John of Lancaster: The English Duke Who Ruled France for a Child King

John of Lancaster: The English Duke Who Ruled France for a Child King

Today I want to find out a little about John of Lancaster, Duke of Bedford. He was the younger brother of Henry V and became one of England’s most powerful military commanders during the Hundred Years’ War.

Image info:

Artist: Bedford Master

Date: 1410 -1430

Collection: British Library

John was born on the 20th of June 1389. His father was Henry Bolingbroke, who later seized the English throne and became Henry IV, while his mother was Mary de Bohun.

As he was a grandson of John of Gaunt and a great-grandson of Edward III, John belonged to the powerful House of Lancaster. His elder brother was the future Henry V, while his other brothers were Thomas, Duke of Clarence, and Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester.

John received an excellent education. Following his father’s accession in 1399, he was knighted and began receiving important lands and positions.

One of his earliest responsibilities was defending England’s northern border against Scotland. As Warden of the East March, John faced shortages of money, unpaid soldiers and continuing unrest. Despite these difficulties, he gained valuable military and administrative experience.

Henry V became king in 1413, and John was created Duke of Bedford in 1414. He frequently governed England while his brother campaigned in France.

In 1416, Bedford commanded an English fleet which defeated French ships near the mouth of the River Seine. This helped to relieve the English-held port of Harfleur and strengthened his reputation as a capable commander.

Following Henry V’s death in 1422, Bedford became one of the most important men in Europe. Henry’s son, Henry VI, was not yet a year old, but was recognised by the English as king of both England and France.

Bedford took responsibility for governing English-controlled France on behalf of his young nephew. His brother Humphrey was left to manage affairs in England whenever Bedford was overseas.

John attempted to continue Henry V’s conquests while maintaining England’s alliance with Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy. In 1423, he strengthened this relationship by marrying Philip’s sister, Anne of Burgundy.

Bedford’s marriage to Anne of Burgundy strengthened the alliance between England and Burgundy. The couple had no surviving legitimate children.

His greatest military victory came on the 17th of August 1424 at the Battle of Verneuil. Bedford’s army defeated a combined French and Scottish force, helping to bring English power in France close to its greatest extent.

However, England’s position soon began to weaken. There were disagreements between the English leaders that damaged the Burgundian alliance, and Bedford struggled to find enough money and soldiers to continue the war.

The Siege of Orléans started in 1428, despite Bedford apparently having doubts about the campaign. The arrival of Joan of Arc transformed the French morale, and the English were forced to abandon the siege in 1429.

Joan was later captured by Burgundian troops and transferred to English control. She was tried by a church court at Rouen and executed on the 30th of May 1431. Bedford did not intervene to save her.

That same year, Bedford arranged for the young Henry VI to be crowned King of France in Paris. However, the coronation could not reverse England’s declining fortunes.

Bedford’s first wife, Anne, possibly died from plague in 1432. The following year, he married the seventeen-year-old Jacquetta of Luxembourg. Their marriage was childless, although Bedford had an illegitimate son named Richard.

Jacquetta later married Richard Woodville and became the mother of Elizabeth Woodville, the future queen of Edward IV.

John of Lancaster died at Rouen on the 14th of September 1435, aged 46. He was buried in Rouen Cathedral.

His death came at a disastrous moment for England. Shortly afterwards, Burgundy abandoned the English alliance and made peace with Charles VII of France.

Bedford had been a talented soldier and administrator, but even he could not permanently hold together the English empire created by Henry V.

Do you think England’s position in France might have survived longer if John of Bedford had lived?

Ferdynand Arczyński: A Polish Resistance Member Who Helped Thousands of Jewish People in the Second World War.

Ferdynand Arczyński: A Polish Resistance Member Who Helped Thousands of Jewish People in the Second World War.

Today I want to find out a little bit about Ferdynand Arczyński. He was a remarkable Polish journalist and resistance member who helped thousands of Jewish people.

Ferdynand was born on the 8th of December 1900 in Kraków, Poland. He took part in the Silesian Uprisings, between 1919 and 1921 and later became involved in politics and worked as a newspaper editor.

Following the German invasion of Poland in 1939, Ferdynand joined the underground resistance. Using the secret names “Marek” and “Lukowski”, he became one of the founding members of Żegota, the Council for Aid to Jews.

Żegota was created to help Jewish people escape persecution and survive in hiding. Ferdynand served as the organisation’s treasurer and also led its document-forging department.

He helped to produce false identity papers, work permits and Catholic birth and marriage certificates. These documents allowed Jewish men, women and children to hide outside the ghettos under new identities.

Ferdynand also arranged safe accommodation, medical care and financial assistance. He acted as a link between Żegota groups in cities including Kraków, Lwów and Lublin, while encouraging others to join the rescue effort.

After the war, Ferdynand worked as a journalist and served as a member of the Polish parliament between 1947 and 1952.

