Both, a knight in 1761 and a baron in 1776, but as a baron is higher than a knight he goes by his senior title of Lord Amherst (Lord of course being a generic term for any peer). 

David Mitchell, quite a wit and comedian, very popular over here.

We're half way through a new BBC eight part series King and Conqueror about England and Normandy from the 1040s to the battle of Hastings in 1066. As a rough often gruesome Game of Thrones style drama it's very good, but as history it's woefully inaccurate. I spend most of it shouting "That never happened" or "It's in the wrong order".   

9 September 1513 - The Battle of Flodden.

The most famous of England's victories over the Scots.

In 1513 King Henry VIII was away leading his armies in the war with France when the French called upon their ally Scotland to mount an attack on the English north. In August the Scots King James IV led an army of 30,000 men into England capturing a number of border fortresses before heading south. England was under the rule of a Regent in Henry's absence, his wife Catherine of Aragon; she had sent Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey north to lead the defence of England whereupon he made a stand at Flodden in Northumberland to await the arrival of the Scots. The two clashed on 9 September, Surrey with the slightly smaller army. The result was a massacre of the Scots with around 10,000 dead to the English 1700. Among the Scots dead were King James himself and many Lords - ten Earls and eleven Barons. King James' body was taken south and buried at Sheen Priory, Surrey. He was succeeded as King of Scots by his three year old son King James V.  

We're half way through a new BBC eight part series King and Conqueror about England and Normandy from the 1040s to the battle of Hastings in 1066. As a rough often gruesome Game of Thrones style drama it's very good, but as history it's woefully inaccurate. I spend most of it shouting "That never happened" or "It's in the wrong order".   

C'mon Mark, artistic license sells products & there are times when you have to "liven" up the dull facts with "fluff."

9 September 1513 - The Battle of Flodden.

The most famous of England's victories over the Scots.

In 1513 King Henry VIII was away leading his armies in the war with France when the French called upon their ally Scotland to mount an attack on the English north. In August the Scots King James IV led an army of 30,000 men into England capturing a number of border fortresses before heading south. England was under the rule of a Regent in Henry's absence, his wife Catherine of Aragon; she had sent Thomas Howard, Earl of Surrey north to lead the defence of England whereupon he made a stand at Flodden in Northumberland to await the arrival of the Scots. The two clashed on 9 September, Surrey with the slightly smaller army. The result was a massacre of the Scots with around 10,000 dead to the English 1700. Among the Scots dead were King James himself and many Lords - ten Earls and eleven Barons. King James' body was taken south and buried at Sheen Priory, Surrey. He was succeeded as King of Scots by his three year old son King James V.  

Yet another battering of the Scots. 

Artistic license Major?

Yep, it did seem to happen to them quite a bit. A wonder there are any of them left. 

We're half way through a new BBC eight part series King and Conqueror about England and Normandy from the 1040s to the battle of Hastings in 1066. As a rough often gruesome Game of Thrones style drama it's very good, but as history it's woefully inaccurate. I spend most of it shouting "That never happened" or "It's in the wrong order".   

C'mon Mark, artistic license sells products & there are times when you have to "liven" up the dull facts with "fluff."

Nothing dull about England and Normandy in the mid 11th century, no need to make things up. 

10 September 1547 - The Battle of Pinkie.

The main battle of the "Rough Wooing".

The Rough Wooing was an attempt by the English in 1543 to force the marriage of the infant Mary, Queen of Scots to the heir to the English Crown Prince Edward. When it failed Henry VIII ordered an invasion and ravaging of southern Scotland which continued after his death in 1547 and the accession of Edward as King Edward VI under the Regency of the Duke of Somerset.

Lord Somerset himself led the invasion of 1547 which took him up Scotland's east coast so as to maintain contact with his fleet which carried the bulk of his supplies, his aim was to reach the port of Leith near Edinburgh where the fleet would unload. The Scots stood in his way at Pinkie blocking the crossing of the river Esk. 

Despite his smaller numbers, 17,000 to the Scots 23,000, Somerset prevailed with the greater mobility of his men supported by gunfire from offshore. It was a disaster for the Scots who lost 6000 killed to the English 600. 

Despite his victory Somerset was unable to bring the Scots to heel. French troops arrived in support of their Scottish allies and the young Queen Mary eluded capture for eleven months until she sailed to safety and a long exile in France. 

