Tag Archives: Oliver Cromwell

May 29: A Day of Contrasts

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The fall of Constantinople in 1453 signaled a shift in history and the end of the Byzantium Empire. Roger Crowley’s readable and comprehensive account of the battle between Mehmet II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and Constantine XI, the 57th emperor of Byzantium, illuminates the period in history that was a precursor to the current conflict between the West and the Middle East.

May 29? A day of infamy and a day of celebration!

May 29, 1453 – The city of Constantinople was captured by the Turks, who renamed it Istanbul. This marked the end of the Byzantine Empire as Istanbul became the capital of the Ottoman Empire.

May 29, 1660 – The English monarchy was restored with Charles II on the throne after several years of a Commonwealth under Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell.

Known as “Black Monday,” the day that Constantinople fell to the Turks, was a tragedy of epic proportions. The Ottoman Empire, established in the newly-conquered territory, allowed Jews and Christians to practice their religion but with great difficulty. Many were killed for their faith. The treatment of the Greeks and the Armenians by the Ottomans is said to have inspired Hitler’s plans for the Final Solution; “Who speaks today of the extermination of the Armenians?” Hitler asked, just a week before the September 1, 1939 invasion of Poland. An excellent study of the heartbreaking events of Black Monday can be found here.

King Charles I, the Martyr, was King of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1625 until his execution on 30 January 1649 by Oliver Cromwell, a stern and rigid Puritan. Cromwell ruled until his death from natural causes in 1658 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. The Royalists returned to power along with King Charles II in 1660, and they had Cromwell’s corpse dug up, hung in chains, and beheaded. Charles II was one of the most popular and beloved kings of England, known as the Merry Monarch in reference to both the liveliness and hedonism of his court and the general relief at the return to normality after over a decade of rule by Cromwell and the Puritans.

Also on May 29, 1913 – Igor Stravinsky’s ballet score The Rite of Spring receives its premiere performance in Paris, France, provoking a riot.

Battle of Hastings

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Scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Battle of Hastings and the death of King Harold. Harold was king for less than a year and died when an arrow was shot through his eye.

The Battle of Hastings was fought on 14 October 1066 between the Norman-French army of William “the Conqueror,” and an English army under the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson; when William won the battle, it was the beginning of the Norman conquest of England.

The context of the battle was that the childless King Edward the Confessor died in January 1066, which set up a succession struggle between several claimants to his throne.

King Edward ruled England for 24 years. His nickname reflects the traditional image of him as unworldly and pious. “Confessor” reflects his reputation as a saint who did not suffer martyrdom, as opposed to King Edward the Martyr. Edward built Westminster Abbey in order to have a grand church to bury royal family members. Edward and his wife had no children; it was said that they had no children because Edward kept a vow of celibacy to demonstrate his devotion to Christ. He is

For some time the Abbey had claimed that it possessed a set of coronation regalia that Edward had left for use in all future coronations. Following Edward’s canonization, these were regarded as holy relics, and thereafter they were used at all English coronations from the 13th century until the destruction of the regalia by Oliver Cromwell in 1649.

Harold was crowned king shortly after Edward’s death, but faced invasions by William as well as two other contenders for the throne. King Harold was able to defeat the other two contenders and while Harold and his forces were recovering, William landed his invasion forces in the south of England in late September 1066. Harold was forced to march south swiftly, gathering forces as he went. But he and his army lost, a “very Bad Thing” as the famous 1066 And All That describes it.