Below is your free Weekly Digest of all things History from me. This is where I tell you about what I’ve been waffling about during the week, what events and programmes I might have coming up, and tell you what next week’s content will include. You’ll see snippets of my articles, and teasers about what is to come. This week there is also a look at what is going on at Chalke History Festival, where I am currently sitting in a field chatting with fellow history nerds.
This online magazine is a reader-supported publication. To help facilitate my history habit, thereby giving me the chance to convert this addiction into shiny articles for you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. For the cost of a single coffee each month, you save me from doing some turgid office job and giving up history to be a grown up. It also accelerates you to the top of my favourites list, and puts you in line for prizes!
This Week
EVENTS/NEWS:
This week we launched a new tour for 2025 at Istoria. Battleground Belgium will look at a century of war in the Ardennes. Running from 4-8th August, 2025, this is the most enchanting part of Belgium. Wild and rugged, with thick forests, deep river valleys and whimsical villages. Battles in this region have shaped the entire history of Europe. During the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, again in both 1914 and 1918, and once more in 1940 and 1944 - this serene region has been the epicentre of chaos and confusion. Over 5 days, explore the terrain, follow in the strategists' footsteps, and understand the human impact of victory and disaster in the Ardennes:
(Photos: Bart Parish)
On Tuesday I put up a new “Vanished Occupation” and took a gruesome look at those who operated guillotines, specifically in France, from the 18th century onwards. Turns out there is a direct link between Lord of the Rings and this, so obviously had to go down that rabbit hole…
Charles Henri Sanson
The Sanson family produced six generations of royal executioners, one of whom was in his post when the guilloti ne was introduced in 1792. Born in 1739, Charles-Henri Sanson, known as ‘The Great Sanson’ worked as apprentice to his father for two decades before he was sworn into the office on 26 December 1778.
An artists impression on The Great Sanson made in 1851 by Eustace Lorsay (Wikipedia)
A week later the first prisoner to be executed, a robber named Pelletin, also accused of attempted murder was taken to his death. The authorities were slightly alarmed at how the public might respond to this dramatic new spectacle. One official wrote:
‘The new mode of decapitation must certainly attract a considerable number of spectators… and it is necessary to take special measures to prevent any attempt to destroy the machine. I therefore think it indispensable that you should order the gendarmes who are to attend the execution to remain until the machine is taken away.'
What did the day look like for Sanson? The executioner travelled to the execution in a cart with the prisoner, cheered by large crowds. Not everyone went easily to their fate. One forger refused to climb the steps of the scaffold. Charles Henri and up to half a dozen assistants, usually sons and family members, were responsible for dragging him up:
‘When the unfortunate man saw the dark outline of the machine, his resistance became more desperate, and he shrieked for mercy. The crowd was now silent… At last, after a final struggle, the culprit was strapped to the plank, but his contortions were so violent that an assistant had to sit upon him.’
The act of operating the guillotine was as simple as pulling a rope. The oblique blade would come down, the head would come off and drop into a basket. Once it was done, to satisfy the crowd, one of the Sansons would lift the head by the hair and swing it around. In a bizarre moment of what feels a lot like karma, on one occasion in 1792 Gabriel Sanson, Charles Henri’s son and prospective successor was going this when he slipped, fell off the scaffold and died in his mid-twenties.
On Friday I rabbit holed on the heyday of smuggling in Britain, with some colourful tales and folklore from a 1909 book I picked up by a man named Charles Harper.
Why was there a heyday from about 1700?
The origins of customs duties and embargoes are lost in the mists of time in a place I have no interest in digging for them, but safe to say, nobody likes giving their government money. That, and when said government have gone and done something stupid which then impacts the coming and going of stuff people want, they definitely don’t feel bad about cutting said governments out of transactions and fetching things on the black market. Enter the smugglers…
(All of the illustrations for this article come from the 1909 edition of Harper’s book. They were drawn by a Paul Hardy)
In short, thanks to Harper, I can say with minimal authority that it is possible to blame William of Orange for the beginning of the peak of these shenanigans. Right about the time this Dutchman took the British throne, there began a growth in customs demands as successive governments, all the way into the nineteenth century, sought imaginative ways to wring more money out of the population.
Wars contributed to this, and for that I suppose you can also blame the likes of Napoleon. Wars are expensive, and the money has to come from somewhere. Is it any wonder, then, that the miffed population of this little island found the smugglers that managed to import things like fancy, embargoed French knickers from across the channel, rather romantic…
This week sees the first incarnation of the revamped Chalke History Festival since the change of sponsor. Here are some photos:
History Hack alumni Zack White is here with the Napoleonic and Revolutionary War Graves Charity, talking about their work locating and renovating the graves of those who served 1775-1815. He’s taken up re-enacting, and presents himself here in authentic rig of some regiment or other which bashed Boney.
Our Great War Group stand has welcomed many nerds wanting to learn more about the work we do educating about, and commemorating the First World War.
Speaking of which, lovely member and regular festival goer Jim has adorned our pitch with a refurbished WW1 bicycle from his collection. Regimental Sergeant Major Chris Brown can also be seen in his town crier rig…
A big turnout to see James Holland, Charlie Higson and Anthony Beevor talk about various war films. The Cruel Sea, yay, Saving Private Ryan, history issues but yes, and Enemy at the Gates, hell no.
History Hack regular Charlotte White made her debut yesterday, talking about Charles II’s mistress Barbara Villiers in history and as we know her from Samuel Pepys’s slightly pervy diaries.
And finally it was delightful to catch up with Peter Caddick-Adams looking so well, which made up for the fact that I did not. Lols.
Today I’m giving a talk about 1937 and the beginning of the Second World War in the Far East, if you are in town. I have free cookies. There’s lots more fun to be had this weekend before things wrap up for another year, so do come along to Wiltshire if you can.
NEXT WEEK:
On Monday you can look forward to some more history from the French Army in the First World War, namely the first battle for Arras in 1914 and a particular hero of mine. I’ll also be bringing you the next installment of Americana on Thursday, where I pick a state and then rabbit hole. This time its New Mexico…
This online magazine is a reader-supported publication. To help facilitate my history habit, thereby giving me the chance to convert this addiction into shiny articles for you, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. For the cost of a single take-away coffee each month, you save me from doing some turgid office job and giving up history to be a grown up. It also accelerates you to the top of my favourites list, and puts you in line for prizes!