Thomas Cromwell: History's greatest Rise and Fall?

Thomas Cromwell

One of the most monumental falls from grace; the story of Thomas Cromwell is one of the most interesting in the history of rises and falls.  Cromwell was a man from relatively humble beginnings, considering the power he wielded in later life-his father was a brewer and a pretty shady one at that!  Records show that Walter Cromwell was fined up to 50 times for watering down his ale and once for fighting!

How did Thomas Cromwell become the second most powerful man in England? How was he able to make such changes to the political and religious landscape of England? Was he power hungry and ruthless? Or a true reformer?

 Born in Putney in 1485 as a child Cromwell lived on Brewhouse Lane where his family ran a brewery.  In the strict hierarchy of Medieval England, Cromwell's family was near the bottom-for an uneducated man not born of nobility to become Henry VIIIs 'go to guy' is pretty spectacular! 

 Cromwell started his climb to the top in 1502 when aged 17 he left England for mainland Europe.  Historian John Foxe states Cromwell acted as a mercenary for the French and then ended up in the employ of a wealthy financier working in Europe's biggest bank in Florence.  Whatever Cromwell got up to in his 14 years away from England, when he returned he was a well-educated man that knew the law and spoke several languages and was well-respected enough to marry a wealthy widow.  Cromwell was readily accepted into Tudor high society.

 It would be a very special mission on behalf of the Guilds of Boston, Lincolnshire that would get Cromwell noticed by influential people at King Henry VIIIs court.  The Guilds made the bulk of their money from the sale of the 'stairway to heaven' indulgence to congregations of their churches in Lincolnshire.  The license for this indulgence, granted by the Pope, was about to expire-without it the Guilds would see their revenues plummet.  Cromwell was employed by the Guilds to negotiate to get the license re-issued.  Cromwell went directly to Rome and sought out the Pope-it can only be said that he beguiled the Pope with flattery and indulged the Pope's sweet tooth with fancy English cakes! But, whatever the means, Cromwell was successful in his mission.  It didn't take long before bigger and better things came knocking on Cromwell's door-upon his return from Rome he was offered prominent legal work in London.  Cromwell became known as a man that could get things done, and rightly so as he had a proven track record-he was soon called to serve Cardinal Wolsey, King Henry VIIIs right-hand man.

Cardinal Wolsey

Like Cromwell, Wolsey came from humble beginnings but he had benefited from a university education, unlike Cromwell.  Wolsey wanted other boys like him from his hometown of Ipswich to benefit from an education and wanted to set up twin colleges-one in Ipswich and one in Oxford.  Cromwell was employed to acquire funding to set up the two colleges, both to be named Cardinal College.  It was  during this assignment working on behalf of Wolsey that Cromwell first got a taste for dissolving monasteries for financial gain.  To set up the college at Ipswich he shut down 12 monasteries and priories and to set up Cardinal College, Oxford he dissolved another 12.  
When Cardinal Wolsey became embroiled in the King's 'great matter' Cromwell's position in court became tenuous. As a man of low birth status Cromwell needed the support of someone like Wolsey to further his career and continue to be successful.  But, despite his tenuous position, Cromwell opted for a risky strategy of standing by his employer and spoke up for Wolsey-this could have backfired spectacularly. But it did not.
Cromwell was very worried for his position-he could see what he had worked hard for start to slip away.  But, King Henry VIII still needed a solution to his 'great matter' and it was Cromwell that seized the opportunity to fix it for Henry.
Cromwell understood that the only way to galvanise support for a break from Rome, thus enabling the King to divorce Katherine of Aragon, was through parliament.  Cromwell set to change the nature of the constitution and quash laws that saw the power of the Pope supersede those of the King  Cromwell sought to demonstrate that since the 12th century England had been an empire and its ruler, therefore, an emperor.  Cromwell based his 'facts' on myths and legends contained in a 12th century book written by Geoffrey of Monmouth.  Cromwell succeeded turning myth into law and put England on the path to parliamentary democracy, as Cromwell's new law gave parliament the fundamental right to intervene in the constitutional affairs of the nation.  As a reward Henry VIII made Cromwell Master of the Jewels and invited to join Henry VIIIs royal court.

