Table of contents for No. 70 in All About History

It is important to understand flamenco’s status as being reflective of Andalusian, Extremaduran and Murcian culture. For after the civil war of 1936 to 1939, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco adopted flamenco as a national rather than regional dance in a bid to repress the country’s cultural diversity. It led to the secret police clamping down on flamenco concerts and gatherings which it felt were a display of lower-class dissent. After all, flamenco had long been used by socially marginalised communities to send out a political message. Franco’s regime believed flamenco to be useful in attracting visitors to Spain and the efforts to ‘rebrand’ were found in contemporary culture. A notable film – the beautifully-told musical drama, Los Tarantos – drew upon flamenco for its narrative, for instance, while being set…

Gage Berger Silhouettes of bulls can be found dotted across the Spanish landscape. They were created in 1956 for the Osborne sherry company as an advertisement for their Veterano brandy. In 1994, a new law prohibiting roadside advertising of alcohol required the bulls to be removed. However, they had become a cultural icon and campaigners fought to save them. As a compromise, the bulls remained but were painted entirely black, covering up the Osborne branding.…

Isidore was nominated as the patron saint of the internet by the late Pope John Paul II, although the Vatican has not made this official yet SAINT ISIDORE OF SEVILLE C.560-636 Isidore was raised and educated in Seville and he succeeded his brother, Leander, as bishop of the city following the latter’s death around the year 600. He held this position for over three decades, during which time he became noted for his intellectual skills. Isidore famously spent the last two decades of his life compiling the Etymologies, an encyclopaedia of knowledge collected from hundreds of classical sources. Comprised of 20 volumes and divided by subject, it covers a wide range of topics from animals and cities to lore of the late classical world. It was the most used textbook…

Richard’s personal motto “Loyaulte me lie” (“Loyalty Binds Me”) is sometimes considered a historic irony. The virtue of loyalty seems almost laughable considering that he likely ordered the deaths of his nephews, Edward V and his brother Richard, the Duke of York, after usurping the crown. However, Richard was often true to his motto and to understand him better we need to learn why loyalty was, important to him. Despite the controversy surrounding the Princes in the Tower, Richard showed few signs of disloyalty to his Yorkist family before 1483. He venerated the memory of his father and was also genuinely devastated when his wife and son died in close succession between 1484-85. Richard’s greatest of display of loyalty was to his brother Edward IV. It never wavered despite the…

Family life 4 Number of times Josephine married 10 Altogether, her adopted children hailed from 10 different countries including France, Korea, Japan, Israel and Algeria. Her château at Les Milandes had 24 rooms in total Performances During her time as a chorus girl on Broadway, Josephine was earning $125 a week 25 Number of countries Josephine visited across Europe during her 1928 – 1929 tour $ 100,000 The amount Josephine earned during the first leg of her 1951 US tour Free French Air Force The air force operated for just under 5 years from 1940 to 1945 5 By the end of 1942 there were 5 squadrons in operation – 2 in the Middle East, 2 in Britain and 1 in the Soviet Union 25 Number of operational squadrons that…

The Groenlendinga saga (or the Saga of the Greenlanders) comes down to us in a single manuscript written in the late 14th century called the Flateyjarbók. A fire, flood or the nibbling of rats might have deprived us of one of the only written sources that describes the Norse exploration of North America. Most experts place the composition of the saga in the 12th or 13th century, at least a century after the events described, but much of it has proved historically reliable, if liberally sprinkled with fabulous inventions. The Flateyjarbók was written for Jón Hákonarson, a wealthy farmer in Iceland with an interest in literature. Thanks to an introduction, we know that it was written by two priests – Jón Þórðarson and Magnús Þórhallsson – which may explain the…

