Rupert Matthews's Blog, page 31

Warwick the Kingmaker

Warwick the Kingmaker

Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, as shown in the Rous Roll. This document was drawn up by John Rous in about 1483 and is a major source for history of the period of the Wars of the Roses. Rous presents a highly biased pro-Yorkist view of the wars. In 1460 Warwick was one of the richest and most influential noblemen in England, though many older noblemen regarded him as something of an upstart.

from The Battle of Northampton by Rupert Matthews

Book Description
Publication Date: 9 May 2013 | Series: Bretwalda Battles
A book dedicated to the Battle of Northampton, fought as part of the Wars of the Roses in 1460. In 1460 the Yorkist faction in the Wars of the Roses seemed doomed. The Duke of York was dead, his sons in exile, his friends in hiding and his army scattered. Then Edward, the dashing new Duke of York, returned to England from Ireland and summoned his supporters to join him. Among those heading to support Edward was the Earl of Warwick, but at Northampton Warwick encountered a powerful Lancastrian army under the Duke of Buckingham. The four hours of savage fighting that followed changed the situation entirely and gave the Yorkists the upper hand. This book follows the standard pattern set by others in the Bretwalda Battles series. The reasons for and course of the war in question are outlined, then detailed analyses of weapons, tactics and strategies are given with particular reference to this battle. The course of the battleis then followed, with comment on what there is to see at the site today. Short biographies of the commanders are also given. The aftermath of the battle, its effects and importance to the progress of the war are then described. The "Bretwalda Battles" series has been running with increasing success as ebooks for some time. Now the first books in the series are being published in print format.
Photo: Warwick the Kingmaker Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, as shown in the Rous Roll. This document was drawn up by John Rous in about 1483 and is a major source for history of the period of the Wars of the Roses. Rous presents a highly biased pro-Yorkist view of the wars. In 1460 Warwick was one of the richest and most influential noblemen in England, though many older noblemen regarded him as something of an upstart. from The Battle of Northampton by Rupert Matthews Book Description Publication Date: 9 May 2013 | Series: Bretwalda Battles A book dedicated to the Battle of Northampton, fought as part of the Wars of the Roses in 1460. In 1460 the Yorkist faction in the Wars of the Roses seemed doomed. The Duke of York was dead, his sons in exile, his friends in hiding and his army scattered. Then Edward, the dashing new Duke of York, returned to England from Ireland and summoned his supporters to join him. Among those heading to support Edward was the Earl of Warwick, but at Northampton Warwick encountered a powerful Lancastrian army under the Duke of Buckingham. The four hours of savage fighting that followed changed the situation entirely and gave the Yorkists the upper hand. This book follows the standard pattern set by others in the Bretwalda Battles series. The reasons for and course of the war in question are outlined, then detailed analyses of weapons, tactics and strategies are given with particular reference to this battle. The course of the battleis then followed, with comment on what there is to see at the site today. Short biographies of the commanders are also given. The aftermath of the battle, its effects and importance to the progress of the war are then described. The "Bretwalda Battles" series has been running with increasing success as ebooks for some time. Now the first books in the series are being published in print format.

Signs and Portents over England ad793

With hindsight it was clear that trouble had been brewing for some years. The Shetlands and Orkneys had both been overrun by Viking invaders in the later 8th century, while both Caithness and Sutherland in Scotland had been attacked and pillaged. In 789 three ships from Scandinavia put in to Portland on the south coast of England. When the local government official rode down to ask the new arrivals their business, they killed him and then fled.

Even so the people of Northumberland do not seem to have expected any trouble. They certainly took no precautions. They later said that mysterious fiery dragons had been seen in the sky and regarded these as omens of evil. Whether these were comets, meteorites or mere imagination it is impossible to know.

In fact the North Sea was already being travelled by comparatively large fleets of Norwegians intent on exploration, loot and violence. Whether it was pressure of population increase at home, a thirst for adventure or pagan savagery that urged the Vikings on is still an open question, but come they did. They were pagans who cared nothing for the Christian faith of England, treating churches with a contempt that shocked the English – or at least the monks who wrote down records of events.


from "Battlefield Walks of Northumberland" by Rupert Matthews.



Book Description
Publication Date: 1 April 2008 | Series: Battlefield Walks
Northumberland is one of the most beautiful counties in England, but also one of the most fought over. It has seen countless skirmishes, some very bloody, between invading and looting Scots and the avenging English families of the Percies, Umfravilles and Nevilles.



