Liam Byrne

a full-scale constitutional revolution was in progress as the group of English leaders known as the ‘Immortal Seven’ invited James’s Dutch son-in-law (and nephew) William of Orange to intervene to restore England’s ‘ancient laws and liberties’.*12 William landed at Brixham on 5 November 1688, with a fleet four times the size of the Spanish Armada, James’s cause melted away, and the old king fled abroad.
A ‘Convention Parliament’ deemed James to have abdicated, and William was crowned in April 1689. The ‘Glorious Revolution’ was complete; it marked a new relationship between sovereign and subjects

From the eighth century, the most active traders with England were probably the Frisians of the northern Germanic coast, who bought and sold wine, timber, grain and fish from towns like London and York and, from at least the late seventh century, traded a certain amount of English cloth, known, appropriately, as Frisian.

Sparkling in the Louvre’s Galerie d’Apollon is what many consider the finest diamond in the world. Weighing in at over 140 carats, the Regent diamond is not the world’s largest, but its perfect white brilliance ‘of the first water’ and its unparalleled cut, mark it out as truly unique

Thomas Pitt’s family was not poor – his father’s income was £100 a year – but it was large. Five siblings survived childhood, and Pitt’s elder brother stood to inherit what the family had. As such, when Pitt’s father passed away in 1672, Pitt had little choice but to seek his fortune elsewhere

Why pick Matthew Boulton and not Richard Arkwright as an exemplar of the early Industrial Revolution?

from the Spanish hills – and from England

They levied taxes to fortify the town, repair

By March 1556, his principal work for the queen was complete.

He told of his opinions and pursuits

In solemn tones, he harped on his increase

Richard Gresham: ‘the City of London had perhaps never before known a greater benefactor’. When