Roger Ascham: The Tudor Teacher Who Guided Elizabeth I and Admired Lady Jane Grey

Roger Ascham: The Tudor Teacher Who Guided Elizabeth I and Admired Lady Jane Grey

We have been finding out about some of the people connected to Lady Jane Grey, but what about the scholar who left us one of the most famous stories from her childhood?

Today I want to find out a little about Roger Ascham. He was an English scholar, writer and royal tutor who taught the future Elizabeth I and later described finding Lady Jane Grey reading Plato in Greek while the rest of her household were out hunting.

Roger was born around 1515 in Kirby Wiske, Yorkshire. He was one of several sons born to John Ascham, who worked as a steward for the Scrope family.

Roger was educated in the household of Sir Humphrey Wingfield. Alongside his studies, he developed an enthusiasm for archery, a subject that would later inspire his first major book.

At around fifteen years old, Roger entered St John’s College, Cambridge. He became particularly interested in Greek and soon gained a reputation as a talented scholar and teacher.

Roger believed that teaching a subject was one of the best ways to improve your own understanding of it. He helped other students learn Greek and eventually became one of Cambridge’s leading scholars in the language.

In 1545, Roger published Toxophilus, a book promoting archery. Rather than writing in Latin, he chose English because he wanted to show that serious subjects could be discussed clearly and elegantly in his native language.

The book was dedicated to Henry VIII, who rewarded Roger with an annual pension.

Roger’s royal career developed further in 1548, when he was chosen to tutor the fourteen-year-old Princess Elizabeth.

He taught her Greek and Latin and guided her through the works of classical writers. Roger was deeply impressed by Elizabeth’s intelligence, determination and ability with languages.

He remained her tutor until 1550, when he left England to work as secretary to the diplomat Sir Richard Morrison.

Before travelling abroad, Roger visited Lady Jane Grey at Bradgate House in Leicestershire.

According to Roger’s later account, Jane’s family and household were outside hunting when he arrived. Jane had chosen to remain indoors, where he found her reading Plato’s Phaedo in its original Greek.

Roger was astonished that such a young girl could read and understand such a difficult philosophical work.

When he asked why she preferred studying to joining her family outside, Jane reportedly explained that she was often harshly corrected for her mistakes. However, her tutor, John Aylmer, treated her kindly and encouraged her love of learning.

Roger was not Jane’s regular tutor, but he used their conversation to support his belief that children learned more successfully through patience and encouragement than through fear and severe punishment.

However, he recorded the meeting years later in a book written to promote his educational ideas. His description should therefore be treated as his own memory and interpretation rather than a word-for-word account.

Roger later served as a Latin secretary to Mary I and continued working at court after Elizabeth became queen in 1558.

He began writing The Scholemaster in 1563. The book focused on teaching Latin but also criticised teachers who relied too heavily on physical punishment.

Roger died in London on the 30th of December 1568. The Scholemaster was published after his death in 1570.

Roger Ascham is remembered as an important Tudor scholar, a supporter of writing in English and a teacher who believed kindness could encourage a genuine love of learning.

He is also forever connected to two highly educated Tudor women: Elizabeth I, whom he taught, and Lady Jane Grey, whom he famously found reading Plato while her family were out hunting.

Do you think that Roger Ascham should be remembered most for teaching Elizabeth I or for preserving this famous story about Lady Jane Grey?

Carlos Sampaio Garrido: The Portuguese Diplomat Who Helped to Protect Around 1,000 Jewish People

Carlos Sampaio Garrido: The Portuguese Diplomat Who Helped to Protect Around 1,000 Jewish People

Let’s find out more about some of the incredible people who used their positions to protect others in World War Two.

Carlos Sampaio Garrido was a Portuguese diplomat who helped Jewish people to escape persecution in German-occupied Hungary.

Carlos was born on the 5th of April 1883. He entered the Portuguese diplomatic service and became Portugal’s representative in Budapest.

