Who was Alexander Hamilton?

Alexander who? Until very recently, it was a question that even citizens of the United States might have asked. Yes, Alexander Hamilton was one of the founding fathers of the nation, but he was – let's be frank – a bit of a B-lister, at least compared to the headlining names of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. In fact, just a few years ago, the US government was all set to boot Hamilton from his place on the $10 bill. Who, after all, cared?

But now, everyone cares. Hamilton is the name on people's lips around the world. The B-lister has become the breakout star of America's origin story. His sudden tsunami of popularity has even made the Treasury reverse their decision and keep him on the bank note.

It's all down to the monster success of Broadway musical Hamilton, which is about to hit these shores. It's a show which, on the face of it, makes no sense. A musical featuring a cast largely made up of people of colour, set to a soundtrack of hip-hop and R 'n' B, which tells the story of a group of white men forging a nation in the time of slavery?

But when you delve into the life of Hamilton – the real man, rather than the generically lordly figure of oil paintings and history books – it starts making sense. Hamilton was an immigrant and an underdog. He was a fighter, both literally and metaphorically. He was an orphan with little privilege to fall back on, who had nothing going for him except fierce intellect and a will to survive.

Born out of wedlock on an island in the Caribbean, the product of an illicit fling by a Scottish businessman who later abandoned him and his mother, Hamilton was later dubbed "the bastard brat of a Scottish peddler" by none other than John Adams, the second President of the United States.

After his mother died, Hamilton could have fallen into poverty and obscurity. Instead, he excelled as a worker, and his ambitions led him to leave the Caribbean behind to study in New York. His first steps to national significance came during the American War of Independence, when Hamilton – filled with revolutionary zeal against the British – proved himself a brilliant soldier. So brilliant, in fact, that he was promoted to become the senior aide to George Washington himself. Hamilton's fearless devotion to military glory meant that he would later give up his relatively cushy job to return to the frontlines.

But Hamilton's true importance in history rests not on his exploits in the war, but on his role as midwife to the birth of the United States. This was a time of fierce squabbling between the various founders. The key question was about how the United States should be governed, and how much power the central government should have over the individual states.

Hamilton was a passionate advocate of a strong, federal government, at a time when many feared such an idea could lead to a new monarchy, or even a tyranny. These "anti-federalists" believed the very rights of ordinary people were at stake, and – shockingly unpatriotic as it may sound now – they vigorously opposed the ideas of the new US Constitution. Hamilton wrote a series of articles, known as the Federalist Papers, passionately defending the Constitution. Not only did these help sway the argument in favour of the Constitution, and the very idea of a strong, united country, but they remain a landmark work of political philosophy.

Hamilton came in for criticism, though. His fiercely federalist beliefs caused some to regard him as a covert monarchist, or even a budding Julius Caesar. But Hamilton wasn't done yet. When President George Washington appointed him the very first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton put into place the nationwide banking system that's still in place today. In fact, he was the architect of the whole economic programme for the young nation he'd helped create. Hamilton was a pioneer in less fortunate ways too, being the focus of America's first ever political sex scandal, thanks to his affair with a married woman whose husband had blackmailed Hamilton to keep things quiet.

Alexander Hamilton's career was turbulent, unexpected and changed the course of the world. And it came to a fittingly dramatic end. Challenged to a duel by his long-time political nemesis Aaron Burr, who just happened to be the Vice-President of the United States, Hamilton wanted no part of it, but went along anyway. He was shot by the Vice-President, and died the very next day. It remains one of the most bizarre episodes in American political history, but one which was almost forgotten until now. Thanks to a hit musical, Hamilton's remarkable existence on the world stage is finally getting the attention it deserves.

Article 2

Where the Vikings Left their Mark

Vikings. Giant, bloodthirsty, bushy-bearded men adorned with horned helmets and colossal axes. Hell-bent on a systematic programme of rape, pillage, randomly sacking towns and a penchant for wrecking up monasteries, right?

Wrong.

Like the common-garden playground bully, the truth is the Vikings weren’t all that bad. Just misunderstood. Maybe they just wanted to be loved?

