On This Day ... in 1141 & Others
During the Anarchy, Earls Ranulf of Chester and Robert of Gloucester marched on Lincoln with a mainly Welsh army, to relieve the castle, held by Ranulf's men, which was under siege by King Stephen. Stephen was outnumbered but chose to fight, despite the advice of his nobles: his father had borne an undeserved reputation for cowardice as a Crusader, and Stephen seems to have been determined to avoid similar smears. However, the battle went against him as his (probably outnumbered) cavalry were driven from the field after initial success against the Welsh levies, and the King was captured along with many of his closest supporters. The accession to the throne of the Empress Matilda, Robert of Gloucester's half-sister and the only surviving legitimate child of Henry I, thus seemed assured.
1643: Prince Rupert descended on Cirencester with 4,000 Royalists, overwhelming the Parliamentarian garrison. After a fierce fight, the town was taken, and 1,100 Parliamentarian troops captured.
1709: The real Robinson Crusoe, Alexander Selkirk, on whom Daniel Defoe based his famous novel, was rescued after spending five years on the uninhabited islands of Juan Fernandez.
Defoe interviewed Selkirk in a sailors' pub. The friendly old Tudor-era tavern, located along the backwater mooring area of the Floating Harbour in Bristol, was named Ye Llandoger Trow after the Welsh community of Llandoger, from whence the cargo barges or "trows" routinely sailed across the Bristol Channel and up the Avon River into the City.
The atmosphere of the same tavern also inspired Robert Louis Stevenson's literary description of the meeting place of Little Jim Hawkins with that peculiar old pirate, Long John Silver, for his famed tale, "Treasure Island".
1942: The Japanese launched their first air raid on Port Moresby in New Guinea, in preparation for a planned amphibious assault. The Japanese had hoped to occupy Port Moresby as a base from which to cut off shipping to Eastern Australia however their defeat in the Battle of the Coral Sea thwarted the planned naval attack and invasion.
1943: During a Bomber Command raid on Cologne, a Stirling equipped with the new H2S ground-mapping radar was shot down near Rotterdam. The Germans were able to recover much of the H2S parts from the wreckage, and were shocked to realise the advances made by British and US engineers, especially the secret Magnetron valve which had made centimetric wavelengths possible.
1968: Australian troops recaptured Baria following the Viet-Cong Tet offensive.
Comments
Loyalists throughout the world can take pleasure in the anniversary of a parliamentary defeat on this day, and I, for one, intend to do so. Let the Soverereign reign!
Posted by: Christian Bagley | February 3, 2007 12:48 AM
King Stephen's father, also Stephen of Blois, left the Crusader forces high and dry at the seige of Antioch and on his way home informed the Byzantine emperor Alexius I, on his way to Antioch with reinforcements, that the cause was lost. I believe that the reputation was justly deserved.
Posted by: Cpl Dan | February 5, 2010 1:21 AM