European History – Sharing History

Of Scots and Brits

May 1, 2024May 7, 2024European HistoryLeave a Comment

On May 1, 1707, the Act of Union went into effect, solidifying the union of England and Scotland and creating Great Britain. In voting for this treaty, the parliament of Scotland voted to dismantle their own organization, deciding that the two nations would furthermore be ruled by only one governing body. What would prompt Scotland to voluntarily give up its independence?

In truth, the process of unification between England and Scotland began in 1603, almost one hundred years before the Act of Union came into effect. In 1603, Queen Elizabeth I died with no heirs. The next in line for the English throne was her cousin, James Stuart, who was the King of Scotland. He took upon himself the mantle of both crowns, uniting the two nations under one monarchy, though both countries maintained their own parliament.

The Stuart line ruled until the Glorious Revolution of 1688-1689. During this revolt, King James II was deposed and exiled. King James II, a staunch Catholic was seen as showing favoritism to his Catholic subjects. In addition, he believed that as God’s chosen ruler, his word superseded that of Parliament. In fact, James II dissolved parliament in 1687, planning to replace it with one that might be more disposed to blindly obey. The revolutionaries put James’s daughter, Mary, a protestant, on the throne, and parliament declared any Catholics from the Stuart line would be skipped in the order of succession. It was also written, as Mary and her sister Anne did not have any children, that in the event that the Stuart line end with them, succession would move to the Hanovers, another protestant line. There were those who weren’t happy with the results of the Glorious Revolution and desired to see the Stuart line restored to the throne. These people were referred to as Jacobites.

By 1701, Scotland was struggling financially. Though they shared a monarch, the Scots were excluded from trade with England’s colonies, which they sorely needed. On their part, England was terrified of a Jacobite rebellion. Scotland fed their fears by passing the 1703 Act of Security, which declared that Scotland was not required to support the Hanover succession. In the same session, the Scottish Parliament passed the Act anent Peace and War, which said that following Queen Anne’s death, Scotland would resume control of its own foreign affairs, refusing to continue to fight in England’s wars without receiving any of the resulting financial benefits. In response, English Parliament passed the Alien Act of 1705, making Scottish citizens unable to trade with England. This pushed the Scottish Parliament to acquiesce to a union with England. The Union was passed in January 1707 and went into effect on May 1, 1707.

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“Beware the Ides of March”

March 15, 2024May 7, 2024European HistoryLeave a Comment

You may have heard the famous phrase penned by William Shakespeare in his play Julius Caesar: “Beware the ides of March.” What are the ides of March, and why should we be wary of them?

According to the ancient Roman calendar, the ides were the 13-15^th day of each month. The calendar the Romans were using was extremely inconsistent. The calendar was on a four-year cycle with 12 months in the first and third years and 13 months in the second and fourth. The months could have anywhere from 23-31 days in them. To provide some uniformity, the months had three important days: the first day, called kalends, the fifth or seventh day (depending on how many days in the month), called nones, and the thirteenth or fifteenth day, called the ides. It was Julius Caesar himself who adjusted the calendar after coming into power. The Julian calendar he created had 365 days and 12 months.

Now that you know what the ides are, why should you beware them? Shakespeare’s line refers to the fact that Caesar was murdered on the 15 of March 44 BCE. Caesar had risen to power in the government of the Roman Republic over the last 20 years. He made himself prominent as a lawyer and invaluable as a military leader before appointed to the office of consul, the highest in their government. As such he pursued an expansion of the empire and became its dictator. A group of senators conspired to kill Caesar, hoping that they could restore the republic. They attacked Caesar on the ides of March, stabbing 23 times. Unfortunately, the assassination didn’t yield the hoped-for results. Instead, it caused a civil war from which Caesar’s heir apparent, Augustus Caesar, emerged the leader. This was the official beginning of the Roman Empire and the death of the Roman Republic. The ides of March turned out to be unlucky for both Caesar and the Roman Republic. Thus, Shakespeare’s warning against the ides of March.

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The Church of England’s First Female Priests

March 12, 2024May 7, 202420th Century, European HistoryLeave a Comment

On March 12, 1994, The Church of England ordained female priests for the first time. The ordination of these 32 women was so controversial that hundreds of male priests and thousands of church members left the church in protest. Despite the exodus, today, approximately 30% of the clergy of the Church of England are women.

In 1992, the General Synod of the Church of England (their governing body), agreed to ordain women to the priesthood of the church for the first time since the church’s birth in the 16^th century. For some church members, the announcement was met with excitement, gratitude, and relief. Angela Berners-Wilson, the first woman ordained as a priest on March 12, 1994, said, “it [is] the greatest privilege to finally be able to live out my calling . . .” Christine Clarke, another woman ordained that day said, “It’s been a long wait, but now there is a sense of everything coming together. There is a feeling that for this I was born. Now we are walking right into the central structure of the church.” The Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, George Carey, was known to have said, “It is the humanity of Christ which is important, not his maleness.” While those who attended the ordination at the Bristol cathedral applauded the 32 women who made such an historic leap, there were thousands who left the church over it.