Rupert Matthews, ‘the History Man’, presents fifteen guided walks around the battlefields of Northumberland. He provides an account of events as they unfolded on the ground along with full background and context. His expertise, descriptive powers and lively enthusiasm bring the drama of history vividly to life.

A dramatic moment in Tudor History

After the defeat of their attempted pre-emptive strike at the Battle of Fenny Bridges, the rebels led by Sir Humphrey Arundel fell back on their camp outside the city of Exeter. They had lost about 500 men in the battle and the returning remnants of the defeated detachment rejoined their comrades who had been left to continue the blockade of the city. Despite the losses the rebels still had over 9,000 men in all.

Arundel must have guessed that he had little time to prepare for the royalist onslaught, but in fact he had rather longer than he imagined. Although Lord Russell had convincingly defeated the rebel force at Fenny Bridges he was painfully aware that this had been only a part of their total force. He was still outnumbered by about 3:2 and the dogged resistance of the rebels convinced him that he would be hard pushed to defeat their main force in open battle. Accordingly he fell back to Honiton and sent Sir Peter Carew riding hard to London to ask for reinforcements.

Reaching London, Carew was ushered into the presence of the 12 year old King Edward VI, his regent the Duke of Somerset and the Royal Council. Carew made his report, then passed on Lord Russell’s request for reinforcements. Somerset was in a delicate position at this moment. The new Prayer Book had largely been his work and was causing trouble not only in Devon but also in Wiltshire, Oxfordshire and East Anglia. The disturbances in these areas were not so serious as in Devon, but the rioting and street fights were real enough to pose a threat to law and order.

Moreover his younger brother Thomas had recently been arrested on charges of treason for attempting to marry forcibly the Princess Elizabeth, then sixteen years old. Many suspected that Somerset had been involved in the plot to secure his family’s grip on power should the increasingly frail King Edward die. Somerset was in no mood to hear that the rising in Devon was anything more than an easily dealt with local difficulty.

As Carew stopped speaking, Somerset turned on him. The Carews were a famously Catholic Cornish family and Somerset denounced Carew and his like as being behind the trouble in the first place. What followed was one of the most dramatic scenes in Tudor history. Carew lost his temper, hurled accusations of maladministration and cowardice at Somerset, and ended up challenging him to a fight. The men were kept apart only by members of the Council who grabbed the hot-headed Cornishman and pushed him into his seat. In the tense silence that followed King Edward ordered that reinforcements be sent to Russell at Honiton. It was the beginning of the end for Somerset as regent and within a year he had been stripped of his offices.

from Battlefield Walks in Devon by Rupert Matthews.

Buy your copy on Amazon or any good bookshop



Book Description
Publication Date: 1 April 2008
A peaceful county today, Devon has seen clashes between Dumnonian and Welsh kings in the seventh century, Viking raids in the tenth and eleventh centuries and baronial uprisings in the fifteenth century. In 1549 the so-called Prayer Book Rebellion led to violent skirmishes at Sampford Courtney, Fenny Bridges and Clyst St Mary. It was the Civil War in the mid-seventeenth century that brought the greatest bloodshed to the county.

Rupert Matthews, ‘the History Man’, presents eighteen guided walks around the battlefields of Devon. He provides an account of events as they unfolded on the ground along with full background and context. His expertise, descriptive powers and lively enthusiasm bring the drama of history vividly to life.

Rome casts its eyes towards Sicily 300bc

The awesome demands of the mighty city of Rome for food, both basic and luxury, were a driving force in the internal politics of the state. Private fortunes and political careers could be won or lost on the issue of food. The threat of famine could provoke maddened mobs literally to tear officials to pieces. It was hardly surprising that the need to keep the great city supplied with food was so often the deciding factor in Rome’s international relations.

As Rome increased her population and expanded her power across Italy in the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, she found herself increasingly in need of a reliable supply of food. The farmlands of central Italy were not fertile enough to feed Rome’s growing population and increasingly large army. Nor was the climate ideal for large scale production of wheat, the staple food of the Romans. The shortfall was made up by buying in foods, particularly grain, from elsewhere. More and more often that meant from Sicily.

This astonishingly fertile island was producing far more food than its population needed and exported the surplus in large quantities. The chief export was the grain needed by hungry Rome. So much grain was grown on Sicily that the island took Ceres, goddess of harvested grain, as its patron. The worship of the goddess was surrounded by mystery and secrets. Her temples were usually built in remote rural areas, not in cities, and were staffed by priests sworn to total secrecy about the rites and duties they performed.