Anne Boleyn

But Cromwell was motivated by more than just a willingness to please the King.  By 1533 a revolution was sweeping through Europe-the Reformation.  The Evangelicals wanted a more simple religion based on God's word and believed every other teaching was superstition and should be rejected. In 1533 Cromwell started to reveal his reformist credentials and found a growing number of powerful Evangelicals within the royal court; one of whom was Anne Boleyn, King Henry's great love (for the time at least).  Anne Boleyn persuaded King Henry VIII to appoint an unknown clergyman, Thomas Cranmer, as Archbishop of Canterbury, another Evangelical supporter.  Cranmer quickly, and thanks to Cromwell's new law, annulled King Henry's marriage to Katherine and just 5 days later married Henry to Anne.  As a result, Cromwell was promoted again; this time it would make him the second most powerful man in the country, second only to the King himself. 
Cromwell's new role saw him gain massive power over churches and monasteries and it was during this period that he began his controversial dissolution of the monasteries.  Cromwell knew from his days of working for Wolsey that closing monasteries was a lucrative business. Now, as a keen reformer of the church in England too, he saw it as an opportunity not only to raise funds for the King but to also make the move away from the Catholic religion and pursue his own evangelical agenda.
Cromwell began to discredit the monasteries by exposing certain truths about their religious and 'holy' relics that they used to attract scores of pilgrims and thus extort a lot of money out of them.  In 1538 Cromwell sent the holy blood (said to be that of Jesus) that belonged to Hailes Abbey to be examined.  The 'blood' turned out to be nothing more than clarified honey coloured with saffron.  It was a hoax. And it was all Cromwell needed to close this monastery down.  Revenue from this monastery alone was twice the income of  the King.  In all Cromwell was responsible for the closure of 800 monasteries and religious houses-money poured into the coffers of the King.
The dissolution of the monasteries showed Cromwell to be both a dedicated reformer and a ruthless politician.  Monasteries provided for the poor and homeless of England on a massive scale. Once Cromwell started to close significant numbers of them did people start to notice the problem of the poor and homeless.  This spurred Cromwell into creating a think tank to work out how to help the poor and homeless. Cromwell passed a law that stated the poor and homeless had to be put to work, which, some argue, was the first step to the Poor Law of 1601.  However, the ruthless politician emerged when he and Anne Boleyn spectacularly fell out over the money gained from the closure of the monasteries-she wanted it used for good causes rather than it just going to the crown.  Anne Boleyn may have gotten her way if her most important ally, King Henry VIII, had not fallen out of love with and if she had not have had a second miscarriage.  Henry's go to guy had to solve the problem of Anne Boleyn and Cromwell did this most ruthlessly-he tortured false confessions out of Anne's closest friends and conjured up stories of incest with her brother.  Anne was beheaded.
Cromwell was becoming more and more confident in his evangelical pursuits, even going as far as risking his life to reform the church.  Cromwell took the opportunity to gift a copy of the English Bible to King Henry VIII-at a time when granted Henry VIII was in high spirits; his wife, Jane Seymour, was on the brink of giving birth, with what Henry believed was the long awaited heir.  Cromwell was risking his life because Henry detested the idea of an English Bible and had executed the man, William Tyndale, responsible for its translation.  But, just ten days after receiving his copy from Cromwell Henry approved the English Bible and Cromwell was quick to pass a decree stating that every parish church should have a copy.  For the first time in the history of the church in England people had access to their religion-it was no longer for the privileged few that could read Latin.  Also, with the introduction of the English Bible Cromwell had widened the gap even further between the church in England and the church in Rome. The road to true reformation was set.

