The event is often referred to as the Japanese equivalent of Pearl Harbour. Today, Chuuk Lagoon is among the top wreck diving spots of the world.

Chuuk Lagoon history

Previously Truk Atoll, the site of Chuuk Lagoon is located 1,800 km north of New Guinea and consists of a protective reef enclosing a natural harbour. The surrounding Chuuk islands had been settled since the 14th century AD but were claimed by the Spanish Empire, German Empire and eventually the Empire of Japan in 1914, who seized the lagoon from Germany during World War One.

During World War Two, Chuuk Lagoon was the Empire of Japan’s main and most formidable naval base in the South Pacific. The base was heavily fortified against the Allies who were operating in New Guinea and the nearby Soloman Islands. A large part of the Japanese fleet was based at Chuuk, including Imperial battleships, aircraft carriers, cruisers, destroyers, minesweepers and submarines.

In 1944, the Japanese Imperial naval base at Chuuk was destroyed by a US naval attack. Having been warned, the Japanese removed their larger warships. However, Operation Hailstone as the attack was known, continued for 3 days as US planes sank 12 smaller warships and 32 merchant ships, as well as 275 aircraft.

The destruction of Chuuk Lagoon’s base prevented it from being a major threat to the Allies in the Central Pacific, especially after it was attacked again by British naval forces in June 1945.

In 1969, a French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau explored the lagoon and following his documentary about the haunting remains of the naval base, the lagoon became a popular site for scuba-diving enthusiasts.

Chuuk Lagoon today

Today, you can visit the Chuuk Lagoon and dive throughout the incredible preserved remains of the Japanese Imperial naval fleet. Divers can spend hours exploring the site’s wrecks, returning multiple times without seeing the same wreckage twice, testifying to the great destruction of Operation Hailstone.

With a local diving guide, you can even explore the engine rooms and cargo holds of some of the destroyed ships. The lagoon is also home to a large variety of beautiful soft and hard corals, all of brilliant colours and providing shelter to rich marine life.

Getting to Chuuk Lagoon

Situated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Chuuk Lagoon is hard to access. You can get a direct flight from Guam which takes 1 hour and 46 minutes, or fly from Papua New Guinea which is a 3 hour flight to Chuuk International Airport in Weno. From Weno you get a diving boat to the lagoon.

Segovia Cathedral history

Segovia Cathedral built between 1525 and 1577 during the reign of Charles V, was the last cathedral of the late Gothic style in Spain, elsewhere outdated in Europe. The cathedral was constructed after the city’s former cathedral was destroyed during the battles between the Castilian royal armies and Communeros, who took the cathedral to protect its holy relics and its defensive position on the walls of the Alcazar. After a seige lasting months, the cathedral was ruined.

The new cathedral was relocated and designed by Juan Gil de Hontanon, featuring three tall vaults, with fine tracery windows and stained glass. The interior was late Gothic style, yet the dome was later added in 1630. The stone spire was also an addition from 1614 following a fire during a thunderstorm that destroyed the original Gothic spire built of American mahogany, a symbol of the Iberian presence in the Americas, once the tallest tower in Spain.

The cathedral was consecrated when an Italian marble and bronze altarpiece was completed in 1768, as Spain underwent an Enlightenment period encouraged by Benedictine monk, Benito Feijoo, despite later being suppressed in the 1770s by censorship and an Inquisition.

Segovia Cathedral today

Visitors can not only marvel at the 90 metre tall tower, but view the exquisite religious artworks and interior designs of the impressive Gothic cathedral. Including artworks such as the Crying over the Dead Christ by Juan de Juni (1571), the triptych by the Flemish painter Ambrosius Benson (c.1532-36) and the altarpiece by José de Churriguera.

Inside the cloister you can visit the Chapter House, designed by García de Cubillas. It has a fantastic coffered ceiling carved in 1559 and a collection of Flemish tapestries narrating scenes of Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. In the Chapter House you can see the gilded silver monstrance that processes on Corpus Christi, and a small museum room also displays one of the first printed books in Spain.

After appreciating the art, take a moment to watch the sun shine through the rainbow of stained glass windows.

