Heros and Heroines

Duke of Wellington Battle of Waterloo 1815

The Duke of Wellington stood at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, facing yet again Napoleon and the French army. He probably never thought he would have to face the Frenchman again after his victory in the Peninsular Campaign. The bloody battle left Wellington victorious

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King Edward IV’s Mistress Jane Shore

Painting of Jane Shore by William Blake
This entry is part 5 of 12 in the series Intriguing Women

King Richard III, King Edward IV and Jane Shore. Just how was the life of this woman bound up in the enthralling politics of the Middle Ages when war was raging across the country. Jane’s name is linked to some of the most important men of the period. What influence did she bring upon their lives?

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Eleanor of Aquitaine Mother of English Kings

Mother of Kings Henry III Richard I and John

Wealthy educated and powerful and that was just at 15, married to the Kings of France and England, forging the most powerful alliance in Northern Europe with the Angevin Empire created with the marriage to Henry II, through their complex family relationships, two sons would be King of England and many of her grandchildren would form the basis of the bloodlines of the important European Kingdoms for centuries to come, this was a woman on which history pivots…

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The Work of Emily Hobhouse

Emily Hobhouse, welfare campaigner was loved by the South Africans for the compassion and aid given to their women and children in British prisoner of war camps during the Boer War and vilified by her own people because of that work

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Lord Nelsons Statue 1843

In 1843, a statue of Lord Nelson was erected in the newly developed Trafalgar Square. The Square had been completed two years earlier to sweep away the squalid courts and cook houses that gave it the name Porridge Island.

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