Natalie Lomako

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🇬🇧 The last time a foreign army invaded Britain, a Welsh cobbler sent them home. With a pitchfork. 🍴 Her name was Jemima Nicholas. Born in Mathry, Pembrokeshire. 1755. A cobbler. Not a soldier. Not a general. On the 22nd of February 1797, four French warships anchored off the Welsh coast. 🚢 1,400 soldiers came ashore at Carreg Wastad Point. Many of them were convicts and deserters. Their plan was to march on Bristol, start a revolution and inspire the British poor to rise up. It did not go to plan. A ship had recently wrecked nearby. Its cargo was Portuguese wine. 🍷 The French found it. Within hours, the invasion force was drunk. Jemima heard what was happening. She reached for her pitchfork. And walked out to meet them. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 She found twelve French soldiers. They were drunk. She rounded them up, marched them to the church, and locked the door. She wasn't the only one. Hundreds of Welsh women came out of their homes in their traditional red shawls and tall black hats. 🟥 From a distance, after a glass or two of Portuguese wine, they looked exactly like British Redcoats. On the 24th of February, two days after they landed, 1,400 French soldiers surrendered. ⚖️ Unconditionally. The surrender was signed in a pub. It was the last time a foreign army set foot on British soil. 🇬🇧 Jemima Nicholas was awarded a pension of £50 a year for the rest of her life. She died in 1832. Her gravestone reads: "The Welsh heroine who boldly marched to meet the French invaders who landed on our shores." Did they teach you her name? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 Jemima Nicholas was almost forgotten forever. So were thousands of others. Every time you support this channel, more of them survive. Be Part Of Us. Be Proud Of Us. 🇬🇧 proudofus.co.uk

Hear ye! 'Tis time for Stuart Saturday! On 22 March 1668, Henry Morgan, a Welsh privateer, landed in Cuba to attack and plunder the inland town of Puerto del Príncipe during the Anglo-Spanish War (1654–1660). Our theme is: 💣🏴‍☠️🦜Privateers, pirates, and war ⚓️⚔️🔥🌊 Images: Henry Morgan from Piratas de la America (1681) by Alexandre Exquemelin and Puerto del Príncipe (Camagüey) - being sacked in 1668 by Henry Morgan - Project Gutenberg.

⚔️#OTD 1643, Battle of Hopton Heath - #Staffordshire A royalist victory, but their leader - the Earl of Northampton - was unhorsed and slain. The peer had declared: “I scorn to take quarter from such rogues as you are” An incensed parliamentarian 'slew [Northampton] by a blow with a halberd on the hinder part of his head.' Another slashed at the earl’s face. Northampton’s death echoed that of King Richard III at Bosworth. He had also been unhorsed, given a halberd blow to the head, and then disfigured. Sir William Brereton, the parliamentarian commander, wrote that the two sides, 'fought so long, and so fiercely, until all their powder and bullet was spent. Afterwards, they joined, and fell to it pell-mell, one upon another, with the stocks of their muskets.' Nightfall brought down the curtain on Hopton Heath. The parliamentarians made the most of the darkness by sinking their three large guns into pools, in order to prevent the royalists from claiming them, before withdrawing from the field. Though between 300-500 dead lay on Hopton Heath, one corpse was missing from this carnage; the Earl of Northampton's son appealed for the return of his father’s body. The response - that the royalists should first hand back all of the prisoners they had taken, as well as the eight artillery pieces - was a blow to chivalric ideals.

#Rom365, March 21, 630, Roman Emperor Heraclius returned the True Cross to Jerusalem after he had recovered it from the Persians in 628.

OTD in 1413 - #HenryV became King of England following the death of his father the first Lancastrian King #HenryIV. Best known for his famous victory at Agincourt in 1415, Henry also achieved the unthinkable for a King of England, with the 1420 Treaty of Troyes recognising him as the heir & regent of France. He would have become king of both countries if he hadn’t predeceased the French King Charles VI in 1422. After his accession in 1413 Henry sought to strengthen the Lancastrian dynasty by unifying England & healing the remaining divisions. One of his first acts as King was to order the reburial of #RichardII in the tomb the deposed king had designed in Westminster Abbey, signalling a clear break with the past. His decision to pursue England’s claim to the crown of France was a natural extension of this policy. This is because medieval England was a state & society built for war. Unless the nobility were kept occupied fighting overseas as the most successful Kings of England had done (Edward I with his conquest of Wales & Scotand, Edward III in France & Castile) it wouldn’t be long before the nobles caused trouble at home. This wasn’t necessarily because the nobility were inherently unruly more that chivalry as a system depended on the achievement of martial glory & opportunities needed to be provided for both this & the enrichment of younger sons. Henry realised this essential truth. His father had made grand speeches about invading France, but never followed through on the objective. Henry, despite his depiction in Shakespeare, was no orator, but he didn’t need to be. His actions spoke for him. His 1415 invasion of France, culminated in victory at the Battle of Agincourt, all the more remarkable because the English had been on the brink of defeat. Henry built on this through a combination of military conquest & diplomacy to achieve a position of political supremacy within France by 1420. Before his premature death aged only 35, Henry achieved recognition as the heir to the French throne, setting the stage for his infant son #HenryVI to become King of England & France when the previous French King Charles VI died in October 1422.