Getting to Segovia Cathedral

Located at the highest point in the city, the cathedral is located next to the Plaza Mayor, where the bus route 10 stops 150m away.

The two brothers disappeared from the tower, presumed dead, and were never seen again. Richard III took the crown in Edward’s absence.

At the time and for centuries afterwards, the mystery of the ‘Princes in the Tower’ caused intrigue, speculation and revulsion, as historic voices including Sir Thomas More and William Shakespeare weighed in on who was to blame.

Typically, the princes’ uncle and would-be king, Richard III, has been blamed for their disappearance and probable deaths: he had the most to gain from the deaths of his nephews.

Overshadowed by monstrous depictions of their uncle, Edward and Richard have largely been lumped together as simply the ‘Princes in the Tower’. However, although their stories share the same ending, Edward and Richard lived almost completely separate lives until they were sent to the tower in 1483.

Here’s an introduction to the vanished ‘Brothers York’.

Born into conflict

Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury were born and raised behind the backdrop of the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England between 1455 and 1485 that saw two houses of the Plantagenet family battle for the crown. The Lancasters (symbolised by the red rose) were led by King Henry VI, while the Yorks (symbolised by the white rose) were led by Edward IV.

In 1461 Edward IV captured the Lancastrian king, Henry VI, and, having imprisoned him in the Tower of London, crowned himself King of England. Yet his victory was not concrete, and Edward had to continue defending his throne. Complicating matters further, in 1464 Edward married a widow called Elizabeth Woodville.

Although she was from a genteel family, Elizabeth had no important titles and her former husband had even been a Lancastrian supporter. Knowing this was an unpopular match, Edward married Elizabeth in secret.

A miniature depiction of the secret wedding of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville at her family chapel.

Image Credit: Bibliothèque nationale de France / Public Domain

In fact, the marriage was so unpopular that the Earl of Warwick (known as the ‘Kingmaker’), who was trying to set up Edward with a French princess, switched to the Lancastrian side of the conflict.

Nevertheless, Elizabeth and Edward had a long and successful marriage. They had 10 children, including the ‘Princes in the Tower’, Edward V and Richard of Shrewsbury. Their eldest daughter, Elizabeth of York, would eventually marry Henry Tudor, the future King Henry VII, uniting to end years of civil war.

Edward V

The first son of Edward IV and Elizabeth, Edward was born on 2 November 1470 at the Abbot of Westminster’s house. His mother had sought sanctuary there after her husband had been deposed. As the first son of the Yorkist king, baby Edward was made Prince of Wales in June 1471 when his father regained his throne.

Instead of living with his parents, Prince Edward grew up under the supervision of his maternal uncle, Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl of Rivers. On the orders of his father, Edward observed a strict daily schedule, beginning with Mass and breakfast, followed by studies and reading noble literature.

Anthony was a notable scholar, which appears to have rubbed off on his nephew. Edward was described by Dominic Mancini, an Italian religious visitor to England, as “polite nay rather scholarly” with “attainments far beyond his age”.

On 14 April 1483, Edward heard of his father’s death. Now the new king, he left his home at Ludlow intending to be escorted to his coronation by the Protector assigned in his father’s will – the former king’s brother, Richard of York.

A portrait of the young king, Edward V.

Image Credit: National Portrait Gallery / Public Domain

Instead, Edward travelled without his uncle to Stony Stratford. Richard was not pleased and, despite the young king’s protests, had Edward’s company – his uncle Anthony, his half-brother Richard Grey and his chamberlain, Thomas Vaughan – executed.

On 19 May 1483, Richard had King Edward move to the royal residence at the Tower of London, where he awaited coronation. Yet the coronation never came. A sermon was preached by the Bishop of Bath and Wells in June declaring that Edward IV had been bound to another marriage contract when he married Elizabeth Woodville.

This meant the marriage was void, all their children were illegitimate and Edward was no longer the rightful king.

Richard of Shrewsbury

As his title suggests, Richard was born in Shrewsbury on 17 August 1473. The next year, he was made Duke of York, beginning a royal tradition of giving the second son of the English monarch the title. Unlike his brother, Richard grew up alongside his sisters in the palaces of London and would have been a familiar face in the royal court.