As a result of this ordination, several bishops and approximately 700 priests left the Church of England in favor of the Catholic Church, which still doesn’t ordain women to their priesthood. Thousands of church members followed them feeling that the ordination of women was, as Reverend Malcolm Widdecombe said, “against the tradition of the church and the teaching of Scripture.” To appease those who were unhappy with the change, the Church of England put several restrictions in place. Women could be ordained priests but not bishops (though this changed in 2015). “Traditionalist” bishops were assigned to each area so that those opposed to the ordination of women could have access to them instead.

There are now approximately 6,000 women ordained to the priesthood in the Church of England. Between over the last decade, almost half of new bishops appointed in the church were women. Despite this, female members of clergy continue to face discrimination from other clergy members and parishioners alike. The Church of England has created a group that studies “how women and men experience ministry differently in a range of contexts.”

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The Royal Wedding That Started the Hype

November 21, 2023November 22, 2023European History, UK HistoryLeave a Comment

On November 20, 1947, then Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten. The two were married in Westminster Abbey in front of 2,000 guests. This was the first royal wedding to be broadcast via radio to listeners around the world. It was the first time average people around the world could participate in an extravagant affair such as a royal wedding.

This was the beginning of a tradition of accessibility surrounding royal weddings. Since Princess Elizabeth’s wedding, royal weddings have become a worldwide obsession with people throwing parties, buying branded wedding merchandise, and following every step of the planning and ceremony from their own homes.

Princess Elizabeth and Philip Mountbatten, third cousins through Queen Victoria, met at a very young age. Years later when Philip left to serve in the Royal Navy during WWII, he and Princess Elizabeth wrote letters to each other. Upon his return home, Princess Elizabeth and Philip began a serious relationship. The princess’ family was not thrilled by the match, but Elizabeth would not change her mind about Philip. They became engaged on July 8, 1947.

Post-war, almost everything was rationed and times were hard for most British subjects; however, a lavish wedding was planned by Prime Minister Winston Churchill who said the royal wedding should be “a flash of colour on the hard road we have to travel.” The wedding cost £30,000, a sum worth approximately £1.5 million today. Churchill was right. The wedding was of great interest to people around the world and approximately 200 million of them tuned in to listen to the BBC broadcast. Since then, the interest in royal weddings has only grown. About 2 billion people worldwide watched the televised wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

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The Mother of Modern Physics

November 7, 2023November 22, 2023European HistoryLeave a Comment

On November 7, 1867, Maria Sklodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland. Born to two teachers, she was an incredible bright student, distinguishing herself among her classmates. Despite this, she was not allowed to attend the University of Warsaw, as enrollment was only open to males. She dreamed of moving abroad to attend a university that allowed women but had no money to do so. With so many obstacles in her way, it may have been hard for her to imagine that she would go on to discover two new elements, win two Nobel Prizes, and become a household name around the world.

In 1891, Maria did finally have enough money to get herself to Paris, where she enrolled at the Sorbonne under the name Marie. She earned degrees in mathematics and physics. While studying at the Sorbonne, Marie met Professor of Physics, Pierre Curie. The two married in 1895. While studying the work of physicist Henri Becquerel, Marie Curie performed experiments on uranium rays. She hypothesized that the rays came from the element’s atomic structure. When this hypothesis proved true, she had discovered radioactivity, a word Curie herself invented.

At this point, Pierre joined his wife’s research. Together they discovered the elements polonium (named after Marie’s home country) and radium. Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She was granted the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, alongside her husband and Henri Becquerel, for her work in radioactivity. She was the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 for her discovery of polonium and radium. After her husband’s untimely death, Marie Curie took over his professorship, becoming the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne.

Marie Curie died in 1934 as a result of aplastic anemia, a condition that causes the body to cease producing new blood cells. The condition is a known side effect of radiation exposure. Curie’s life and work changed the field of science immutably. Her research led to other discoveries that have changed our understanding of the world, including the discovery of artificial radioactivity and the existence of the neutron. She was the first woman to achieve many things, opening the door for generations of female innovators after her.

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On This Day: Debussy and His Rêveries

August 22, 2023August 29, 2023European HistoryLeave a Comment

Claude Debussy was born on August 22, 1862 in a western suburb of Paris, Saint-Germain-en-Laye. A musical prodigy, Debussy was inspired by the art and literature of his time to create emotional and inspirational compositions that are still studied and enjoyed by musicians today.