So who exactly were the Vikings? A clue is in the name. The word ‘viking’ comes from the Old Norse meaning ‘pirate raid’. Yet not all those who came to the British Isles arrived with extreme violence in mind. Indeed it has become a matter of scholarly debate as to whether it was just the raiders who were referred to as Vikings, rather than the more peaceful Norse settlers.

Clear? No? Let’s muddy the waters a little more.

The first recorded Viking incursion was in 793 AD. A grotesque orgy of violence ensued and ended with the destruction of the monastery on the holy island of Lindisfarne, off England’s north-eastern coast. From then until their presence dwindled after the Battle of Stamford Bridge in 1066, the Viking Age represented a fascinating – albeit relatively fleeting – period of British history.

Many suggest their invasions were in retaliation to what they saw as trespassing on their tribal lands by Christian missionaries. Some say it was because they wanted access to the lucrative southern European trade routes; some say that Scandinavia was simply too cold and they couldn’t grow anything. Even romantic wanderlust has been mooted, although it’s unlikely they came for a holiday.

One thing is clear, the Vikings left an indelible mark on Britain’s culture, language and geography that endures to this day… In fact, if you look for the Vikings today, you may be surprised by what you find.

Viking Place Names in Britain

There were Viking sites and settlements all across Europe. If you live in Derby, Grimsby, Rugby or Whitby – in fact any town that ends in -by (from the Old Norse meaning a ‘farmstead’ or ‘village’) – you live in a town settled by the Vikings, exactly like Brondby and Lyngby in Denmark.

The same goes for towns ending in -thorpe (‘outlying farm’) such as Scunthorpe and Grimethorpe. In Yorkshire alone there are 210 -by places and 155 -thorpes!

Viking Surnames in Britain

As well as place names, many of our commonest surnames are Norse. Are you a Benson, Jackson, Stevenson or Davidson? If your surname ends in -son and you live anywhere north of Nottingham, it’s likely you have direct lineage to a Viking. Hopefully one of the nice hardworking farmers, not one of the marauding berserkers, although it’s a thought that’s going to fester, isn’t it?

Viking Hoards

Despite being such a dominant force, in the three centuries they were here the Vikings left surprisingly little physical evidence. What they did leave were stashes of coins, jewellery, small armaments and religious iconography. Sporadically since the late eighteenth century, Viking hoards have been discovered, mainly in Yorkshire, Lancashire and Scotland.

The UK’s biggest hoard of Viking treasure – made up of silver bracelets, ingots and brooches, gold rings, an enamelled Christian cross and a decorative bird-shaped pin – was found in a field near Kirkcudbright in south-west Scotland 2014. An amateur detectorist found what was described as ‘the richest collection of rare and unique Viking-age objects ever found in Britain or Ireland’.

Viking English

Perhaps the most enduring legacy of the Viking occupation is the language. Our visitors spoke a northern Germanic language known as Old Norse, similar in grammar, lexicography and word structure to modern English. Many scholars have supposed that the English we speak today doesn’t merely borrow from Norse, it’s wholly based on it. The Old English spoken before the Vikings arrived died out and a derivative of Old Norse survived to this day, however bastardised a version.

A thousand or more Old Norse words became part of what is known as Standard English. Most of which are objects and actions we use every day including skirt, cake, fog, freckles, neck, moss, sister, window, knife, smile, seat, gift, egg, cross, leg, steak and Thursday - named after Thor, the mythical Norse god of thunder.

So Apart from Place Names, Surnames, Hoards and English…

When the Vikings arrived at the back end of the eighth century, they were still ostensibly a pre-literate, pagan-worshipping Iron Age people. It’s true that for much of their stay they were berserk axemen you wouldn’t want to meet on a dark night, but as well as language and proper nouns they left their mark in many other ways.

They heavily influenced the rule of law and democracy, setting up the Tynwald on the Isle of Man, the world’s oldest continuous parliamentary body. They took their place in our regal history. Indeed, England had four Viking kings including Cnut. Viking women enjoyed a substantial degree of equality in the familial hierarchy and they developed improvements to farming and fishing, even importing the famous Herdwick sheep breed.

But more important than any of that – the Vikings created England. Granted not directly, but without them it’s unlikely England as we know if would exist at all.

