bbc history 2015-06

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MAGAZINE

BRITAINS BESTSELLING HISTORY MAGAZINEJune 2015 www.historyextra.com

Victorian public school hell

Antony Beevor on the Battle of the Bulge

Colonel Blood: the spy who stole the crown jewels

NAPOLEON VS WELLINGTON A

T

WATERLOO

KING JOHN: THE WORST MEDIEVAL KING?

Anne BoleynDid she really want to be Henrys queen?

181520 1 5

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The Face of Evil

Rise & Fall of Third ReichDamn the Dardanelles

With Prof Gary SheffieldBerlin at War

Life under the NazisBrothers in Arms

The Spanish Civil WarStrange Meetings

Poets of the Great War

HISTORICAL

T R I P S

Libert, Egalit, Fraternit

The French Revolution

Never a Greater Crime

Istanbul & the Fourth Crusade

10 Days that shook the

World

The Russian Revolution

War and Wine

Great French Vineyards& Nazi Occupation

Secret Reich

Technology & Terror inHitlers Germany

The Road to Runnymede

with Dr David Starkey

Rise and Fall

Of Venice

The Great War

An Introduction to the Western Front

Poland at War

Poland During the Second World War

Palace

A History of Britain throughits Royal Residences

The Making of a Tyrant

with Dr Suzannah Lipscomb

The Heretics of

Carcassonne

The French Cathars

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3THIS ISSUES CONTRIBUTORS

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JUNE 2015

WELCOME

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Robert Hutchinson

Colonel Thomas Blood

is perhaps best known for

his attempted theft of the

crown jewels in 1671,

but he was far more than

just a common thief

Robert investigates theaudacious crimes of ColonelBlood on page 42

Antony Beevor

There was a cycle of

revenge between the

Allies and Germans in the

Ardennes in the Second

World War. Ive included

some pretty horrible

examples in my new book,

and there are one or two

that are even worse.

Antony discusses theArdennes campaign on page 65

Jane Ridley

There are few historical

sites that allow you a

glimpse into the private

life of a monarch, but a

visit to Osborne on the

Isle of Wight does just that.

Jane explores QueenVictorias island retreat on page 80

Anne Boleyn is one of English historys most fascinating

figures. She helped ignite a religious revolution, only to

end up on the executioners block, for reasons that

remain contested. One aspect of Annes story that seems to be

largely accepted is that she withheld her affections from Henry VIII

until he agreed to make her his queen. But is that really the case? In

this months issue, George Bernard makes a very different argu-

ment: that it was Henry, rather than Anne, who wanted to wait for

marriage. Turn to page 22 to find out more.

June 2015 sees two of the biggest anniversaries of the past few

years: Waterloo 200 and Magna Carta 800. Inside the magazine

you will find articles relating to both of these events. On page 52,

Julian Humphrys picks out the decisive moments that shaped the

outcome of the battle of Waterloo, while Tim Blanning questions

why it has become so iconic (page 56). Then, for Magna Carta, we

profile the king whose actions led to the sealing of the charter. John

has gone down in history as one of the worst ever

monarchs, but is that reputation justified? Marrc

Morris reviews the evidence on page 33.

Finally, wed love to know what you think about

this issue and the magazine in general. To thatt end

we have included a reader survey, which you will

find on pages 31 and 32. Your input will help uss shape

the magazines future direction, and you will aalso

get a chance to win an iPad Mini. So please do

take five minutes to share your views with us.

Rob Attar

Editor

MAGAZINE

4 BBC History Magazine

Features Every month

JUNE 2015

CONTENTS

6 ANNIVERSARIES

11 HISTORY NOW 11 The latest history news

14 Backgrounder: the NHS

16 Past notes: the Derby

18 LETTERS

21 MICHAEL WOODS VIEW

28 OUR FIRST WORLD WAR

31 READER SURVEY

65 BOOKS The latest releases, plus Antony

Beevor on the Ardennes campaign

77 TV & RADIOThe pick of this months

history programmes

80 OUT & ABOUT80 History explorer: in the footsteps

of Queen Victoria on the Isle of Wight

85 Five things to do in June

86 My favourite place: Corfu

93 MISCELLANY93 Q&A and quiz

94 Samanthas recipe corner

95 Prize crossword

98 MY HISTORY HERO

Lorraine Kelly picks Ernest Shackleton

USPS Identication Statement BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE (ISSN 1469-8552) (USPS 024-177) June 2015 is published 13 times a year under licence fromBBC Worldwide by Immediate Media Company Bristol Ltd, Tower House, Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN, UK. Distributed in the US by Circulation Specialists, Inc., 2 Corporate Drive, Suite 945, Shelton CT 06484-6238. Periodicals postage paid at Shelton, CT and additional mailing ofces. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE, PO Box 37495, Boone, IA 50037-0495. G

ETTY/B

RIDGEMAN/

On page 48, David Turner reveals the tough lessons of the English public school system

22 Did Anne crave the crown? George Bernard questions whether weve

misunderstood the relationship between

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

33 King John on trialWas the man who sealed Magna Carta

Englands worst medieval king? Marc

Morris reviews the evidence

38 The artful assassinRichard Gaunt on the work of James

Gillray, who became Georgian Britains

greatest satirist

42 Colonel BloodRobert Hutchinson introduces a double

agent from Charles IIs court who tried to

snatch the crown jewels

48 Schools of hard knocksVictorian public schools were hellish and

violent and failed to prepare the pupils

for real life, argues David Turner

52 Waterloo: the turning pointsTen moments that defined the campaign,

as picked by Julian Humphrys

56 Our Waterloo obsessionTim Blanning analyses just why this

particular Napoleonic battle has

commanded our attention for 200 years

46 SUBSCRIBE

Save 27%when yousubscribe*

to the digitaedition

/ALAMY/B

ENJO

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*All offers, prices and discounts are correct at the time of being published and may be subject to change

38

The works that

made James

Gillray the king

of caricature

BBC History Magazine 5

33

Does John deserve his

loathsome reputation?

56

Why does Waterloo

continue to fascinate

and fire imaginations?

42

Meet Colonel Blood,

the crown jewels thief

22ANNE WAS WON

OVER BY HENRYS PROMISE TO

MAKE HER HIS ONLY MISTRESS

14

Two historians debate the

current crisis in the NHS

YEARS

181520 1 5

BBC History Magazine

Dominic Sandbrook highlights events that took place in June in history

ANNIVERSARIES23 June 1940

Hitler crowsover Paris

The Nazi dictator takesa whirlwind tour of

the conquered capital

26 June 1541

Francis Pizarro meetsa bloody end over dinner

The ageing conquistadors brutal past nally catches up with him

I t was about 5.30 in the morning whenAdolf Hitlers plane landed at the edgeof Paris. Three large Mercedes cars werewaiting to take the conqueror into town,and the Nazi dictator knew exactly wherehe wanted to go rst the opera. As hetold his minister, Albert Speer, CharlesGarniers neo-baroque opera house washis favourite building in Paris. And nowthat the French capital had fallen to Ger-manys all-conquering army, Hitler had the chance to live out a dream.

Hitlers tour of Paris on 23 June 1940 the only time he visited the city wasone of the greatest days of his life. Francelay prostrate at his feet, the shame of 1918nally avenged. As he toured the city,posing for pictures by the Eiffel Tower,he discussed plans for a victory parade.Yet he concluded that it was a bad idea:I am not in the mood for a victoryparade. We arent at the end yet.

To Speer, the Nazis chief architect,Hitler waxed lyrical about the beauties of the French capital. But he wasdetermined that Germany could dobetter. Berlin, he said later, must bemore beautiful. When we are nished inBerlin, Paris will be only a shadow.

Hitlers visit was astonishingly brief,and by nine in the morning he wasalready heading back to Germany. Itwas the dream of my life to be permittedto see Paris, he told Speer as they droveback to the aireld. I cannot say howhappy I am to have that dream fullledtoday. Speer himself was struck by hismasters mood. For a moment, he wrote later, I felt something like pityfor him: three hours in Paris, the oneand only time he was to see it, madehim happy when he stood at the heightof his triumphs.