Roman writers portrayed the goddess as presiding over drunken orgies at her temples in Sicily. They may have been confusing her with the sex goddess Aphrodite. The temple of Aphrodite at Eryx, in northwestern Sicily, maintained a number of priestesses who worshipped the goddess by engaging in sex with her male devotees.

from "The Age of Gladiators" by Rupert Matthews
The Age of the Gladiators: Savagery & Spectacle in Ancient Rome

Matilda vs Matilda

When King Stephen was in prison his wife, also Matilda, threw herself at the feet of the Empress Matilda to beg for his life. She promised that Stephen would go on crusade and never return to England if he were set free, but Empress Matilda ordered that the hapless king had to remain shackled in prison.


from "The Battle of Lincoln" by Rupert Matthews.

World War I - Russian advance of 1914

The Russian “Plan A” involved an attack on the Austrian Empire as soon as enough troops had been mobilised to mount the offensive. The attack began on 17 August 1914.

The Russian 4th Army under General Ivanov attacked near Lublin, supported by the 3rd Army and the 8th Army under General Brusilov. The Austrian 2nd and 3rd Armies fell back slowly. On 30 August the Russians captured Lemberg (now Lvov).

On 4 September the Austrians launched a large scale attack on the Russian centre designed to halt the Russian advance. The attack failed and the Austrians began a retreat that soon became a rout as the supply system collapsed and soldiers fled.

By 20 September the Austrians had lost 110,000 men killed or wounded and 220,000 men taken prisoner. Another 100,000 men were cut off at Przemysl. The Russians were advancing quickly through Galicia towards the vital German industrial area of Silesia.

German commander in the east, von Hindenburg, took two thirds of his men from East Prussia and formed them into a new force, the 9th Army, to protect Silesia. Again, swift transport by rail allowed the Germans to get in position in time.

from "100 Facts on World War I" by Rupert Matthews

Early Roman Poets

Early Roman Poets
The earliest Roman poet that we know about was Quintus Ennius. There were poets before Ennius, but their work has not survived. This early work seems to have been dominated by short poems composed to honour a famous man or an event.

Ennius began by writing similar poems to those of earlier writers. Then, about 200bc, he adopted Greek styles of rhythm and rhyme to the Latin language. Later poets followed his lead, so he became known as “the father of Roman poetry”.

In 180bc Ennius began composing a poetic history of Rome that ran for 20,000 lines and took him over 15 years to complete. Only 550 lines have survived.

Titus Lucretius Carus, known as Lucretrius, was a Roman nobleman who began writing poetry about the year 75bc. He wove allusions to the gods and myths in to works about nature and famous events.

The most famous work by Lucretius is De rerum natura, a poem running to six books in length. It shows a passionate concern for nature and all living things and includes vivid descriptions of forest fires, earthquakes and other natural events.


from 1000 Facts About Ancient Rome by Rupert Matthews

Robbie Burns

Robbie Burns

The great poet of Scotland, Robbie Burns has been hailed as a poet who managed to make the local universal and to have raised the poor folk of Scotland to international stardom.



Robert Burns was born to an impoverished Ayrshire farming family on 25th January 1759. Ten days later a gale struck Ayr and blew down the end wall and roof of the cottage where he had been born. He and his mother took refuge with a neighbour while his father rebuilt the cottage.

Although poor, the local farming community pooled their resources to hire a teacher, William Murdoch, to instruct their children. It was Murdoch who introduce the young Burns to the great classics of English literature as well as to historic writings. At home, Burns was exposed to the traditional tales and songs told and sung by Betty Davidson, an old woman who worked for the family as a maid and kitchen hand. It was the combination of influences that were to make Burns’s poetry so far above the average.

His first poem was written when he was just 16. Titled ‘Handsome Nell’ the work was a tribute to a good-looking girl who helped with the harvest. It was typical of Burns that his first work was in praise of a pretty girl. For the rest of his life he had an eye for the girls and a wayward attitude to love and sex. As a young man he tried his hand at both farming and flax processing, but never really prospered. In 1784 his father died and Burns inherited the family farm. He soon got a servant pregnant and at the same time began a love affair with Jean Armour, a farmer’s daughter who lived nearby and was widely admired for her beauty and learning. When Burns discovered Jean was pregnant he proposed to her and was accepted. Jean’s family, however, preferred the scandal of an illegitimate child to seeing their Jean marry such a notorious womaniser and forced her to break the engagement. Burns promptly began an affair with a girl called Mary Campbell, whom he referred to as ‘Highland Mary’, and began saving up money to emigrate with her to Jamaica.