Helmet The helmet wasn’t just designed to protect the astronaut from the vacuum of space, but its gold tinted visor and sunshields protected against solar ultraviolet light, heat and damage from tiny meteorites. PLSS remote control unit Placed on the chest of the spacesuit, the PLSS remote control unit allowed the astronaut to control oxygen levels and suit temperature, as well as activate their radio and mount the Hasselblad camera that the astronauts used. Lunar boots The first famous footprints into lunar soil were left by boots that were made very much like the gloves, covered in a sturdy steel mesh and a silicone tread. Primary Life Support System (PLSS) The bulky backpack was the Primary Life Support System, or PLSS. It provided oxygen, controlled suit pressure and temperature, removed…

GENERAL EDMUND ALLENBY LEADER Allenby conceived and executed the final Allied advance in the Middle East brilliantly. Strengths: Allenby was experienced in the crucible of war and an astute tactician who excelled at getting the best out of his men. Weaknesses: Nicknamed ‘the Bull’ due to his ferocious temper, Allenby often terrified his subordinates. DESERT MOUNTED CORPS KEY UNIT This cavalry force played a key role in the defeat of the Ottoman armies in the Middle East. Strengths: Fast and highly mobile, the Desert Mounted Corps often overwhelmed Ottoman positions. Weaknesses: These horsemen were lightly armoured and therefore afforded little protection against Ottoman guns. HOTCHKISS M1909 KEY WEAPON First produced in 1909, this gas-operated light machine gun could be belt or strip-fed. Strengths: This easily movable gun had an equally…

Follow orders With the majority of popes earning their position only at the whims of the ruling nobles in Rome, not doing what you are told after can end in disfigurement or, even worse, death. Bring your bow Hunting boar is a favourite pastime of the upper classes. Have your horse ready and waiting when you leave mass. Blind your rivals One of the popular ways to see off a rival during this time is to blind them. This way, they no longer pose a threat, but remain alive to suffer! Learn your proverbs While no-one will expect you to walk the walk during this period, boning up on the Bible will ensure you can at least talk the talk. Look to the pope for guidance With their constant gambling,…

Out now! THE CRYOTRON FILES Author Iain Dey & Douglas Buck Price £20 Publisher Icon Books Dudley Buck invented an early version of the microchip. He also moonlighted for the NSA, developing code-cracking supercomputers and guidance for nuclear missiles. However, Buck died aged 35 – days after Soviet scientists visited his MIT lab. Was he killed? Journalist Iain Dey makes some bold claims in his new biography, some of which can’t be substantiated. But by drawing on Buck’s personal papers, the author vividly uncovers the life of a forgotten pioneer of the Information Age, as well as the Cold War struggle for computer dominance.…

ARMISTICE 100 REMEMBERED Go inside the end of World War I and the forging of a fragile peace RAGNAR LOTHBROK: THE FIRST VIKING Discover the truth about the Norse raider who became a legend TREASURES OF POMPEII UNCOVERED Origins of the volcanic eruption and new archaeological finds revealed PLUS Elizabeth I versus the Spanish Armada, What if William the Conqueror failed? Medieval medicine, 10 great inventions of the Industrial Revolution, George Orwell…

THE SYMBOLIC HAT Matadors wear a distinctive black hat called a montera which was introduced in 1835 by bullfighting great Francisco Montes Reina. Covered in astrakhan fur, lined with velvet and kept on the head via an artificial ponytail, it had been widely worn by men and women living on the Iberian Peninsula. Matadors toss the hat to dedicate a kill to a particular person or the general public. NARROW NECKTIE As well as the short jacket (chaquetilla) with its reinforced shoulders, the upper body section of the traje de luces includes a vest, white shirt (camisa) and a narrow necktie (called a corbatín in Spanish). This is typically black but other colours are also used. In all cases, it slips over the shirt, with the bottom part covered by…

CARMEN AMAYA BARCELONA, SPAIN, 1913-1963 Dubbed her generation’s greatest Spanish gypsy dancer, Amaya mastered fast footwork usually associated with male dancers. JOSE GRECO MONTORIO NEI FRENTANI, ITALY, 1918-2000 Greco popularised flamenco in the US during the 1950s and 1960s. VICENTE ESCUDERO VALLADOLID, SPAIN, 1892-1980 Escudero was criticised for his refusal to adhere to the rules but his style is said to be one of the most natural. MATILDA GONZALEZ SEVILLE, SPAIN, 1935-PRESENT In 1975, Matilda Coral was awarded the golden key of flamenco dance, the Llave de oro de Baile – the only person to receive the accolade.…

