History Trivia

January 11, 802 St. Paulinus of Aquileia died. He was royal master of grammar to Charlemagne at the Palace School and was appointed Patriarch of Aquileia (Italy) in 787 after Charlemagne conquered the duchy. 1569 The first official lottery was held in England, with 10 shilling lots sold at old St Paul's Cathedral. 1558 Westmunster Church in Middelburg (The Netherlands) was destroyed by a heavy storm. 1571 the Austrian nobility were granted freedom of religion. 1693 Mt. Etna erupted in Sicily. The powerful earthquake destroyed parts of Sicily and Malta.

History Trivia

January 10, 49 BC Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon without disbanding his army, which signaled the start of civil war in Rome. Pompey and his supporters fled to Greece. 69 Lucius Calpurnius Piso Licinianus was appointed by Galba to deputy Roman Emperor. 236 Pope Fabian succeeded Anterus as the twentieth pope of Rome. 1072 Robert Guiscard conquered Palermo. 1642 King Charles I & family fled London for Oxford. 1645 Archbishop William Laud was beheaded at the Tower of London because he opposed the radical forms of Puritanism and supported King Charles I during the British civil war.

History Trivia

January 9, 475 Byzantine Emperor Zeno was forced to flee his capital at Constantinople. 1349 The Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing Black Death, were rounded up and incinerated. 1431 Judges' investigations for the trial of Joan of Arc began in Rouen, France, the seat of the English occupation government.

History Trivia

January 8,794 Vikings attacked Lindisfarne Island (northeast coast of England). 871 King Ethelred of Wessex and his brother Alfred (the Great) defeated the Danish Vikings at the Battle of Ashdown. 1081 Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor was born. The last of the Salic or Frankish family of rulers of the Holy Roman Empire, Henry was crowned in 1111.

HistoryTrivia

January 7 49 BC, Julius Caesar was ordered to disband his army. He refused and crossed the Rubicon three days later, invaded Italy, which began a civil war. 1327 King Edward II of England was deposed. 1451 the University of Glasgow Founded at the request of King James II of Scotland. Pope Nicholas V issued a bull of foundation for a studium generale. At first underfunded and lacking a place to hold lectures, the University nonetheless grew into a distinguished center of learning, its progress only briefly interrupted by the troubles of the Reformation. 1558 French nobleman Francis, Duke of Guise, captured Calais, the last English possession in mainland France. 1601 Robert, Earl of Essex led revolt in London against Queen Elizabeth. 1610 Galileo Galilei observed three of the four largest moons of Jupiter for the first time. He named them, and in turn the four are called the Galilean moons.

History Trivia

January 6, 1017 Canute I crowned King of England. He was also King Canute II of Denmark and King Canute of Norway, and because of the empire he built in Britain and Scandinavia, he is sometimes known as Canute the Great. 1066 Harold Godwinson (last Anglo-Saxon King of England) was crowned, most likely in Westminster Abbey. 1540 King Henry VIII of England married Anne of Cleves. The marriage lasted six months after which time Henry obtained a divorce and married Catherine Howard. 1649 English Civil War: The Rump Parliament voted to put Charles I on trial. 1661 English Restoration: The Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully tried to seize control of London.

Literary Underground Blog Post

Check out the story behind The Briton and the Dane trilogy at:


http://litunderground.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/the-story-behind-the-briton-and-the-dane-trilogy/