everyone would be punished. He was captured in April 1944, and after D-Day, everyone knew that it was a matter of when the Allies won and they were liberated.

They especially despised the way British officers would try and maintain hierarchical command structures inside the camps. He went so far as to say they had more time for their guards than they did the Brit officers. The guards were Luftwaffe and they knew their own comrades were being treated decently in the Allied POW camps, so there was a certain camaraderie there.

In the end, the Germans came to them one day and said "the Russians are going to be here in two days, we're bailing, you can come with us if you want, or you can stay here, or you can just head off".

The Aussies got together and immediately bailed together, in "defiance" of "orders" from the Brits, who wanted everyone to move as one.

They later killed a dog and ate it, but that's another story.

(I actually visited the site where my grandad's plane crashed in Belgium last year, and, amazingly, found a piece of wreckage. So I have ... more accurately, my Mum has, I gave it to her ... a piece of the Halifax bomber shot down over Belgium by a Me110 in 1944 sitting on a mantelpiece in Brunswick in 2015.)
 
smokingjacket said:
I often find it funny when reading about Roman Generals sexuality as a comparison to modern stereoptypes about homosexuality. Generally bedding a man was considered strong, masculine and virtuous for a soldier. Where as those who womanised were considered effeminate types who sat by riverbanks writing poetry.

Almost like the old country Australian attitude of 'chicks are for NTTAWWTs.'

Or this bit from Steve Hughes:

Thanks for the tip on Lucius Sulla btw. I love stories about the great figures of Rome.
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Was it Tiberius who was considered a bit off because he only liked women?
 
Roylion said:
Six months of his reign. He was born in England.At Oxford to be precise.

French was the mother tongue of all English kings until Henry IV (1399–1413)
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Yes, my bad.
 
MaddAdam said:
Yes, my bad.
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And there's nothing to suggest he wouldn't have known at least a few words of English. He spoke several languages and lived in England for the first eight years of his life. His wet nurse Hodierna of St Albans and his foster brother Alexander of Neckham were also English.
 
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CLUBMEDhurst said:
Love the story of Varus' lost legions, Roman hubris put to the sword.



Pretty impressive triumvirate. I'd add Agrippa, without whom Octavius would never have been Augustus
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Arminius is a bad mofo. I like Arminius a lot.
 

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Mofra said:
Many (most?) Irish surnames are bastardisations of Norse first names, changed over the centuries.
Their influence is often under-stated.
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Dublin was founded as a Viking settlement, as was Wexford.
 
The Endurance Expedition. A science-type expedition to the Antarctic that began in 1914. However, the ship gets caught in early winter ice and they end up staying down there by themselves a very long time with twists and turns...

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This is a very good feature-length documentary about it. Narrated by Liam Neeson!

I really recommend downloading a torrent or watching it on YouTube


They get back home 3 years later, but World War One has been happening for 3 years so it's one day news and never gets the attention for the incredible story it was (understandable with millions of deaths in Europe). Some of them sign up for the war effort and die that way :(

Surprised Hollywood has never made a movie about it to be honest. Story writes itself.
 
There's quote that comes out of Shackleton's expedition:

The expedition left just after WWI started. When they finally re-made contact with people, one of the questions they asked in the first days was 'Who won the war?'.

The reply (and I'm paraphrasing) - 'The war is still going on. Millions have been killed. The world has gone mad'.

Best summary of WWI - from a whaler in South Georgia.
 
MaddAdam said:
Was it Tiberius who was considered a bit off because he only liked women?
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Vaguely. Was a long time ago that I read the LRB review on a book about Roman/Greek sexuality, Empire and British sexual morality. I followed up the book while I was studying and the book went in to some depth but as I said it was a while ago now and I'm a bit rusty on the classics tbh. The concept stayed with me though.

I was quite fond of saying among family members and friends when they were watching Gladiator for the billionth time, "if this was historically accurate, Russell Crowe would be ******* a young boy for his own good right now" and leaving the room.
 
MaddAdam said:
I see the nerves of CAS are getting to you people.

Were you there to argue otherwise?
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lol no, just thought what you said was way too harsh for someone who has gotten their information just from books. It's hard to comment too much and with such strong words if you never have experienced it.

Thats all. Carry on.
 
Fletched said:
I find Rommels's death in WW2 to be such a sad story. One of the best strategists and one of the most humane of the German Generals then after doing so much work for Germany and becoming a national hero he is forced to commit suicide by Hitler to save his family.
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Have you heard of Albert Goring, the brother of Hermann Goring?
 
For those interested, I stumbled upon this trailer recently. 'tis a Russian production on the life of Vladimir The Great, who built an empire after surviving assassination attempts by his brothers and converting to Orthodox christianity

Vladimir the Great sent envoys to study the religions of the various neighboring nations whose representatives had been urging him to embrace their respective faiths. The result is described by the chronicler Nestor. Of the MuslimBulgarians of the Volga the envoys reported there is no gladness among them, only sorrow and a great stench. He also reported that Islam was undesirable due to its taboo against alcoholic beverages andpork.[19] Vladimir remarked on the occasion: "Drinking is the joy of all Rus'. We cannot exist without that pleasure."[20] Ukrainian and Russian sources also describe Vladimir consulting with Jewish envoys and questioning them about their religion, but ultimately rejecting it as well, saying that their loss ofJerusalem was evidence that they had been abandoned by God. His emissaries also visited Roman Catholic and Orthodoxmissionaries.[citation needed] Ultimately Vladimir settled on Eastern Orthodox Christianity. In the churches of the Germans his emissaries saw no beauty; but at Constantinople, where the full festival ritual of the Byzantine Church was set in motion to impress them, they found their ideal: "We no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth," they reported, describing a majestic Divine Liturgy in Hagia Sophia, "nor such beauty, and we know not how to tell of it." If Vladimir was impressed by this account of his envoys, he was even more attracted by the political gains of the Byzantine alliance.
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Looks a belter
 
Max Baker said:
Were you there?
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It is a matter of record that the Spartans were massive scumbags, even compared to the other civilisations of their time.

And they were massive fascists too. Infanticide, slavery, war. The three pillars of Spartan "society".

MA's comment was spot on.
 
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