By 1537 Cromwell had been made a Knight of the Garter and the Earl of Essex-Cromwell was now part of the hereditary nobility of England.  He must have felt invincible.  But the political skill and evangelical drive that had taken Cromwell so far would also be his downfall.  After the death of Jane Seymour in 1537 Henry was in need of a new wife-Cromwell as Henry's go to guy was to fix this for Henry too.  Cromwell took the opportunity to forge closer ties with the powers of the reformation and suggested a German Princess, Anne of Cleves.  Cromwell dispatched his favourite artist, Hans Holbein, to capture the virtues of the 24 year old princess.  The above miniature was sent directly to King Henry VIII and he liked what he saw-he promptly agreed to Cromwell's suggestion.  When Henry rushed to meet his wife-to-be he did not like what he saw and immediately returned to London and rounded on Cromwell.  In order to get the marriage annulled Henry had to stand before a court in his own church and publicly declare his impotence-an incredible humiliation.  Henry needed someone to blame-Cromwell would be the person.
During Cromwell's rise to the top he had made many enemies, especially amongst the conservative nobility. But before the Anne of Cleves debacle Cromwell had had the support of King Henry VIII and was almost invincible-now that he did not have Henry's support he was vulnerable and the conservative nobility took the opportunity to bring him down.  The Duke of Norfolk headed a campaign against Cromwell and convinced the King, whom did not take much convincing, that Cromwell was a traitor.  Cromwell was quickly arrested and carted off to the Tower of London.
Cromwell made a grovelling apology to the King, appealing for mercy many times-but to no avail.  Cromwell was beheaded on 28th July 1540 at Tower Hill.  He asked the axeman to cut his head off with one blow so that he would not suffer.  It took several blows and up to 30 minutes of hacking away before Cromwell's head was severed from his body.  Cromwell's head was put on a pike and displayed on Tower Bridge and his body was buried yards away from the very queen he was determined to see die as a traitor (ah, the irony).  Within months Henry was lamenting the death of his go to guy, describing Cromwell as the most faithful servant he had ever had.
Cromwell was no doubt ruthless and not afraid of using extreme measures to his own ends.  But he was also a great statesman-overseeing the end of a thousand years of Roman obedience, masterminded a religious revolution and lay the foundations a constitutional monarchy.
Cromwell went from the son of a pub landlord to the second most powerful man in England, changing the country's political and religious landscape forever, to a humiliated 'traitor'.  The fall was a great one.  Can you think of one greater?

Queen Victoria I and her Daughters

 

Queen Victoria I

The past week I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of my second daughter-today she is 8 days overdue. Needless to say I have been a little bored waiting, especially since my first born daughter came on her due date-waiting is something I have not been used to! So when I saw a programme on TV about Queen Victoria and her relationship with her daughters I was very keen to watch with my blog in mind. 
I will point out that none of this is my own original research and when I use a direct quote from the programme I will accredit it to the relevant historian.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert had 5 daughters; Princesses Victoria (Vicky), Alice, Helena, Louise and Beatrice.  Victoria had a somewhat complex relationship with all of her children in one way or another and reasons for these sometimes difficult relationships varied from child to child-if she considered particular children to be unattractive she would harshly criticise them for it in her letters, or if they supported particular causes that she did not, for example women's suffrage, she would harangue the child in question.
Leading historians in this field, like Dr Piers Brendon and Helen Rappaport describe Victoria as 'controlling' and 'selfish' in her behaviour towards her children.  And her behaviour towards her children seemed to get worse when her beloved Prince Albert died in December 1861.  Princess Beatrice was only 4 when her father passed away and bore the brunt of her mother's intense grief.  Victoria would wake Beatrice up in the middle of the night to take her into her bed to clasp Beatrice to her bosom, sobbing into the small child.  Historian Matthew Dennison describes this behaviour towards Bea as a type of abuse as it had 'a profound affect on Beatrice's psyche, on her outlook [and] on her whole personality'.

Princess Beatrice on her Wedding Day

Queen Victoria began to rely on her youngest daughter for emotional support and envisioned Bea, her Baby, staying with her until she died, as a sort of replacement for Albert (when Beatrice eventually did get engaged to be married in 1884 Victoria did not speak to Bea for 6 months, despite living side by side in the same house).  Victoria's eldest daughter, Vicky, had already married and was living in Prussia and her second eldest daughter, Alice, was married in July 1862 and soon moved to Hesse-but not before becoming her mother's rock in the months after Albert's death.  Alice in a way took the place of her father in the sense that she began helping her grieving mother with official business, and was a stable presence in her mother's company, never crying in front of her.  But being her mother's rock took its toll on Princess Alice-to the point that the next time her fiance saw Alice following her father's death she was almost unrecognisable to him-according to Dr Karina Urbach Alice went from 'a nice podgy [sic] girl to an anorexic wreck'.  Needless to say Alice's impending nuptials filled Victoria with dread as she had come to rely on Alice, and when they did take place just seven months after Albert's death it was a sorry affair, with Victoria herself describing the atmosphere as more of a funeral than a wedding.  After 'losing' two daughters abroad to marriage, Victoria would later be determined to keep the other three at home and close to her, as she would often place herself and her needs before those of her own children.

