APRIL 2014
CONTENTS
Features
Read about the off-stage life of England’s most famous playwright on p54
24 The miracle of Henry VI Desmond Seward considers how a king who lurched from one disaster to the next came to be venerated by his people
30 The growing pains of BBC Two On its 50th birthday, Joe Moran chronicles the rise of a channel that gave us Life on Earth, Pot Black and The O ce
32 The long shadow of Adolf Hitler Ian Kershaw asks why the Nazi leader fascinates us far more than any other despot of the 20th century 39 Searching for Pocahontas Susan Castillo Street reveals a woman far removed from the ‘noble savage’ of Disney fame 45 Beans: the food of lust Jennifer Evans reveals why atulent foods were once hailed for their fertility- boosting qualities
49 Empires under fire Martin Thomas considers the downfall of the British and French empires in the wake of the Second World War
54 Shakespeare uncovered On the 450th anniversary of the Bard’s birth, Paul Edmondson takes a closer look at England’s greatest playwright
Every month
7 HISTORY NOW 7 The latest history news
10 Backgrounder: Britain on strike 12 Lessons from history 15 Past notes
16 ANNIVERSARIES 20 LETTERS 23 MICHAEL WOOD’S VIEW 63 BOOKS Expertsreviewnewreleases,plus Helen Rappaport discusses her book onthelivesoftheRomanovsisters
77 TV & RADIO 7 7 The pick of April’s history programmes
80 OUT & ABOUT 80 History explorer: Miranda
Kaufmann on Africans in Tudor and Stuart Britain 84 Ten things to do in April 86 Ye olde travel guide: Savannah, 1859
30 BBC Two: from troubled beginnings to national treasure
97 MISCELLANY 97 Q&A and quiz
99 Prize crossword
N O T T
106 MY HISTORY HERO Tanni Grey-Thompson chooses
Aneurin Bevan
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The life of William Shakespeare
Is this what genius looks like? Did Shakespeare grow tired of his wife? Why was he so wealthy? And which portraits of him can we trust? On the 450th anniversary of the writer’s birth, Paul Edmondson asks some of the most pressing questions about his life
The Cobbe portrait, which dates from c1610. This image’s “provenance and claim to be painted from life make a compelling case” for it being an accurate likeness of William Shakespeare, says Paul Edmondson
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BBC History Magazine
BBC History Magazine
Shakespeare
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T H E BIG QUESTION S
How do we know when he was born?
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It seems that England’s greatest poet first appeared on the world’s stage on the feast day of England’s patron saint: St George’s Day, Sunday 23 April 1564.
The parish register of Holy Trinity Church, Stratfordupon-Avon records Shakespeare’s baptism on 26 April. According to the Book of Common Prayer, babies had to be baptised either on the next saint’s day after their birth or on the following Sunday. In baby Shakespeare’s case, the next saint’s day was St Mark’s Day, the stolen patron saint of Venice, just two days after his birth. However, Elizabethan folk superstition considered this day to be unlucky, so Shakespeare was baptised after morning or evening prayer on the following day.
For corroborative evidence that Shakespeare was born on 23 April we can look to his monument on the north chancel wall of Holy Trinity Church. This tells us that he died on 23 April 1616, aged 53 – that is at the beginning of his 53rd year. Hence the assumption that he was born and died on the same date.
Shakespeare’s baptismal entry tells us that he is “Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakespeare”: William, the son of John Shakespeare. Only one person of that name lived in the town.
The master bedroom of the house now presented as Shakespeare’s Birthplace was upstairs, overlooking the street – the same room that people have been visiting in homage to Shakespeare since the 18th century.
On John’s death in 1601, William inherited the whole of his estate (John had left no will). William allowed his sister, Joan Hart, and her family to live in part of the building (as her descendants did until 1806) and leased another part to become a pub, the Swan and Maidenhead.
The house today is a Victorian renovation of the site and buildings purchased by public subscription in 1847. The Birthplace and four other houses associated with Shakespeare’s life are cared for and conserved by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.
William Shakespeare was born on the site of this Stratford-upon-Avon building on St George’s Day, 1564
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Adolf Hitler pictured in ‘civilian clothes’ in the 1920s
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