At just age 4, Richard was married to the 5-year-old Anne de Mowbray, 8th Countess of Norfolk, on 15 January 1478. Anne had gained a massive inheritance from her father, including great swathes of land in the east that Edward IV wanted. The king changed the law so that his son could inherit his wife’s property immediately, although Anne died only a few years later in 1481.

When his brother’s short reign ended in June 1483, Richard was removed from the line of succession and was sent to join his brother in the Tower of London, where he was occasionally seen with his brother in the garden.

After the summer of 1483, Richard and Edward were never seen again. The mystery of the Princes in the Tower was born.

The Survival of the Princes in the Tower by Matthew Lewis is a History Hit Book Club book of the month.

The History Hit Book Club is the new way to enjoy reading books that spark rich conversations about history. Every month we carefully select a history book to read and discuss with like-minded members. Membership includes a £5 voucher towards the cost of the book each month from leading ethical online book and entertainment retailer hive.co.uk, exclusive access to a Q&A with the author and much more.

What were the medieval standards that kings were judged by? Tracts written in the middle ages demanded that kings possess courage, piety, a sense of justice, a listening ear to counsel, restraint with money and the ability to maintain peace.

These qualities reflected the ideals of medieval kingship, but navigating ambitious nobles and European politics was certainly no mean feat. Nonetheless, some kings were evidently better at the job than others.

Here are 5 of England’s medieval kings with the worst reputations.

1. John (r. 1199-1216)

Nicknamed ‘Bad King John’, John I acquired a villainous image that has been reproduced time and again in popular culture, including film adaptations of Robin Hood and a play by Shakespeare.

John’s parents Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine were formidable rulers and secured England a great deal of French territory. John’s brother, Richard I, despite spending only 6 months in England as king, earned the title of ‘Lionheart’ due to his great military skill and leadership.

This was quite a legacy to live up to, and thanks to Richard’s ongoing holy wars, John also inherited a kingdom whose coffers had been emptied meaning any taxes he raised would have been wildly unpopular.

John had already gained a reputation for treachery prior to becoming king. Then, in 1192, he attempted to seize Richard’s throne while he was held captive in Austria. John even tried to negotiate extending his brother’s imprisonment and he was lucky to be pardoned by Richard after his release.

A poster for Frederick Warde’s production of Runnymede, depicting Robin Hood facing up to the villainous King John, 1895.

Image Credit: Library of Congress / Public Domain

Further damning John in his contemporaries’ eyes was his lack of piety. For medieval England, a good king was a pious one and John had numerous affairs with married noblewomen which was considered deeply immoral. After disregarding the Pope’s nomination for archbishop, he was excommunicated in 1209.

Medieval kings were also meant to be brave. John was nicknamed ‘softsword’ for losing English land in France, including the powerful Duchy of Normandy. When France invaded in 1216, John was almost 3 leagues away by the time any of his men realised he had abandoned them.

Finally, while John was in part responsible for the creation of the Magna Carta, a document widely regarded as the foundation of English justice, his participation was at best unwilling. In May 1215, a group of barons marched an army south forcing John to renegotiate England’s governance, and ultimately, neither side upheld their end of the bargain.

2. Edward II (r. 1307-1327)

Even before he was king, Edward made the medieval royal error of unapologetically surrounding himself with favourites: this meant that throughout his reign, the threat of civil war was ever-present.

Piers Gaveston was Edward’s most notable favourite, so much so that contemporaries described, “two kings reigning in one kingdom, the one in name and the other in deed”. Whether the king and Gaveston were lovers or intimate friends, their relationship enraged the barons who felt slighted by Gaveston’s position.

Edward was forced to exile his friend and institute the Ordinances of 1311, restricting royal powers. Yet at the last minute, he disregarded the Ordinances and brought back Gaveston who was swiftly executed by the barons.

Further damaging his popularity, Edward was determined to pacify the Scots having followed his father on his earlier northern campaigns. In June 1314, Edward marched one of medieval England’s mightiest armies to Scotland but was crushed by Robert the Bruce at the Battle of Bannockburn.