A Victorian woman breastfeeding

One issue that did bring Victoria into conflict with two of her daughters was the up and coming trend of breastfeeding your own babies, instead of using the services of a wet nurse. Upper class women in Britain were even getting involved in this trend and both Princesses Vicky and Alice expressed an interest in breastfeeding their babies.  This absolutely disgusted the Queen, who thought that it was not the place of a princess of the royal blood to be doing such a thing.  Victoria commanded  her daughters not to partake in such an 'undignified' act (Victoria's own repulsion towards babies is evidenced in her letters-she always found them to be ugly creatures).  But, it seems, both Vicky and Alice were a little too far away from their over bearing Mother to take any notice of her condemnation and breast fed their children regardless.  Princess Alice did not escape the wrath of Victoria though who delighted in writing to her daughter to tell her that she had named one of her dairy cows after her.

Princesses Vicky and Alice in the 1850s at Osbourne

Alice would end up in Victoria's bad books on more than one occasion-mother and daughter clashed over Princess Helena's marriage and when Alice took a keen interest in nursing and medicine during the Austro-Prussian war.  Alice could see Helena's marriage for exactly what it was-a ploy to keep Helena at home in Britain within the grips of the Queen.  A pauper Prince was set up for Helena which guaranteed seeing her staying near her Mother and under her Mother's influence.  The cash strapped royal in question was Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein (Princess Helena and Prince Christian were given as estate in Windsor Great Park where Christian was to become Ranger-concerning himself mostly with the frog population).  Princess Alice openly accused her mother of sacrificing her daughter's happiness for her own convenience-this led the Queen to remark that Alice was the true devil of the family.  But the upset would get worse when in 1871 Alice set up beds for the wounded in Palace gardens, managing the field hospitals herself whilst heavily pregnant.  This of course saw another rise out of Victoria who believed that a princess of the royal blood should not be working so closely with the human body.

Princess Louise

Victoria's most rebellious daughter was the beautiful Princess Louise.  Dr Piers Brendon describes Victoria as a 'domestic dictator' because of the extent she went to in order to control her daughters.  But Princess Louise was not content to just take it and would be the Queen's most rebellious daughter.  Louise was keen to become a sculptor and not content with it being just a hobby at home, she wanted to train as a sculptor at a public school.  Victoria did not consider Louise's interest in sculpture as very ladylike and did not, at first, want Louise to attend school to study the art form.  But Victoria was to give in and Louise enrolled at the National Art  Training School-this did not mean, however, that Victoria gave Louise complete freedom to study but rather closely controlled the number of days Louise would attend the school.  If Victoria wanted Louise to stay at home any particular day she would just tell Louise that she was to stay at home and help with Victoria's correspondence.  Despite this Louise did persevere, becoming the first female sculptor to have a statue erected in a public place (the statue was of Queen Victoria aptly enough). 
Princess Louise was also very determined that she was not going to marry some obscure German royal but to marry someone of her own choosing instead.  Louise said she would like to marry John Campbell, Marquess of Lorne-at the time this perfectly suited the Queen as she recognised that foreign alliances were seen as unpopular and Victoria quite liked the idea of having fresh blood in the family (it also meant, of course, that another daughter would not be lost to her).  It was the first time in centuries that a British princess was allowed to marry outside of royalty.  Unfortunately, Louise's marriage was not a happy one and on a rare occasion a child of Victoria had her sympathy rather than her criticism (When Prince Alfred was shot whilst on a visit to Sydney in 1868 Victoria was quite unnaturally unsympathetic). 
Queen Victoria may have been overly critical and sometimes quite harsh towards her children, but what she was was loyal to them, especially when they were in need. For example, if there was an impending crisis or a malacious rumour Victoria would use her power to make it right.

Not Forgotten

The first part of a very interesting documentary by Private Eye editor, Ian Hislop. For the benefit of my Year 12s really but let me know if you want the resting posting.

Charlie Chaplin-a Communist?

