An event not much known over here compared with the Boston Tea Party and the earlier Boston Massacre. 

Despite its revolutionary history Boston is regarded over here as the most British of America's cities. 

10 June 1422 - The Siege of Constantinople began. 600 years ago today.

The third of four sieges the Ottoman Turks made against the Byzantine capital in less than 60 years. 

By the early 15th century the once mighty Byzantine Empire had been reduced to the hinterland around Constantinople and a few scattered coastal outposts. 

In 1421 the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed I died, in the battle for succession the Byzantine Emperor supported a rival to the eventual successor Murad II, son of Mehmed I, namely his uncle Mustafa. One of Murad's first acts was to march on the city and place it under siege in which the Turks deployed cannon for the first time. 

The Sultan Murad himself arrived on the scene on 20 June to take over command. After three months however Murad was compelled to lift the siege and withdraw as news reached him that his uncle Mustafa had raised an army again and was laying siege himself to the Ottoman capital of Bursa. 

Murad never captured Constantinople, that feat was left to his son Mehmed II who conquered the city in 1453 two years after his father's death.      

It's holiday season and therefore we'll go AWOL occasionally. As you can see above Art is back with tales of the untamed South West. 

I'll be absent for nearly a week in mid July as I'm going on a family holiday with my mum, sister, brother-in-law and his parents to Norfolk. It'll probably be the last holiday the oldies will have as they're all well into their 80s. 

My brother-in-law chose it, a self catering house in Pulham Market, little did he know that just a few miles south lies the site of the former airship station of RAF Pulham, so I'll spend a day wandering around there, assuming the farmer who now owns the site will let me.   

As it looked in the 1920s. The sheds and most of the buildings were demolished years ago.

11 June 1622 - The Nègrepelisse Massacre. 400 years ago today.

An incident in the First Huguenot Rebellion in France. The Huguenots (French Protestants) had been in the ascendancy under King Henri IV, but his son and successor Louis XIII was less tolerant. Nevertheless the Huguenots continued to operate on an almost independent level defying the authority of the Catholic Monarchy.

In 1621 King Louis moved to assert Royal authority capturing a number of towns and cities. However he failed to take Montauban after a two month siege. Frustrated at the failure he turned his attention to the small town of Nègrepelisse after hearing news that a Royal garrison quartered there had been massacred by the local population. In fact the news was false, but Louis issued the following order - "I command you to give no quarter to any man, because they have irritated me, and shall be served as they have treated the others". In a massacre covering two days 10/11 June around 800 men, women and children were killed and the town burnt.     

11 June 1622 - The Nègrepelisse Massacre. 400 years ago today.

An incident in the First Huguenot Rebellion in France. The Huguenots (French Protestants) had been in the ascendancy under King Henri IV, but his son and successor Louis XIII was less tolerant. Nevertheless the Huguenots continued to operate on an almost independent level defying the authority of the Catholic Monarchy.

In 1621 King Louis moved to assert Royal authority capturing a number of towns and cities. However he failed to take Montauban after a two month siege. Frustrated at the failure he turned his attention to the small town of Nègrepelisse after hearing news that a Royal garrison quartered there had been massacred by the local population. In fact the news was false, but Louis issued the following order - "I command you to give no quarter to any man, because they have irritated me, and shall be served as they have treated the others". In a massacre covering two days 10/11 June around 800 men, women and children were killed and the town burnt.     

Historically, would it be safe to say that religion has caused more problems than anything else? Wars, hatred, distrust, crime, etc. 

It may work, you cannot "shame" anyone or anything these days. Against the rules ya know. 

Being offended is okay, right?

Oh yes, you can be offended if you are not offended. 

12 June 1922 - Wolfgang Kapp died. 100 years ago today.

If 1919 was the year of failed Left Wing uprisings in post war Germany 1920 was the year that the Right attempted to seize power.

In 1919 the American born Kapp (his family returned to Germany when he was 12), a recently elected member of the Reichstag, co-founded the National Union, a Right Wing think tank campaigning for a conservative militaristic revolution. It found support among the distressed nobility and disaffected senior army figures including Gen. Walther von Lüttwitz commander of the Berlin military district. 

In February 1920 the government ordered the disbandment of two Freikorps, army units within the army, that were accused of plotting a military takeover. Von Lüttwitz refused the order and furthermore put his own demands to President Ebert in which the Reichstag was to be dissolved along with other measures designed to place the National Union in government. 

Naturally Ebert refused the demands, so on 13 March Lüttwitz gave the order for the military takeover of Berlin. Taken unawares the government fled the capital and reconvened at Dresden. Meanwhile in Berlin Wolfgang Kapp had been proclaimed Chancellor with Lüttwitz as Commander-in-Chief. 

From Dresden President Ebert called a general strike in to counter the Kapp-Lüttwitz coup which had an immediate effect. With the country paralysed and no popular uprising in favour of the takeover the military that they had relied on deserted their leaders and on 17 March the coup was over. 

Both leaders fled with Kapp seeking refuge in Sweden. He voluntarily returned to Germany in 1922 to defend himself at his trial but died of cancer before it began. 

The Allies had to tread a delicate path between forcing Germany to pay her reparations but not crippling her so that a Right Wing, or worse still a Communist takeover, became reality. When Germany defaulted in 1923 French and Belgian troops occupied the industrial Ruhr to take reparations in kind - steel, coal etc. 

Only after the worldwide crash in 1929 were the demands substantially reduced and the last payment was made in 1931.   

Almost every history book will tell you about The Kapp Putsch of 1920, in fact Kapp was not much more than a figurehead, but as he was proclaimed Chancellor the coup has forever borne his name. The real movers were von Lüttwitz and the man who actually led troops in the takeover of the government quarter, a naval commander Hermann Ehrhardt.  