Claude Debussy started to show promise on the piano at the young age of nine. He was enrolled in the Paris Conservatory to study piano and composition. Debussy loved art, music, and poetry and was inspired by them in his works. He drew inspiration from Richard Wagner, Dante Rosetti, Edgar Allen Poe, Claude Monet, Paul Verlaine, and Arthur Rimbaud. Much like the Impressionists and the Symbolists, Debussy’s music rejected traditional modes of composition and uses of instruments. In doing so, Debussy penned iconic works of music such as “Clair de lune,” “La fille aux cheveux de lin,” “La mer,” “Rêverie,” and “Pelléas et Mélisande.”

In 1910, Debussy was interviewed by a New York Times reporter. In their conversation, Debussy asserted, “. . . there will always be an enormous breach between the soul of the man as he is and the soul he puts into his work. A man portrays himself in his work, it is true, but only part of himself. In real life, I cannot live up to the ideals I have in music . . . Everything about [art] is an illusion . . . it neither represents the man who produced it, nor life as it is. Art is a most wonderfully beautiful lie, but it is a lie.” The writer ended the piece by saying, “The interviewer looked at M. Debussy and had great difficulty in not shouting, ‘But M. Debussy, you are the absolute contradiction of what you have been saying!’ For as M. Debussy said that the artist and his work were entirely separated, he spoke with such warmth, he was so carried away, that one felt how the work of the French composer is exactly a reproduction of his soul—a sensitive, delicate soul, yet determined and firm. And at that moment, Debussy the man and Debussy the composer, were but one being.” Learn more here:

On This Day: The Last Entry

August 1, 2023August 1, 202320th Century, European HistoryLeave a Comment

To date, Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, has sold over 30 million copies in 67 languages and is believed to be one of the most widely read books. Anne Frank’s diary gives readers an intimate look into what life was like for a young Jewish girl at the peak of the Nazi reign of terror. Heart-wrenching and inspiring, Frank’s diary should be required reading for everyone.

Many of us are familiar with the story of Anne Frank. The Nazis were on a crusade against Jewish people, and they didn’t intend to stop in Germany. In 1940, they invaded Poland and the Netherlands, where Anne and her family lived. By 1942, the persecution was so great, Anne’s parents feared for their family, and they went into hiding. Anne was only 13 years old.

Anne and her family lived in a secret attic space for two years, moving minimally and trying to be as silent as possible. To pass the time, Anne wrote in a small, red-checkered journal. On August 1, 1944, Anne wrote the last entry in her journal. The entry speaks of an internal struggle common to many teenagers: deciding who one wants to be and who they could be. Anne writes:

As I’ve told you many times, I’m split in two. One side contains my exuberant cheerfulness, my flippancy, my joy in life and, above all, my ability to appreciate the lighter side of things. By that I mean not finding anything wrong with flirtations, a kiss, an embrace, an off-colour joke. This side of me is usually lying in wait to ambush the other one, which is much purer, deeper and finer.

. . . As I’ve told you, what I say is not what I feel, which is why I have a reputation for being boy-crazy as well as a flirt, a smart aleck and a reader of romances. The happy-go-lucky Anne laughs, gives a flippant reply, shrugs her shoulders and pretends she doesn’t give a darn. The quiet Anne reacts in just the opposite way. If I’m being completely honest, I’ll have to admit that it does matter to me, that I’m trying very hard to change myself, but that I’m always up against a more powerful enemy.

. . . I just can’t keep it up anymore, because when everybody starts hovering over me, I get cross, then sad, and finally end up turning my hear inside out, the bad part on the outside and the good part on the inside, and keep trying to find a way to become what I’d like to be and what I could be if… if only there were no other people in the world.

Three days later, Anne’s family was discovered, arrested, and sent to concentration camps. Anne and her sister Margot were sent to Bergen-Belsen. Months later, both sisters died from typhus. Anne’s father, Otto, was the only member of the family to survive. He was the one who found, edited, and published the contents of his daughter’s diary. Thanks to Anne’s courage and her father’s determination, generations of people around the world have access to Anne’s words and the opportunity to reflect on how to prevent such an atrocity from happening again.

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On This Day: Blériot XI

July 25, 2023July 31, 2023European HistoryLeave a Comment

On July 25, 1909, Louis Blériot completed the first flight across the English Channel—from France to Great Britain. In doing so, he won not only the London Daily Mail’s £1,000 prize but also instant notoriety. He became a designer and manufacturer of planes and wielded an influence that got the aviation industry where it is today.

Blériot was a manufacturer of car headlights when he became interested in flight. He worked through several models of planes, some towed by boats along the Seine and some powered by engines. His Blériot XI, the plane that transported him across the English Channel was the result of all this experimenting.

