Tag: British

Feb 26 2025

Book review: 1666 – Plague, War and Hellfire by Rebecca Rideal

My next review is of 1666 : Plague, War and Hellfire by Rebecca Rideal. The book is centred on London, in the year 1666 with a substantial chunk on 1665 which provides background to the events of the following year. It was certainly a very eventful time, the plague of the title is the Black Death which made a return to London in the summer of 1665. The war is the second Anglo-Dutch War and the hellfire is the Great Fire of London.

It is only a few years after the Restoration. As an interesting aside I learnt of the Indemnity and Oblivion Act 1660 which appears to have forgiven all crimes committed during the Civil War, except for regicide. This is relevant since some senior figures in the navy had been involved in Cromwell’s government. John Milton benefited from it too, as someone imprisoned for his anti-Royalist views.

1666 is substantially about the “great men”, such as the king, his brother and the court but it contains quite a lot of rather smaller characters. I was intrigued by the reports from William Taswell, a schoolboy, whose autobiography was published posthumously in 1852.

Also mentioned, amongst many others are Margaret Cavendish, whose biography I read previously, and Aphra Behn – who sounds like a really interesting woman. In this book Behn travels to the Netherlands as a spy, she would later go on to become a prolific playwright. Rather inevitably Samuel Pepys appears frequently, as does another diarist, John Evelyn. Robert Hooke, John Milton and Isaac Newton also gain a couple of pages but it feels a little like they were bolted on for additional colour.

I must admit I read the section on the plague assuming that it was written after the COVID pandemic, and only realised after I’d finished that it was written in 2016. This highlights some of the similarities in pandemics across the years. In contrast to the present day, the 1666 plague led to a mass exodus from London. Those suffering plague were quarantined in their own homes, typically with their families, with fatal consequences for most concerned. At the time there was some discussion as to the wisdom of this type of quarantine. The government took steps to limit public gatherings which seem to have been largely obeyed. The plague was petering out in London by early 1666 but was starting to rage outside the capital. It killed around 100,000 from a population of 460,000 in London.

I have read books on plague, and as a child the Great Fire of London was a regular feature in history lessons. The Anglo-Dutch Wars are something I have not read about before. This thread of the story starts with the accidental destruction of the London in the Thames. Followed by a number of naval engagements where it seemed, to a large degree, that the weather was a determining factor – the navies of the English and Dutch were fairly evenly matched at this point. The English were possibly gaining the upper hand during later Summer 1666 but the Great Fire strained resources considerably. The Dutch successfully attacked the Chatham Docks in the summer of 1667, shortly after a peace was agreed which only lasted until 1672.

The “Pudding” of Pudding Lane, where the Great Fire started, is black pudding, not dessert. Providing a segue from the Angle-Dutch War: Thomas Farriner, the owner of the bakery where the fire started had a contract with the navy to make ship’s biscuit. Farriner was a jury member in the trial of Frenchman Robert Hubert who confessed to starting the Fire, he was found guilty and executed despite being clearly innocent (even at the time). This was an aspect of the Fire I had not appreciated as a child – there was a lot of suspicion, and even violence, against foreigners even as the fire raged on the assumption that the fire could not have spread so fast without help. The total damage was 70,000 made homeless, 13,000 houses destroyed, 87 churches, and 52 livery halls with a total financial loss estimated at £10,000,000 (about £2billion in current figures). Over the four year Blitz campaign during the Second World War around 70,000 buildings were destroyed but the population of London was nearly 9 million rather than several hundred thousand. The fire ran its course in 4 days and obliterated most of the city of London within the Walls.

The official death toll was 6 people, however Rideal highlights this was probably a large under-estimate; many of the elderly and infirm would not have been able to evacuate quickly enough and their bodies would have been completely consumed by the fire. Rideal also talks about the psychological impact of the fire, Pepys writes of his nightmares after the Fire and there are a number of accounts of people clearly permanently changed by the Fire. I can’t help thinking the Plague would have had a similar impact.

The book finishes with an epilogue containing paragraphs on key characters and what they did next.

I found this a very enjoyable read, it is relatively short with quite a narrow scope but it gives a gripping picture of London at the time. The themes of plague, fire and war “work well together”.

Oct 05 2024

Book review: Echolands by Duncan MacKay

One book leads to another, after reading about prehistoric Britain I was interested in what came next – the Romans. Someone on social media suggested Echolands by Duncan MacKay subtitled A Journey in Search of Boudica. This is an apt description, the book is part travelogue, part history book. MacKay describes his journey following the path of Boudica to Colchester, London, Verulamium and to a final Great Battle with Paulinus, the Roman governor of Britain at the time. He travels variously by car, foot and bicycle. Initially I was sceptical of this style but it is rather compelling – the journey acts as a kind of mnemonic map for the historical facts conveyed.

Britain’s written history starts with Caesar’s expeditions in 54BC and 55BC. It was written not by the British but the Romans. Caesar did not conqueror any territory in Britain but extracted tribute from one king, and set up another as a client. This seems to have started a slow Romanisation of Britain with the local elites seeing the luxuries available in the Empire, and their sons going to Rome for a civilised upbringing (it isn’t quite clear if this export was voluntary). Britain already made some use of coinage which I find intriguing in a supposedly pre-literate society. There is scant archaeology from this period but a number of hordes of valuable items have been recovered.