This humiliating defeat was followed by widespread harvest failures and famine. Although not Edward’s fault, the king exacerbated the discontent by continuing to make his closest friends very rich, and in 1321 civil war broke out.

Edward had alienated his allies. His wife Isabella (daughter of the French king) then left for France to sign a treaty. Instead, she plotted against Edward with Roger Mortimer, 1st Earl of March, and together they invaded England with a small army. A year later in 1327, Edward was captured and was forced to abdicate.

3. Richard II (r. 1377-1399)

Son of the Black Prince Edward III, Richard II became king aged 10, so a series of regency councils governed England by his side. Another English king with a poor Shakespearean reputation, Richard was 14 years old when his government brutally suppressed the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 (though according to some, this act of aggression may have been against teenage Richard’s wishes).

Along with a volatile court full of powerful men wrestling for influence, Richard inherited the Hundred Years’ War with France. War was expensive and England was already heavily taxed. The poll tax of 1381 was the final straw. In Kent and Essex, resentful peasants rose up against landowners in protest.

Aged 14, Richard personally faced the rebels when they arrived in London and allowed them to return home without violence. However, further upheaval in the following weeks saw the rebel leaders executed.

The suppression of the revolt during Richard’s reign fed his belief in his divine right as king. This absolutism eventually brought Richard to blows with parliament and the Lords Appellant, a group of 5 powerful nobles (including his own uncle, Thomas Woodstock) who opposed Richard and his influential advisor, Michael de la Pole.

When Richard finally came of age he sought retribution for his counsellors’ earlier betrayals, manifesting in a series of dramatic executions as he purged the Lords Appellant, including his uncle who was accused of treason and executed.

He also sent John of Gaunt’s son (Richard’s cousin) Henry Bolingbroke into exile. Unfortunately for Richard, Henry returned to England to overthrow him in 1399 and with popular support was crowned Henry IV.

4. Henry VI (r. 1422-1461, 1470-1471)

Only 9 months old when he became king, Henry VI had big shoes to fill as the son of the great warrior king, Henry V. As a young king, Henry was surrounded by powerful advisors many of whom he over-generously bestowed riches and titles on, upsetting other nobles.

The young king further split opinion when he married the French king’s niece-in-law, Margaret of Anjou, ceding hard-won territories to France. Coupled with an ongoing unsuccessful French campaign in Normandy, the increasing divide between factions, unrest in the south and the threat of Richard Duke of York’s growing popularity, Henry finally succumbed to mental health issues in 1453.

The first page of Shakespeare’s Henry the Sixth, Part I, printed in the First Folio of 1623.

Image Credit: Folger Shakespeare Library / Public Domain

By 1455, the War of the Roses had begun and during the first battle at St Albans Henry was captured by the Yorkists and Richard ruled as Lord Protector in his stead. Over the following years as the Houses of York and Lancaster struggled for control, the misfortune of Henry’s poor mental health meant he was in little position to take up leadership of armed forces or govern, particularly after the loss of his son and ongoing imprisonment.

King Edward IV took the throne in 1461 but was ejected from it in 1470 when Henry was restored to the throne by the Earl of Warwick and Queen Margaret.

Edward IV defeated the forces of the Earl of Warwick and Queen Margaret at the Battle of Barnet and Battle of Tewkesbury, respectively. Soon after, on 21 May 1471, as King Edward IV paraded through London with Margaret of Anjou in chains, Henry VI died in the Tower of London.

5. Richard III (r. 1483-1485)

Undoubtedly England’s most maligned monarch, Richard came to the throne in 1483 after the death of his brother, Edward IV. Edward’s children were declared illegitimate and Richard stepped in as king with the support of the powerful Duke of Buckingham.

When Richard became king he exhibited some of the desirable traits of a medieval ruler, taking a stance against his brother’s rampant and public adultery and pledging to improve management of the royal court.

However, these good intentions were overshadowed by the mysterious disappearance of his nephews in August 1483. Although there is little concrete evidence to decide his role in the fate of the Princes in the Tower, that Richard had already taken Edward V’s place on the throne was indictment enough.