Susie Lake Bombed for three hours by German pilots in league with Francisco Franco and his fascist forces, the Basque town of Guernica was left decimated by the attack. Considered one of the worst atrocities of the Spanish Civil War, it is believed to be the first deliberate attack against civilians from the air. It caused international outrage, particularly after journalist George Steer highlighted Germany’s involvement in his account published in The Times. Picasso immortalised the bombing in his painting ‘Guernica’.…

“Richard was a highly experienced soldier who until that fateful day had never been defeated in battle” The term ‘Wars of the Roses’ wasn’t coined until the 19th century. Instead the conflict was known to contemporaries as the ‘Cousins’ War’ It is 22 August 1485. On a Leicestershire battlefield an English king is fighting for his life. He has been betrayed and unhorsed, but unlike the rest of his army he refuses to retreat. Now alone and without his helmet, the monarch is surrounded by enemies. He receives a cut to his lower jaw. Although he fights on, he take multiple blows to the head. He is brought to his knees and a fatal blow from a halberd cuts through his skull. For good measure, a sword then slices into…

AUGUST 1485 After Richard III is killed at Bosworth, his severely wounded body is draped naked over a horse and paraded by Henry Tudor’s victorious army to Leicester. The dead king’s body is buried by the Greyfriars, which was a Franciscan holy order, at their friary church in Leicester shortly afterwards. AUGUST 2012 After centuries of speculation, Leicester City Council, University of Leicester Archaeological Services and the Richard III Society begin to conduct an excavation at a car park on the site of the old Greyfriars Friary. The dig is the brainchild of Philippa Langley, a member of the Richard III Society who had launched a project called Looking for Richard: In Search of a King. AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2012 On the first day of the dig, archaeologists uncover human bones near…

When Josephine Baker was refused service because of her skin colour at New York City’s elite Stork Club in 1951, it left another diner instantly outraged. Walking over to Josephine’s table the diner took her arm and voiced her support for her before the pair defiantly stormed out of the club together. Th1 was none other than Hollywood superstar Grace Kelly and this moment marked the start of her long and close friendship with Josephine. Grace came to Josephine’s aid once again when the latter was swimming in debt and evicted from her Les Milandes estate in 1969. Grace had been married to Prince Rainier III of Monaco since 1956 and was now known as Princess Grace of Monaco. She offered Josephine a permanent home in Monaco along with financial…

During the 19th century, a hungry, increasingly literate audience of Victorians consumed the novel, transforming writers into household names. But most remarkably of all, the era ushered in a wave of female pioneers, an early form of girl power which vitalised literature with rich stories, and inspired feminists of the future. The Gothic genre which played a hand in this victory, with its frighetful form offering opportunities to explore themes and issues previously sidelined or ignored in other works. Amidst the eerie castles, striking landscapes and Medieval settings, these female writers could call into question male-dominated society, turn traditional power dynamics on their head, and use the supernatural as a vehicle for the sensual. This isn’t to say that the genre was always empowering, as texts such as Bram Stoker’s…

HEROISM With dozens of successful military campaigns, hundreds of great structures and the world’s first known peace treaty, Ramses was certainly some kind of hero. VILLAINY Ramses’s alleged megalomania and need to be seen as a god would have largely been able to explain how he achieved so much in Egypt. LEGACY The legacy of Ramses II is something that can’t be doubted or questioned. He was and still is the most famous and powerful Pharaoh to have ever lived. Was Ramses II a hero or a villain? Get in touch and let us know what you think Facebook /AllAboutHistory Twitter @AboutHistoryMag…