F rancisco Pizarro died as he hadlived, sword in hand. Pizarro, whohad deed the odds to bring down theIncas and conquer modern-day Peru forthe Spanish, was almost 70 years old. Asgovernor of New Castile (as Peru wasthen named), he had spent years lockedin a bitter feud with a rival conquistador,Diego de Almagro. In 1538 Pizarro hadhad Almagro executed. But now thelatters son also Diego wanted revenge.

Pizarro was dining in his palace inLima when Almagro burst in with about20 armed supporters. Most of the oldmans guests ed, but Pizarro stood hisground, reaching for his sword fromwhere it hung on the wall. According toone account, he struck down twowould-be assassins and ran a third

through. While he struggled to draw outhis sword, however, Almagros menstabbed him in the throat. Lying on thepalace oor, Pizarro shouted: Jesus!The last thing he ever did was to draw across on the ground with his own bloodand kiss it. The most ruthlessconquistador of the age was dead.

Pizarros body was buried in LimaCathedral, but it was not until 1977 thatbuilding workers found a lead box,bearing the inscription: Here is the headof Don Francisco Pizarro Demarkes,Don Francisco Pizarro who discoveredPeru and presented it to the crown ofCastile. Forensic scientists reported thatthe skull was broken by numerousviolent blows perhaps a tting end for aman steeped in violence.

BRIDGEMAN

6

Francisco Pizarro ghts for his life in this 16th-century engraving.The Spanish conquistador died as he had lived with his sword in his hand


Dominic Sandbrook is a regular presenter

on BBC television and radio. His next book,

The Great British Dream Factory, is due to be

published by Allen Lane in October

AKG-IMAGES

Adolf Hitler takes in the sights of Paris in what would be the Nazi leaders only trip to the French capital. Three hours in Paris made him happy when he was at the height of his triumphs, recalled Albert Speer


Anniversaries

3 June 1937

In a chateau near Tours, the Duke of

Windsor formerly Edward VIII

marries Wallis Simpson. His brother,

George VI, forbids his other brothers

from attending the nuptials.

29 June 1613

When a cannon misfires during a

performance of Henry VIII,

accidentally igniting the theatres

thatched roof, the Globe Theatre in

Southwark burns to the ground.

GE

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KG

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The interior of the Victoria Hall in Sunderland, as depicted in a 19th-century illustration. The tragedy that befell the hall in 1883 touched the hearts of people across Britain, including Queen Victoria

The poster for Sunderlands VictoriaHall seemed wonderfully enticing.On Saturday Afternoon at 3 oclock,it said, the Fays from the TynemouthAquarium Will Give a Grand DayPerformance for Children The GreatestTreat for Children Ever Given. Therewould, it added, be prizes, a handsomePresent, Books, Toys, &c. When Mr andMrs Fay took the stage on 16 June 1883,

7 June 1494

Spain and Portugal agree a treaty to

divide the New World between them,

carving up the newly discovered

Americas along a meridian 370

leagues west of the Cape Verde islands.

16 June 1883

183 children crushed to deathin concert tragedy

Greatest treat turns to tragedy as children stampede for prizes

an estimated 2,000 children were packed into the concert hall.

What followed was a tragedy of heartbreaking proportions. At the end of the show, an announcer declared that children with specially numbered tickets would get a prize on the way out. Meanwhile, performers began handing out treats to children in the front row. Many of the 1,100 children in the gallery

rushed towards the stairs, worried they were going to miss out.

At the bottom, however, they found a narrow door, bolted to allow only one child through at a time. As more children stampeded down the stairs, a crush began to develop. Parents rushed to help, but could not get near the door.

Children started falling, bodies piling up near the door. By now it was obvious that a terrible disaster was under way.

In all, 183 children died that day, some as young as three. In the aftermath, legislation provided for better emergency exits, with doors opening outwards, not inwards. Queen Victoria sent a heartfelt letter of condolence quoting the words of Jesus: Suffer little children to come unto me... for such is the Kingdom of God.


By dying so young, Alexander III of Macedon left his new vast empire

unsecured. He never created the central-ised administration and infrastructuredesperately needed to unify peoplesstretching from Egypt to India. A consoli-dated government might not havefragmented into the rival monarchies ofthe successors. Its cradle, Macedonia innorthern Greece, might never have fallento the Romans in 163 BC; it might evenhave expanded westwards into Italy. The geopolitical map of late antiquity and theMiddle Ages may have looked more Greek.

Alexanders premature death left aquestion mark over his motives. Was he

a drunken megalomaniac, hooked on warfare, incapable of settling down to peaceful supervision of his domains? Or do his marriage to a Bactrian and admiration of Persia suggest he was a visionary planning a peaceful, multicultural world family?

We shall never know. By the end of the rst century BC, the Greek philosopher Dio Chrysostom asked how the Macedonians had ever vanquished the Greeks, crossed over into Asia and gained an empire reaching to the Indians. But now, com-ments Chrysostom, if you should pass through Pella [Alexanders birthplace], you would see no sign of a city at all, apart

from the presence of a mass of shattered pottery on the site. The rise and fall of Alexanders empire had already entered the sphere of legend.

COMMENT / Professor Edith Hall

If Alexander hadnt died, medieval Europe might have looked more Greek

Edith Hall is professor of classics at Kings College London. Her most recent book is Introducing the Ancient Greeks (Bodley Head, 2014). She is the recipient of the Erasmus Medal of the European Academy 2015

11 June 323 BC

Alexander the Great dies after drinking binge

The mighty rulers sudden demise sends his empire spiralling into decline

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A lexander of Macedon, master of the world from the shores of the Adriatic to the mountains of Afghanistan, spent the early summer of 323 BC in Babylon. Only a year before, his troops had persuaded him to turn back from a planned invasion of India. But already he was planning new conquests, hoping to strike at the heart of Arabia. On top of that, the 32-year-old king was pressing forward with his plans to integrate Persians and Macedonians, even urging his ofcers to take Persian wives. And then, some time around the beginning of June, disaster struck.

Accounts of Alexanders death differ widely. The most popular, told by the historian Plutarch, holds that he was taken ill after a drinking session with his friend Medius of Larissa. In the next few days, Alexander developed a fever.

Although he managed to put in anappearance before his worried troops, his condition worsened until he could no longer speak. At last, some time in the night between 10 and 11 June, he died.

Since so many Macedonian rulers fell victim to assassination, speculation has long surrounded Alexanders death. Many historians have suggested that he may have been poisoned by rivals within the Macedonian elite or by ofcers outraged by his Persian affectations. The true explanation may be more prosaic. In

the festering heat of summer in Babylon,the hard-drinking Alexander may well have succumbed to typhoid or malaria.

His death had a shattering impact. Within weeks the Macedonian empire was already falling apart, as his ofcers began to carve out their own rival dominions. Even Alexanders sarcophagus, hijacked and taken to Alexandria, became a weapon in the civil war. I foresee great contests, he is supposed to have said, at my funeral games. He was right.

Mourners lament the death of Alexander the Great in this 14th-century copy of a fth-century Armenian manuscript. Did he fall prey to typhoid, malaria or poison?

www.ro

yalarm

ourie

s.org

THE ART OF BATTLEE X H I B I T I O N

22 May 23 August

Featuring the rarely exhibitedmonumental cartoon by DanielMaclise, on loan from the RoyalAcademy of Arts, as well as thenewly conserved Siborne modelof the battlefield in miniature.Stunning works of art displayed for the first timealongside objects associated with the battle,including Wellingtons telescope, which tell the storyof the events of 18 June 1815.

FREE ADMISSION

STUDY DAYSaturday 13 June / 9.30am 4.30pm / 30Book T: 0113 220 1888 / E: [email protected]

NAPOLEONIC WARGAMING EVENTSaturday 13 & Sunday 14 JuneFor further information visit our website

Events for all the family include Regency fashiondisplays, hands-on activities and Napoleonic skill-at-arms horse shows.