Following the German occupation of Hungary in March 1944, Jewish families faced danger. Carlos began helping people obtain Portuguese protection. Teixeira Branquinho later continued and expanded this work by issuing protective documents to people with links to Portugal, Brazil or Portuguese territories.

He helped to establish a Portuguese Red Cross office at the legation, providing support and shelter there for refugees.

Carlos went even further by hiding twelve Jewish people in a house he rented outside Budapest. Hungarian police raided the property on the 28th of April 1944 and arrested those inside.

Carlos protested, insisting that the house was protected by diplomatic rights. Although they were detained, his intervention helped to secure their release.

After leaving Budapest, he continued helping from Switzerland by sending names of people who needed protection.

Carlos and Teixeira are credited with helping around 1,000 Jewish people. In 2010, Yad Vashem recognised Carlos as Righteous Among the Nations.

Matthew Webb: The Victorian Swimmer Who Conquered the English Channel

Matthew Webb: The Victorian Swimmer Who Conquered the English Channel

Can you imagine swimming through a cold and rough sea for nearly an entire day. That is what Matthew Webb did while knowing full well that nobody had ever successfully completed the challenge unaided before?

Today I want to find out a little about Captain Matthew Webb. He was an English sailor and endurance swimmer who became the first person recorded to swim across the English Channel without using a flotation device or other artificial assistance.

Matthew was born on the 19th of January 1848 in Dawley, Shropshire. He was one of thirteen children born to Dr Matthew Webb and his wife.

His family later moved near the River Severn, where Matthew learned to swim while he was still a child. Recreational swimming was far less common than it is today but he became unusually confident in the water.

When Matthew was twelve, he began training for a life at sea aboard HMS Conway. He later joined the Merchant Navy and travelled to destinations including India, China, Singapore and Egypt.

According to accounts of his maritime career, he once repeatedly dived beneath a ship in the Suez Canal to cut away a rope tangled around its propeller.

On another occasion, Matthew jumped into the Atlantic Ocean after a man fell overboard from a fast-moving ship. Although the missing sailor could not be saved, Matthew remained in the freezing water for more than half an hour before being rescued.

His bravery earned him the first Stanhope Gold Medal which was awarded by the Royal Humane Society for his courageous attempt to rescue the missing sailor.

Matthew later became fascinated by the possibility of swimming across the English Channel. Several people had attempted the crossing, but nobody had completed it without some form of artificial assistance.

His first attempt, on the 12th of August 1875, ended when worsening weather forced him to leave the water.

But, Matthew refused to abandon his ambition.

On the 24th of August, he entered the sea at Dover wearing a red swimming costume. A support boat followed him, it carried food and drinks that could be passed to him during the crossing.

Matthew mainly used breaststroke as he battled strong currents, cold water and exhaustion. He was also painfully stung by a jellyfish.

For several hours, currents near the French coast appeared to prevent him from reaching land. But he did not give in and continued to swim.

At approximately 10:41am on the following morning, after he had spent nearly twenty-two hours in the water, he finally reached the French coast near Calais.

Because the tides had pushed him backwards and forwards, he had reportedly covered around thirty-nine miles rather than swimming in a straight line.

Matthew returned to Britain as a national hero. Crowds gathered to welcome him, newspapers celebrated his achievement and public donations provided him with a considerable amount of money.

He became a professional swimmer, taking part in endurance races, exhibitions and increasingly dangerous stunts. But, public interest gradually declined and his financial situation worsened.

In 1883, despite suffering from tuberculosis and poor health, Matthew attempted to swim through the powerful Whirlpool Rapids below Niagara Falls.

Friends warned him that the challenge was too dangerous, but he continued with the attempt anyway.

Matthew entered the water on the 24th of July 1883. He was pulled beneath the surface by the violent currents and sadly did not emerge alive. His body was recovered four days later.

He was only thirty-five years old.

Matthew Webb is still remembered as one of Victorian Britain’s most extraordinary endurance athletes. His Channel crossing proved that a challenge widely considered impossible could be achieved through determination, preparation and remarkable physical courage.

Do you think Matthew’s later stunts showed bravery-or had his search for fame become too dangerous?