On the 18th of May 1965, Yad Vashem recognised Ferdynand Arczyński as Righteous Among the Nations for risking his life to help Jewish people during the Holocaust.

He sadly died in Warsaw in 1979.

Reginald Pole: The Tudor Cardinal Who Defied Henry VIII and Lost a Lot of His Family

Reginald Pole: The Tudor Cardinal Who Defied Henry VIII and Lost a Lot of His Family

Today I want to find out a little about Reginald Pole, an English cardinal whose close connection to Henry VIII eventually developed into bitter hostility.

Reginald was born on the 12th of March 1500 at Stourton Castle in Staffordshire. His mother was Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury, whose father had been George, Duke of Clarence. This made Reginald a descendant of the Plantagenet royal family and a second cousin of Henry VIII.

During Reginald’s early life, Henry appeared to treat him generously. The King contributed towards his education, provided him with an income and helped to finance his studies at the University of Padua in Italy. Reginald became a highly educated scholar, mixing with some of the leading religious thinkers of Renaissance Europe.

Henry may have believed that Reginald’s learning and royal connections would make him a valuable and loyal servant. However, the issue of Henry’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon placed the two men on opposing sides.

In 1529, Reginald was sent to Paris to investigate whether scholars there supported Henry’s attempt to have his marriage annulled. Henry later reportedly offered him important church positions, including the Archbishopric of York or the Bishopric of Winchester, if he would support the King.

Reginald refused.

His opposition was not just based on personal dislike of Henry. As a committed Catholic, he believed that the Pope possessed authority over matters involving marriage and the Church. He was also concerned about the political consequences of declaring Henry’s marriage invalid, particularly what this might mean for the legitimacy of Henry and Catherine’s daughter, Mary.

Reginald eventually left England and lived in France and Italy. From abroad, he watched as Henry broke with Rome, declared himself Supreme Head of the Church of England and married Anne Boleyn.

In 1536, Reginald sent Henry a treatise entitled Pro ecclesiasticae unitatis defensione. It strongly rejected the King’s religious supremacy and condemned his treatment of the Church. Reginald even encouraged Catholic rulers in Europe to oppose Henry.

For Henry, this was more than a religious disagreement. Reginald was a Plantagenet descendant criticising the King from overseas and had connections throughout Catholic Europe. Henry may have regarded him as both a political and dynastic threat.

Unable to reach Reginald, the King turned against members of the Pole family who remained in England. Reginald’s brothers and several of his relatives were arrested during investigations into the alleged Exeter Conspiracy. His brother Henry Pole was executed in 1539.

His mother, Margaret Pole, was imprisoned in the Tower of London for more than two years. She was executed on the 27th of May 1541, despite continuing to protest her innocence. Reginald was devastated and later described himself proudly as the son of a martyr.

Henry’s actions did not persuade Reginald to abandon his beliefs. Instead, they strengthened his opposition to the King and his determination to defend the Catholic Church.

After Henry’s death, Reginald finally returned to England during the reign of Mary I. He helped to restore England’s relationship with Rome and became the last Catholic Archbishop of Canterbury in 1556.

Reginald died in London on the 17th of November 1558 during a possible influenza epidemic. He was 58 years old. Remarkably, he died on the same day as Queen Mary, only around twelve hours after her death.

He was buried at Canterbury Cathedral, bringing to an end the life of a man who had once enjoyed Henry VIII’s support, but ultimately sacrificed his homeland, his royal favour and much of his family rather than act against his religious conscience.

Irena Sendler: The Woman Who Risked Everything to Save Jewish Children.

Irena Sendler: The Woman Who Risked Everything to Save Jewish Children.

Today I want to find out a little about Irena Sendler. She was a remarkable Polish social worker who helped to save hundreds of Jewish children.

She was born as Irena Krzyżanowska on the 15th of February 1910 in Warsaw, which was at the time part of the Russian Empire. Her father was Stanisław Krzyżanowski, he was a doctor who treated poor patients regardless of their religion, often without accepting payment. Many of his patients were Jewish, and after he died from typhus when Irena was only seven years old, members of the Jewish community offered to support the family. Although her mother declined, Irena never forgot their kindness. She later said that her father had taught her that when someone is drowning, you help them, no matter who they are.

She studied at the University of Warsaw, where she opposed the growing discrimination against Jewish students. After leaving university, she worked as a social worker in Warsaw, helping vulnerable families living in poverty.

Everything changed when Germany invaded Poland on the 1st of September 1939. After the Germans sealed the Warsaw Ghetto in 1940, around 400,000 Jewish men, women and children were trapped inside in overcrowded and desperate conditions. Because Irena worked for Warsaw’s Social Welfare Department, she and several colleagues were able to obtain sanitary passes allowing them to enter the ghetto. Officially, they were carrying out sanitary and disease-control work, but they secretly brought in food, medicine and other supplies at great risk.

