Archive for the 'History' Category

On my desk at THE WORK I’ve got one of those tear off calendars that’s much beloved by Hollywood movies who want to show the passage of time. It’s one of those low cost things that contracts give out at New Year to remind you to think about them when organising work. The thing itself is a self standing triangular thing made of cardboard coated with PVC and emblazoned with the contractor’s logo and contact details. It’s fairly generic as corporate souvenirs go, but it saves me buying my own calendar. Each day is printed on a separate sheet of paper and you tear off the days as they go by. The only thing that piques my interest for this particular bit of otherwise generic tat is the fact that every day has an “on this day in history” factual snippet, and a Chinese fortune cookie-esque platitude. I’d post a picture up, but I don’t have one to hand at the moment and I don’t want to give them any free advertising.

You’re probably wondering why I’m telling you all of this. Well this morning, like any other morning, I arrived at work and booted up my soviet era laptop, and while I waited for it to wake up I reached over and tore off yesterday’s sheet to see what words of wisdom the calendar might regale me with this time. I was shocked and amazed to find out that:

1497 – Englishman John Cabot discovers and claims Newfoundland for King Henry VII.

Now before I explain my shock and amazement I’d like to point out a few important factual inaccuracies in the calendar’s factoid.  Firstly John Cabot was an Italian, not an Englishman. He was like so many Italian merchants and explorers of the late middle ages, sought foreign sponsorship for voyages of discovery. In this case his trip was sponsored by Henry VII of England to discover and chart a northern passage to the East Indies. He failed spectacularly of course, but he did manage to stumble across Newfoundland and possibly Canada which were subsequently claimed and colonised by England so it didn’t turn out as bad as it could have for poor old Cabot.

Secondly, and more importantly, we don’t know where the hell he actually discovered, and it’s unlikely that Cabot did either. In fact he was such an outstanding navigator and admiral that after his discovery he returned to England, fitted out another expedition with five ships and sailed off never to be seen again.

So anyway, I was shocked and amazed, and you’re probably wondering why. Well it’s a well known fact that I like my dad, granddad etc, am a Nationalist. You may have picked up the odd hint here and there across my posts. It’s through my deep interest in Scotland, and most importantly its history, that I’m well aware of the historical importance of the 24^th of June in our nation’s history.

To those of you reaching for the history books or typing 24^th of June into Wikipedia right now I’ll save you the bother and tell you that on the 24^th of June 1314 a small Scottish army under Robert the Bruce defeated a large and far better equipped English army at the Battle of Bannockburn. An event that would secure Scottish independence for nearly three centuries and that would echo down through history even to this day in the words of Bruce’s Scots Wha Hae and the Corrie’s Flower of Scotland.

Now admittedly a lot of stuff has happened on the 24^th of June throughout history, including the start of the Battle of the Somme. The arrival of a Italian explorer in Newfoundland hardly seems particularly important in comparison. Especially since the Native Americans and even the Norse had beaten him there by nearly a millennia.

I don’t know how much the contractor will sympathise with me though. All they really want to do is lay asphalt on the roads…