GENERAL OTTO LIMAN VON SANDERS LEADER Born in 1855, this Prussian-born general commanded the immovable Ottoman defence during the bloody Gallipoli Campaign. Strengths: Liman knew how to frustrate an Allied advance despite the odds being stacked against him. Weaknesses: By September 1918, the German was commanding a battered Ottoman force. OTTOMAN FOURTH ARMY KEY UNIT This field army was divided in two, with one half confronting the Allied bridgeheads, while the other half defended the vital Hejaz Railway. Strengths: The Fourth Army was sent to defend a key position. Weaknesses: Unfortunately the Fourth Army was badly understrength by this point. MG08 MAXIM KEY WEAPON This reliable sled-mounted machine gun saw action in many conflicts. Strengths: This German weapon featured a range calculator, meaning it could be fired from behind cover.…

What precipitated the overthrow of the 260-year-old Tokugawa shogunate in Japan in favour of the young Emperor Meiji? The most common point for talking about the Meiji Restoration is the arrival of the “black ships” [from the United States] under Commodore Perry in 1853, when they sailed into Uraga harbour, near Edo [the former name for Tokyo]. It was a fairly graphic demonstration of a Western power’s capacity to enter into the inner precinct of Japan without any consequence. Perry said he would come back in a year’s time and get a response from the Japanese in terms of whether they would open the country or not. And when they did come back, the Japanese acquiesced to a point, and opened up some ports to the Americans. At the time,…

Book Film TV Games Podcast Other AGRIPPINA Uncover the many sides of Ancient Rome’s most extraordinary woman Author Emma Southon Publisher Unbound Price £12 Released Out now You’ve probably never read a history book like this before. Front and centre in Agrippina: Empress, Exile, Hustler, Whore is someone who author Emma Southon calls “the most extraordinary woman in the Roman world”, but the way in which her biography is told is something else entirely. Roman women generally weren’t thought of as having their own agency – in fact, even today they’re usually referred to as the wives, mothers or sisters of others. Agrippina the Younger, as the sister, niece, wife and mother of Roman emperors, was certainly no exception. When you think of Roman power, her name usually isn’t at…

38,000 BCE ANCIENT ART The world’s oldest known cave paintings, created by Neanderthals, have been discovered in Cantabria, Northern Spain. In particular, the prehistoric art located in the El Castillo cave dates back to over 40,000 years ago. 218 BCE THE ROMANS ARRIVE Though it took 200 years, the Romans conquered the Iberian Peninsula and renamed it Hispania. Ruling for seven centuries, the Romans had a lasting impact on the region’s culture, most notably on the language. 507 A NEW ERA As the Roman Empire declined, Germanic tribes took advantage and invaded Hispania. They eventually conquered the whole of the peninsula. The Visigothic king Leovigild established his new capital in modern-day Toledo. Ironically, the Romans had employed some Germanic tribes in roughly 416 CE, to drive out other German invaders…

When famed architect Antoni Gaudí was placed in charge of the Sagrada Família project, a Roman Catholic Church in Barcelona, in 1883, he knew that he would not live to see it completed. He envisioned a masterpiece that combined both Gothic and Art Noveau architectural styles and devoted the rest of his life to the project, creating 3D models of his design so that the church could be completed in the future without him. Gaudí died in 1926 in a tragic tram accident, at which point only roughly a quarter of the church had been completed. Progress on the project has been slow since it is funded through private donations, and work has been disrupted numerous times due to protests and of course, during the destructive Spanish Civil War when…

1. The fatal blows At the base of the skull, a section of bone has been sliced off by a large, sharp-bladed weapon, like a halberd. There is a second deep penetration hole, perhaps caused by a sword. Either injury would have been fatal. 2. Frontal attack There is a cut mark on the lower jaw, likely a knife injury. This, together with both fatal blows, suggests that Richard had lost his helmet in the battle. 3. Head injuries A The top rear of the skull has been clipped three time by a sharp-bladed weapon, such as a sword. Painful blows, though not fatal. B A small penetration wound on the skull top, consistent with that of a dagger, was forceful enough to split the bone. C The rectangular hole…