France and Scotland had been close ever since the days of William Wallace, but the alliance took on new meaning once the infant Mary had been taken into exile in France. She married the heir to the French Crown and became Queen Consort a year later upon her father-in-law's death. She grew up in France from the ages of five to 18 when she returned "home" more French than Scottish, even changing the spelling of her family name from Stewart to the more Francophile Stuart. 

French troops stationed in Scotland kept the English out throughout the 1550s and only departed in 1560.

Wallace did manage to slow the English advance by burning the towns and villages as he withdrew and the English in the end were out of food to feed their army and had to return to England.

Trouble was it also destroyed the food to feed his own group including the people living in the small towns and villages.

11 September 1297 - The Battle of Stirling Bridge.

William Wallace's great victory over the English.

Scotland had been annexed by England with little resistance in 1296. Resistance came shortly after in the person of the son of a minor landowner William Wallace. He made his name is a series of guerrilla raids across southern Scotland forcing action upon the English. King Edward was away fighting in Flanders leaving the country under the command of the Earl of Surrey. Not expecting much of a fight from Wallace and his rabble he reluctantly advanced as far as Stirling where he found an army of around 6000 Scots on the other side of the river Forth. Keen to get things over with and return to England before winter Surrey despatched his second-in-command Sir Hugh de Cressingham across the narrow bridge to take on the Scots. 

The bridge would only take a few men and horses at a time, so Wallace waited until about 2000 had crossed, including Cressingham, before attacking. The result was a rout of the English, almost the entire body of men on the north side of the river were killed, Cressingham among them. The victory gave heart to the Scots in their efforts to rid their country of the English.    

Do you still read books and magazines Tommy? If you can give me your mailing address through Facebook messenger then I can try sending you some Canadian Legion magazines which I get every month. If you're not interested just say so.

12 September 1683 - The Relief of the Siege of Vienna.

The second and final siege of the capital of the Holy Roman Empire by the Turks.

The Ottoman Turks had been gradually extending westwards into Christian Europe for over 150 years culminating in an advance as far as Vienna in the summer of 1683 when the Hungarians sided with the Turks allowing them free passage. The Emperor fled to safety leaving the defence of the city to Count von Starhemberg. Against him stood 170,000 Turks who opened the siege on 14 July. 

Calls for assistance went largely unnoticed by the powers who could have helped, France in fact is thought to have secretly collaborated with the Turks. Only the King of Poland and a number of minor German Princes answered the call raising an army and marching to the defence of Vienna. Led by the Polish King Jan III his army of 70,000 arrived on 11 September and attacked the following morning. Fighting lasted all day and eventually the Turks broke and the city was saved.

The Ottoman commander the Grand Vizier Kara Mustapha was executed on the Sultan's orders three months later.   

In wartime most troopships were requisitioned liners. A number of cargo vessels were were taken over by the Admiralty as auxiliary cruisers too. 

The most famous incident was the single ship action between two converted liners in September 1914 (111 years ago tomorrow actually) off the coast of Brazil. 

The Cunard liner Carmania was requisitioned in August 1914 as an Armed Merchant Cruiser and fitted with eight 4.7 inch guns. At the same time the Hamburg Süd liner Cap Trafalgar was requisitioned and converted into an AMC armed with two 4 inch guns and six 1.45 pom-poms. The two met in the South Atlantic off Brazil and in the ensuing battle the Cap Trafalgar was sunk with the loss of 51 killed. The badly damaged Carmania with nine dead rescued the German survivors and limped into a Brazilian port. She was eventually repaired, served as a troopship before being finally scrapped in 1932.  

13 September 1759 - The British captured Quebec.

The focus for the British forces in North America in the 1758/9 campaign was the capture of Quebec and with it French Canada. The seizure of Louisburg in 1758 allowed the Royal Navy access up the St Lawrence carrying vital men and supplies and denying such to the French. By June 1759 the seemingly impregnable Quebec was surrounded and the first attempt on the city from the east in July led by Gen. Townshend failed. A new plan was drawn up involving an assault from the west under the command of Gen. James Wolfe.

Confusion over the landing place for his men resulted in Wolfe being forced to scale cliffs before emerging on the plateau known as the Plains of Abraham where the French were defeated in a battle which swing both ways. Among the 58 British dead was Gen. Wolfe, the French too lost their commander Gen. Montcalm one of their 116 killed. Retreating into Quebec the French surrendered on 18 September with a new capital being established at Montreal (see 8 September).