#Waterloo1815

Daniel Maclise RA (1806-70), Detail from the cartoon for The Meeting of Wellington and Blcher' Royal Academy of Arts, London; Photographer: Prudence Cuming Associates Limited


The latest news, plus Backgrounder 14 Past notes 16

HISTORY NOW

AKG-IMAGES

Have a story? Please email Matt Elton at [email protected]

Royal remains Henry I as depicted in a 13th-century

manuscript. The site where the king was buried long the subject

of speculation may be uncovered thanks to a new project in Reading

could be the next carpark kingResearchers looking for the

remains of Reading Abbey

may be on the cusp of

discovering the sarcophagus

of its founder, Henry I.

Emma McFarnon reports

Asearch for the remains of Henry Is lost abbey could conrm the whereabouts of the 12th-century

kings sarcophagus and, in parallels with the recent search for Richard III, its possible that it could be located beneath what is now a car park.

The Hidden Abbey Project aims to uncover the full extent of Reading Abbey, which was largely destroyed in 1539 during the dissolution of the monasteries. It has been instigated by Philippa Langley, well known for leading the search for Richard IIIs remains in Leicester. Langley has secured the support of Historic England formerly known as English Heritage and in 2016 the project team will carry out ground-penetrating radar (GPR) research of the abbey area, followed by trial trenching to estimate the sites archaeological potential. It is hoped that

EXCLUSIVE


History now / News

PHILIPPALANGLEY/M

ARYEVANS

the imaging might show sarcophagusburials, possibly including that of Henry.

There is believed to be a pristineCluniac abbey layout buried beneath theground at Reading, Langley told BBCHistory Magazine. One of the main aimsof the project is to conrm the exactpositioning of the abbey church, as wellas its size and structure. Sarcophagusburials tend to show up very clearly inGPR research, and potentially we mightbe able to see several.

Whats really exciting is that we knowthat Henry was buried in front of thehigh altar, with members of his familyburied in specic locations around him.The thinking in Reading, using currentestimates of the size of the abbey, is thatthis burial spot is located beneath aschool. If the abbey is larger, it could besituated underneath either what is todaya playground or a car park. That optionis considered less likely, but if Henrystomb is beneath the car park, that will besvery interesting.

Henry founded Reading Abbey in 1121as a royal mausoleum, and is buriedthere along with his second wife, Adeliza,and great-grandson William of Poitiers.Langley is eager to stress that, while thepotential to nd his sarcophagus burialis exciting, the main aim of the project isto nd out as much as possible about theabbey itself and what happens nextwill be the decision of Historic England.

She does, however, acknowledgestriking similarities between Readingsstory and that of Leicester, particularly asthere is speculation about the where-abouts of Henrys remains. An unreliable19th-century story suggests thatworkmen likely acting on Edward VIsinstructions targeted the abbey in the

It would be veryinteresting to know justhow much of Henry Is body was actuallyburied at Reading

AdivisivekingThe youngest of William theConquerors four sons, Henry Ireigned from 1100 to 1135. He issometimes considered a usurper,because his elder brother RobertCurthose arguably had a morelegitimate claim to the throne, butHenry had himself crowned whileRobert was away on crusade.Regarded as playing a key role

in stabilising Norman England,Henry increased royal revenues,established peaceful relations withScotland through his marriage toMathilda of Scotland, and throughhis Charter of Liberties describedby some historians as a forerunnerof Magna Carta bound himself tolaws concerning the treatment ofnobles and church ofcials.He could, however, also be cruel.

He famously cut off the noses of twoof his illegitimate granddaughtersand blinded them in reprisal fora similar act against a child beingheld hostage by one of his enemies.

1550s for a silver casket in which the kingwas supposedly buried, and that hisremains were discarded in the process.

The exact location of Richard IIIsremains was unknown, and here toowe have a story of a kings bones possiblybeing lost, she says. Much like Richard,Henry was the youngest son who rose to become king. And, as with Richard,Henrys character continues to be hotlydisputed: some historians believe he was acruel and ambitious usurper, while otherssee him as an enlightened and educatedpeacemaker. The people of Reading wantto tell this extraordinary story, and I want to help to get it out there.

Judith Green, emeritus professor ofmedieval history at the University ofEdinburgh, agrees that the research willbe important for the eld. It would beinteresting to know how much of Henrysbody was actually buried at Reading,because he died in western France aftereating lampreys jawless sh, she says.After his death, with the weather toopoor to travel to Reading, his body wastaken to Rouen where it was embalmed.His intestines, brain and eyes were buriedlocally and, weeks later, the rest of hisbody was taken back to Reading. Thiswas the rst time the body of an Englishking had been treated in this way.For the latest on this story, visit

historyextra.com/readingabbey

Fall from grace Cattle graze in ReadingAbbeys ruins in this c1770 image (top).Largely destroyed in the 16th century,its decaying state was a far cry from itsorigins as Henry Is royal mausoleum.A nearby playground and car park(inset) may yield new clues about thelocation of the kings lost sarcophagus


Conscription and conflict:Wolfson winners revealed

Ahistory of National Service anda chronicle of the First World War

from the Central Powers point of viewhave been announced as the winners ofthis years Wolfson History Prizes, whichcelebrate the best in accessible scholarlywriting. Richard Vinen and AlexanderWatson received the awards for NationalService: A Generation in Uniform 19451963and Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary at War, 1914-1918, both of whichwere published by Penguin in 2014.

The two authors join a prestigious list ofrecipients that in the past has included thelikes of Ian Kershaw, Martin Gilbert andMary Beard. An equally prestigious group ofhistorians Keith Thomas, Richard Evans,

Julia Smith and David Cannadine makeup the judging panel that selected thesebooks for the award. According to PaulRamsbottom, chief executive of the WolfsonFoundation, the judges had a relatively easydecision to make this year. In most yearsI talk about how difcult a job the judgingpanel had and, in a sense that is true thisyear because there were some extraordi-nary and outstanding books, he said.However, when it came to it, these werethe two very clear winners.

First awarded in 1972, the goal of theWolfson History Prizes has remainedconstant since that time. The aim is asimple one: to reward books that have beenwritten at the highest scholarly standardbut which are well-articulated withtcompelling writing that will appeal toa wide audience, Ramsbottom explained.These two wonderful books struck bothof those notes.

For Richard Vinen, a historian at KingsCollege London, the Wolfson Prize repre-sents the culmination of a long-standingdream. Ive wanted to win this since I was19 I was a nerdish boy! which is 33 yearsago. I can remember during my rst week asan undergraduate at Cambridge, people toldbe about the Wolfson Prize and I thought itwould be such a wonderful thing to achieve.Now, Im sure my younger colleagues willthink that there is life in the old dog yet!

In contrast to Vinen, Alexander Watsonhas received the award relatively early in hiscareer and for his rst work of popularhistory. The Goldsmiths historian admittedto being utterly thrilled to have beenselected for a Wolfson Prize. What wasreally important about winning was the vali-dation of the book, he said. It was reallytough to write and so to get the prize wascompletely overwhelming.

In a year when the First World Warhas dominated history publishing, Watsonhas been widely praised for offering a verydifferent perspective on the conict fromthe many Anglocentric offerings. ReviewingRing of Steel inl BBC History Magazine, Gary

PUBLISHING

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Shefeld described it as an important, well-timed book that deserves a wide readership.

To research Ring of Steel, Watson spent anumber of years in central and easternEurope. For Vinen, the source material wasoften closer to home. His own father was oneof the generation who underwent compul-sory national service in Britain in the yearsafter the Second World War, before it wasnally ended in the early 1960s. Vinensbook has been commended for sheddinglight on an episode of British history that hasso often been overshadowed by the war thatpreceded it. Writing in BBCHistoryMagazine,our reviewer Francis Beckett described itas a clear comprehensive account thatwas needed while there were still formernational servicemen to talk to. Rob Attar

Alexander Watson

What was really important about winning was the validation of the

book. It was really tough to write, and so to win was overwhelming

Richard Vinen

Ive wanted to win this prize since I was 19 I was a nerdish boy!