The banana skirt 1925 Josephine’s banana skirt has gone down in history as one of the most iconic looks of all time. Made from a string of 16 artificial bananas, it complemented her seductive Danse Sauvage and propelled Josephine to stardom. Screen siren 1934 This is one of the beautiful gowns that Josephine wore for her big debut in the French film, Zouzou, created by the costume designers Pascaud and Zanel. Exuding elegance, Josephine looked every inch a movie starlet and far removed from her banana skirt. Captivating in Cuba 1951 Josephine wore lots of stunning dresses during her career, including this strapless gown for a studio portrait in Havana, Cuba, during her tour of Latin America. By this stage, Josephine was in her mid-50s and her gown collection reportedly…

“Servants claimed that Rais succeeded in raising a demon” Gilles de Rais was a man of means. Born into the House of Montmorency-Laval, he received rich rewards and kingly favours for his distinguished military service. He was also supposedly a bloodthirsty 15th century serial killer, responsible for the abduction, torture and murder of hundreds of children. In a storm of occultism, alchemy and Satanic worship, the reputation and privileged life of the once celebrated French noble was destined to come to a brutal and shuddering halt. Born in 1404, Gilles de Rais was orphaned at a young age. He married into a vast fortune but he wasn’t content to sit back. Instead, Rais determined to prove himself on the battlefield. He soon became a celebrated and feared warrior, famed for…

Apollo 12 almost became the mission to land men on the Moon, rather than Apollo 11. What happened? Originally it was scheduled for Apollo 11 to be the first lunar landing, then evidently without notifying the nation and the crew, it slipped to being Apollo 12 because of the overweight condition in Apollo 11's original design. It needed to be light enough to land, so they kept kind of working on it and not disclosing until a final decision was made. And so history was gonna play out a different way. And that again had a major impact on my life and career, and Neil Armstrong’s career, if it had remained too heavy to make a landing attempt. You and Armstrong ran into some problems during the Apollo 11 mission,…

Although the lewd in mind may think they have landed on their feet, you would be wise to stay on your toes instead. During the Pornocracy – or the Age of Harlots, as it is also known – you are just as likely to find yourself stabbed in the back as you are to get caught up in a bacchanalia. The women of the aristocratic House of Theophylact, particularly Theodora and her daughter Marozia, pull the strings in the Papal States, deciding for themselves who will be pope, as well as brutally dispatching those they don’t like. Although many historians will blame these ‘harlots’ for the period’s horrors, this is merely reflective of the distrust and sexism often directed toward powerful women. Others prefer to refer to this nadir in…

Science, mathematics, art, poetry, and politics. Women have excelled in these fields – and so many more – despite the barriers they’ve had to overcome. Many of these disciplines have been either completely closed to women, or so male-dominated that even being heard can be laborious. Queens regnant have had to defy the stereotypical trappings of gender, or wrest power from grasping statesmen to rule their countries and empires. From Harriet Tubman to Frida Kahlo, Cleopatra to Marie Curie, History’s Greatest Women collects together the stories of inspirational women from around the world, revealing the challenges they faced, the accomplishments they achieved, and adventures they went on. Buy History’s Greatest Women in shops or online at myfavouritemagazines.com Price: £9.99…

QUEEN VICTORIA Author: Lucy Worsley Price: £25 Where better to begin with the Victorians than with the monarch who defined them? This new biography from the historian and broadcaster Lucy Worsley explores the sovereign’s life through 24 days that shaped her life. Drawing on diaries, letters and more, Worsley humanises a woman who is too often reduced to symbolic status. DOMINION Author: Peter Ackroyd Price: £25 The fifth instalment in the author’s History Of England series sums up the country’s apex, from victory at Waterloo in 1815 (yes, we know, a little before Victoria’s time) to ruling an empire that spanned a quarter of the world by 1901. While some might be put off by its broad approach, it remains an excellent intro to the era. ONE HOT SUMMER Author:…