1914 February 26th. HMHS Brittanic launched.

1914 February 26th. The ocean liner that will become HMHS Britannic, sister to the RMS Titanic, is launched at the Harland and Wolff shipyards in Belfast.

1644 February Siege of Newcastle.

1644 February 3rd. Siege of Newcastle: from (when the town was formally asked to surrender) until October 19th. during the English civil war. Scottish army under command of Lord General Alexander Leslie (Earl of Leven) laid siege to city of Newcastle-on-Tyne the same year when the Scots took the city by storm. However it was the defeat of the Royalist field army at the pitched battle of Marston moor on July 2nd.1644 by the combined English Parliamentary and the Scottish armies that decided the fate of Newcastle and the other Royalist strong- holds in the north east of England, because without the means of relief from an army in the field the capitulation of all such strong-holds was only a matter of time. 

1645 February The New Model army of England.

1645 The New model army of England was formed on February 15th. 1645, by the Parliamentarians in the English Civil War, and disbanded in 1660 after the Restoration, it differed from other armies in the same conflict in that it was intended as an army liable for service anywhere in the country, rather than being tied to a single area or garrison. Its soldiers became full-time professionals, rather than part-time militia.To establish a professional officer corps, the men were prohibited from having seats in either the Houses of Lords or Commons,this was to encourage their separation from the political or religious factions among the Parliamentarians.The New model army was raised partly from veter- an soldiers who already had held Puritan religious convictions, and partly from conscripts, who brought with them many commonly-held beliefs about religion or society; its common soldiers held dissenting or radical views unique among English armies, although the Army's senior officers did not share many of their soldiers political opinions, their independence from Parliament led to the Army's willingness to contribute to the overthrow of both the Crown and Parliament's authority, and to establish a short-lived "Commonwealth",which included a period of direct military rule; ultimately, the army's generals (particularly Lieutenant-general Oliver Cromwell) could rely both on the army's internal discipline and its religious zeal and innate support for the"Good Old Cause" to maintain an essentially dictatorial rule. Foundation:The New model army was formed as a result of dissatisfaction among Parliamentarians with the conduct of the Civil War in1644,although the Parliamentarians had a clear advantage in manpower over the royalists, most of their forces were raised by local associations of counties, and could rarely be used far from their homes. 

1644 Siege of Lathom House.

1644 Siege of Lathom House. Lasted from late February to late May, when the siege was lifted; it was a military confrontation between a Parliamentarian army commanded by Lord General Thomas Fairfax, and a Royalist strong-hold in Lancashire. Commanded by Charlotte de la Tremoüille (Countess of Derby) her Husband James Stanley (7th.Earl of Derby) was the leading Royalist adherent in the northwest of England when the Civil War broke out in1642. The family seat of the Stanleys was Lathom House. 1643 James Stanley (7th.Earl of Derby) was ordered by Charles I to fortify the Isle of Man against a possible Scottish invasion, and then move on to the northern campaign. His wife, Charlotte de la Tremoüille, was left in charge of what turned out to be the last re- maining Royalist stronghold in Lancashire. Lord-General Thomas Fairfax saw James Stanley (Earl of Derby)'s absence as an opportunity to strengthen Parliament's position in Lancashire and set out to conquer Lathom House, after the fall of Warrington, the Roundheads requested that Charlotte de la Tremoüille (Countess of Derby) to acknowledge Parliament's authority and surrender her house, but she refused on the grounds that doing so would dishonour her husband. She offered to limit herself to defending her home, and this postponed further attacks on her position. 

1650 February 22nd. Charles II appoints Marquess of Montrose.

1650 February 22nd. Charles II appointed General James Graham (Marquess of Montrose) Lieutenant-Governor of Scotland and Captain-General of all of his forces there,although he was about to receive a deputation from the government in Edinburgh he was prepared to listen to Archibald Campbell (Marquess of Argyll) the Captain General James Graham (1st.Marquess of Montrose)'s more militant advice, especially as there were already some stirrings against the Covenanters in northern Scotland. 

