April Overview

As spring dawns, and the sun shines, we're chomping at the bit to travel to some historical sites! For now though we will offer up another monthly overview for the splendid spring month of April.

1st

1203 Eleanor of Aquitaine is born

2nd

747 Charlemagne (Charles The Great) is born

1502 Prince Arthur dies

Arthur was the eldest son of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, he was also the heir to the throne of England. Because Arthur was the Prince of Wales he was sent to live in Wales at Ludlow Castle, he was sent there along with his new wife Catherine of Aragon. Since the wedding, Arthur had been getting weaker and weaker, both Arthur and Catherine came down with a mysterious illness that was in a way like the sweating sickness. Catherine survived but sadly Arthur didn't. 

News of his death reached his father 2 days later, in which Henry burst into tears, he asked that his wife be brought to his rooms so they could cry together. When she left his chambers, she collaped and began to cry, her ladies fetched Henry who relieved her. On the 23rd April Arthurs body was taken from Ludlow castle and taken to the local church. Two days later he was taken to Worcester Cathedral where he was laid to rest. Two days later a chantry was erected over his grave.

3rd

1538 Elizabeth Boleyn is born

1888 The first murder in Whitechapel

Everyone knows the history of the Whitechapel murders, but there was more murders then just the famous cronilogical five. Tuesday 3 April 1888 saw the first of these murders. Emma Elizabeth Smith,  45 year old prostitute was assaulted and robbed at the junction of Osborn Street and Brick Lane, in the early hours of the morning. Although she was injured, she survived the attack and managed to walk back to her lodging house at 18 George Street, Spitalfields. Emma told the deputy keeper of the house, Mary Russell, she had been attacked by two or three men, one of which was a teenager. Mary took Emma to London Hospital, where upon a medical examination it was revealed that a blunt object had been inserted into her vagina and ruptured her peritoneum. She then developed peritonitis and passed away at 9am the following day.

An inquest was conducted on 7th April by the coroner for East Middlesex, Wynne Edwin Baxter. The local inspector of the Metropolitan Police, Edmund Reid of H Division Whitechapel, investigated the attack on Emma but the culprits were never caught. Walter Dew, a detective constable stationed with H Division, later wrote that he thought Emma was the first victim of Jack the Ripper. But his colleagues believed that it was the work of a criminal gang. Emma claimed that she was attacked by a group of men, but she either refused to or couldn't describe them. Most of the East End prostitutes were managed by gangs, meaning that Emma could have been attacked by her pimps as a punishment for disobeying them, or as an act of intimidation. She may not have identified her attackers because she feared what may have happened to her if she did. Her murder is now considered unlikely to be connected with the later cronilogical murder victims.

4th

1581 Francis Drake is knighted

5th

1769 Thomas Hardy Naval Officer is born

6th

1590 Francis Walsingham dies

7th

1141 Matilda becomes the first lady of England

1739 Dick Turpine is hung in York

Another story that is well known is the one of Dick Turpin. Before his execution, he frequently received visitors to his cell and he refused the efforts of a local clergyman. His father, John Turpin, wrote him a letter telling him to beg for forgiveness and hopeed for a pardon. He bought a new frock coat and shoes, and on the day before the execution he hired five mourners for three pounds and ten shillings.

In the morning, followed by the mourners, Turpin and horse thief, John Stead, were taken through York by open cart to Knavesmire. Turpin "behav'd himself with amazing assurance", and "bow'd to the spectators as he passed". He climbed the ladder to the gallows and spoke to the executioner. York had no permanent hangman, and it had become a custom to pardon a prisoner on the condition that he acted as executioner. An account in The Gentleman's Magazine for 7 April 1739 notes his brashness: "Turpin behaved in an undaunted manner; as he mounted the ladder, feeling his right leg tremble, he spoke a few words to the topsman, then threw himself off, and expir'd in five minutes."

Turpin was given the short drop, this method meant that the person hung was executed slowly by stangulation. With this in mind, Turpin was left hanging until late afternoon, before he was cut down and taken to a tavern in Castlegate. The next morning, his body was buried in the graveyard of St George's Church, Fishergate. On the following Tuesday, his body was reportedly stolen by body-snatchers. The body was recovered and reburied, supposedly this time with quicklime. His body is purported to lie in St George's graveyard, although some doubt remains as to the grave's authenticity.

8th

1892 Silent film star Mary Pickford is born

Mary was one of the first major Hollywood stars. She was born Gladys Marie Smith in Toronto Canada. Her father was an English Immigrant who worked as a odd job man while her mother was a seamstress. She had two younger siblings Charlotte and John, who both also went into acting. Because her father was a Methodist, all three children were baptized as Methodist. John was an alcoholic who would later abandon his family and then die in 1898.

After the death of her father, her mother took in lodgers, one of which was Mr Murphy a stage manager. By this point Mary was 7 and he suggested that she try out for small roles. She was a big hit and soon became the main breadwinner for the family. She soon took on bigger and bigger roles and became a leading lady on Broadway, it was at this point she changed her name. She made her transition from stage to screen, but found that it was different form of acting, in many ways Mary paved the way for how to act on screen. As time went on her stardom rose and she became a well known name and famous actress. She appeared along side other famous names such as John Barrymore and Charlie Chaplin.

She would go on to form United Artists with other famous starts like Douglas Fairbanks and Chaplin, it meant that they had a fair right to the films they created and the wages they received. She retired for acting due to her lastest films being a flop and soon became a businesswoman and became her own producer. She even went about making sure that actors got fair pay. In these years she even brought out the rights to most of the early films that she had been in. Mary was married 3 times but never had any children, she adopted 2 with her last husband. Sadly like her father she to became an alcoholic she was also depressed due to her mother passing from breast cancer, her siblings passing from alchol-related causes, one of her divorces and the end of the silent film era.