It was at this turbulent point in his life that Burns had the first of his poems published. On 20th July 1786 his Kilmarnock Volume of poems was published and sold out within a month. The poems were written in the dialect of the Ayrshire farming communities and were a blend of local folklore and sophisticated ideas gained from his literary studies. The reading public of Ayrshire loved the works and the feckless son of a poor farmer found himself welcome in polite society. Burns loved it.

The autumn of 1786 saw the sudden death of Mary Campbell and an invitation to Burn to travel to Edinburgh to promote a new printing of his works. William Creech, the most respected Scottish publisher of the time, printed 3,000 copies of Burns collected poems. In Edinburgh Burns became a hit with Society, but had an unhappy love affair with a widow, Mrs Maclehose, and failed to find any inspiration for more writing.

In 1788 he sent £300 to his brother and sisters to help them buy their own land to farm and himself bought a farm at Ellisland in Dumfriesshire. He settled down with Jean Armour, whose family was now reconciled to Burns after he had won fame and respectability in Edinburgh. In 1792 Burns gave up the farm, which had not been a huge success, and took a job as a customs officer. In 1796 he caught a chill, but went out on duty in bitter winter weather and fell victim to the chest infection which eventually led to his death in July.

Burns created in his works a picturesque version of Scottish farming life which appealed enormously to the middle classes. His world was free of the grinding poverty which affected many families, but instead painted a picture of humour and rustic occupations which were a idealised version of the truth. His imaginative use of local dialect and literary rhythm was unequalled by others working at the time. As an embodiment of what Scottish country life should be about, Burns’s work has never been bettered. He rightly occupies the role of national poet of Scotland.

Each year on his birthday Scots all over th world celebrate Burns Night. The festivities traditionally include a feast of haggis, mashed turnips and mashed potatoes accompanied by whisky. The entry of the haggis to the dining room is accompanied by a ritual which sees bagpipes being played and the host reading out Burns’s own poem ‘Address to the Haggis’, which celebrates Scotland’s national dish in poetic form.

Blackcurrant Fool with Shortbreads

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Blackcurrant Fool with Shortbreads

Serves 4
Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time: nil

This magnificent dessert is bound to impress. Ideally you should use lavender sugar, but this is not always available so caster sugar will do just as well. If you want to make your own lavender sugar, push a couple of sprigs of lavender deep into a bag of sugar, wrap tightly with clingfilm and leave in a cool place for a week or so. If you want to be extra flash you could bake your own shortbreads, but high quality shortbreads can be bought in most supermarkets these days and save a lot of trouble.

8oz blackcurrants
4floz Blackcurrant cordial (available from Belvoir Fruit Farms)
1oz caster sugar
5floz custard, made firmly and left to chill
5floz Greek style yoghurt
4floz whipping cream, whipped to a solid consistency
12 round shortbread biscuits
1oz icing sugar

Place the blackcurrants, cordial and sugar in a saucepan.
Heat gently until the sugar has dissolved, then bring to the boil and simmer for 4 minutes.
Leave the blackcurrant mixture to cool.
Meanwhile, mix the yoghurt and custard together.
Add two table spoons full of juice from the blackcurrant mix.
Gently fold the yoghurt mixture into the whipped cream so that it retains its stiffness and becomes a fool.
Immediately before serving, put the dessert together by repeating the following process on each of four plates. Placing a biscuit on a plate, add a spoonful of fool, then a second biscuit, then another spoonful of fool and top with a third biscuit. Sprinkle liberally with icing sugar and then carefully drizzle over some of the liquid from the blackcurrant mixture. Serve with the blackcurrant mixture spooned on to the side of each plate. Garnish with a sprig of fresh mint, if available.

from "Leicestershire Food and Drink" by Rupert Matthews



Buy your copy HERE






Book Description

Publication Date: 1 Jun 2009 | ISBN-10: 0752448633 | ISBN-13: 978-0752448633



Leicestershire holds an important place in the history of
Britain's food. This exploration of the county's fare sets food and
drink against the character of Leicestershire to discover how history,
landscape and culture have shaped the county's diet. Combining tales of
the creation of Leicestershire's most famous dishes with recipes that
show off the quality of the local produce, the story of the
Leicestershire's historic market towns and celebrated livestock farming
is discussed in detail, giving a clear explanation of how world-renowned
delicacies such as the Melton Mowbray pork pie, and both Stilton and
Red Leicester cheese, have made their name. Illustrated with detailed
images of their creation, and of course mouth-watering photographs of
the final product, this book will inspire chefs far and wide. Whether a
resident of Leicestershire or merely a fan of its food and drink, this
book is a must-have for all those who appreciate the fine traditions of
the county's cuisine.