As deportations increased during 1942, Irena and her colleagues increased their efforts to help Jewish adults and children escape. By early 1943, she was working with Żegota, the underground Council to Aid Jews. Working under the codename "Jolanta", she helped to organise the rescue of Jewish children from the ghetto. Some children were carried out through hidden routes, while others left disguised as sick patients or hidden in vehicles.

Once the children were safely outside, Irena helped to arrange false identity papers and found places where they could hide, including with Polish families, orphanages and convents. According to later accounts given by Irena and her colleague Jadwiga Piotrowska, some of these records were placed in bottles or jars and buried beneath an apple tree. Irena hoped that after the war the children could be reunited with surviving relatives.

On the 18th of October 1943, the Gestapo arrested Irena. She was imprisoned, beaten and tortured as the Germans demanded the names of her fellow resistance members and the children she had helped. She refused to reveal any information and was sentenced to death, but members of Żegota managed to bribe German officials, allowing her to escape on the day she was due to be executed. She immediately returned to underground work using a false identity.

After the war, Irena continued her career in social work. In 1965, she was recognised by Yad Vashem in Israel as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for risking her life to save Jewish people during the Holocaust. Although she received many honours later in life, she always remained humble, saying that every child she helped save was simply "the justification of my existence on this Earth."

Irena Sendler died on the 12th of May 2008, at the age of 98. Her courage reminds us that even in humanity's darkest moments, ordinary people can make an extraordinary difference.

Hertha Ayrton: The Victorian Scientist Who Refused to Be Ignored.

Hertha Ayrton: The Victorian Scientist Who Refused to Be Ignored.

Today I want to find out about Hertha Ayrton. She was a remarkable Victorian engineer, mathematician, physicist and inventor whose achievements helped to challenge attitudes towards women in science.

She was born Phoebe Sarah Marks on the 28th of April 1854 in Portsea, Portsmouth. Her father, Levi Marks, was a Jewish watchmaker who had emigrated from Poland, while her mother, Alice, worked as a seamstress.

Her father died when Sarah was only seven years old, leaving her mother to support a large family. At the age of nine, Sarah went to live with relatives in London who ran a school. There, she developed a strong interest in mathematics and science.

As a young woman, she adopted the name Hertha, inspired by a poem that questioned organised religion. She was determined to continue her education at a time when universities offered women very few opportunities.

With financial support from the campaigner Barbara Bodichon and several other supporters of women’s education, Hertha studied mathematics at Girton College, Cambridge. She passed the Mathematical Tripos examination in 1880. However, Cambridge did not award full degrees to women at the time, so she later completed an external examination through the University of London and received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1881.

Hertha supported herself by teaching, embroidery and writing mathematical problems. In 1884, she patented her first important invention: a line-divider. This instrument could divide a line into equal sections and enlarge or reduce drawings. It was useful to artists, architects and engineers.

Hertha later attended evening classes in electricity taught by Professor William Edward Ayrton. The couple married in 1885, and William encouraged her scientific work.

During the 1890s, Hertha investigated electric arc lighting, which was widely used in streets and public buildings. Arc lamps frequently flickered and produced an unpleasant hissing noise. Her research demonstrated that the problem was caused by oxygen coming into contact with the carbon rods inside the lamps.

In 1899, she became the first woman to present her own paper to the Institution of Electrical Engineers. She was later elected as its first female member.

Hertha also studied the formation of ripples in sand and water. Although the Royal Society initially refused to consider her for membership because she was married, she became the first woman to read her own scientific paper before the Society in 1904. Two years later, she received its prestigious Hughes Medal for her research into electric arcs and ripple marks.

Her achievements extended beyond the laboratory. During the First World War, she designed a hand-operated fan intended to clear poisonous gas from trenches. Although military officials initially dismissed the idea, more than 100,000 Ayrton Fans were eventually supplied to British soldiers.

Hertha was also a committed supporter of women’s suffrage. She marched with campaigners, helped women who had been imprisoned and provided support to leading suffragettes, including Christabel Pankhurst.

Hertha Ayrton died from blood poisoning following an insect bite on the 26th of August 1923. She had registered 26 patents during her lifetime and helped open scientific institutions to women.

How many other brilliant women were prevented from receiving the recognition they deserved?

Clara Kramer Part 8: Liberation and the Devastating Truth Waiting for Them Above Ground

Clara Kramer Part 8: Liberation and the Devastating Truth Waiting for Them Above Ground

Today I want to find out what happened when Clara Kramer, her family and the other people hiding beneath the Beck family’s house were finally liberated.

By the summer of 1944, they had spent around 20 months living inside the cramped underground bunker. Throughout that time, they had survived hunger, illness, fire, German soldiers visiting the house and the constant possibility that the hiding place might be discovered.