I thought that it would be a wonderful thing to achieve

BOOKS

Ring of Steel: Germany andAustria-Hungary at War, 1914-1918by Alexander Watson (Penguin, 2014) National Service: A Generationin Uniform 19451963by Richard Vinen (Penguin, 2014)

DISCOVER MORE

You can listen to a podcast interview with the winners at historyextra.com/podcasts

ON THE PODCAST

ts

iwv


History now / Backgrounder

In the early days

of the NHS, the

average number of

prescriptions per head

each year was five.

It is now 19

NICHOLAS TIMMINS

The hottest topic for voters ahead of the general election

was the National Health Service. But is its current funding

crisis anything that the service hasnt witnessed before?

Two historians offer their context-setting perspectives

Interviews by Chris Bowlby, a BBC journalist specialising in history

At least once in every decade, and sometimesmore often, the NHS has hit a nancialcrisis. When it was founded in 1948, therewas a widely held view that costs would fallonce a huge backlog of unmet need wastreated. Spectacular medical advance and agrowing and ageing population put paid tothat. Within a couple of years, even AneurinBevan, its founder, declared: I shudder tothink of the ceaseless cascade of medicinethat is pouring down British throats at thepresent time. Back then, the averagenumber of prescriptions per head each yearwas ve. It is now 19.

By the early 1950s, there was a powerfulsense that expenditure was spiralling outof control. At the Treasurys insistence, theGuillebaud committee was set up in thehope of paring it back. It concluded,however, that ination and extra services,

not inefciency and extravagance,accounted for the rising cash bill. Indeed,as a share of the gross domestic product,expenditure had in fact been falling. Theproportion of GDP spent on health issignicant given that, worldwide andbroadly speaking, the richer a country is,the more it spends on health, regardless ofwhether thats nanced publicly or privately.

Deciding what the NHS needs inexpenditure is, of course, an inexact science.In the 1970s, the health department came upwith a formula known as the magic 2 percent and used it in negotiations with theTreasury: 0.5 per cent a year in real terms formedical advances, around 1 per cent a yearfor demography (chiey the ageing popula-tion) and 0.5 per cent for new priorities.

In practice, though, the amount variedspectacularly year by year, with spendinggrowing by an average of 3 per cent in realterms between 1948 and the early 2000s.In 2000, Tony Blair pledged to get NHSspending up to the EU average. This doubledexpenditure in real terms over the 2000s.

As the NHS starts once again to strugglenancially, two things are different this time.First, for the ve years since 2010, the NHShas seen very little real-term growth. In thepast, that would have plunged it into nancialcrisis much earlier, so it has done remarkablywell. Second, there is very little public debate and almost no political debate aboutwhether a tax-funded, universal (and largely

free at the point of use) service is sustainable. In the past, with one exception, everynancial crisis has generated such discussion. Should there be new charges? Or a switch to an insurance-based approach?

The reason it hasnt happened this time is that, in virtually his rst speech as Conser-vative party leader, David Cameron sealed off that debate. This was the rst time since 1948 that a Conservative opposition had not at least looked at, or toyed with, alternative funding models. And they havent while in government. Labour and the LiberalDemocrats have no stomach for that either. So it is all about how much extra cash, not about how the money is raised.

The interesting question is whether that will hold if nancial pressures continueafter the election. Or will the debate that currently dare not speak its name resurface? And if it does, will the answer be the same as in the past: to stick with the current model?

Nicholas Timmins is senior fellow of health charity theKings Fund and author ofThe Five Giants: A Biography of the Welfare State(HarperCollins, 2001)

The historians view

How critical is the NHS funding crisis?


When the NHS was created, there was littlesense of how costs might rise. Essentiallypolicy makers assumed current cost levelswould just roll over into public expenditure,with a temporary hike to meet pent-updemand. But spending immediately took off,which surprised ofcials and politicians,resulting in prescription charges for medi-cines, spectacles and dental care an early erosion of free at the point of use provision.

In terms of overall public spending, theNHS did badly in the 1950s, especially incapital expenditure; for example, therewas no real improvement in hospitalconstruction. The priority after the war GE

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Dr Martin Gorsky, reader in the history of public healthat the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

was housing and education.Since then, NHS costs have gone up

markedly, though they remain relatively low in international terms. Healthspending now stands at around 8 or 9 percent of GDP, still below countries like France and Germany.

A huge part of this rise is due to ourageing population structure. In the 1960s there were 6 million over-65s in thepopulation; its now 11 million. Usageof health services really starts to accelerate once people get into their 60s. Thingslike musculo-skeletal problems, cardiovas-cular diseases and cancers sometimeslifestyle-related are more prevalent in later life.

But in recent years, as these demands haveincreased, the nancial crisis and austerityhave led to the lowest sustained level of realincrease in NHS spending in history onaverage, just 0.8 per cent per year under theConservative/Lib Dem coalition, below even the parsimonious Thatcher years.

This has exposed tensions between health and social care. Crudely, the origins ofpublic social care lie with the Poor Law,which provided what we now think of asresidential care, in what were originallyworkhouses. From the late 1940s, the

hospital side of the Poor Law was absorbed into the new NHS, while social care ofolder people and in mental health fell tolocal government.

So the challenge of integration across thehealth/social care boundary was there fromthe beginning. The ugly term bed-blockingwas rst used in the 1950s by NHS hospitaldoctors referring to long-stay older patientsthey wanted to move into local authoritycare facilities. Theres been a recurringdebate about where the costs should fall,when youre talking about frail older peoplewith complex needs requiring support either at home or in institutions.

Local government has borne thebrunt of austerity and, according to theKings Fund, budget cuts have meant a17 per cent decrease in social care expendi-ture on services for older people. We sawsome results of this in last years A&E crisis.When voters think about what politiciansare saying about the NHS and their promisesto up the budget, they should also be asking: what about the social care budget?

With dental care now free under the newNHS, a boy is examined at a health centrein Bristol in 1948

BOOK

The Health of the Nation:NHS in Peril by David Owen (Methuen, 2014)

DISCOVER MORE

The brunt of

austerity has

been borne by local

government a 17 per

cent decrease in social

care for older people

MARTIN GORSKY

Since its inception, the NHS has always been a political hot potato.

But the current debate is all about the levels not the method of funding


Born in 1703 in Lincolnshire,John Wesley is perhaps best

remembered as one of the foundingfathers of Methodism. But few peopleare also aware of his interest in thedarker side of spirituality, and of hisrecording of the haunting suffered by his own family in Wesleys youth.

In 1715, Epworth Rectory then thefamily home began to attract theattentions of Old Jeffery. According tothe Birmingham Daily Post, thistpoltergeist wrapped [sic] up on thewalls and oors so energetically, liftedlatches, clattered windows, frightenedthe mastiff, showed clear displeasure atthe prayers for the Royal family [and]made Mr Wesleys trencher [tableware]dance upon the table. The Wesleys had had 15 children, with John fallingsomewhere in the middle, and each onereported encounters with Old Jefferybetween 1715 and 1717. John recorded all of these in his journal, mostremarkably the appearance of avisionary badger which emergedfrom underneath a bed, ran under hissister Emilys skirt and then vanished.

By 1918, Wesleys supernatu-ral journal seemed mostforgotten until a new boThe Epworth Phenomenawas published by thescholar and authorDudley Wright. It remains the bestauthenticated polter-geist story on record.News story sourced frombritishnewspaperarchive.co.uk and rediscoveredby Fern Riddell. Fernregularly appears on BBCRadio 3s Free Thinking.

OLD NEWS

Was there a ghostin the house ofJohn Wesley?

Birmingham Daily Post/ 14 February 1918

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Why is it called the Derby?Its named after Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby. In 1780, heco-founded this classic 1.5-mile racefor three-year-old thoroughbred coltsand llies with his friend, the JockeyClub steward Sir Charles Bunbury.

Some accounts claim the pairtossed a coin to decide who the raceshould be named after althoughBunbury probably deferred to hisaristocratic friend.

Whats a thoroughbred?Theyre slim, high-spirited andspeedy horses, specically bred forracing. The breed originated in the17th and 18th centuries when Britishmares were crossbred with importedeastern stallions. In fact, all modernthoroughbreds can trace theirorigins back to three of thesestallions: the Byerly Turk, theDarley Arabian and the GodolphinArabian, the latter being buried at theWandlebury Ring near Cambridge.