Hitler as Military Commander

As a military man Hitler won victories that many professionals considered to be impossible to achieve. He formulated plans that were bold to the point of rashness. He enthused his men with a confidence and morale that took them through defeats and reverses that would have broken other armies. The sheer scale of Hitler’s military achievement is breathtaking.

Yet Hitler led his superb armed forces to total and crushing defeat. Having seemingly got the world at his feet, Hitler threw it all away and ended his days as the demented commander of a few square yards of rubble in what had once been his capital city. Whatever qualities Hitler had for good or for bad, he had them in abundance. For Hitler there was rarely a middle way or a reason to compromise. That is what brought him his successes and what caused his downfall.

There are many attributes which are essential in a military commander. Napoleon, for instance, thought that luck was the most important asset in a general. Hitler had plenty of luck. But other qualities essential to a commander were entirely lacking. He had no real empathy with the men he commanded. Despite having served in the trenches of World War I, Hitler could without any remorse send an entire army to their deaths, as at Stalingrad. The sufferings of those he commanded were as nothing to him, and as a result he had no real idea of their morale and abilities. Nor did he have any real competence in the business of moving his forces and getting them into action. Supply lines and logistics were a closed book to Hitler. When he relied on his staff officers to work out these mundane practicalities, and listened to them when they said which moves were or were not possible, Hitler did well. But when he began to organise these matters for himself, his efforts were doomed to failure.

Yet there can be no doubting Hitler’s gifts. His grasp of strategy was, almost to the end, superb. He could correctly identify the essential objectives for his attacks and, very often, the best way to secure them. Even during his last days in Berlin, Hitler could foresee that the continent of Europe would soon be split between capitalist west and communist east, and that Germany would eventually rise again to hold the key balance between the two.

His ability to foresee the reactions of his opponents was also highly developed. He correctly predicted that the French would not oppose the remilitarisation of the Rhineland and that the Austrians would welcome the German troops when they marched over the border into Austria. Not until 1940 was he confounded. He expected the British to make peace once France was defeated, but these expectations were disappointed because Hitler had not forseen that Churchill would become prime minister.

Perhaps what Hitler had working for him most was the tremendous influence of his will power and personality on the performance of the German armed forces. He could fire devotion in the hardest of men and stir thoughts of victory in those facing abject defeat. More than once it was Hitler’s blind refusal to accept defeat that held the German army together. But then it was that same refusal to accept the inevitable that caused him to take Germany down to crushing destruction.

Hitler was in reality a better politician than military commander. It was when he was using military force to resolve political disputes that he was at his best and when attempting to use politics to solve military problems that he was at his most useless. And he was a better soldier than he was a commander. In the trenches of the Great War, Hitler excelled as a front line infantryman. His courage and skills were never in doubt, though it is telling that he was never put forward for promotion above the rank of corporal.

Nor can the true evil of the uses to which he put his military gifts be overlooked. Hitler did not use his gifts to save a peaceful nation from sudden danger nor to overcome some tyrant. He used his military abilities, and the superb fighting machine of the German Wehrmacht, to spread evil, death and destruction across Europe. Even if Hitler had been a far greater military figure than in truth he was, there could be no forgiving that.

For Hitler military power was merely a means of furthering his agenda of retribution, extermination and conquest. He was always a Nazi first and a commander second.



from "Hitler - Military Commander" by Rupert Matthews

Buy your copy HERE

Buy your ebook HERE











Product Description

As Führer of the Third Reich, Hitler was responsible for deciding
the German war aims in 1939. As head of the Armed Forces from 4
February 1938 he was also responsible for the overall Wehrmacht strategy
intended to achieve these aims.

Hitler: Military Commander
examines Hitler’s key military decisions during the Second World War,
and assesses how far these decisions were militarily justified in light
of the intelligence available at the time.

Perhaps most
importantly it tackles the larger questions of how a non-German former
corporal, albeit the holder of the Iron Cross 1st Class, managed to take
personal control of an army with the Prussian traditions of the German
Army, appoint, sack and sentence to death its generals at will, to lead
it into a World War it was not prepared for, and, ultimately, to destroy
it.