Robert's European History Blog April 2008 Archive

Wet timbers in England dating from the eleventh century are being preserved thanks to a donation of forty tonnes of sugar from British Sugar. The wood, originally part of three ... Read More

France’s Louvre museum has spent $10.8 million on buying a broach which once formed part of the crown jewels of France. The 141 carat diamond brooch was made for Empress ... Read More

The end of this article from msn news is a plea for greater conservation of Britain’s marine life, but there’s some history in the first part, as Professor Callum Roberts ... Read More

The Roman Emperor Lucius Verus (who ruled from161 until 169) wasn’t keen on sitting for artists which, coupled with the ravages of time, had left us with just four depictions ... Read More

I found this article from Britain’s Times newspaper very interesting, although I admit the subject is perhaps a bit ‘specialist’ for many readers. Basically, scientists and archaeologists from across Europe ... Read More

Colditz castle is famed, at least in Britain, as a Second World War prisoner of war camp from which British prisoners tried many ingenious escape attempts. (There’s even an Escape ... Read More

American readers may not be familiar with ‘the hoodie’, a caricature of all that is supposedly wrong with English youth as peddled by certain tabloid newspapers and political groups, so ... Read More

According to this news site, the last Turkish veteran of the First World War has died. He was called Yakup Satar and was 110; he was first went into battle ... Read More

A former sailor from the Second World War has won a campaign to have a German submarine declared a war grave. The twist? It was he, on his maiden voyage, ... Read More

There is going to be an official excavation inside Stonehenge for the first time in over four decades, sponsored by the BBC for a forthcoming documentary, which will pay attention ... Read More

The Red Baron was Manfred von Richthofen, the most famous pilot of the First World War, named because his plane was painted a bright red. He shot down 80 allied ... Read More

Archaeologists and historians now believe that many of the plain statues of antiquity were originally covered in colors. Trajan’s Column, a tall Roman column carved with details of Emperor Trajan’s ... Read More