CHF 2025: Day 4
ENGLAND’S WARRIOR KINGS, Dan Jones and Helen Carr
Dan Jones is tattooed geezer with a laddish sense of humour, Helen Carr is the brilliant granddaughter of EH Carr (What is History?) and superb guide to the 14 Century. Her first book, John of Gaunt, put the founder of the Lancastrian line centre stage. She has written am excellent new narrative history of the period, Sceptred Isle.
Jones and Carr examined England’s warrior kings, the good and the bad. Controversially she’s a self-confessed fan of the emotionally immature Edward II, who had father relationship issues and who lacked the confidence to rule alone without extravagantly leaning on dodgy chums such as Piers Gaveston and Hugh Despenser, thus alienating his nobles. Warrior kings, it was agreed, needed to have a cohesive team of nobles to support them.
AGINCOURT: TRIUMPH OF HENRY V AND THE ENGLISH LONGBOW, Michael Livingston, Will Sherman and Dan Jones
With Jones again, we looked at how the longbow and arrows were made and deployed in battle. This game changing weapon was made in vast quantities, and so powerful were the carbon steel tipped arrows that one could pierce five deer standing next to each other. They weren’t made by peasants sitting in a field, but by sophisticated mass production lines, controlled by a guild.
SCEPTRED ISLE: A NEW HISTORY OF THE 14TH CENTURY Helen Carr w. Laura Bailey
Back to Helen Carr, who was on stage to talk in detail about her new book, which is the first proper narrative history of the period since Barbara Tuchman’s classic Distant Mirror. She takes a long look at a century that included regicide, plague, wars with Scotland, Wales, and the start of the Hundred Years War with France. We heard that Edward II did not likely die of a poker up his bottom, Hugh Despenser died a grisly death involving disembowelling and having his penis chopped of, and Richard II was like the most difficult teenager you ever had to deal with.
This is a proper book and worth a read. With advocates like Carr the 14 Century England could give the trendy Tudors or English Civil War a run for their money.
RUSSIA AT WAR: A HISTORY OF INEPTITUDE, James Holland, Mick Ryan and Hamish de Bretton-Gordon
Did you know Hamish de Bretton-Gordon was responsible for the downfall of Assad? That’s the accusation made by one of his trolls against this dashing former tank soldier.
The panel discussed the eye watering casualty numbers from the Ukraine conflict so far, likely running at around a million for the Russians alone. James Holland asked how a cruel and corrupt regime that cares little for soldiers’ lives can prevail, and Australian General Mick Ryan believes the Russians are adapting “learning to learn better.”
Hamish welcomed this week’s news that the UK will get F-35 borne tactical nukes, in order to secure ‘strategic parity and equilibrium.’
BEYOND THE BAZAAR: THE HISTORY OF SLAVERY IN THE ISLAMIC WORLD, Justin Marozzi
The mighty Justin Marozzi faced stiff competition from Michael Gove for the last session of the day. Tackling ‘one of history’s most overlooked subjects’ he explored the slave trade in the Islamic world, taking in Barbary corsairs, concubines, eunuchs, galley slaves, and enslaved soldiers.
This is tricky subject, but Marozzi handled with characteristic even handedness, sensitivity, and insight. The numbers of slaves (11-15 million) are broadly the same as the Atlantic slave trade, which does not diminish its sheer awfulness, but puts it into historic context. The men in audience audibly winced as he described the three ways to castrate a eunuch, penis only, balls only, or ‘full monty.’
Colin Elwell, grand vizier for wealth managers Evelyn Partners, the festival’s sponsors, threw their customary cocktail reception, with cold champagne and some of the best rare roast beef canapes I have tasted. Evelyn’s guests included the Mooch (Anthony Scaramucci) who then entertained a packed Guildhall tent of well over a thousand to his recollections from his time in Trump’s White House – 11 days.
Touchingly The Mooch spoke of how humiliated, embarrassed, and frustrated he felt when he was ignominiously booted out of the White House.
Somebody asked “who shot JFK?”. The Mooch has seen the full unredacted file on the assassination of JFK (which has only just been partially released to the public). He wouldn’t be drawn on specifics but pointed the audience to the coverage widely available of that fateful day. He said the shot that killed the president had come from THE FRONT (!), whereas the book repository where Lee Harvey Oswald had fired from was behind the motorcade as it drove through Dealey Plaza in Dallas on November 22, 1963. He wouldn’t be drawn further, but it was a tantalising way to finish a spellbinding talk.
THE FRONT!
Justin Doherty is Editor at Large at Aspects of History. Head to the CHF site here where tickets are available.