A Victorian portrayal of Richard III as a scheming hunch-back by Thomas W. Keene, 1887.

Image Credit: University of Illinois at Chicago / Public Domain

Faced with the mammoth task of keeping his crown, Richard planned on marrying Joanna of Portugal and marrying his niece, Elizabeth of York, to Manuel, Duke of Beja. At the time, rumours emerged that Richard in fact planned to marry his niece Elizabeth himself, possibly driving some to side with Richard’s remaining competition for the throne, Henry Tudor.

Henry Tudor, having been in Brittany since 1471, moved to France in 1484. It was there that Tudor amassed a significant invading force which defeated and killed Richard at the Battle of Bosworth in 1485.

Applying what had been done by the Etruscans before them, the Romans devised a sanitation system using covered drains to carry stormwater and sewage out of Rome.

Eventually, this system of sanitation was reproduced across the empire and was declared by the contemporary historian Pliny the Elder to be “the most noteworthy” of all the ancient Romans’ achievements. This feat of engineering allowed public baths, toilets and latrines to spring up across ancient Rome.

Here’s how the Romans modernised the use of the toilet.

All aqueducts lead to Rome

At the heart of the Romans’ sanitation success was a regular supply of water. The engineering feat of Roman aqueducts allowed water to be transported from fresh mountain springs and rivers directly into the city centre. The first aqueduct, the Aqua Appia, had been commissioned by the censor Appius in 312 BC.

Over the centuries, 11 aqueducts were built leading to Rome. They delivered water from as far away as the Anio River via the Aqua Anio Vetus aqueduct, supplying water for the city’s drinking, bathing and sanitary needs.

Frontinus, a water commissioner appointed by Emperor Nerva at the end of the 1st century AD, established special aqueduct maintenance crews and divided the water based on quality. Good quality water was used for drinking and cooking, while second-rate water served fountains, public baths (thermae) and sewage.

Roman citizens therefore had a relatively high standard of hygiene and expected it to be maintained.

Roman sewers

Rome’s sewers served multiple functions and became essential to the growth of the city. Using extensive terra cotta piping, sewers drained public bathwater as well as excess water from the marshy swamp areas of Rome. The Romans also were the first to seal these pipes in concrete to resist high water pressure.

The Greek author Strabo, who lived between roughly 60 BC and 24 AD, described the ingenuity of the Roman sewer system:

“The sewers, covered with a vault of tightly fitted stones, have room in some places for hay wagons to drive through them. And the quantity of water brought into the city by aqueducts is so great that rivers, as it were, flow through the city and the sewers; almost every house has water tanks, and service pipes, and plentiful streams of water.”

At its peak, Rome’s population numbered around a million people, together producing a massive amount of waste. Serving this population was the biggest sewer in the city, the Greatest Sewer or Cloaca Maxima, named for the Roman goddess Cloacina from the Latin verb cluo, meaning ‘to clean’.

The Cloaca Maxima revolutionised Rome’s sanitation system. Built in the 4th century BC, it linked Rome’s drains and flushed sewage into the Tiber River. Yet the Tiber remained a source of water used by some Romans for bathing and irrigation alike, unwittingly carrying disease and illness back into the city.

Roman toilets

Dating back to the 2nd century BC, Roman public toilets, often built with donations from charitable upper-class citizens, were called foricae. These toilets consisted of dark rooms lined with benches dotted with key-shaped holes placed rather closely together. Romans therefore got pretty close and personal while using the foricae.

They were also never far from a large number of vermin, including rats and snakes. As a result, these dark and dirty places were rarely visited by women and certainly never by rich women.

A Roman latrine among the remains of Ostia-Antica.

Image Credit: Commons / Public Domain

Elite Romans had little need for public foricae, unless they were desperate. Instead, private toilets were built in upper-class homes called latrines, built over cesspools. Private latrines probably also smelt awful and so many wealthy Romans may have just used chamber pots, emptied by slaves.

Additionally, to prevent the spread of vermin to wealthy neighbourhoods, private latrines were often separated from public sewage systems and would have to be emptied by the hands of stercorraii, ancient manure removers.