1642 February 18th. Shrule Massacre.

1642 Shrule Massacre: February 18th. during the war that followed the 1641 uprising, a number of English settlers,
including a Dr.John Maxwell,the Protestant bishop of Killala, surrendered to Irish authorities at Castlebar,in the hope of saving their lives;after staying at Shrule castle in the company of Theobald Bourke(3rd.Viscount Mayo) (then Sheriff of Mayo), for more than a week, the group was given an escort with orders to take them 14 miles toward the border of County Mayo and County Galway, where other forces would assume the escort duty and escort them on to the Galway fort. After provisioning the Maxwell family with horses, Lord Theobald Bourke (3rd.Viscount Mayo),set out for Cong.Lord Theobald Bourke(3rd.Viscount Mayo) handed over his prisoners at Shrule, on the border,as his authority only existed in County Mayo.Edmond Bourke,an Irish soldier who led the escort duty, and a cousin of Theobald Bourke (3rd.Viscount Mayo), then directed his men to begin killing their settler charges. Estimates of the dead ranged from less than 30 to as many as 65.Survivors were taken to Headford by monks from Ross Errilly.Though Theobald Bourke(Viscount Mayo) tried to save some prisoners, and had to be driven away,he was executed in 1652 by an English Cromwellian inquiry into the killings that was held after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland.

 

17th. February 1461 Second battle of St Albans.

The Second Battle of St Albans was a battle of the English Wars of the Roses-fought on 17 February 1461, at St Albans. The army of the Yorkist faction under the Earl of Warwick attempted to bar the road to London north of the town. The rival Lancastrian army used a wide outflanking manoeuvre to take Warwick by surprise, cut him off from London, and drive his army from the field. The victors also released the feeble King Henry VI, who had been Warwick's prisoner, from his captivity. However, they ultimately failed to take advantage of their victory.

Richard of York quarrelled with several of Henry's court during the late 1440s and early 1450s. He was respected as a soldier and administrator, and was believed by his own supporters to have a better claim to the throne than Henry. York and his friends finally openly rebelled in 1455. At the First Battle of St Albans, York gained a victory, but this did not resolve the causes of the conflict. After several attempts at reconciliation, fighting resumed in 1459. At the Battle of Northampton in 1460, Richard of York's nephew, the Earl of Warwick, defeated a Lancastrian army and captured King Henry, who had taken no part. York returned to London from exile in Ireland and attempted to claim the throne, but his supporters were not prepared to go so far. Instead, an agreement was reached, the Act of Accord, by which York or his heirs were to become king after Henry's death.

This agreement disinherited Henry's young son Edward of Westminster. Henry's queen, Margaret of Anjou, refused to accept the Act of Accord and took Edward to Scotland to gain support there. York's rivals and enemies meanwhile raised an army in the north of England. York and his brother-in-law, the Earl of Salisbury (Warwick's father), led an army to the north late in 1460 to counter these threats, but they drastically underestimated the Lancastrian forces. At the Battle of Wakefield, the Yorkist army was destroyed and York, Salisbury and York's second son, Edmund, Earl of Rutland, were killed in the fighting or were executed after the battle.

1646 February 16th. Battle of Torrington.

1646 February 16th. Battle of Torrington: was a battle of the south-western campaign of the First English civil war, marking the end of Royalist resistance in the west country.
 Prelude. After Sergeant-major-general Thomas Wentworth (5th. Baron Wentworth)'s, defeat at Bovey Tracey, Lieutenant-general Ralph Hopton (Baron Hopton) was appointed Royalist commander in the west, with Sergeant-major-general Thomas Wentworth (Baron Wentworth) commanding the horse and Sir Richard Grenville (Baron) the foot. Sir Richard Grenville (Baronet) refused to recognise Lieutenant-general Ralph Hopton (Baron Hop ton) as Royalist commander in the west, he was arrested for insubordination and imprisoned in St Michael's Mount. Lieutenant-general Ralph Hopton (Baron Hopton)'s army, numbering only two thousand foot and three thousand horse,advanced into Devon and occupied Torrington, where defensive works were thrown up.