Martha Sharp: The American Social Worker Who Helped Refugees Escape Wartime Europe.

Martha Sharp: The American Social Worker Who Helped Refugees Escape Wartime Europe

Continuing with the courageous people who risked their own safety to help others during the Second World War.

Could you leave your young children behind and travel towards danger to rescue complete strangers? Today I want to find out a little about Martha Sharp, who did just that.

 She was an American social worker and humanitarian who helped Jewish people, political refugees and endangered children escape persecution in Europe.

Martha Alice Dickie was born on the 25th of April 1905 in Providence, Rhode Island. She studied at Pembroke College before training in social work at Northwestern University. While completing her training, she worked at Hull House in Chicago, where she helped to organise activities and support for hundreds of girls.

In 1928, Martha married Waitstill Sharp, who later became a Unitarian minister. The couple had two children, Hastings and Martha.

By the late 1930s, the increasing persecution of Jewish people and political opponents in Europe could no longer be ignored. Following the Munich Agreement and Germany’s occupation of the Sudetenland, the American Unitarian Association began searching for people willing to assist refugees in Czechoslovakia.

Martha and Waitstill accepted the dangerous assignment.

Leaving their two young children with trusted friends, they set sail for Europe on the 4th of February 1939 and arrived in Prague later that month. Their work involved helping refugees get travel documents, find safe destinations and secure permission to leave the country.

When German forces occupied the remaining Czech lands in March 1939, the Sharps bravely chose to stay. Martha worked with relief organisations and sympathetic officials to help people escape to Britain and other safer countries.

On one journey, she escorted a group of 35 refugees to Britain. They reportedly included political figures, endangered adults and children whose families had been torn apart by persecution.

The danger surrounding Martha continued to increase. German authorities eventually closed the Sharps’ office, but she carried on helping people until she learned that she could soon be arrested. She finally left Prague during August 1939.

Martha and Waitstill returned to Europe in 1940. France had fallen, so they established a relief office in Lisbon, Portugal, which had become an important escape route for refugees hoping to cross the Atlantic.

From there, they helped Jewish families, political refugees and well-known writers escape from German-controlled or Vichy territory. Among those they assisted was the German-Jewish novelist Lion Feuchtwanger.

At the end of her mission, Martha also overcame considerable bureaucracy to secure the documents needed for 29 children and ten adults to escape to the United States. She travelled with the first members of the group, while the others followed on a second voyage.

Martha returned to Europe again in 1944 and continued working for the Unitarian Service Committee. Her humanitarian work did not end with the war, and she remained involved with charitable organisations for many years.

Martha died on the 6th of December 1999, at the age of 94.

In 2006, Martha and Waitstill Sharp were recognised by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations for risking their safety to help Jewish people escape persecution.

Martha left her children and the security of her own home because she believed that watching from a distance was not enough.

Would you have possessed the courage to make the same decision?

 

Philip the Good: The Duke Who Turned Burgundy into a European Power

Philip the Good: The Duke Who Turned Burgundy into a European Power

 

Following on from my previous medieval post about John the Fearless, I want to tell you about his son, Philip the Good. He inherited Burgundy after his father’s assassination and he transformed it into one of the wealthiest and most magnificent states in medieval Europe.

 

But Philip’s long reign was also influenced by revenge, shifting alliances and his controversial connection to the capture of Joan of Arc.

 

Philip was born on the 31^st of July 1396 in Dijon. He was the eldest surviving son of John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, and Margaret of Bavaria.

 

He was a member of the Valois-Burgundy family, and was closely connected to the French royal family. When he was a child, he was given the title Count of Charolais and was promised in marriage to Michelle of Valois, the daughter of King Charles VI of France.

 

Philip and Michelle married in 1409, but their marriage produced no surviving children. Michelle died in 1422, and Philip later married Bonne of Artois. She also died shortly after their wedding.

 

Philip’s life changed on the 10^th of September 1419, when his father was killed during a meeting with the Dauphin Charles on the bridge at Montereau.