During July 1944, the Soviet Army advanced into the region and the German forces began to withdraw. Żółkiew was eventually taken by Soviet troops, ending the German occupation.

 

For those in hiding, it must have been difficult to believe that the danger that had been present for so long was truly over. They had spent so long staying silent and treating every sound as a possible threat. There must have been a concern that the German soldiers might return or whether it was finally safe to reveal themselves.

Eventually, Clara, her parents and the others climbed out of the bunker. She went in as a frightened 15-year-old girl and came out after almost two years spent largely without fresh air, daylight or freedom.

The world must have seemed enormous after so long. But liberation did not mean that Clara could return to the life she had known before the war. The town was still there, but much of the Jewish community had disappeared.

Clara and the others began the painful process of discovering who had survived. News often came slowly. Some people had been murdered in nearby mass shootings. Others had been deported to the Bełżec extermination camp or taken elsewhere. A small number had survived in hiding, in camps or after escaping further east.

Clara already knew that her sister, Mania had fled from the bunker during a fire in April 1943 and was captured and killed. Clara’s grandmother, friends, neighbours and members of her extended family had also been scattered, deported or murdered. Her grandfather was arrested during the Soviet occupation and never returned.

 

Before the war, approximately 5,000 Jewish people had lived in Żółkiew. Clara later estimated that only about 50 survived the Holocaust. The community that had once supported synagogues, Jewish schools, businesses, charities and family celebrations had been almost completely destroyed.

 

The survival of the people inside the bunker was extraordinary. They owed their lives to Valentin Beck, his wife Julia and their daughter Ala, who had continued protecting them despite the danger to themselves. Clara’s diary also became important after liberation. It helped to demonstrate to the Soviet authorities that Valentin Beck had not just worked alongside the German occupiers but he had risked his life to rescue Jewish families.

 

Liberation brought them freedom, but it also showed the true scale of everything Clara had lost. She had survived, her parents had survived. But the childhood world she remembered could never return.

After the war, Clara eventually lived in displaced persons camps in Austria and Germany. She married another Holocaust survivor, Sol Kramer, and began rebuilding her life. However, she continued to preserve the memory of Żółkiew’s destroyed Jewish community and of the Beck family, whose courage had made her survival possible.

 

How could survivors begin rebuilding their lives when almost everyone and everything they had known had been taken from them?

The Home Guard Part One: Why the Home Guard Was Created in 1940: Britain Prepares for Invasion

The Home Guard Part One: Why the Home Guard Was Created in 1940: Britain Prepares for Invasion

Today I want to start a short series about the Home Guard by looking at why it was created in 1940. The Home Guard today are often seen by many people as older men carrying rifles and standing watch in their local communities. But we forget that the story began during one of the most frightening periods in Britain's history, when many people genuinely believed that an enemy invasion could happen at any moment.

In the spring of 1940, the Second World War had been going on for several months. Britain had not yet experienced the full force of the German aggression. That changed dramatically when Germany launched a series of rapid attacks across Western Europe. Using fast-moving troops, tanks and aircraft, German forces swept through country after country. News of these victories shocked the British people.

The situation became even more alarming in May and June of 1940 when France, Britain's most important ally on the continent, formally requested an armistice on the 17th of June 1940, and the armistice took effect on the 25th of June 1940. The fall of France was difficult to comprehend. France had one of the largest armies in Europe, but it had been defeated in a matter of weeks. Families listened for updates on the radio. Newspapers were putting out even more worrying headlines. Many people must have thought Britain might be next.

As the threat and fear of a German invasion grew. Rumours started to circulate about enemy parachutists landing in fields or spies hiding in amongst them. Coastal communities were obviously worried, they knew that if there was an invasion, they could be among the first to face it.

The government realised that the country needed to prepare. On the 14th of May 1940, the Secretary of State for War, Anthony Eden, made a radio broadcast calling for people to volunteer in a new force called the Local Defence Volunteers, usually known as the LDV. Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister, strongly supported the idea. The aim was simple: if an invasion came, local volunteers would help to defend their towns, villages and vital installations.

The response was extraordinary. Within only hours, men were queuing outside police stations and recruitment centres. Many were too old for regular military service, while others worked in jobs that were considered essential to the war effort. Some had fought during the First World War and had a sense of duty to serve once again. Some of the men had never served before but wanted to play their part. They may have been frightened about what lay ahead, but they were determined. Doing nothing was not an option for many of them.

More and more men joined up. Within only weeks, hundreds of thousands had volunteered, eventually exceeded 1.5 million members. They came from every walk of life, but they shared a common goal. They were determined to protect their homes and loved ones.

The organisation would renamed as the Home Guard on the 22nd of July 1940.

If you had been living in Britain during the summer of 1940, would you have joined the Local Defence Volunteers?