Before the Vikings came to Britain, the divided Anglo-Saxon kingdoms were locked in an internecine struggle for supremacy. The Vikings swept all that away, destroying all these kingdoms with the exception of Alfred’s Wessex. The slow, methodical campaign to reclaim all the lands lost to the Vikings played out over more than two centuries and the end result was a single, unified Anglo-Saxon kingdom - England.

And Remember… Vikings Never Leave Quietly

The last throw of the Viking dice was in September 1066 at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, when King Harold Godwinson’s English army faced off against the Viking forces of King Harald Hardrada and, bizarrely, Godwinson’s own brother.

The Scandinavians were defeated in a vast and bloody battle and the few survivors were allowed to leave after pledging not to attack England again. Less than a month later King Harold himself was defeated by William the Conqueror, a Norman duke on the battlefield of Hastings. And who were the Normans? They were Northmen. Otherwise known as…Vikings.

So they actually won. Stick that in your rør and smoke it.

Article 3

St. George

St George is the patron saint of England and among the most famous of Christian figures. But of the man himself, nothing is certainly known. Our earliest source, Eusebius of Caesarea, writing c. 322, tells of a soldier of noble birth who was put to death under Diocletian at Nicomedia on 23 April, 303, but makes no mention of his name, his country or his place of burial. According to the apocryphal Acts of St George current in various versions in the Eastern Church from the fifth century, George held the rank of tribune in the Roman army and was beheaded by Diocletian for protesting against the Emperor's persecution of Christians. George rapidly became venerated throughout Christendom as an example of bravery in defence of the poor and the defenceless and of the Christian faith.

George was probably first made well known in England by Arculpus and Adamnan in the early eighth century. The Acts of St George, which recounted his visits to Caerleon and Glastonbury while on service in England, were translated into Anglo-Saxon. Among churches dedicated to St George was one at Doncaster in 1061. George was adopted as the patron saint of soldiers after he was said to have appeared to the Crusader army at the Battle of Antioch in 1098. Many similar stories were transmitted to the West by Crusaders who had heard them from Byzantine troops, and were circulated further by the troubadours. When Richard 1 was campaigning in Palestine in 1191-92 he put the army under the protection of St George.

Because of his widespread following, particularly in the Near East, and the many miracles attributed to him, George became universally recognized as a saint sometime after 900. Originally, veneration as a saint was authorized by local bishops but, after a number of scandals, the Popes began in the twelfth century to take control of the procedure and to systematize it. A lesser holiday in honour of St George, to be kept on 23 April, was declared by the Synod of Oxford in 1222; and St George had become acknowledged as Patron Saint of England by the end of the fourteenth century. In 1415, the year of Agincourt, Archbishop Chichele raised St George's Day to a great feast and ordered it to be observed like Christmas Day. In 1778 the holiday reverted to a simple day of devotion for English Catholics.

The banner of St George, the red cross of a martyr on a white background, was adopted for the uniform of English soldiers possibly in the reign of Richard 1, and later became the flag of England and the White Ensign of the Royal Navy. In a seal of Lyme Regis dating from 1284 a ship is depicted bearing a flag with a cross on a plain background. During Edward 111's campaigns in France in 1345-49, pennants bearing the red cross on a white background were ordered for the king's ship and uniforms in the same style for the men at arms. When Richard 11 invaded Scotland in 1385, every man was ordered to wear 'a signe (sic) of the arms of St George', both before and behind, whilst death was threatened against any of the enemy's soldiers 'who do bear the same crosse or token of Saint George, even if they be prisoners'.

The fame of St George throughout Europe was greatly increased by the publication of the Legenda Sanctorum (Readings on the Saints), later known as the Legenda Aurea (The Golden Legend) by James of Voragine in 1265. The name 'golden legend' does not refer to St George but to the whole collection of stories, which were said to be worth their weight in gold. It was this book which popularized the legend of George and the Dragon. The legend may have been particularly well received in England because of a similar legend in Anglo-Saxon literature. St George became a stock figure in the secular miracle plays derived from pagan sources which continued to be performed at the beginning of spring. The origin of the legend remains obscure. It is first recorded in the late sixth century and may have been an allegory of the persecution of Diocletian, who was sometimes referred to as 'the dragon' in ancient texts. The story may also be a christianized version of the Greek legend of Perseus, who was said to have rescued the virgin Andromeda from a sea monster at Arsuf or Jaffa, near Lydda (Diospolis), where the cult of St George grew up around the site of his supposed tomb.