On July 25, 1909, Blériot flew his monoplane 22 miles from Calais, France, to Dover, England. The flight took about 36 minutes. In a New York Times article written by Blériot and published the day after his famous flight, he recounted that at one point during the flight, “I turn my head to see whether I am proceeding in the right direction. I am amazed. There is nothing to be seen—neither the torpedo boat destroyer nor France nor England. I am alone; I can see nothing at all. For ten minutes I am lost; it is a strange position to be in—alone, guided without a compass in the air over the middle of the Channel.” Upon his descent into Dover, Blériot lost both his wheels and his propeller, but in the end, he was able to land successfully. He was received by thousands of fans in both London and Paris.

In the following years, the Blériot factory produced hundreds of Blériot XI monoplanes and sold them the world over. Several nations, such as Great Britain and France, used Blériot XIs to equip their fledgling air force programs. He became a leader in the aviation industry and eventually became involved in producing biplanes used during WWI. Even after the war, he never stopped looking for ways to improve aircraft and make them more accessible.

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On This Day: Vive le 14 juillet!

July 14, 2023July 31, 2023European HistoryLeave a Comment

July 14, 1789 is considered the beginning of the French Revolution. While civil unrest had been building since earlier in the year, the Fall of the Bastille on July 14 was the first victory of the French people over the monarchy. In 1880, the day was declared a national holiday and has been celebrated ever since.

The French Revolution was a class war. The Bourbon monarchy, who had ruled France since the 16^th century, was being led in 1789 by King Louis XVI. His government spent money excessively, leading to economic recession. The average person in France couldn’t afford to feed their family while the bourgeoisie dripped with extravagant wealth. While the common people made up 98% of the country’s population, they had only a minority representation in the government, leaving them unable to make any changes.

The French people became more and more outraged at their position until, on July 14, a mob moved toward the Bastille, a prison that held political dissidents. It was known that a stash of weapons and gunpowder was stored in the prison, and the mob determined to gain possession of it. The attackers fought off the guards and occupied the prison, releasing anyone who was held there. The French people eventually took the Bastille down to the ground, crushing what was seen as a symbol of the bourgeoisie’s oppression.

Today, the 14^th of July is la fête nationale and is celebrated much like the US’s 4^th of July. There are parades, fireworks, and festivals throughout the country as the people of France celebrate their historic fight for liberté, égalité, and fraternité.

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This week in History: 57 People Escape East Berlin Through Secret Tunnel

October 8, 2022October 8, 20221960s, European History, October1 Comment

Although many of us are old enough to remember when the wall in East Berlin was still in place and the whole of East Germany was controlled by the former Soviet Union, it feels so long ago that it almost seems unreal.

In my own childhood, I remember movies and stories about great escapes in Germany as people tried to flee from East Germany to West Germany, which was controlled by the UK, US and France.

One story in particular caught international attention, in the first week of October of 1964, 57 East German refugees were able to escape through a tunnel dug by a group of students and others from West Germany. This was the largest and most successful tunnel escape during this era. The tunnel, which according to a wonderful article in the Smithsonian, took five months to dig, started in an abandoned bakery in West Berlin and surfaced in an abandoned apartment building on StreilizerStrasse in East Berlin.

Refugees who traversed this 400 meter underground road to freedom had to successfully share a passcode at the entrance to the apartment building. One of the escapees, Hans-Joachim Tilleman, recounted his experience to the Smithsonian. “We didn’t see a light, so we continued to the building,” he said. “There were some people inside, and we told them ‘Tokyo’ and they let us into the hallway where we took off our shoes and tiptoed to the inner courtyard. In a little outhouse in the back, they let us down a shaft, and we crawled through.”

On October 5, 1964, the tunnel was discovered by soldiers and during the ensuing scuffle, an East German corporal, Egon Schultz, was killed by gunfire. According to a New York Times article written at the time, “The East German Defense Ministry charged, in a statement issued by the press service ADN, that agents and murderers had penetrated into East Berlin from ‘the NATO base of West Berlin’ and that one of these ‘armed bandits’ killed the corporal.”

A different New York Times article, published in 2001, clarified that in 1994, the Berlin district attorney’s office re-investigated the shooting of Egon Schultz, and found that he had been accidentally shot by another East German soldier.

In that same New York Times article from 2001, one of the West German diggers, Wolfgang Fuchs, who worked tireless to free East Germans in several less successful tunnel escapes, said of Tunnel 57, “’The marks of their knee prints in the tunnel floor looked like the ripples on a beach left behind by the receding tide. ‘I will never forget that. That is beautiful.”

To learn more about the Tunnel 57 escape, visit these resources:

Smithsonian: The Story of the Most Successful Tunnel Escape in the History of the Berlin Wall
New York Times: 57 Flee East Berlin by a Tunnel; Biggest Flight Since Wall Was Built—Pursuer Is Killed
New York Times: Wolfgang Fuchs, 62, Helped East Germans Escape to West