Charlie Chaplin has hit the news today, years after his death due to the release of MI5 and FBI documents. It turns out that during the 'red scare' in the US in the 1950s Chaplin was investigated by the FBI to see if he had ever been a member of a communist party. The result was that he hadn't but did have left wing sympathies. What baffled the FBI and MI5 at the time, however, was not Chaplin's politics but his mysterious birth. Neither agency could find a birth certificate for Chaplin! Very bizarre. For more on this see the BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17072165

Louis XIV...Vision of a King

Louis XIV was just four years old when he became King of France in 1643 after the death of his father Louis XIII. When Louis's chief adviser died when he was 23, the King began his personal rule. He regarded himself as an absolute ruler, believing his power came directly from God-the 'divine right of Kings (not an uncommon belief at the time amongst Kings and Queens).  Louis worked incredibly hard on his image often having himself included in many paintings, sculptures and décor around Versailles (Louis liked to be painted as a conquering hero, like Jupiter and Apollo) and adopted the sun as his personal emblem, hence his nickname, the 'Sun King'.
He was a trend setter (of sorts and to a much lesser degree than his many mistresses), a lover of all things decadent and a one hell of a big spender. King Louis XIV was responsible for, perhaps, the most beautiful and splendid of all the buildings in France; the palace at Versailles.
Louis reigned for an amazing period of 72 years, overseeing French successes and failures and left behind one hell of a legacy (arguably an unsustainable one contributing to the French Revolution).
During his reign, Louis was a bit of a war monger-he expanded both the army and the navy and fought wars against the Dutch, the Spanish and the Holy Roman Empire. In his early reign Louis was a very successful and adept monarch.  He managed to placate the nobility that had taken part in the Fronde rebellion during his infancy by compelling them to re-locate and live in his palace at Versailles. This meant that Louis could keep an eye on his nobility and it prevented them from going back to their country estates and raising armies against the King, if they had reason to. It also meant that Versailles had to have major extension work done to make it larger to accommodate all the nobility and make sure that everyone had what their status entitled them to. For many years Versailles was a construction site, with around 40,000 workers at the peak of building work (on the 'envelope'). Due to the large volume of people working at Versailles and the lack of toilet facilities it has been said that the workers alleviated themselves wherever they were! However, because the nobility were so close in proximity to the King and were entertained so well, there was less chance of another Fronde like rebellion happening, as Louis used life at Versailles to keep control of his nobility and keep them happy.
Louis made Versailles the absolute place to be and when he decided to centrally locate his entire government there it was the only place to be. Versailles became a tremendously spectacular court from where Louis ran France and kept the nobility busy. Everyone who was anyone in France was at Versailles to enjoy lavish feasts, balls, open-air theatre, ballets and firework displays-to not be included was devastating for a nobleman.  However, Versailles became a gossip hotbed-no one could do anything without it going around the entire palace and so, in this sense, Versailles was a very claustrophobic place to be (and one of the reasons why Marie Antoinette hated it when she lived there as dauphine and Queen of France). Louis made the monarchy in France popular and fashionable and, above all else, powerful. The nobility would adopt deferential poses when near him and compete with each other to be the first to congratulate him or compliment him on his latest improvement to Versailles.  There is one famous exchange that perhaps best sums up the kind of power Louis had over those around him at Versailles. When Louis asked one of his courtiers when his wife's baby was due the courtier responded by saying 'when your Majesty wishes it to be born'. Louis was also responsible for many of the rituals that took place at Versailles that lasted until the French Revolution.  In the mornings his entourage would help Louis dress and depending on what position you held or how far up or down you were in the Royal Family depended on which item of clothing you put on the King.  In the evenings his entourage would also be responsible for undressing Louis. Louis very much put himself on display for his nobles and this even extended to his mealtimes where a crowd of nobles and relatives would watch his every move and hoped in earnest to be spoken to, looked at or even requested to hand the King something-a huge honour (again, these were the things that Marie Antoinette hated about life at Versailles, which may explain why she spent a lot of her time at Petit Trianon).
Louis was a trend setter at court too-as a short man he favoured a heeled shoe, which all noblemen adopted as their shoe of choice also.  Once the King's hair started to recede he began wearing long and elaborate wigs to hide his disappearing hair line-the noblemen also adopted this fashion too.  The King's mistresses were also  trend setters at court.  If you were in the most fortunate position of being the maitresse en titre to the King you were virtually a celebrity and the women of the court would be keen to copy her in every way.  Madame de Montespan was one such trend setting mistress-she invented her own bodice and trousers ensemble that court ladies quickly followed suit with.
Later in life Louis became less and less interested in improving Versailles and started to lose his star appeal and just became quite sick and tired of the frivolities of his life. Louis became more and more disenchanted with the once beautiful Madame de Montespan and instead began showing affection towards Madame de Maintenon; the pious nanny to the King's many children.  The pair married secretly in a morganatic ceremony (due to Maintenon's social status) in 1685.  With his marriage to Madame de Maintenon Louis himself began to become more and more pious and Maintenon became very important to Louis in terms of his religious salvation (Louis began to become gravely concerned about his relationship with Madame de Montespan as she was a married woman and adultery with an unmarried woman was one thing but double adultery was sacrilege).  Perhaps the King's apparent final words to his heir are quite telling of the mood Louis ended his life in-Louis said 'Do not follow the bad example which I have set you; I have often undertaken war too lightly and have sustained it for vanity. Do not imitate me, but be a peaceful prince...' After enjoying his life to the full and after creating such a wondrous place like Versailles, Louis still ended his full life as an unhappy man that had made mistakes he couldn't change.