Whats a classic race?Its one of ve races for three-year-olds run during the at-racingseason. In addition to the Derby,theres the St Leger, named afterAnthony St Leger, a British soldierwho inaugurated the Doncaster racein 1776; the Oaks, which was rst run

in 1779 on the Oaks estate of theEarl of Derby; and the 2,000 Guineasand 1,000 Guineas, which wereestablished in the early 19th centuryand are run on the famous RowleyMile at Newmarket in Suffolk.

Has any horse won all ve?No, although the mare Sceptre bred by the Duke of Westminster in1899 won the 2,000 Guineas, the1,000 Guineas, the Oaks and theSt Leger in 1902, and might havewon the Derby had it not been for abruised foot. She remains the onlyhorse to have won four classic racesoutright; Formosa had nearly doneso in 1868, but dead-heated in the2,000 Guineas.

Has the Derby always been runat Epsom?No. During the Second World War,the race was continued as a boostto morale, but the establishmentof an anti-aircraft battery on EpsomDowns led to both it and the Oaksbeing relocated to Newmarket.The continuation of racing wasnot universally popular. Many sawit as an unnecessary drain onscarce resources and manpower even the Path News report ofthe 1941 race has a somewhatdisapproving tone.

As tens of thousands of punters prepare to descend

on Epsom to watch the Derby, Julian Humphrys

looks at the history of Britains richest horse race

PAST NOTESTHE DERBY

ON

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In 1902, the record-breaking mare Sceptre won four of British at-racings classic races. Yet a bruised foot meant victory in the Derby eluded her

lyok,a,

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History now / Past notes

DESCENDANTS

WATERLOO

2015


Your views on the magazine and the world of history

LETTERS

To me, Churchill remains a totalenigma (Why Churchills ReputationIs Still on the Line, May). Althoughhe was certainly a great wartime

leader, I cannot ignore his rise topower, where he showed himself to be

the ultimate self-seeking, totally untrust-worthy politician.

Churchill was a consummate politician,but one who could not stop himselfinterfering with military strategy andinvariably getting it wrong, as in Greeceand Crete in 1940 and the costly invasionsof Sicily and Italy in 1943. He was also aamboyant bully who, in 1922 as one ofthe Westminster party confronting MichaelCollins, contributed massively to thepartition of Ireland.

He was untrustworthy and yet, undoubt-edly, the right man for the job in 1940 cometh the hour, cometh the man. Yet in1944 he turned the 4th Indian Divisiononto the Greek partisans who had helpedus throughout the war and drove themfrom Athens.

Churchill was a proclaimed democrat,yet he opposed the independence of India.He was hypocritical: the commoner fromBlenheim Palace who sent soldiers to dealwith striking miners.

He was obsessive about power and a greatorator who should have left politics in 1945.But as someone who sat glued to the TV onthe day of his funeral in 1965, I wasoverwhelmed by the grief and respect themillions showed. To this day, I still thrill tohis wartime speeches and, I believe, he kept

A man of contradictions

We reward the writer ofthe letter of the month withour History Choice bookof the month. This issue itis Charles I and the Peopleof England by David Cressy.Read the review on page 69

In defence of Richard

I must take issue with Derek Smithsletter in Mays issue about Richard III. I agree that medieval kings werecompletely different to the monarchythat we have today, but this in no waymakes them all and particularly themuch-maligned Richard III dictators.As far as I am aware, Richard did nottorture anyone, even though he did,like all kings of those times, orderexecutions. It should be noted thathanging still took place in this countryuntil the 1960s and many states in the US

still carry out executions.To compare the actions of a medieval

king a man of his times who helddifferent beliefs and values to us today to someone like Saddam Hussein isridiculous. What Saddam did wascompletely at odds with the times helived in. That is why he was such abarbaric dictator and this was recognisedas such during his lifetime.

If anyones history does require acloser examination, it is exactly someonelike Richard III whose actions have beenclouded by misrepresentation and

propaganda for years. He was every bitentitled to dignity and honour duringthe reinterment of his remains, as ananointed king of this country.Sharon Lock, Lincolnshire

What lies beneath

With the dust settling on Richard III,might I muse on the fate of some othermonarchs, this time in, or of, Scotland?

The body of James IV, felled atFlodden, may lie beneath the fairway ofa golf course in Surrey, with his headpossibly underneath a pub in the City ofLondon. Edward Balliol, usurper of thethrone of David II, perhaps lies under apost ofce block in Doncaster. A site off astreet in Perth marks the grave of James I(murdered) and his queen, and also thatof Margaret Tudor, queen of James IV,whose marriage made possible the unionof Scotland and England!

As with Richard III, these remainswere all buried in former churches andmonasteries, now converted to secular replacements. And I have not eventouched upon the remains of 57monarchs prior to 1093, allegedlyinterred but so far unlocated, in the holy soil of IonaHamish Allan, Edinburgh

The blame game

Regarding your article on Greece andGermany (Backgrounde April), werGreeks always need more than others someone else to blame for our woes.We nd it difcult to look in the mirror. In various situations and periods, it was the Turks, the Bulgarians, the English,the Americans, the Germans and so on.Now the Germans are once again theavour of the month.Ioannis (John) Damianos, Athens

Accurate depiction

Just in case you missed the young blackboy in the foreground of the painting ofCaptain Cook takes possession of theeast coast of the Australian continent on29 April 1770 (Anniversaries, April), letme assure you that it was not the artistsimagination. Joseph Banks, the botanistsailing with Cook, had two blackservants, Thomas Richmond and GeorgeDorlton. The captain of the Adventure,

LETTE R OF TH E

MONTH

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The opinions expressed by our commentators are their own and may notrepresent the views of BBC History Magazine or the Immediate Media Company

us in the totally justied war against Hitler.We may have stood alone in 1940, but wehad, for all his faults, a great wartime leader.Major John Jessop, York

Churchill: hypocritical and obsessive?


SOCIAL MEDIAWhat youve been saying

on Twitter and Facebook

WRITE TO USWe welcome your letters, whilereserving the right to edit them.We may publish your letters on ourwebsite. Please include a daytimephone number and, if emailing, a postaladdress (not for publication). Lettersshould be no longer than 250 words.

email: [email protected]

Post: Letters, BBC History Magazine,Immediate Media CompanyBristol Ltd, Tower House,Fairfax Street, Bristol BS1 3BN

sailing with Cook two years later, alsohad a black servant, James Swilley.Marika Sherwood, Institute of Com-

monwealth Studies, London

Upper crust

A big thank you to Samantha Nott forher homity pie recipe (Samanthas RecipeCorner, March). Here in Derbyshire werproduce and consume homity pies onan industrial scale. They are just theticket after a days walking in the PeakDistrict. It was interesting to know thatthe dish was popular during the SecondWorld War.

It was very popular with the family

when I baked it. By the time they hadnished, there wasnt much left for me,so it looks like Ill have to make it again.

Oh, what hardship!Eileen Spotswood, Chesterfield

Corrections As numerous readers have spotted,the image used to depict Anne Boleynon the Next Month page in the Mayissue actually showed Henry VIIIs thirdwife, Jane Seymour. In The Unsung Heroes Who Won theWar (May), we stated that GeorgeJohnny Johnson is the last survivor ofthe Dambuster raids. As reader MikeCraig correctly states, Johnson is thelast British survivor of the raids. NewZealander Les Munro and CanadianFred Sutherland are also both still alive.

@HistoryExtra: Does the digital era herald the end of history?

@pip_mouse No, it offers lots more

opportunity to share fascinating

information and swap ideas

@DaveWildish I have thought

this for some time. We may as

well be writing in the sand

Brandy Leigh If archaeologists

uncovered sites in the future,

what would they find? Tablets

they couldnt get any information

from. But we still produce sculpture,

art, and books. It really comes

down to future generations and

how they preserve history

Tabitha Runacres Not at all!