The action then moves onto the Roman invasion in 43AD, over a 40 year period something like 250,000 Britons would lose their lives to the Romans, and it is likely 250,000 more were taken into slavery – this is from a population of around 2 million. The initial invasion force was around 40,000. The conquest was a slow process with some outright military victories and alliances or arrangements with the existing kingdoms as well as a lengthy and brutal campaign in Wales. The subjugation of Wales was to take until 51AD, veterans of this campaign retired to Camulodunum (Colchester) where they formed a colony. Relevant from this period is King Prasutagus of the Iceni tribe, whose wife was Boudica.

On his death Prasutagus in 59AD attempted to make his wife, Boudica, heir to his kingdom alongside Rome. Rome did not take kindly to this, Boudica was whipped and her two daughters raped. Subsequent events are recorded by Tacitus in The Annals (English version here, original latin here). There are also some references in Cassius Dio’s Roman History (English version here). These are relatively brief accounts and much of the understanding of events turns on a couple of sentences. Apparently Romans referred to us as Britunculi – “little Britons”!

In 60AD Boudica and her allies attacked the Camulodunum colony, killing effectively all of its inhabitants and burning it to the ground. The destruction can be seen in the archaeological record, and in fact burning has preserved more of the wattle and daub and other wooden structures than would normally be found. The final redoubt of the Roman colonists was the extravagant Temple of Claudius which was besieged for two days according to Tacitus.

On hearing news of the massacre the 9th Legion from set out towards Camulodunum via Cambridge. MacKay thinks they started from Longthorpe (outside Peterborough) whilst others suggested they started from their main garrison in Lincoln. This is where MacKay first takes to the road in earnest, travelling along the A14 to Cambridge, at the time this was the Via Devana (The Chester Road). MacKay is keen on his caligae (Roman hobnailed sandals) with which he walks some of the route. We lived in Cambridge for nearly 10 years and I know the A14 well, now we live in Chester. So this leg of the journey strikes a cord. The 9th legion were massacred somewhere outside Camulodunum, MacKay suggests the Colne Valley as a likely location for the ambush. This seems to be largely on the basis of where he supposed they were coming from and the local geography. There is no archaeological evidence for the battle.

In the meantime the Roman governor of Britain at the time, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, is invading Anglesey where the last Welsh resistance is holding out. Tacitus notes of the women in the opposing forces ranks:

In the style of Furies, in robes of deathly black and with dishevelled hair, they brandished their torches; while a circle of Druids, lifting their hands to heaven and showering imprecations, struck the troops with such an awe at the extraordinary spectacle that, as though their limbs were paralysed, they exposed their bodies to wounds without an attempt at movement. 

Despite this they are beaten easily by Paulinus’s legionnaires. MacKay travels to the vicinity of RAF Valley on Anglesey to start his retrace of Paulinus’s rapid trip south to face Boudica. We spent our summer holiday in Rhosneigr – a couple of miles away! The site is interesting because a number of artefacts were discovered in the lake there. One of them, a slave chain, was actually used by workers in the 1940s conducting a peat excavation operation and survived the experience remarkably well!

It is thought that Paulinus prepared his invasion boats (likely flat bottomed barges), in Chester and on his trip back to London – on news of Boudica’s rebellion – at least part of his force probably sailed back to Chester. Paulinus then takes his force south to London likely heading down towards Wroxeter (near Shrewsbury) along the now vanished start of the Watling Street Roman road before following it onwards to London along the still existing line of Watling Street. MacKay follows this route by car stopping on the outskirts of London to travel by rail and foot to the area of Monument, the centre of Roman London.

In 60AD London was a thriving trading centre but does not appear to have been an important town to the Romans from an administrative point of view, furthermore it did not have significant defences at the time so on his arrival Paulinus decided to abandon London to Boudica’s forces who were heading down from Colchester. He departed with those able and willing to follow, some may have taken refuge from Boudica on boats in the Thames. In any case London was comprehensively burnt by Boudica’s forces. Paulinus then headed up toward Veralumium (near modern day St Albans) which Boudica also destroyed.

That was the limit of Boudica’s rebellion, MacKay spends some time visiting potential locations for the final Great Battle of which Tacitus just says “…a position approached by a narrow defile and secured in the rear by a wood…“. This location has been the subject of much discussion with locations up into Warwickshire finding favour. MacKay appears to have decided on Windridge Farm close to Veralumium on the basis of the geography of the area, the proximity to a know location for Boudica and the discovery of clusters of Roman slingshot . Wherever it was Tacitus claims 80,000 of Boudica’s forces were killed in a single engagement, for comparison the first day of the Battle of the Somme saw 20,0000 British troops died. This ended Boudica’s rebellion and Tacitus says she died by her own hand afterwards.

The Roman’s lost a similar number of soldiers and civilians during the rebellion. What surprised me is despite these huge battles in the Colne Valley, on Anglesey and close to St Albans there is minimal archaeological evidence from these sites. Part of the problem is no doubt the uncertainty of their location, but also 80,000 dead on the ground surface would likely disappear over a period of a few years. Armour and weapons were valuable and would have been cleared from the battle field. MacKay references reports from other Roman battles, the Indian Rebellion and a battle between the British and Zulus, as to how such locations appeared after a few months or years.

The Romans were brutal occupiers, as evidenced by their own historians, and the carved columns they raised in honour of victorious generals. Boudica’s forces were brutal too. It would have taken the Romans a number of years to recover from the rebellion, furthermore the local population struggled through famine in the aftermath of the rebellion (Tacitus puts the blame for this squarely on the British).

I enjoyed this book, I thought the combination of travelogue and history worked really well and by chance I was familiar with a number of the locations MacKay visits.