The Duchess of Devonshire part 1.....a repost!

Amanda Foreman's wonderful biography 'Georgiana-Duchess of Devonshire', published in 1998, is an absolute treat!  All I can say is that I've been truly captivated by this extraordinary woman and her high octane life. Georgiana was born into the Spencer family at Althorp on 7th June, 1757. Georgiana, despite being closely followed by a baby brother, was her mother's life-long favourite.
Georgiana had a typical aristocratic upbringing-her life governed by the seasons and moving from house to house depending on what time of the year it was. As with all aristocratic families the Spencer's regularly took holidays on the continent to enjoy the benefits of a warmer climate. The whole Spencer family embarked on a Grand Tour in 1772 when Georgiana was 15. Society everywhere admired Georgiana wherever she went-Georgiana was beautiful and graceful, even as a 15 year old girl.
During this tour the Spencer's moved to Spa in 1773-this is where Georgiana met the twenty-four year old Duke of Devonshire. After Georgiana had danced with the Duke several times and sat next to him at various dinners, she was quite 'in love' with the idea of being his wife. The Duke of Devonshire was rather inept in public, not very talkative or one to show his emotions but Georgiana thought that, like her father, the Duke would be different in private.
In 1774 talks about a marriage between the Duke and Georgiana were concluded-it was set-Georgiana would be the Duchess of Devonshire. Georgiana's reaction to the proposal convinced her mother and father that she was truly in love with the Duke, however, Amanda Foreman believes that Georgiana reacted in such a happy way because she knew the marriage would please her parents.
Georgiana was married on her 17th birthday in 1774 to the Duke in what was being dubbed the 'wedding of the year' by society. There were high hopes for the marriage; of course, one high hope would prevail over all others-the hope that Georgiana would give the Duke an heir.

Take the Puzzle Challenge!

provided by flash-gear.com

Have a go at the puzzle above and tell where this iconic picture comes from and any other tid bits you may know about this event!

A Boer War Treat...

I am sure I have mentioned before that I teach the Experience of Warfare in Britain, 1854-1929 to Year 12 students at my school, Great Wyrley High School.  A few weeks ago one of my year 12 students surprised me with a genuine Boer War medal that his great-grandfather had received for service in the war.  James (the student in question) was under strict guidance to have the medal back in his Dad's possession within the hour, so I had it long enough to get a few snaps of it. Above is a picture of the aforementioned medal-adorned with the image of Queen Victoria. Above the medal are 6 bars, each stamped with different battles of the war that James' great-grandfather took part in, including the relief of Ladysmith.
But the thing that excited me more than the medal was the accompanying letter that James brought along, written by his great-grandfather Patrick Traynor. Although the original letter was not sent due to its delicacy, James' Dad did type the letter up so that I could read what Patrick had written to his wife Florence and, I must say, it makes for insightful reading.
The letter is dated March 4 1900 and was written at Ladysmith:

