HOME
*



picture info

Jack Straw (rebel Leader)
Jack Straw (probably the same person as ''John Rakestraw'' or ''Rackstraw'') was one of the three leaders (together with John Ball (priest), John Ball and Wat Tyler) of the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, a major event in the history of England. Biography Little is known of the revolt's leaders. It has been suggested that Jack Straw may have been a preacher. Some have argued that the name was in fact a pseudonym for Wat Tyler or one of the other peasants' leaders; all of them appear to have used pseudonyms, adding to the confusion.See Brie, F. W. 'Wat Tyler and Jack Straw', in ''The Historical Review'', v.21, 81 (January, 1906). Brie states that "the Continuator of Knighton held this view [...] and that two or three ballads and several fifteenth-century chroniclers [...] speak of Jakke Straw being killed by William Walworth, Walworth at Smithfield [i.e. in the same manner as Wat Tyler]." Several chroniclers, including Henry Knighton, mention Straw, though Knighton erroneously confuses h ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

John Ball (priest)
John Ball ( 1338 – 15 July 1381) was an English priest who took a prominent part in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381. Although he is often associated with John Wycliffe and the Lollard movement, Ball was actively preaching 'articles contrary to the faith of the church' at least a decade before Wycliffe started attracting attention. Biography It is possible that John Ball was the son of William and Joan Ball of Peldon near Colchester. He was born and it has been suggested that his name is first mentioned in the Colchester Court Rolls of 30 January 1352, when, on coming of age in 1350 he acknowledged the tenancy of a tenement between East and West Stockwell Street in the town. Whether this is the John Ball from the Peasants' Revolt is not clear and others see this among the "speculative attempts" at reconstructing Ball's early life. Ball trained as a priest in York and referred to himself, according to Thomas Walsingham, as " Seynte Marie priest of York". He later moved to Norwic ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

John Stow
John Stow (''also'' Stowe; 1524/25 – 5 April 1605) was an English historian and antiquarian. He wrote a series of chronicles of English history, published from 1565 onwards under such titles as ''The Summarie of Englyshe Chronicles'', ''The Chronicles of England'', and ''The Annales of England''; and also ''A Survey of London'' (1598; second edition 1603). A. L. Rowse has described him as "one of the best historians of that age; indefatigable in the trouble he took, thorough and conscientious, accurate – above all things devoted to truth". Life John Stow was born in about 1525 in the City of London parish of St Michael, Cornhill, then at the heart of London's metropolis. His father, Thomas Stow, was a tallow chandler. Thomas Stow is recorded as paying rent of 6s 8d per year for the family dwelling, and as a youth Stow would fetch milk every morning from a farm on the land nearby to the east owned by the Minoresses of the Convent of St. Clare. There is no evidence that he ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Jack Straw's Castle, Hampstead
Jack Straw's Castle is a Grade II listed building and former public house in Hampstead, north-west London, England. The site is named after the rebel leader Jack Straw, who led the Peasants' Revolt in 1381 and who is said to have taken refuge on the site until he was caught and executed. A pub has existed here since at least the early 18th century. The building was altered in the early 19th century. Charles Dickens was known to visit the pub, describing it as a place where he could get "a red-hot chop for dinner, and a glass of good wine". William Makepeace Thackeray and Wilkie Collins also visited it. It is mentioned in Bram Stoker’s ''Dracula'', where Professor Van Helsing and Doctor Jack Seward stop to dine, and also in Harold Pinter's play ''No Man's Land''. It was the final residence of the music hall singer Alec Hurley, who died there in 1913. The building was badly damaged in The Blitz during World War II. The current building was designed by the architect Raymond ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Hampstead Heath
Hampstead Heath (locally known simply as the Heath) is an ancient heath in London, spanning . This grassy public space sits astride a sandy ridge, one of the highest points in London, running from Hampstead to Highgate, which rests on a band of London Clay. The heath is rambling and hilly, embracing ponds, recent and ancient woodlands, a lido, playgrounds, and a training track, and it adjoins the former stately home of Kenwood House and its estate. The south-east part of the heath is Parliament Hill, from which the view over London is protected by law. Running along its eastern perimeter is a chain of ponds – including three open-air public swimming pools – which were originally reservoirs for drinking water from the River Fleet. The heath is a Site of Metropolitan Importance for Nature Conservation, and part of Kenwood is a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Lakeside concerts are held there in summer. The heath is managed by the City of London Corporation, and lies mostl ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Jack Cade
Jack Cade's Rebellion was a popular revolt in 1450 against the government of England, which took place in the south-east of the country between the months of April and July. It stemmed from local grievances regarding the corruption, maladministration and abuse of power of the king's closest advisors and local officials, as well as recent military losses in France during the Hundred Years' War. Leading an army of men from south-eastern England, the rebellion's leader Jack Cade marched on London in order to force the government to reform the administration and remove from power the "traitors" deemed responsible for bad governance. Apart from the Cornish rebellion of 1497, it was the largest popular uprising to take place in England during the 15th century. Despite Cade's attempt to keep his men under control, once the rebel forces had entered London they began to loot. The citizens of London turned on the rebels and forced them out of the city in a bloody battle on London Bri ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