In 1348, George was adopted by Edward 111 as principal Patron of his new order of chivalry, the Knights of the Garter. Some believe that the Order took its name from a pendant badge or jewel traditionally shown in depictions of Saint George. The insignia of the Order include a Collar and Badge Appendant, known as the George. The badge is of gold and presents a richly enamelled representation of St George on horseback slaying the dragon. A second medal, the Lesser George, also depicting George and the dragon, is worn attached to the Sash. The objective of the Order was probably to focus the efforts of England on further Crusades to reconquer the Holy Land. The earliest records of the Order of the Garter were destroyed by fire, but it is believed that either in 1348 or in 1344 Edward proclaimed St George Patron Saint of England. Although the cult of St George was suppressed in England at the Reformation, St George's Chapel, Windsor, completed in stages from 1483 to 1528, has remained the official seat of the Order, where its chapters assemble. The Monarch and the Prince of Wales are always members, together with 24 others and 26 Knights or Ladies Companion.

Much later, in 1818, the Prince Regent, later George IV, created the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George to recognize exemplary service in the diplomatic field. The Order was founded to commemorate the British protectorate of the Ionian islands and Malta, which had begun in 1814. Originally membership was limited to inhabitants of the islands and to Britons who had served locally. In 1879 membership was widened to include foreigners who had performed distinguished service in Commonwealth countries. The Order was reorganized by William 1V into three classes: Knight Grand Cross (GCMG); Knight Commander (KCMG); and Companion (CMG). Nowadays there are women members of each class with the title 'Dame'. The medal of the Order shows St George and the Dragon on one side, and St Michael confronting the Devil on the other with the inscription,'auspicium melioris aevi' ('augury of a better age'). The Chapel of the Order is St Paul's Cathedral.

Saint George is a leading character in one of the greatest poems in the English language, Spencer's Faerie Queene (1590 and 1596). St George appears in Book 1 as the Redcrosse (sic) Knight of Holiness, protector of the Virgin. In this guise he may also be seen as the Anglican church upholding the monarchy of Elizabeth1:

But on his breast a bloody Cross he bore
The dear remembrance of his dying Lord,
For whose sweet sake that glorious badge we wore
And dead (as living) ever he adored.

The legend of St George and the dragon took on a new lease of life during the Counter Reformation. The discoveries in Africa, India and the Americas, in areas which maps had previously shown as populated by dragons, presented vast new fields for Church missionary endeavour, and St George was once again invoked as an example of danger faced and overcome for the good of the Church. Meanwhile, the Protestant author, John Bunyan (1628-88), recalled the story of George and the Dragon in the account of the fight between Christian and Apollyon in Pilgrim's Progress (1679 and 1684).

The cult of St George was ridiculed by Erasmus after his visit (sometime between 1511 and 1513) to the saint's shrine at Canterbury, where the supposed arm of George attracted a large pilgrim traffic. Edmund Gibbon claimed that St George was originally George of Cappadocia, the Arian opponent of St Athanasius, but this theory, says Gibbon's nineteenth-century editor, J.B.Bury, 'has nothing to be said for it'. Research which established what little we actually know about the historical George was carried out around the turn of the century by the Bollandists, a scholarly society within the Jesuits. On the evidence of fourth century inscriptions found in Syria, one dating from c346, and the testimony of the pilgrim Theodosius, who visited Lydda in 530 and is the first to mention the tomb of St George, they concluded that George had indeed actually existed.

In more modern times, St George was chosen by Baden-Powell, its founder, to be patron of the Scouting Movement, and on St George's Day, scouts are bidden to remember their Promise and the Scout Law. Baden-Powell recounted in Scouting for Boys that the Knights of the Round Table 'had as their patron saint St George because he was the only one of all the saints who was a horseman. He is the patron saint of cavalry, from which the word chivalry is derived'.