Behind the innovation

Although the Roman sanitation system was sophisticated among the ancient civilisations, behind the innovation was the reality that disease spread quickly. Even with the public foricae, many Romans simply threw their waste out of the window onto the streets.

Although public officials known as aediles were responsible for keeping the streets clean, in the poorer districts of the city, stepping stones were needed to cross over the piles of rubbish. Eventually, the city’s ground level was raised as buildings were just built on top of rubbish and rubble.

The public baths were also breeding grounds for disease. Roman doctors would often recommend that ill people should go for a cleansing bath. As part of the baths’ etiquette, the sick usually bathed in the afternoons to avoid healthy bathers. However, like public toilets and the streets, there was no daily cleaning routine for keeping the baths themselves clean, so illness was often passed to healthy bathers who visited the next morning.

Romans used a sea sponge on a stick, called a tersorium, to wipe after using the latrine. The sponges were often washed in water containing salt and vinegar, kept in a shallow gutter below the toilets. Yet not everyone carried around their own sponge and public latrines at baths or even the Colosseum would have seen shared sponges, inevitably passing on diseases such as dysentery.

A tersorium replica showing the Roman method of fixing a sea sponge on top of a stick.

Image Credit: Commons / Public Domain

Despite the constant risk of disease, the Romans’ ancient sewer system nonetheless demonstrated innovation and a commitment to public welfare. In fact, it worked so well at transporting waste out of towns and cities that Roman sanitation was replicated across the empire, the echoes of which can still be found today.

From Rome’s Cloaca Maximus that continues to drain the Forum Romanum and surrounding hills, to a well-preserved latrine at Housesteads Fort along Hadrian’s Wall, these remains testify to the innovation behind how the Romans went to the toilet.

As privateer to the Queen, Drake led England to new far-off shores all the while plundering, raiding and enslaving in his country’s name. Indeed, ‘privateer’ was often another way of saying ‘pirate’.

A man loathed by his enemies and loved by his queen, here are 10 facts about Sir Francis Drake.

1. His exact birthday is unknown

Francis Drake was born sometime between 1540 and 1544 in Devonshire, England, although his date of birth was not recorded. Drake was the twelfth son of a tenant farmer, Edmund Drake, who worked on the estate of Lord Francis Russell, Earl of Bedford.

His father fled Devon after being charged for assault and robbery in 1548, so a young Francis was brought up by relatives in Plymouth who worked as merchants and privateers.

Drake went to sea for the first time around the age of 18 with the Hawkins family fleet and by the 1560s had command of his own ship.

2. Drake was one of England’s first transatlantic slave traders

During his early expeditions of the 1560s, Drake accompanied his cousin John Hawkins to West Africa where they captured and enslaved African men and women. The pair also attacked Portuguese slave ships, stealing the human ‘cargo’ onboard.

They sailed to New Spain hoping to sell their captives, which broke Spanish law, so they were attacked by the Spanish in the Mexican port of San Juan de Ulua. Many of Drake’s shipmates were killed and he returned to England with a strong hatred for Spain and its king, Philip II.

3. Drake was the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe

An engraving of Drake’s West Indian Voyage 1585-86 by Giovanni Battista Boazio, 1589.

Image Credit: Library of Congress / Public Domain

He was also the second person ever to complete a circumnavigation of the globe, the first being Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. In 1577 Queen Elizabeth sent him on an exploratory voyage to South America.

Drake returned to England via the Pacific on his 100-ton flagship The Pelican (later The Golden Hind), becoming the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. As a reward, the queen awarded him a knighthood making him Sir Francis Drake.

4. Drake served as a privateer for Queen Elizabeth I

Drake was commissioned by the crown as a ‘privateer’, meaning he had permission to raid enemy ships and the cargoes they carried. As tensions between England and Spain grew, the Queen commissioned Drake to lead an expedition against Spain’s American colonies along the Pacific coast.

In 1572, he captured the port of Nombre de Dios where the Spanish held silver and gold brought from Peru. Drake returned home with this huge amount of treasure, earning him a fearsome reputation as a leading privateer.