Nothing beats a digital-free

historical experience, but we can

harness so much in this digital era

to progress our knowledge

@dbrock82 We lost so much

information in the transition

from cuneiform tablets to

papyrus in Mesopotamia.

We havent learned from this

Annette Strauch I work in the

field of digitisation. Technically,

digital preservation is possible.

But IT and libraries need to work

more closely together. A lot has

been lost already

Sarah Elizabeth Cox I just

think it means we will have

data archaeologists specialising

in recovering data from fragments

of old SIM cards, dongles etc. But

any disaster great enough to

end the digital age would carry with

it massive loss of life and other

infrastructural damage, rendering

the question moot. History matters

little to those struggling to survive

@HistoryExtra: UK could fall like Roman empire as Brits have lost desire for innovation, says scientist. What do you think?

@moose_malloy Unless were

invaded or suddenly decide to

collapse our economy, Id say

weve already fallen

Fbio Loppes I think Britain

declined as the greatest power

a long time ago with WW1

Mor Rioghan The British

empire days are long gone.

But all empires go through the

same rise and decline cycle

As Marika Sherwoods letter points out, the presence of a young black boy in this painting of Captain Cook was historically accurate

GE

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Eileen Spotswood loves homity pie

THE UNTOLD STORYOF THE BRAVE YOUNG BRITISH AIRMEN

FACED WITH A TERRIFYING NEW WARFARE

AVAILABLE AT


Michael Wood on Greekcivilisation

I had dinner with some Greek friendsrecently at our local taverna and inevitablythe conversation came round to Greecestroubles since the European bailout. There

was a resigned sense of hurt around the table: Its justanother stage in the War of Independence, someonesaid, looking back to 1821. Since then, weve had all thestruggles of the 19th century, the Metaxas dictatorship,the German occupation, the civil war, the colonels, andnow this the EU! Were still not independent, are we?

He was only half-joking. Greece has gone through a lotover the near 200 years since Lord Byron fought and diedin the malarial swamps of Missolonghi on the way toGreece declaring itself an independent nation in 1832.And the question of Greeces debt raises all sorts ofquestions for the historian taking the longer view.

I dreamed that Greece might yet be free, Byron hadwritten on the battleeld of Marathon, reecting on theparadox that the English heirs of Greece (as he saw thePhilhellenes, those fascinated by Greek culture) were freebut the Greeks themselves were slaves. It was one of thosemoments where poetry did indeed help change the world,giving a voice to European philhellenism and in the endprodding the Europeans to direct military intervention inorder to create an independent state (even if one centred atrst only on southern Greece and the Cycladic islands.History gave no guarantee that there would be a modernGreek state.)

That set me thinking again about the story of Greece.Among the great civilisations, India and China with theirvast populations were always destined to be powers inhistory. But Greece was small, so its huge role in historyseems all the more amazing. There were Seven Ages ofGreece: the prehistoric roots; the Cycladic; Minoan Crete;the Bronze Age Mycenaean empire at the time of theTrojan War; then the Classical age, the time of Periclesand Socrates; then the Hellenistic Age, initiated byAlexander, when Greece went global, when Pytheascircumnavigated Britain, reaching the pack ice offIceland, and Menander pushed his army down to the

Ganges delta. Then came the Byzantine empire, also aworld civilisation, spreading its Christian culture upinto Russia and down as far as Ethiopia. Like all greatcivilisations, Greece had the power to renew itself overthe ages. So todays Greece, and the Greek diasporaacross the world, are heirs to one of the most incredibleadventures in human history.

The legacy was vast: to the Roman and Slavic worlds,to the west and to Islam. Greek philosophy and sciencetransformed the Islamic world from the ninth century(for when we speak of Islamic science, we mean Greekscience, transmitted and reinterpreted in Baghdad andCrdoba). Greek art was universalised too, becoming themodern way of representation, and so useful that it wasadopted by all cultures. Even the third century BCTerracotta Army in China is now thought to have beeninuenced by Greek art. Greek myths and literature areat the heart of western culture, and Greek democracy,of course, has been a beacon in history. At the heart of itall was a vision of human autonomy so powerful andpersuasive that, despite the triumph of the near-easternmonotheisms after Rome, Greek humanism would comeback in western culture through the Carolingian and Ital-ian renaissances. Its never departed since.

And what if? Arnold Toynbee speculated what mighthave happened had history taken a different course ifAlexander had not died in Babylon but gone on to conquerEurope (the second-century historian Arrian says heplanned as far as the islands of Britain), pacied India,then burst in on China, uniting the Old World in a loosefederation. Toynbee imagined a Hellenised world orderfrom then until the 20th century, with the steam engineinvented in Alexandria in the rst century and a content-ed 1950s world under Alexander XXXV!

Im not really into counterfactuals, but this onecontains an essential truth: not just in Europe and thewest, but even in the Islamic world and India, we are insome sense still late Greeks. And, in terms of the way wehuman beings have thought about life, the debt goes theother way. The truth is, we still owe Greece.

Michael Wood

is professor of

public history at

the University of

Manchester. He is

currently working

on The Story of

China, a series

for BBC Two

The debt actually goes the other way. We still owe Greece

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ILLUSTRATION BY FEMKE DE JONG

This portrait of Anne Boleyn, exhibited at her childhood home, Hever Castle, is probably

an Elizabethan copy of a lost original painted when Anne was queenBACKGROUND: A copy of a letter that

Henry wrote to Anne in 1527. The kings missives in this period suggest that

he was the one holding back from full sexual relations

23

BRIDGEMAN

COVER STORY

DID ANNE BOLEYN

CRAVE THE CROWN?

For years weve been told that Anne

refused to sleep with Henry VIII

until he made her his queen. Yet, says

George Bernard, the argument that

she demanded a crown on her

head simply doesnt stack up


Anne Boleyn

Catherine of Aragon is depicted in a 16th-century portrait. Henry worked to have their union annulled, claiming that her previous

marriage to his brother invalidated their own

Henry VIIIs passion for Anne Boleyn has never been in doubt. In one of his love letters to Anne, Henry lamented her absence, wishing myself specially an evening in my sweethearts arms whose pretty dukkys [breasts] I trust shortly to kiss, noting that the missive was written with the hand of him that was, is and shall be yours. But while his desire isnt in question, other aspects of the beginnings of their relationship need to be reassessed.

It is widely held that Anne, with whom Henry fell in love in the mid-1520s, was prepared to accept his advances only if he married her and made her his queen. By then Henry had been married to Catherine of Aragon for nearly 20 years and she had borne him a child, Mary, though no surviving son. Could it be true that Anne suggested to Henry that his marriage to Catherine, widow of his elder brother Arthur, had always been invalid that it was against divine law? And did she steadfastly refuse to yield to Henry until his marriage to Catherine was annulled, leaving him free to marry Anne?

For centuries, historians have reiterated this theory. Yet, when you look at it closely, it does not make sense. Imagine Anne as a lady of the court who was wanted by the king as his mistress. In a world in which divorce on the grounds of the irretrievable breakdown of a relationship did not exist, could such a lady realistically hope to persuade Henry to abandon his wife in order to marry her? If Anne did make such demands, would she not be taking the risk that Henry would simply laugh at her and look elsewhere? After all, Catherine was not one of Henrys native subjects but the aunt of Charles V the powerful Holy Roman Emperor. Such a rejection of Catherine would risk serious diplomatic and dynastic consequences.

Its much more likely that Anne asked that she should be the kings only mistress. That at least was fully in Henrys power as several of Henrys love letters to Anne discussed.

The kings pleasure Those who have suggested that Anne was holding out to be queen may have simply misinterpreted her initial reluctance to yield to Henry. What Anne feared was an all-too-common fate of royal mistresses: to be used and discarded at the kings pleasure as had happened to her sister, Mary. Henrys love letters suggest that Anne was won over by his promise to make her his exclusive mistress.

One of the letters conrms that Anne did not at rst commit herself unreservedly. For a year, Henry lamented, he had been stricken by the dart of love but unsure whether he would nd a place in her heart. And so he offered to make her

his sole mistress, banishing all others from his thoughts and affection.