John Bull
John Bull is a national personification of the United Kingdom in general and England in particular, especially in political cartoons and similar graphic works. He is usually depicted as a stout, middle-aged, country-dwelling, jolly and matter-of-fact man. He originated in satirical works of the early 18th century and would come to stand for " English liberty" in opposition to revolutionaries. He was popular through the 18th and 19th centuries until the time of the First World War, when he generally stopped being seen as representative of the "common man". Origin John Bull originated as a satirical character created by John Arbuthnot, a friend of Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope. Bull first appeared in 1712 in Arbuthnot's pamphlet ''Law is a Bottomless Pit''."AngloMania: Tradition and Transgression in British Fashion," Metropolitan Museum of Art (2006), exhibition brochure, p. 2. The same year Arbuthnot published a four-part political narrative ''The History of John Bull''. In ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


1066 And All That
''1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England, Comprising All the Parts You Can Remember, Including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings and 2 Genuine Dates'' is a tongue-in-cheek reworking of the history of England. Written by W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman and illustrated by John Reynolds, it first appeared serially in ''Punch'' magazine, and was published in book form by Methuen & Co. Ltd. in 1930. Setting and background Raphael Samuel saw ''1066 and All That'' as a product of the post-First World War debunking of British greatness, very much in the tradition of ''Eminent Victorians'' (1918): as he put it, "that much underrated anti-imperialist tract ''1066 and All That'' punctured the more bombastic claims of drum-and-trumpet history". Both the Tory view of a 'great man' history, and the liberal pieties of Whig history are undermined in the work, in the (then contemporary) style of such serious historians as Namier and Herbert Butterfield. With its conflation of history and m ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Edwardian
The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victorian era. Her son and successor, Edward VII, was already the leader of a fashionable elite that set a style influenced by the art and fashions of continental Europe. Samuel Hynes described the Edwardian era as a "leisurely time when women wore picture hats and did not vote, when the rich were not ashamed to live conspicuously, and the sun really never set on the British flag." The Liberals returned to power in 1906 and made significant reforms. Below the upper class, the era was marked by significant shifts in politics among sections of society that had largely been excluded from power, such as labourers, servants, and the industrial working class. Women started to play more of a role in politics. Roy Hattersley, ''The Edwardians'' (2004). ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


The Life And Death Of Jack Straw
''The Life and Death of Jack Straw'' is a late 16th-century play, possibly written by playwright George Peele. The play tells the story of Jack Straw, a rebel leader in the Peasants' Revolt The Peasants' Revolt, also named Wat Tyler's Rebellion or the Great Rising, was a major uprising across large parts of England in 1381. The revolt had various causes, including the socio-economic and political tensions generated by the Black ... of 1381. The play was possibly written by George Peele and probably originally designed for production in one of London's guild pageants. The play portrays Jack Straw as a tragic figure, being led into wrongful rebellion by the priest John Ball, drawing clear allegorical links between the instability of late-Elizabethan England and the politics of the 14th century. It is one of the earliest political plays of its type in England. The play was initially printed in 1593 by John Danter for William Barley, and the rights were subsequently transferre ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

The Canterbury Tales
''The Canterbury Tales'' ( enm, Tales of Caunterbury) is a collection of twenty-four stories that runs to over 17,000 lines written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. It is widely regarded as Chaucer's ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The tales (mostly written in verse (poetry), verse, although some are in prose) are presented as part of a story-telling contest by a group of pilgrims as they travel together from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral. The prize for this contest is a free meal at the The Tabard, Tabard Inn at Southwark on their return. It has been suggested that the greatest contribution of ''The Canterbury Tales'' to English literature was the popularisation of the English vernacular in mainstream literature, as opposed to French, Italian or Latin. English had, however, been used as a literary language centuries before Chaucer's time, and several of Chaucer's contemporaries—John Gower, W ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

The Nun's Priest's Tale
"The Nun's Priest's Tale" (Middle English: ''The Nonnes Preestes Tale of the Cok and Hen, Chauntecleer and Pertelote'') is one of ''The Canterbury Tales'' by the Middle English poet Geoffrey Chaucer. Composed in the 1390s, it is a beast fable and mock epic based on an incident in the Reynard cycle. The story of Chanticleer and the Fox became further popularised in Britain through this means. The tale and framing narrative The narrative of 695-lines includes a prologue and an epilogue. The prologue links the story with the previous Monk's Tale, a series of short accounts of toppled despots, criminals and fallen heroes, which prompts an interruption from the knight. The host upholds the knight's complaint and orders the monk to change his story. The monk refuses, saying he has ''no lust to pleye,'' and so the Host calls on the Nun's Priest to give the next tale. There is no substantial depiction of this character in Chaucer's "General Prologue", but in the tale's epilogue the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific ''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament. Among Chaucer's many other works are ''The Book of the Duchess'', ''The House of Fame'', ''The Legend of Good Women'', and ''Troilus and Criseyde''. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of our ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]