5. There were no records of the loot Drake collected during his travels

The main reason for this secrecy was to avoid taxes from the Spanish, who might also make a claim for it to be returned. Only Queen Elizabeth I and Drake knew exactly how much booty he had acquired along the way. In fact, Elizabeth had Drake and his crew sworn to secrecy on pain of death if they revealed the true nature of their voyage.

6. Drake was not the first person to bring the potato to England

Francis Drake is often given the credit for introducing the first potatoes to England. Instead, the first potatoes were most likely brought by the Spanish during the 1570s – a decade before Drake’s voyage. However, he did bring back tobacco and potatoes from his 1586 trip to America having failed to find the mysteriously missing Roanoke settlers.

7. He was nicknamed ‘El Draque’ (the Dragon) by the Spanish

Because of Drake’s royal pursuits against Spanish ships and settlements during his voyages, he was loathed by the Spanish. In fact, some Spanish sailors were so afraid of Drake they thought he used witchcraft to aid his successes. The story went that Drake was working with the devil who had given him a magical mirror showing him all the ships at sea.

8. Drake helped England defeat the ‘unbeatable’ Spanish Armada

He served as second-in-command to Admiral Charles Howard during the English victory over the Spanish Armada in 1588.

Only several years before, Drake had also led a fleet of 30 ships into the port of Cádiz, destroying a large number of ships being readied for the Armada.

Philip James de Loutherbourg’s painting ‘Defeat of the Spanish Armada’.

Image Credit: National Maritime Museum / Public Domain

9. His final voyage was a dismal failure

In early 1596, Queen Elizabeth enlisted Drake for one more voyage against Spanish possessions in the West Indies. Unfortunately for Drake, Spain fended off the English attacks and Drake came down with a fever.

10. He died from dysentery on 28 January 1596

Drake was buried at sea off the coast of Portobelo, Panama, dressed in a full suit of armour and laid in a lead coffin. Multiple attempts have been made to find the coffin by historians and treasure hunters alike, but it has never been found and remains lost at sea.

Edward forfeited his crown, and his royal responsibilities fell to the heir presumptive: Albert. Taking the regnal name George VI, the new king reluctantly assumed the throne as Europe fast approached war.

Nonetheless, George VI overcame personal and public challenges, restoring faith in the monarchy. But who was the reluctant ruler, and how exactly did he manage to win over a nation?

Albert

Albert was born on 14 December 1895. His birthdate happened to be the anniversary of his great-grandfather’s death, and he was named Albert to honour the Prince Consort, husband of the still-reigning Queen Victoria. To close friends and family, however, he was affectionately known as ‘Bertie’.

As the second son of George V, Albert never expected to become king. At the time of his birth, he was fourth in line to inherit the throne (after his father and grandfather), and he spent much of his adolescence overshadowed by his elder brother, Edward. Albert’s childhood was therefore not uncharacteristic of the upper classes: he rarely saw his parents who were distant from their children’s day-to-day lives.

The four kings of the United Kingdom between 1901 and 1952: Edward VII, George V, Edward VIII and George VI in December 1908.

Image Credit: Daily Telegraph’s Queen Alexandra’s Christmas Gift Book / Public Domain

Made famous by the 2010 film The King’s Speech, Albert had a stammer. His stammer and embarrassment over it, coupled with a naturally shy character, made Albert appear less confident in public than the heir, Edward. This did not stop Albert committing to military service during World War One.

Despite being plagued with seasickness and chronic stomach trouble, he entered service in the Royal Navy. While at sea his grandfather Edward VII died and his father became King George V, moving Albert a step up the succession ladder to second in line to the throne.

The ‘Industrial Prince’

Albert saw little action during World War One because of continued health problems. Nonetheless, he was mentioned within reports of the Battle of Jutland, the war’s great naval battle, for his actions as a turret officer aboard Collingwood.

Albert was made Duke of York in 1920, after which he spent more time fulfilling royal duties. In particular, he visited coal mines, factories, and railyards, gaining himself not only the nickname of the ‘Industrial Prince’, but a thorough knowledge of working conditions.