She became a recluse and saw hardly anyone. She passed away in Mat 1979 in Santa Monica Hospital in California. She died from complications from a cerebal hemorrhage  that she had suffered a week before, She was buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park along side the rest of her family.

1982 Motorbike racer Peter Hickman is born

9th

1486 King Edward IV dies

1806 Isambard Kingdom Brunel is born

10th

1472 Margaret of York is born

1912 The Titanic sets off 

11th

1554 Thomas Wyatt dies

12th

1204 The forth Crusaders breach Constantinople

13th

1519 Catherine de Medici is born

1570 Guy Fawkes is born

14th

1471 Battle of Barnet

1471 Richard Neville 'The King Maker' dies

Everyone who knows their history will know of 'The King Maker'. He was an royal advisor to King Edward IV, he was like the little voice in the King's head. But when Edward started to turn against Richard and pick the side of his wife Elizabeth Woodville, he started to rebel against the King. He decided to place Edwards brother George on the throne due to fact that his eldest daughter was married to George. Although he would change sides completly and joined forces with King Henry VI when he married his youngest daughter to Henry's son.

Edward IV arrived at Ravenspurn with his troops, while Richard arrived, but he was waiting for Margaret of Anjou to bring troops over from France, but due to bad weather they were detained. George joined the side of brother, this also meant that Richard's side was weaker, but all the same he went on to attack Edward. The 2 armies met at Barnet, there was fog making the visibility poor and lead to a load of confusion. Richard tried to escape as he saw defeat coming his way, but he was stuck of his horse and killed. 

His body, along with that of his brother, was displayed at St Paul's Cathedral. This was done to stop any rumors that they had survived. Their bodies were then passed into the hands of the Neville priest and were laid to rest in the family vault in Bisham Priory. There is no trace as to were their tomb or the church in which they were meant to be buried. 

15th

1865 Abraham Lincoln dies after being shot
1912 The Titanic sinks after hitting an iceburg

16th

1889 Comedian Charlie Chaplin is born

17th

1080 Harald III King of Denmark dies

18th

796 Aethelred I is murdered

19th

1012 Aelfheah of Canterbury dies
1720 Louis XVI marries Marie Antoinette

20th

689 Caedwalla King of Wessex dies
1912 Dracula author Bram Stoker dies

21st

1509 Henry VIII ascends the throne

Henry VIII is one of the most famous Kings in English history. His father, Henry VII, died on this day from Turberculosis at Richmond Palace. He was buried on the 10 May next to his wife Elizabeth of York in Westminster Abbey. When Henry took the throne he was 17 years old and was a stong, handsome and athletic. He hadn't really had the training on being a King as it was his brother Arthur that was to be the King, bu the died young. The only thing he haad was his grandmother Margaret Beaufort, she taught him everything he needed to be King, but sadly she passed away in June just after Henry turned 18. The first thing that he did once he became King was to mary his brothers widow Catherine of Aragon. They had a joint coronation 2 months later.

1910 Mark Twain dies

22nd

1876 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky completes his ballet "Swan Lake"

1915 The first military use of poison gas (chlorine, by Germany) in WWI

23rd

1016 Edmund Iornside succeeds his father
1616 William Shakespeare dies

24th

1558 Mary Queen of Scots marries Francis

These two had been promised to each other since Mary was about 5 years old and Francis was 4. She was sent to live in France at the age of 6 by her mother due to plotters wanting to kill her. Mary was to be raised by the court for the next 13 years till she was of age to be married.

Mary signed a secret treaty on the 4th April bequeathing Scotland and her claim to the English throme if she died without issue.They married at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, it was the joining of the French and Scotish thone along with the English. Upon the marriage Francis was made King Consort in Scotland until his death. 

25th

1599 Oliver Cromwell is born

1792 The first guillotine execution 

26th

121 Antonius Marcus Aurelius, Emperor of Rome (161-180), born in Rome (d. 180)

570 Muhammed, founder of Islam, according to the Shi'a sect. Other sources suggest April 20. Observed according to the Islamic lunar calendar

1514 Copernicus makes his first recorded observations of Saturn

1564 William Shakespeare is baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England

27th

1124 David I becomes King of Scots

1296 Battle of Dunbar: The Scots are defeated by Edward I of England

1810 Ludwig van Beethoven composes his famous piano piece "Für Elise"

1840 Foundation stone for new Palace of Westminster, London, laid by Sarah Barry wife of its architect Charles Barry

28th

1192 Assassination of Conrad of Montferrat (Conrad I), King of Jerusalem, in Tyre, two days after his title to the throne confirmed by election. Killing carried out by Hashshashin.

1202 King Philip II expels King John of England ("Lackland") from France

1442 Edward IV, King of England (1461-70, 71-83), born in Rouen, Normandy (d. 1483)

1945 Mussolini and his girlfriend are shot dead

29th

534 Taliesin, Welsh poet, according to legend in The Mabinogion

1429 Joan of Arc arrives at the siege of Orleans

30th

711 Islamic conquest of Iberia: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn-Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula (Al-Andalus)

1492 Christopher Columbus is given royal commission by Spanish monarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II to equip his fleet to the New World

1513 Edmund de la Pole is executed

1527 Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France sign the Treaty of Westminster, pledging to combine their forces against Holy Roman Emperor Charles V in attempt to win War of the League of Cognac

1859 Charles Dickens' "A Tale Of Two Cities" is first published in literary periodical "All the Year Round" (weekly installments until Nov 26)