In 1940, when the civilian population of Britain was subjected to mass bombing by the Luftwaffe, King George V1 instituted the George Cross for 'acts of the greatest heroism or of the most conspicuous courage in circumstances of extreme danger'. The award, which is second only to the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration, is usually given to civilians and can be given posthumously. The award consists of a silver cross. On one side is depicted St George slaying the dragon, with the inscription,'For Gallantry'; on the other appear the name of the holder and the date of the award. For lesser, but still outstanding acts of courage, the King created the George Medal. This also is a silver cross, with on one side the reigning monarch and on the other St George slaying the dragon. The island of Malta was awarded the George Cross for its heroism in resisting attack during World War 11.

Some confusion has arisen from the revision of its Calendar of Saints by the Roman Catholic Church in 1969. Saints have long been honoured with different degrees of solemnity. What the Catholic Church did was to downgrade the recollection of St George to the lowest category, commemoration, an optional memorial for local observance. The Church did not abolish St George. Indeed, it maintains a fine Cathedral named for him, opposite the Imperial War Museum in London.

The reason the Church now simply commemorates St George is that, although he certainly existed, so little is definitely known about him. Most of the legends about George are apochryphal and indeed incredible. The Church has never officially held that these legends are literally true, but made use of them to illustrate some of its teachings in times when people were more comfortable with such materials. As early as 496, Pope Gelasius in De libris recipiendis includes George among those saints 'whose names are rightly reverenced among us, but whose actions are known only to God'. The virtues associated with St George, such as courage, honour and fortitude in defence of the Christian faith, indeed remain as important as ever. St George is also, of course, venerated in the Church of England, by the Orthodox churches and by the Churches of the Near East and Ethiopia. The supposed tomb of St George can still be seen at Lod, south-east of Tel-Aviv; and a convent in Cairo preserves personal objects which are believed to have belonged to George.

St George is still venerated in a large number of places, by followers of particular occupations and sufferers from certain diseases. George is the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Germany and Greece; and of Moscow, Istanbul, Genoa and Venice (second to St Mark). He is patron of soldiers, cavalry and chivalry; of farmers and field workers, Boy Scouts and butchers; of horses, riders and saddlers; and of sufferers from leprosy, plague and syphilis. He is particularly the patron saint of archers, which gives special point to these famous lines from Shakespeare's Henry V, Act 3, Scene 1, l. 31:

'I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit; and, upon this charge
Cry God for Harry, England and St George!'.

Indirectly, the spirit of George the soldier saint played a part in modern English history when Sir Laurence Olivier's film of Henry V was issued in 1944 as an encouragement to our armies fighting for the liberation of France.

Article 4

The Battle of the Somme

The Battle of the Somme started on July 1^st 1916. It lasted until November 1916. For many people, the Battle of the Somme was the battle that symbolised the horrors of warfare in World War One; this one battle had a marked effect on overall casualty figures and seemed to epitomise the futility of trench warfare.

For many years those who led the British campaign have received a lot of criticism for the way the Battle of the Somme was fought – especially Douglas Haig. This criticism was based on the appalling casualty figures suffered by the British and the French. By the end of the battle, the British Army had suffered 420,000 casualties including nearly 60,000 on the first day alone. The French lost 200,000 men and the Germans nearly 500,000.

Ironically, going over the top at the Somme was the first taste of battle many of these men had, as many were part of “Kitchener’s Volunteer Army” persuaded to volunteer by posters showing Lord Kitchener himself summoning these men to arms to show their patriotism. Some soldiers were really still boys as young as 16, and the majority of men going to battle had no idea what warfare entailed.

So why was the battle fought? For a number of months the French had been taking severe losses at Verdun, east of Paris. To relieve the French, the Allied High Command decided to attack the Germans to the north of Verdun therefore requiring the Germans to move some of their men away from the Verdun battlefield, thus relieving the French. After the war, Sir William Robertson, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, explained what this strategy was:

“Remembering the dissatisfaction by ministers at the end of 1915, because the operations had not come up to their expectations, the General Staff took the precaution to make quite clear beforehand the nature of success which the Somme campaign might yield. The necessity of relieving pressure on the French Army at Verdun remains, and is more urgent than ever. This is, therefore, the first objective to be obtained by the combined British and French offensive. The second objective is to inflict as heavy losses as possible upon the German armies.”