Putting his knowledge into practice, Albert took on the role of president of the Industrial Welfare Society and between 1921 and 1939, established summer camps that brought together boys from different social backgrounds.

At the same time, Albert was looking for a wife. As the second son of the king and as part of the monarchy’s attempt at ‘modernising’, he was allowed to marry from outside the aristocracy. After two rejected proposals, Albert married Lady Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon, youngest daughter of the 14th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, at Westminster Abbey on 26 April 1923.

The determined couple were well-matched. When Albert made a speech opening the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley on 31 October 1925, his stammer made the occasion cripplingly humiliating. He began to see the Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue and with the steadfast support of the Duchess of York, his hesitation and confidence improved.

King George VI opened the Olympics in London with a speech, 1948.

Image Credit: National Media Museum / CC

Together Albert and Elizabeth had two children: Elizabeth, who would later succeed her father and become Queen, and Margaret.

The reluctant king

Albert’s father, George V, died in January 1936. He foreshadowed the crisis that was to come: “After I am dead, the boy [Edward] will ruin himself in twelve months … I pray God that my eldest son will never marry and that nothing will come between Bertie and Lilibet [Elizabeth] and the throne”.

Indeed, after just 10 months as king, Edward abdicated. He wanted to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was twice-divorced, but it was made clear to Edward that as King of Great Britain and Head of the Church of England, he would not be allowed to marry a divorcee.

Edward therefore forfeited the Crown, leaving his younger brother to dutifully assume the throne on 12 December 1936. Confiding in his mother, Queen Mary, George said that when he found out his brother was to abdicate, “I broke down and sobbed like a child”.

Gossip suggesting the new king was not physically or mentally fit for the throne spread across the country. However, the reluctant king moved fast to assert his position. He took the regnal name ‘George VI’ to provide continuity with his father.

George VI on the day of his coronation, 12 May 1937, on Buckingham Palace’s balcony with his daughter and heir, Princess Elizabeth.

Image Credit: Commons / Public Domain

The question of his brother’s position also remained. George made Edward the first ‘Duke of Windsor’ and allowed him to retain the title of ‘Royal Highness’, but these titles could not be passed down to any children, securing the future of his own heir, Elizabeth.

The next challenge the new king George faced was characterised by the budding war in Europe. Royal visits to both France and the United States were made, particularly in an attempt to soften US President Roosevelt’s policy of isolationism. Constitutionally, however, George was expected to align with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement policy towards Hitler’s Nazi Germany.

“We want the King!”

Britain declared war on Nazi Germany when Poland was invaded in September 1939. The King and Queen were determined to share in the danger and deprivation their subjects faced.

They remained in London during the fierce bombing raids and on 13 September, narrowly escaped death when 2 bombs exploded in Buckingham Palace’s courtyard. The Queen described how their decision to stay in London allowed the royals to “look the East End in the face”, the East End having been particularly devastated by enemy bombing.

Much like the rest of Britain, the Windsors lived on rations and their home, albeit a palace, remained boarded-up and unheated. They also suffered a loss when the Duke of Kent (the youngest of George’s brothers) was killed in active service in August 1942.

When they were not in the capital, the King and Queen went on morale-boosting tours of bombed towns and cities across the country, and the King visiting troops at the front lines in France, Italy, and North Africa.

George also developed a close relationship with Winston Churchill, who became Prime Minister in 1940. They met each Tuesday for a private lunch, frankly discussing the war and showing a strong united front to drive the British war effort.

On VE Day in 1945, George was met by crowds chanting “we want the King!” outside Buckingham Palace, and invited Churchill to stand beside the royals on the palace balcony, delighting the public.

Supported by the Queen, George had became a symbol of national strength during the war. The conflict had taken a toll on his health, though, and on 6 January 1952, aged 56, he died from complications after having surgery for lung cancer.

George, the reluctant king, stepped up to perform his national duty when Edward abdicated in 1936. His reign began just as public faith in the monarchy was faltering, and continued as Britain and the Empire endured the hardships of war and the struggles for independence. With personal courage, he restored the popularity of the monarchy for the day his daughter, Elizabeth, would assume the throne.