 

Philip believed that the Dauphin, the future Charles VII, was responsible for the assassination. He was devastated and furious and when he became Duke of Burgundy continued his father’s struggle against the Armagnac faction.

 

He was looking for revenge, so Philip formed an alliance with King Henry V of England. In 1420, he supported the Treaty of Troyes, which recognised Henry and his descendants as heirs to the French throne.

 

The alliance was strengthened when Philip’s sister, Anne of Burgundy, married John, Duke of Bedford, who later governed English-controlled France on behalf of the young Henry VI.

 

One of the most controversial events of Philip’s reign happened in 1430. Burgundian troops captured Joan of Arc near Compiègne while she was attempting to defend the town.

 

Joan was held prisoner before being transferred to the English in exchange for payment. Although Philip did not personally conduct her trial, Burgundy’s role in her capture and transfer to the English has remained one of the darkest parts of his legacy. She was later placed on trial for heresy and burned at the stake in Rouen on the 30^th of May 1431.

 

 

Philip’s alliance with England did not last. In 1435, he signed the Treaty of Arras with Charles VII. The agreement officially reconciled Burgundy with the French king and helped to weaken England’s position in France.

 

Philip’s main ambition was not just to serve England or France. He wanted to increase the power and independence of his own family.

 

Through his inheritance, purchases, diplomacy and his warfare, he gained control of territories including Brabant, Limburg, Holland, Zeeland, Hainault, Namur and Luxembourg. His lands stretched across parts of modern France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

 

Under Philip, the Burgundian court became famous for its wealth and splendour. He organised elaborate banquets, tournaments and ceremonies, while surrounding himself with musicians, writers, artists and craftsmen.

 

In 1430, Philip married his third wife, Isabella of Portugal. Their marriage produced his only surviving legitimate son, Charles, who later became known as Charles the Bold.

 

That same year, Philip founded the Order of the Golden Fleece, an exclusive order of chivalry intended to celebrate knightly loyalty and strengthen the unity of his territories.

 

Philip was also an important patron of the arts. His court supported leading painters and musicians, including Jan van Eyck, while his enormous collection of manuscripts became one of the finest in Europe.

 

However, the luxury of his court was built alongside strict political control. Philip faced several rebellions in his territories, particularly in wealthy towns that resisted his demands for money and authority.

 

Philip died in Bruges on the 15^th of June 1467 at the age of 70. He was succeeded by Charles the Bold, whose attempts to expand Burgundy even further would eventually end in disaster.

 

Philip the Good inherited a divided state from his murdered father, but during his reign Burgundy reached the height of its wealth, influence and cultural importance.

 

Do you think that Philip deserves to be remembered as a successful ruler and patron of the arts or should his role in the fate of Joan of Arc define his legacy?

 

Hans Georg Calmeyer: The German Official Whose Decisions Could Mean Life or Death.

Hans Georg Calmeyer: The German Official Whose Decisions Could Mean Life or Death.

What would it do to you if every document placed on your desk could determine whether someone lived -or was sent to their death?

Today I want to find out a little about Hans Georg Calmeyer. He was a German lawyer whose decisions during the occupation of the Netherlands helped to save thousands of Jewish people, while leaving many others exposed to deportation and death.

Hans was born on the 23^rd of June 1903 in Osnabrück, Germany. He studied law and established a successful legal practice. Although he never joined the National Socialist German Workers’ Party, he belonged to the Federation of National Socialist German Lawyers.eportedpi

After Germany invaded the Netherlands in 1940, Hans initially served there as a German soldier. In March 1941, he transferred to the civilian occupation administration in The Hague. He was later placed in charge of reviewing cases involving people who challenged their classification as Jewish.

This gave Hans extraordinary power.

People could submit family records and witness statements claiming that they had non-Jewish ancestry. Hans frequently accepted altered or completely false documents, allowing many applicants to be reclassified and protected from deportation.

He reportedly referred to his department as a “lifeboat” and sometimes advised people on how to make their claims more convincing.