Once Anne had accepted Henrys promises, they probably enjoyed full sexual relations for a while at least, such is suggested by the details of a mission entrusted to one of the kings secretaries, William Knight, in the summer of 1527. Knight was charged with securing a dispensation from the pope permitting the king to remarry if Henrys marriage to Catherine of Aragon was rst annulled.

It has long been noted that this draft dispensation allowed the king to marry someone with whom he was already related in the eyes of canon law in particular, a woman with whose sister he had had sexual relations. By this time, Henry had already enjoyed an affair with Mary Boleyn; its quite likely that he was the father of her two eldest children. With the papal dispensation, Henry was anticipating and attempting to deal with a potential obstacle to a marriage to Anne.

Less often noticed, and then usually dismissed, is the provision in the draft

dispensation for Henry to marry a woman with whom he had already had sexual intercourse. Why should Henry have bothered to include that provision unless it were true? This strongly suggests that, after convincing Anne that she would be his only mistress, he did indeed sleep with her.

But only for a brief period. It was probably at this point that Henry came to the conclusion that his marriage to Catherine of Aragon had never been valid in the eyes of God. If that marriage were annulled, Henry realised, he would be free to marry Anne as his rst wife. Any child born would be of unquestioned legitimacy. But in order to make his case for an annulment of his marriage to Catherine, Henry needed to hold the moral high ground.

Throughout the proceedings leading to his divorce, Henry claimed not that his marriage to Catherine had broken down but that it had always been against divine law. If Henry had publicly admitted that he had fallen in love with Anne Boleyn, it would have cast doubt on the sincerity of his concern not to break divine law. In an age without reliable methods of contraception, there was also an obvious risk of pregnancy and nothing would be more damaging to the kings moral credibility. Jean du Bellay, the French ambassador, vividly outlined the problem in June 1529: I very much fear that for some time past this king has come very near Mme Anne, adding: If the belly grows, all will be spoilt.

Whats more, Henry was determined that any child he might have with Anne should be indisputably legitimate, not the controversial offspring of a relationship not yet validated. Anne never did become pregnant during the long years in which Henry and his advisors worked towards the end of his marriage to Catherine. That does not prove that it was Anne who was holding Henry back, but is consistent with the suggestion that it was Henry, not Anne, who refrained from full sexual relations.

Our desired end Henrys love letters support this theory. In one he informed darling Anne that the letter-bearer was being sent with as many things to compass our matter and to bring it to pass as our wits could imagine or devise. Once brought to pass, you and I shall have our desired end, which should be more to my hearts ease and more quietness to my mind than any other thing in this world.

Henrys subscription written with the hand of him which desireth as much to be yours as you do to have him hints that it was Anne who needed reassurance of Henrys desire, and Henry who was holding back.

On another occasion Henry wrote to Anne: What joy it is to me to understand of your conformableness to reason and of the BR

IDGEMAN

Anne feared the all-

too-common fate of

royal mistresses: to be

used and discarded

at the kings pleasure

as had happened to

her sister, Mary

BBC History Magazine

BRIDGEMAN/G

ETTY

25

TIMELINE

c152526

May 1527

The rise and fall of Anne Boleyn

Autumn/winter 1527

11 July 1531

1 June 1533

Winter 1532/33

May 1533

May 1536

19 May 1536

September 1533

Henry falls in love with Anne.

He pursues her for a year before she

agrees to become his mistress, though

their sexual relationship continues for

only a limited time perhaps a year.

Henry marries Anne

in a secret ceremony.

Anne is charged with and convicted

of treason. She is alleged to have

committed adultery with five men,

including an incestuous liaison with

her brother, George.

Anne gives birth to a

daughter, Elizabeth.

This was a disappointment

to the king.

Henry is convinced

that his marriage to

Catherine of Aragon

contravenes divine

law and is invalid. With

Thomas Wolsey, lord

chancellor, cardinal

and legate, and many

churchmen and

lawyers, Henry tries

to persuade the

pope to grant an

annulment.

Henry sees Catherine of Aragon for the

last time. She is forced to leave court,

dying at Kimbolton Castle (in whats now

Cambridgeshire) in 1536.

Henry requests a papal

dispensation to permit him

to marry a woman with

whose sister he had enjoyed

sexual relations, and with

whom he had already had

sexual relations.

Anne is crowned queen

in Westminster Abbey.

Thomas Cranmer

(left), archbishop

of Canterbury,

pronounces Henrys

marriage to

Catherine of

Aragon invalid.

Thomas Wolsey, from 1515 cardinal and lord chancellor

A portrait of Anne Boleyns sister, Mary

Anne Boleyn is beheaded with a single

sword strike at the Tower of London.

An 18th-century illustration depicts Annes execution

A 1533 pamphlet shows Annes

tryumphaunt coronation


Anne Boleyn

BRIDGEMAN

Henry was

determined that

any child he might

have with Anne

should be

indisputably

legitimate

A king in loveA portrait of Henry VIII from

c152530. Once Anne accepted the kings promise to make

her his sole mistress, it is implausible to think

that she could have prevented him enjoying

full sexual relations


BR

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up for her interests as she understood them.Demanding to be Henrys queen, though,would have been a step too far and there is nothing to show that she did.

George Bernard is professor of early modernd

history at the University of Southampton, and

author of Anne Boleyn: Fatal Attractions (Yale, 2011)s

suppressing of your inutile and vain thoughtsand fantasies with the bridle of reason.Continue, Henry urged, for thereby shallcome, both to you and to me the greatestquietness that may be in this world. HereHenry was urging patience conformablenessto reason on Anne until the church foundin his favour.

In a letter most likely written soon afterAnne agreed to become his mistress, Henry assured her that henceforth my heart will bedevoted to you only, greatly wanting that mybody also could be. Daily he begged God tointervene and help him achieve his goal,hoping that at length his prayer would beheard. Yet, in doing so, Henry was not berating Anne for holding back, for refusing to sleepwith him. Instead it was Henry who refrained,and what he regretted were the complexitiesand the delays imposed by the laws and procedures of the church.

The love letters also reveal that theirs becamean intimate relationship. As we have alreadyseen, Henry longed to hold Anne in his armsand kiss her breasts.

ResortingtoforceHenrys armour shows that he was a big man,and we know that he was forceful in emotion:in 1535, he came close to killing his court foolin a rage. If he had wanted to go further withAnne, it is implausible to think that she could have prevented him.

From where, then, did the story arise thatAnne was refusing Henrys advances until shewas made queen? Perhaps the source was thescholar and cleric Reginald Pole who had goneabroad to study rather than become implicatedin the kings divorce. In 1536, Pole attackedHenry ercely, calling on the king to repentand return to the fold of the church. Heberated Henry for the many terrible thingsthe king had done for the love of Anne Boleyn;she was presented as a femme fatale whoconvinced Henry that, as long as he maintainedCatherine as his wife, he was living inmortal sin. In doing so Pole was offeringHenry a way out an excuse that he could use if he repented and ended the schism with the Catholic church.

In many ways, it was a characteristic ofHenrys rule that he placed responsibility for unpopular policies on others. Here, Polewas offering him scope to do that again. Buteven though Anne Boleyn was by then dead,Henry did not take the opportunity offeredby Poles comments and we should not treatPoles remarks as the truth. Nothing in thesurviving sources from the late 1520s points toAnne being involved in making the case for theannulment of Henrys marriage to Catherine.

On the contrary, many of the sources suggestthat the opposite was true. In one of his love

letters, Henry told Anne that he had spentfour hours that day working on the bookin support of his case for an annulment collecting and elaborating on biblicalexamples that justied his stand but hemade no attempt to involve Anne in this.Henry sent Francis Bryan, a trusted courtier,to Italy to report on how things stood in thepapal courts. Bryan took care to write to theking only, giving Henry the opportunityto tell Anne just how much, or how little,he pleased. She was not directing Henrysmarital diplomacy.