1646 February16th. Battle: The Parliamentarians approached from the east in the evening, in heavy rain with night falling, they ran into Royalist dragoons and fighting broke out to the east of Torrington. Lord-general Thomas Fairfax decided to wait until morning to reconnoitre the Royalist defences, however, Lieutenant-general Oliver Cromwell's dragoons were sent forward to test the defences and came under fire. Lord-general Thomas Fairfax fax pushed more troops forward in support and a general fight developed,the fighting at the barricades lasted two hrs. at push of pike, at last the Cornish infantry gave way and retreated into the town, where bitter fighting continued, a stray spark ignited the Royalist magazine in Torrington church, where eighty barrels of gunpowder were stored, the explosion destroyed the church, killed all the prisoners held there and narrowly missed killing Lord-general Thomas Fairfax, the explosion effectively ended the battle the remaining Royalist troops escaped. 

1092 The Goodwin Sands.

High tides cause great flooding in England and Scotland. The  Kentish lands of Earl Goodwin were inundated and are now known as the Goodwin Sands.

The Bangka Island massacre was committed on 16 February 1942,

Coordinates: 2°15′S 106°00′E

Massacre

On 12 February 1942 the Sarawak royal yacht Vyner Brooke left Singapore just before the city fell to the Imperial Japanese Army. The ship carried many injured service personnel and 64 nurses of the 2/13th Australian General Hospital. The ship was bombed by Japanese aircraft and sank.Two nurses were killed in the bombing; nine were last seen drifting away from the ship on a raft and never heard from again; and the rest reached shore at Bangka Island, in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).

These nurses joined a group of men and injured personnel from the ship. Once it was discovered that the island was held by the Japanese, an officer of the Vyner Brooke went to surrender the group to the authorities in Muntok.A small group of women and children followed him. The nurses stayed to care for the wounded. They set up a shelter with a large Red Cross sign on it.

At mid-morning the ship’s officer returned with about twenty Japanese soldiers. They ordered all the wounded men capable of walking to travel around a headland. The nurses heard a quick succession of shots before the Japanese soldiers came back, sat down in front of the women and cleaned their bayonets and rifles.A Japanese officer ordered the remaining 22 nurses and one civilian woman to walk into the surf.A machine gun was set up on the beach and when the women were waist deep, they were machine-gunned. All but Sister Lt Vivian Bullwinkel were killed.Wounded soldiers left on stretchers were then bayoneted and killed.

Shot in the diaphragm, Bullwinkel was unconscious when she washed up on the beach and was left for dead. She evaded capture for 10 days, but was eventually caught and imprisoned. She survived the war and gave evidence of the massacre at a war crimes trial in Tokyo in 1947.

1543 February 16th. Catherine Parr

1543 February 16th, (m6) Catherine Parr, using her late mother's relationship with Henry VIII's first queen (m1) Catherine of Aragon, (m6) Catherine Parr took the opportunity to renew her friendship with Princess(2) Mary, (m6) Catherine Parr had established herself with Princess (2) Mary and was now part of her household.It was in the household of King Henry VIII and (m6)Catherine of Aragon's daughter, Princess (2)Mary, that (m6)Catherine Parr caught the attention of the King. After the death of (m6)Catherine Parr's second husband Ralph Neville (1st Earl of Westmoreland). (m6)Catherine Parr began a relationship with Sir Thomas Seymour, brother of the late queen (m3)Jane Seymour, but the King took a liking to her and she saw it as her duty to accept Henry VIII's proposal over Sir Thomas Seymour's, who was given a posting in Brussels to remove him from court. 

15th February 1940 The Altmark incident.