Dear Florrie,
Just a few lines to let you know that Ned and I are quite safe after 7 weeks hard fighting and that Ladysmith is relieved.  We have been having it very hard, what with marching and fighting in the sun and lying on the grass and on rock at night without any cover over us, and the nights are fearful cold and dewey [sic].  I have not had my pants off since we left the ship and my boots and socks are growing to my feet. There is not a man here that is not swarming with vermin and no matter what we do we can not keep them away. We have been in 4 different engagements and the regiment came out very lucky out of them. In the final one on 27th Feb last we had Colonel McCarthy O'Leary, Sgt Wheatley and 3 ptes killed and I don't know how (bottom of page missing)....Ladysmith yesterday.  The troops that occupied it are very clean but have been on very short rations and have eaten very near all their horses. It is no use moaning about anything done out here but our Regt fairly went into it at the last fight, fixed bayonets and charged the trenches, our Coy [Company?] was the first and I believe (bottom of page missing)...60 of them.  Sniping was kept up during the night but when morning came there was not a Boer to be seen nor a shot to be heard, they had all skedaddled [left]. I do not know where we will pick up with them again. It is reported that we [will] remain here for some time but I do not know for certain.  Will have plenty news for you when I get home, can tell you better than writing.
I had a letter from Mr Snowdon on Friday.
No more at present, from your loving husband P Traynor.
Kisses for Dollie, Nellie and yourself, best love to all at home.
Good night and God Bless you xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Let me know what you thought when you read the letter

Edward Jenner and Smallpox....

During the 1700s smallpox killed more children than any other disease and survivors were often left severely disfigured by scars from scabs that formed on the skin. The method of inoculation was used in China and other parts of Asia and Africa to stop people catching the deadly disease. This involved spreading pus from a smallpox pustule into a cut on the skin of a healthy person. If the person was lucky they got a mild dose of smallpox and did not catch it again as their body had developed antibodies against smallpox-although they would not have known this in the 1700s. If the person was unlucky they would develop a bad case of smallpox and die.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu watched inoculation carried out in Turkey where her husband was the British Ambassador. During a smallpox epidemic in England she had her daughter inoculated in front of important doctors and the method rapidly became popular. Inoculation became big business-Robert and Daniel Sutton became very wealthy by carrying out many thousands of inoculations, charging up to £20 per patient (clearly only a procedure the very wealthy could afford). However, there were dangers with inoculation:
The person inoculated could get a strong dose of smallpox and die.
The person inoculated could pass smallpox onto someone else.
Most people could not afford inoculation so were not protected.
Some people thought that the milder disease of cowpox seemed to give protection against smallpox so deliberately infected themselves with cowpox. However, no doctors had written about or tested this idea scientifically.

Edward Jenner was born in 1749 and was a surgeon's apprentice at the age of 13. When Jenner was 21 he studied with John Hunter in London, the greatest surgeon of the time. In 1772 Jenner began working in Berkeley, Gloucestershire as a country doctor but kept in touch with Hunter about medical developments.
Jenner learned a lot from Hunter, who told his students to observe patients carefully and experiment to test their ideas. Jenner's discovery of vaccination followed Hunter's advice exactly. Jenner had long known the story that milkmaids who caught cowpox never seemed to get smallpox and he kept this idea in his mind, thinking about how to test it.
In the 1790s Jenner carried out experiments to test the theory, observing and recording all the details carefully. Then in 1798 he published his book describing vaccination and presenting his evidence, describing 23 different cases. He called this method vaccination because the Latin word for cow is vacca.
One of Jenner's famous experiments involved a dairy maid by the name of Sarah Nelmes and an 8 year old boy called James Phipps. Sarah Nelmes was infected with cowpox and was suffering from the usual symptoms that included a large sore. Jenner chose to infect James Phipps with matter from the cowpox sore on the hand of Sarah Nelmes. Jenner made two cuts on the boy and inserted the matter. Seven days later the boy complained of uneasiness, 2 days after that he became chilly, lost his appetite, had a slight headache and spent the night with some degree of restlessness but on the following day he was fine.  To make sure that his idea had worked, Jenner inoculated James Phipps with smallpox matter but no disease followed. Jenner repeated this several months later and still no disease followed.
Jenner's work went down very well in America-by 1803 vaccination was being used in the USA-and, in 1805 Napoleon had the whole of the French army vaccinated. However, vaccination was not made compulsory in Britain until 1852, which Jenner didn't even live to see as he died in 1823. The problem was that in Britain there was a lot of opposition to vaccination and for many reasons. A lot of people were very religious and thought vaccination was against God's laws as it was unnatural to give people animal diseases. Coupled with this religious people thought smallpox was a punishment from God for sin, therefore the only cure was to pray to God for forgiveness. The men who had been making a mint inoculating people did not support vaccination as they feared it would cost them their jobs. The Royal Society didn't support vaccination as they saw it as too revolutionary, so they refused to publish Jenner's book. The general attitudes of the time also hindered the progress of widespread support for vaccination too-most people were unwilling to believe Jenner as firstly, they had no idea who he was and secondly, Jenner couldn't explain exactly why vaccination worked (as germs had not yet been discovered). Many people just didn't have the time or inclination to get vaccinated or have their children vaccinated-they either didn't trust the method; they saw it as too rushed and clumsy or, they had more important things to worry about, like finding work and food. The government's laissez faire attitude also meant that people were not forced to get vaccinated as the government felt that it didn't have the right to interfere in people's lives.
An Anti-Vaccine league was formed in 1866, the result of people's fears about vaccination. It didn't help that some people still caught smallpox even after they'd been vaccinated. Nor did it help that doctors performing vaccinations were not always as meticulous as Jenner had been-one doctor vaccinated patients in the same room as he inoculated others with smallpox. It was easy to get the diseases mixed up, and as a result patients often died.
In the long term, Jenner's work on vaccination led to smallpox being declared eradicated from the world in 1980. And, once germs were discovered in 1861, led to other vaccinations being discovered.