Ironically, the head of the French Army, General Foch, believed that the attack in the Somme would achieve little – this view was shared by some leading British commanders such as General Henry Rawlinson. However, orders from the army’s political masters in London and Paris ensured that the battle would take place. Just how backward military thinking was then is shown by the fact that the British put a regiment of cavalry on standby when the attack started, in order to exploit the hole that would be created by a devastating infantry attack. British military faith was still being placed on cavalry attacks in 1916 when the nature of warfare in the previous two years would have clearly indicated that cavalry was no longer viable. This shows how conservative military thinking was during this war. Moreover the soldiers sent to fight on the battlefield were newly recruited volunteers and not trained military personnel. Conscription only began in Britain in 1916 but had been in place many years previously in France, meaning the French conscripts had usually some degree of military knowledge or training. British soldiers on the other hand were at a huge disadvantage and simply were not trained nor prepared for life on the battlefield.

The battle at the Somme started with a weeklong artillery bombardment of the German lines. 1,738,000 shells were fired at the Germans. The logic behind this was so that the artillery guns would destroy the German trenches and barbed wire placed in front of the trenches. The use of artillery was heavily supported by Field Marshall Haig:

“The enemy’s position to be attacked was of a very considerable character, situated on high, undulating tract of ground. (They had) deep trenches….bomb proof shelters……wire entanglements forty yards broad often as thick as a man’s finger. Defences of this nature could only be attacked with the prospect of success after careful artillery preparation.”

In fact, the Germans had deep dugouts for their men and all they had to do when the bombardment started was to move these men into the relative safety of the deep dugouts. When the bombardment stopped, the Germans would have known that this would have been the signal for an infantry advance. They moved from the safety of their dugouts and manned their machine guns to face the British and French. The British soldiers advanced across a 25-mile front.

By the end of the battle, in November 1916, the British had lost 420,000, the French lost nearly 200,000 men and the Germans 500,000. The Allied forces had advanced along a thirty-mile strip that was seven miles deep at its maximum. Lord Kitchener was a supporter of the theory of attrition – that eventually you would grind down your enemy and they would have to yield. He saw the military success of the battle as all-important. However, it did have dire political and social consequences in Britain. Many spoke of the “lost generation”, finding it difficult to justify the near 88,000 Allied men lost for every one mile gained in the advance.

However, during the battle media information on the Somme was less than accurate. This was written by John Irvine of the “Daily Express” on July 3rd 1916 – though his report would have been scutinised by the British military and government and he could only have used what information the military gave him.

“A perceptible slackening of our fire soon after seven was the first indication given to us that our gallant soldiers were about to leap from their trenches and advance against the enemy. Non-combatants, of course, were not permitted to witness this spectacle, but I am informed that the vigour and eagerness of the first assault were worthy of the best tradition of the British Army.We had not to wait long for news, and it was wholly satisfactory and encouraging. The message received at ten o’clock ran something like this: “On a front of twenty miles north and south of the Somme, we and our French allies have advanced and taken the German first line of trenches. We are attacking vigourously Fricourt, la Boiselle and Mametz. German prisoners are surrendering freely, and a good many already fallen into our hands.”

The Daily Chronicle published a similar report on the battle on July 3rd:

“At about 7.30 o’clock this morning a vigourous attack was launched by the British Army. The front extends over some 20 miles north of the Somme. The assault was preceded by a terrific bombardment, lasting about an hour and a half. It is too early to as yet give anything but the barest particulars, as the fighting is developing in intensity, but the British troops have already occupied the German front line. Many prisoners have already fallen into our hands, and as far as can be ascertained our casualties have not been heavy.”

However, those who fought there knew what really happened – if they survived:

“The next morning (July 2nd) we gunners surveyed the dreadful scene in front of us……it became clear that the Germans always had a commanding view of No Man’s Land. (The British) attack had been brutally repulsed. Hundreds of dead were strung out like wreckage washed up to a high water-mark. Quite as many died on the enemy wire as on the ground, like fish caught in the net. They hung there in grotesque postures. Some looked as if they were praying; they had died on their knees and the wire had prevented their fall. Machine gun fire had done its terrible work.”