November 11th - 17th
On 11th November…
The English and Scottish thrones were united in marriage
1100 - King Henry I married Princess Matilda of Scotland in Westminster Abbey. Their marriage united the Norman and Saxon lines to the throne. Matilda also known as Maud was the daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland. She was also the great-great-niece of Edward the Confessor, once King of England.
Armistice Day
1918 - The Armistice (which is an agreement to stop fighting) signed by both the Allies and Germany in World War I, came into effect on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month. It was called the Treaty of Versailles and it meant that the war was over. Over 8.5 million soldiers had died fighting; over 21 million soldiers were wounded; and the total casualties of the war including prisoners and missing persons was over 37 million people - that’s more than half the population of the U.K today.
This day is remembered around the world under various names - Remembrance Day, Armistice Day, Veterans Day. Here in the U.K. people buy and wear red poppies to remember those who fought and died defending our country and our freedom; and on Remembrance Sunday, just after the two-minute silence and gun salute, soldiers and veterans march through Whitehall to the Cenotaph to place wreaths of poppies in honour of the fallen soldiers. The poppy was the first flower to start blooming all over the battlefields where many soldiers had fallen.
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…
Aethelred orders the execution of all Vikings in England
1002 - King Aethelred the Unready ordered the killing of all Danes or Vikings in the Anglo-Saxon territories of England in the St Brice’s Day Massacre. He believed that the Vikings were plotting to kill him and his men, and were going to take over England. The order to execute the Vikings in England would prove to be a very bad decision as their short fast raids turned into a continual onslught of attacks which lasted over a decade.
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.
Edward III was born
1312 - King Edward III of England was born in Windsor Castle. He was the eldest son of King Edward II and became king when his father died in 1327.
Lady Jane Grey found guilty of treason
1553 - Having been imprisoned in the Tower of London for several months, Lady Jane Grey, was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death. Lady Jane was queen of England for just nine days following the death of her cousin King Edward VI. Despite having two sisters, Mary and Elizabeth, Edward VI had proclaimed Jane as his rightful heir, making her queen.
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…
King William III was 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.
King Charles III was born
1948 - King Charles III was born in London. He is the eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and is 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, who was the first Emperor of Rome.
Death of King Henry III
1272 - King Henry III of England died. Henry was only nine years old when he became king. At the time 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. The barons were unhappy with the king’s reign and once they had made him a prisoner, they began to rule England in the Henry’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 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.
Queen Mary I died
1558 - Queen Mary I of England died. She was 42 years old and died without children to inherit the throne. This meant that her half-sister Elizabeth became Queen Elizabeth I.