The Gently Mad Bookshop Edinburgh, Scotland

Drop me a ❤️ if you think Larry the Cat 🐈 is the best thing in Downing Street #Caturday @Number10cat

My account is under heavy spam from cat haters ;( If you see this post, PLEASE comment, like, and repost, even if it's just a 🐱🐾 or a dot. Doing all of that would be great. Even if you can't do all of that, at least leave a comment. 😮‍💨

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🇬🇧 A blind man built 180 miles of road across the Pennines. He navigated by touch and memory. His name was Blind Jack. 🦯 Born in Knaresborough, Yorkshire, 1717. At six he caught smallpox and went blind. That never stopped him. He learned to ride. To swim. To hunt. At fifteen he became a fiddler. He fought at the Battle of Culloden. He ran a stagecoach company. He eloped with the innkeeper's daughter. The day before her wedding to another man. 💨 He bet a colonel he could walk from London to Harrogate faster than a coach. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁹󠁯󠁲󠁫󠁿 He won. Five and a half days on foot. 207 miles. In 1765, Parliament authorised new turnpike roads across the north. There were very few people with experience. Jack was 48 years old. He seized his moment. He walked every route first. Alone. Then he built. Proper foundations. Drainage. Techniques nobody had used before. 🛤️ Then he hit the bog. Other engineers said it was impossible. Jack cut heather from the moor. Bound it into rafts. Laid the road on top. The bog held. ✅ Across the north of England. 180 miles of road. You have driven on his roads. At 77 he walked to York to dictate his life story to a publisher. 📖 He died in 1810. He was 92. He left behind four daughters, twenty grandchildren, and ninety great and great-great grandchildren. Did they teach you his name? 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jack could never see the roads he built. He made them anyway. For everyone who came after. These stories are in the dark. You keep the light on. 👉 proudofus.co.uk/support 💡 Be Part Of Us. Be Proud Of Us. 🇬🇧

Britain’s public footpaths are not accidental. They are the result of centuries of custom, law, and quiet persistence. Across fields, hills, and villages, these paths tell a deeper story. A story about land, rights, and belonging. The answer lies further back than most realise. 🧵

📅#OTD 1644. London. Lord Wharton updated the House of Lords about the dispute between peers and MPs in the House of Commons over an oath of secrecy. A Committee, comprised of men from both Houses, oversaw negotiations with Scots. The Lords had rejected a motion that required an oath of secrecy from all committee members. Peers had also declared that anyone from their House should be able to attend and that the Lord General (Earl of Essex) had authority to delay effecting any Committee orders. The Commons declared their disapproval, insisting that peers reverse their opposition and declare it to have been void. The stalemate would continue for months until the Commons - in a move to appease - modified the terms of the oath. Yet, this rivalry between Commons and Lords continued to fester. No matter the peers' moderate victory over the oath, their sense of vulnerability showed itself in smaller matters, such as the cashiering of two scouts who impertinently opened a letter addressed to the Earl of Holland. Most notably, matters would come to a head over the Self-Denying Ordinance, which went on to remove the Earl of Essex and other leading peers from army command. After that, it was clear the Commons (and more radical MPs in particular) had gained the upper hand.

This is Andalusia, Spain…where hundreds of thousands of ancient olive trees are being ripped out & replaced with solar panels. Trees, bees & insects all wiped out. All under the guise to 'save the planet'...

@danwootton @CharlotteCGill Ppl should give to local struggling community groups instead..cut out the corrupt middle man. So many small groups go under doing great work because the big charities with their pro bid writer teams and connections get everything..support your own local groups

Britain gave Ireland a faith. Ireland gave Britain back its civilisation. 🇮🇪🇬🇧☘️ Around 385 AD, a British boy was kidnapped and taken to Ireland. He became Saint Patrick. He converted the island. When Rome fell, libraries burned across Europe. Schools closed. Learning collapsed. But in Ireland, monks copied every book they could find. Page by page. Word by word. Greek. Latin. Scripture. Philosophy. They called it the island of saints and scholars. Then those monks came back. 563 AD. Columba sailed to Scotland. Built a monastery on Iona. One of the greatest centres of learning in Europe. 634 AD. Aidan walked south. Built Lindisfarne. On Iona around 800 AD, they began the Book of Kells. Then the Vikings came. Sixty-eight monks killed in a single raid. The survivors fled in an open boat. Clutching the manuscript. It survived. Twelve hundred years later, it still does. Trinity College Dublin. A British boy crossed the sea. Irish monks crossed it back. Two islands. One circle. By preserving the stories others forget, we can keep our history alive. Help us keep our history alive: proudofus.co.uk Be part of us. Be Proud Of Us. 🇬🇧☘️

Peterborough Cathedral’s nave ceiling is one of the great survivals of medieval Europe. Painted in the 13th century, this remarkable wooden ceiling is the only one of its kind to survive in Britain — turning the vast Norman interior into a canopy of color, geometry, and faith. 📷 theoldbuilding

21,000 churches have become subject to VAT on repairs overnight, with the end of the Listed Places of Worship Grants Scheme. Visit our website for all the details on what we know so far, and how you can help churches affected by these changes.

This is what we’ve drifted away from. Working the land. Growing your own food. Living by the seasons, not screens. Men who knew what they were doing. Land that fed families, not systems. We traded it for convenience, and lost something in the process. There’s nothing the government hates and fears more than a fit, capable and healthy white English man who relies on himself rather than the system. Time to get back to it. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

🇬🇧 Your country needs you 🇬🇧 Follow this account as we; 🇬🇧 Promote British History via our 'On this day in history posts' Please RE-POST to help spread the word 👍 Thank you for your support 👍 #Britishhistory #Remembrance #britannia #onthisdayinhistory

This is was a birthday gift - literally. The Queen's Library in Marienburg Castle is a renowned 19th-century, Neo-Gothic room known for its detailed woodcarvings and romantic design. Located in Lower Saxony, Germany, it was commissioned by King George V of Hanover as a birthday gift for his wife, Queen Marie.