13 June 1522 - Piero Soderini, Gonfaloniere of Florence 1501 & 1502-12, died. 500 years ago today.

In 1494 the ruling de'Medici family in Florence were overthrown and a Republic proclaimed. For the next eight years Florence was governed by a series of individuals, each serving just two months only, drawn from the City State's Gonfaloniere (law officials).

Naturally the system proved highly problematic with no consistency of policy or direction with the leader changing every two months. So in 1502 it was decided that a single Gonfaloniere would be appointed for life, the man chosen was Piero Soderini, who had served a two month term the previous year.  

His rule brought stability to a previously chaotic Florence, he introduced a standing militia rather than relying on expensive and unreliable mercenaries and in doing so was able to restore Florentine authority to the rebellious city of Pisa. He is also remembered for his employment of Niccolò Machiavelli as Second Chancellor and his commissioning of Michelangelo to sculpt his marble masterpiece David.

However in 1512 the brother of the deposed and deceased former Lord of Florence Giuliano de'Medici returned with a Spanish army and deposed Soderini thus restoring the de'Medici Lordship of Florence. Soderini fled to Ragusa, a Christian enclave in the Ottoman Empire. A year later the newly elected Pope Leo X, the elder brother of Giuliano, Lord of Florence summoned him to Rome where he remained working for the good of his birthplace despite never being allowed to return there. He died in Rome.

The family had two periods of fame and power. The first in 15th century Florence before being overthrown in 1494, the second after their restoration in 1512. They eventually became Dukes of Tuscany until the line died out in 1737. 

I don't want to give away any potential plot lines, but if you move forward a year you've got a major sacrilegious outrage coming up. 

You seem to have a fascination Art about the gay community and mention them all the time. Is there something you want to tell us? Next I'll hear your coming to the gay pride parade in Toronto to have a closer look like Tommy does each year.

Each to their own I guess, eh.

You seem to have a fascination Art about the gay community and mention them all the time. Is there something you want to tell us? Next I'll hear your coming to the gay pride parade in Toronto to have a closer look like Tommy does each year.

Each to their own I guess, eh.

I think you need to read that again Pete

Mark, you know I had to read ahead via Wiki sources to see what happened in 1478 Florence and indeed murder in the cathedral was most foul.  Now I need to research these two scoundrels:  Pope Sixtus IV and Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino.  Not having studied much Italian history, I don't know if I am a fan of the de Medicis or not.

Today is the Feast of Corpus Christi.  I'm assuming our Thomas spent the day in proper penance or whatever is required on this holy day.

16 June 1722 - Sir John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, died. 300 years ago today.

One of England's greatest, if not THE greatest, soldiers.

Born into a minor landowning family his early military career was aided by his sister the mistress of James, Duke of York the heir to the Throne. Nevertheless he showed great skill and ability and that, coupled with his wife Sarah becoming lady-in-waiting to Princess Anne, the Duke of York's daughter, he rapidly grew in favour being created Baron Churchill in 1682. 

In 1689 he sided with the Protestant William of Orange in his seizing of the Throne and was rewarded with an Earldom (Marlborough). His full potential was realized in the War of Spanish Succession which began in 1700. Not only was he placed in command of British troops on the continent but he also given a senior diplomatic role in which he negotiated the Grand Alliance of GB, Austria and The Netherlands against France, for which he was raised to the rank of Duke in 1702.

Under the reign of Queen Anne he was the leading figure in the British war effort winning spectacular victories at Blenheim (1704), Ramillies (1706), Oudenarde (1708) and Malplaquet (1709). 

In 1705 he was awarded the manor of Woodstock in Oxfordshire and a grant of £5000 a year. He built the magnificent Blenheim Palace on the site. 

He suffered a fall from Royal favour in 1711 when his wife, formerly Queen Anne's closest confidante, fell out with the Queen and Marlborough sided with the losing party, the Whigs, in the Election that year. 

However after the Queen's death in 1714 the new King, George I, restored him to all his public offices. Unfortunately in 1716 he suffered a stroke and never fully recovered slowly sinking until his death aged 72.

18 June 1822 - The Sinking of the Mansur al-liwa. 200 years ago today.

In April 1822 a fleet of 46 ships of the Ottoman Navy arrived off the Greek island of Chios to subdue the island which had been taken over by the Greeks in their War of Independence. A brutal and savage campaign followed in which thousands of Greeks were massacred. 

On the evening of 18 June the Greek Admiral Konstantinos Kanaris led two fireships out to the anchored Turkish vessels which were well lit for the celebration of the end of Ramadan. Kanaris fastened his fireship to the flagship of the Ottoman Navy, the 84 gun Mansur al-liwa, before rowing away in a smaller boat. The fire quickly engulfed the warship which exploded when fire reached the power magazine. It is estimated that over 2000 on board were killed including Admiral Nasuhzade Ali, second-in-command of the Ottoman Navy. 

19 June 1522 - The Treaty of Windsor. 500 years ago today.

From May to July 1522 the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V visited England to conclude an anti-French alliance. Charles was already at war with France with the main battleground being for the control of Italy. Under the terms of the treaty England would declare war on France immediately and prepare for an invasion across the Channel in 1524. The treaty also announced the betrothal of the 22 year old Emperor Charles to Henry VIII's six year old daughter Mary. 

In reality the treaty was quickly abandoned. Although the English raided French sea ports and crossed used English-held Calais to raid into France no full scale invasion ever took place and the marriage of Charles and Mary was never concluded. By 1525 the whole thing was dropped.

An interesting footnote is that Mary didn't marry Charles, but she did marry his son Philip many years later when she was 38 and he 27.