Thousands survived because he approved their applications. However, he did not save everyone.

Hans also rejected many appeals, knowing that an unfavourable decision could remove someone’s protection and expose them to deportation. Many of those rejected were subsequently deported to concentration and extermination camps. Some survivors later accused him of willingly participating in the persecution, while others believed he was attempting to save as many people as possible without attracting the attention of his superiors.

In a 1967 interview, Hans admitted that making these decisions haunted him. He said that choosing between life and death had left him feeling like a murderer.

Hans died on the 3^rd of September 1972. In 1992, Yad Vashem recognised him as Righteous Among the Nations.

His legacy remains deeply complicated. Was Hans Calmeyer a courageous rescuer working from within the system, or an official who became part of the machinery of persecution?

Henry Fitzalan: The Tudor Earl Who Helped Put Lady Jane Grey on the Throne-Then Turned Against Her

Henry Fitzalan: The Tudor Earl Who Helped Put Lady Jane Grey on the Throne-Then Turned Against Her

We have been finding out about some of the people surrounding Lady Jane Grey, but what about the powerful nobleman who supported her claim to the throne before helping to bring her short reign to an end?

Today I want to find out a little about Henry Fitzalan, 12th Earl of Arundel. He served several Tudor monarchs and became one of the most influential-and politically adaptable-noblemen of his time.

Henry was born on the 23rd of April 1512. He was the only son of William Fitzalan, 11th Earl of Arundel, and Anne Percy, whose family included the powerful Earls of Northumberland.

Henry VIII reportedly acted as his godfather, and Henry entered the royal court while he was still a teenager. He later accompanied the king to Calais and was summoned to Parliament using one of his father’s titles, Lord Maltravers.

Henry also had an important family connection to Lady Jane Grey. His first wife, Katherine Grey, was the sister of Jane’s father, Henry Grey, Duke of Suffolk. This made Henry Fitzalan Jane’s uncle by marriage.

During Henry VIII’s reign, Arundel’s career continued to rise. He served in Calais, helped to improve its defences and became a Knight of the Garter. He was also appointed Lord Chamberlain, giving him an important position within the royal household.

He was present during the trials of Anne Boleyn and her brother George in May 1536, showing just how closely he stood to some of the most dramatic events of the Tudor court.

Arundel’s position became less secure after the young Edward VI inherited the throne. He became caught up in the struggle for power between Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, and John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland.

Arundel lost his offices, faced enormous fines and spent periods under house arrest and in prison. However, he eventually returned to the Privy Council in May 1553, just as Edward VI was becoming dangerously ill.

Edward did not want his Catholic half-sister Mary to succeed him. His new plan for the succession placed his Protestant cousin, Lady Jane Grey, next in line for the throne.

Arundel was among the councillors who signed the document supporting Jane’s claim.

After Edward died, Jane was proclaimed queen on the 10th of July 1553. However, Mary quickly gathered an army of supporters, while Jane’s government began to collapse.

Once Northumberland had left London to confront Mary, Arundel changed sides.

On the 19th of July, he helped to persuade the council to proclaim Mary as queen. He then travelled to meet her at Framlingham and later helped to arrest Northumberland.

Jane’s reign had lasted for only nine days.

Mary rewarded Arundel for his support, appointing him Lord Steward of the royal household. Yet his connection to Jane’s family did not protect them. After Jane’s father joined Wyatt’s Rebellion in 1554, Arundel presided over the trial of his own brother-in-law. Henry Grey was found guilty of treason and executed.

Arundel remained an important figure under Elizabeth I, although his Catholic beliefs and involvement in discussions about the succession made the queen suspicious of him. He was arrested more than once because of alleged connections to plots involving Mary, Queen of Scots.

Henry Fitzalan died on the 24th of February 1580. His life had stretched across the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and Elizabeth I.

He had supported Lady Jane Grey when it appeared that she would become queen-but abandoned her when Mary’s victory began to look certain.

Do you think Henry Fitzalan genuinely believed Mary was the rightful queen, or was he simply protecting himself?