Winston Churchill Reports on the Boer War!

My students have come up trumps again! My sixth formers have been studying the Boer war and were asked to write a report about the state of the British Army, reflecting on the Cardwell Reforms, as if they were Winston Churchill. They were told to think about the tone of the piece and what they think Churchill would have thought about the war. One example is so good that I have decided to showcase it on the blog-do allow for a little exaggeration here as they were told to make it a biased report.

'We haven't got quite the whole world yet-but we're getting it by degrees.'

We must continue to fight in South Africa. The future of our great nation and our Empire depends upon it! To quote Lord Salisbury, Undersecretary for the Colonies; "We must be prepared to make it clear to the Boers that we are the paramount power in South Africa. The real point to be made good to South Africa is that we, not the Dutch, are Boss."

In doing so we must prevent Kruger's Boer Government in the Transvaal from becoming both independent and too powerful. We can not allow a people who are already hostile towards us to become too powerful, as it would put the security of our entire Empire at risk; if the Transvaal was left to 'blossom' in Kruger's hands then we could face losing the Cape and South Africa, then our links up to India, the jewel in our Empire's crown.  If we present ourselves as pushovers then we shall be treated so and we would be left helpless as our great and noble Empire crumbles before our very eyes.

These cowardly Boers; they want their independence but as soon as they face an enemy that they can not defeat alone, from whom do they seek protection? As soon as the threat is removed and they have got what they need they see fit to call on us and expect us to cater to their every whim! We have wiped the Zulu from the face of South Africa, and stamped out their mark on our territory.  This should be proof enough for the Boers that we are a nation, nay an Empire that will not tolerate such treatment!

There have been many improvements since the Crimean War that will undoubtedly strengthen our army. The new organisation of our troops, thanks to the Cardwell Reforms, has improved their ability to cope with the tasks presented to them, which will prove effective in our fight for South Africa. One such reform is the division of regiments; half serve abroad whilst the other remains in Britain to train. This will ensure that our forces, while small in comparison to other continental powers, will be fit and ready to make their mark on South Africa. Also, the new, experienced generals (a result of the abolition of buying commissions) are proving their worth; Colonel Baden-Powell is said to be holding out against the Boer Commandos in Mafeking with a small, outnumbered force. Does this not illustrate my point? Ours is one of, if not the finest force in the civilised world.

What's more, British society has been bolstered as the urban unemployed have found jobs as soldiers and are able to support their families once more. Too often our beloved Tommie's fall foul of misplaced disapproval. They may be comprised of vagabonds and louts from the poorest elements of society, but, if we are truly intent on defending our claim to South Africa, then we must, all of us, rally together for the common good and preservation of our Empire. For this, they and all of our men in South Africa command the utmost respect.

For the sake of our national pride and our Empire, we must fight on! God save the Queen and long live our glorious Empire!

Winston Churchill.