The suggestion that Anne Boleyn did notrefuse to sleep with Henry until they could bemarried may diminish her in some peopleseyes unfairly, in my view. If Anne insistedthat Henry enjoy her as his sole mistress beforeshe agreed to any relationship, it showed shewas no doormat rather, a woman who stood

Inner sanctum Henrys writing box (c152527) bears the heraldic badgesof both the king and his rst wife, Catherine of Aragon. Henry may have kept thef b th th ki d hi t if C th i f A H h k t th

pens he used to write his love letters to Anne in this box


WWI eyewitness accounts

Our First World WarIn part 13 of his personal testimony series, Peter Hart takes us to June 1915, when trouble

continued at Gallipoli and when the wounded were trying to adjust back to life as civilians.

Peter will be tracing the experiences of 20 people who lived through the First World War

via interviews, letters and diary entries as its centenary progresses

ILLUSTRATIONS BY JAMES ALBON

PART 13

At Gallipoli, on 4 June 1915, General Sir Ian Hamilton ordered another desperate attack to try and break through the Turkish lines in what became known as the third battle of Krithia. Among those attacking was Joe Murray, an ordinary seaman of the Hood Battalion, Royal Naval Division. As the time forthe attack grew closer, Joe was in the front line waiting to go over the top at 12 noon.

In the ring line, it was packed. We were

standing there, couldnt sit down couldnt lie down, just standing there. The fellow next to me was messing about with his ammunition, ddling about,cleaning his rie, looking in the magazine. Another fellow was sort of staring. The blinking maggots from the dead bodies in the ring line were crawling round right under our noses.

Every now and again if a bullethit the parapet there was a Psssst! wind, gas it smelt like hell. The sun was boiling hot. The maggots, the ies the stench was horrible. Honestly and truly the next half an hour

Joe Murray

Joe was born on 8 October 1896 and grewup in a mining community in Burnopeld,County Durham. After working as apony driver and putter down the mine,he enlisted into the Royal Naval VolunteerReserve in October 1914.

The 6th ManchesterRegiment go on thecharge during the thirdbattle of Krithia inGallipoli on 4 June 1915

was like an age. The bullets werehitting the parapet Bang,Bang, Bang actually comingthrough the parapet, disturbingthe dead bodies, the stench.Ooooh dear me! It was horrible.I remember Lieutenant Com-mander Parsons standing on theladder, he called out: Fiveminutes to go men! Fourminutes to go! One minuteto go men! Now men. He blewa whistle and off we go.

The moment we started toleave this particular traversewhere we were it was 10 or 12feet long men were getting outby the ladders but falling backinto the trench. I should imaginemost of the men who attemptedto attack on that particular orderfell back either into the trench oronto the parapet. There was deadall over the place.

Machine gun and rie bulletslaced through the air as theystruggled towards the Turkishfront line.

Parsons had already beenkilled. We got into dead

ground. The petty ofcer said: Well, come on, lad! Cmon! Wemoved again and then lay down

to get a breather. He was an oldreservist, his bald head glitteringin the sun hed lost his helmet.He was up on the trench with hisrie and bayonet: Cmon!Cmon! Around his head hedgot a white handkerchief andblood pouring down his face justlike the pictures in the LondonIllustrated. He was now 20 yardsahead of me. I got to the trenchand in I go it was 10 feet deep!There was one or two dead,nobody alive.

Murray pushed on over therst two Turkish lines. Allseemed well, but they hadno idea that the French attackto their right had failed. TheTurks were counter-attackingpushing along the trenches,feeling their way behindthe Hood Battalion andthreatening to cut them off.

I remember seeing two ofcers away to my left

Denis Browne was one taking about 50 men going forward. We went forward, about half a dozen of us, to a bit of a ditch that was considered to be the third trench. All of a sudden the right ank started retiring, the Anson Battalion. We were forced to retire, hopped back jumped over the second trench; then we scampered back to his rst trench. I kept on turning round and ring, but there wasnt much opposition from the front. I couldnt understand why we were retiring, we werent being

pressed at all. We were almost near his rst trench.

I was out of puff, so tired. I thought: One more trot and I shall be in the trench! But when I got there it was full of Turks! So instead of stopping over the trench I leapt over the top and I was helped over by a bayonet stuck right in the posterior! I went falling right in front of the trench into a shell hole, lying at in there.

Murray lay there all day with a Turk, oblivious to his presence, ring a rie through a loophole just above his head. He only got back to the British front line when night fell. The day had been a disaster for the Royal Naval Division. Sub Lieutenant Denis Browne was killed. With no known grave, he is commemorated on the Helles Memorial.


BOOK

Gallipoli by Peter Hart (Prole Books, 2013) WEBSITE

Read further testimonies in the Our First World War series at historyextra.com/ourrstworldwar TV AND RADIO

The BBCs First World War coverage is continuing please check the TV & Radio updates on historyextra.com

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GE

TT

Y

Peter Hart is an oral historian at

the Imperial War Museum and

the author of several books about

the First World War

JUNE 1915

NEXT ISSUE: We dashed forward while clods of earth were still falling all round us

Victor Goddard

Victor Goddard was born inWembley in 1897. Afterattending Dartmouth Collegeas a naval cadet, he served asa midshipman aboard HMSBritannia from 1914 to 1915. Balloon training at Roehampton Lane followed, before being posted onto airships with the Royal Naval Air Service in June 1915.

Usually there were four or ve of us young

midshipmen, acting sub-lieutenants, and one instructor. You would drift up into the air, and have the experience of seeing not yourself rising, but the ground sinking away from you. We had our luncheon in the air as a rule, but we used to do our navigation in such a way that we would accidentally come down

Second Lieutenant George Horridge was holding the rst line at Gallipoli while the Manchester Regiment attacked on the morning of 4 June 1915. As he watched the progress of the attack, George was faced with a supreme challenge.

I looked over the top and saw one of these

Manchester fellows evidently wounded lying on his tummy about 30 yards in front of the trench holding up his hand. What came into my mind was what would happen when I actually got out there with metalying all about the place.

When I saw this chap, it struckme that this was the moment Idbeen waiting for what I was going to do and if you dont gonow and do something youd remember all your life that you

George Horridge

Twenty-year-old George was the son of a prominent Bury family, which had made its money from a successful textile business. He volunteered for the 5th Lancashire Fusiliers just before war broke out.

I hadnt got more than 6 yards out

of the trench before I felt as though Id

been hit by a sledgehammer in the ribs

Hawtin Mundy

Hawtin was brought up in Buckinghamshire and served as an apprentice coach builder. At the outbreak of war, he and his pal Sid Carroll joined the 1/1st Battalion of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry at Aylesbury.

side of the road and one of these girls came across and put a white feather in my jacket [a symbolof cowardice].

I never said anything; kind of grinned to myself I knew what it meant. But my mother ohdear, didnt she y into a temper. She told these girls that not only was I in the army but that I washome wounded. Oh golly thosegirls: they said they were sorryand they didnt know and theymade a terrible fuss. But my poor old mum she was angry!

in some splendid park, wherewe were pretty sure that weshould be provided with anexcellent tea!

One day we landed atTheobalds House, and disturbed a tennis-party! We wrecked theconservatory! We landed nally in their duck-pond behind abatch of trees and thoroughlydisorganised the tennis-party;but we thoroughly enjoyed thestrawberries and cream!

failed at that moment. Nobody else would know you failed you would know. I was forced by these feelings to go and try and get this chap in. I went to one of my platoon, Parkes, and I said: Look Parkes, lets go out and see if we can get this chap in! Parkes jumped out of the trench and I followed him.

I hadnt got more than six yards before I felt as though Id been hit by a sledgehammer in the ribs. I knew Id been hit. All ideas of bringing in the Manchester man disappeared all I was concerned about was getting back into the trench! So I turned and ran, jumped into our trench, which was about 7ft deep, and sprained my ankle which lasted longer than the wound Id got. Parkes brought the Manchester in but he died in the afternoon.

Hawtin Mundy had been wounded and, after a period of treatment in hospitals back in England, he was sent on sick leave home to New Bradwell.

While I was home on leave, I got into my

civilian clothes, and there was a play going on in Northampton. So I said to my mother: Ill take you to see this play! When we got up Gold Street, just as we got to the corner, there was a bunch of girls stood there. Mother and myself were walking the other

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