In February 1940, the German tanker Altmark was returning to Germany with 299 British merchant sailors on board, prisoners of war who had been picked up from ships sunk by the pocket battleshipAdmiral Graf Spee. On its way from the southern Atlantic to Germany,Altmark passed through Norwegian waters. On the insistence of British contacts who had been pursuing the vessel, it was investigated three times on 15 February by the Royal Norwegian Navy. First, the tanker was boarded by officers from the torpedo boat HNoMS Tryggoff Linesøy Island, then by officers from the torpedo boat HNoMSSnøgg in the Sognefjord, and finally personally by Admiral Carsten Tank-Nielsen and naval personnel from the destroyer HNoMS Garmin the Hjeltefjord. In each instance, the men who boarded the ship carried out cursory searches and took the Germans' word that the vessel was conducting purely commercial business. Following the third boarding, Altmark was escorted southwards by the torpedo boats HNoMS Skarv and HNoMS Kjell and the guard boat HNoMSFirern. The British prisoners held in the ship's hold reportedly made strenuous efforts to signal their presence, even though international law did not ban the transfer of prisoners of war through neutral waters. The Norwegian search parties however did not inspect the hold, and allowed the ship to continue on its way.

Altmark was then spotted off Egersund later the same day by British aircraft, which raised the alarm in the Royal Navy. The aircraft were stationed at RAF Thornaby, in the North East of England. After being intercepted by the destroyer HMS Cossack, captained by Philip Vian,Altmark sought refuge in the Jøssingfjord, but Cossack followed her in the next day. TheAltmark's Norwegian naval escorts blocked initial attempts to board the ship, and aimed their torpedo tubes at the Cossack. Captain Vian then asked the Admiralty for instructions, and received the following orders directly from the then First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill:

Unless Norwegian torpedo-boat undertakes to convoy Altmark to Bergen with a joint Anglo-Norwegian guard on board, and a joint escort, you should board Altmark, liberate the prisoners, and take possession of the ship pending further instructions. If Norwegian torpedo-boat interferes, you should warn her to stand off. If she fires upon you, you should not reply unless attack is serious, in which case you should defend yourself, using no more force than is necessary, and ceasing fire when she desists.The British government made no particular objection to the fact of a prison ship traversing neutral waters. In fact in official papers regarding the incident they noted the fact that the Royal Navy had done the same, for example in December 1939 when the cruiserHMS Despatch passed through the Panama Canal, which was neutral waters, with German prisoners aboard from the freighter Düsseldorf. But the crew of the Altmark had gone hundreds of miles out of their way to make the long run through Norwegian waters to Germany, constituting a clear abuse of Norway's neutrality, and a breach of international law. Besides, the Norwegian government had not permitted the Germans to transport prisoners through Norwegian waters, nor had the crew been truthful regarding the nature of their cargo and voyage.

The Norwegian forces refused to take part in a joint escort reiterating that their earlier searches of Altmark had found nothing. Vian then stated that he intended to board Altmarkand invited the Norwegians to take part, but this was also refused. In the ensuing action,Altmark ran aground. The British then boarded her at 22:20 on 16 February, and — after some hand-to-hand fighting with bayonets and the last recorded Royal Naval action withcutlass — overwhelmed the ship's crew and then went down to the hold. One of the released prisoners stated that the first they knew of the operation was when they heard the shout "Any Englishmen here?" from the boarding party. When the prisoners shouted back "Yes! We are all British!", the response was "Well, the Navy's here!" which brought cheers.^[6]

Six German sailors were killed and eight wounded by the British,^{[citation needed][dubious – discuss]} seven of whom were shot while trying to flee over the ice. This was used unsuccessfully as a defence by the Germans in the Nuremberg trials, as the British Commander rather than being tried himself, was decorated for the action.

HMS Cossack left the Jøssingfjord just after midnight on 17 February. The Norwegian escorts protested, but did not intervene. The official explanation later given by the Norwegian government was that, according to international treaty, a neutral country was not obliged to resist a vastly superior force.

Alice Hicks is 18

To Alice Hicks of Cold Higham. Happy 18th birthday Alice from Granddad and Nan, see you later have a lovely day.

14th February 1929 Saint Valentine day Massacre

On February 14, 1929, seven members of the North Side Gang, plus gang collaborators Reinhardt H. Schwimmer and John May, were lined up against the rear inside wall of the garage at 2122 North Clark Street, in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago's North Side, and executed. Two of the shooters were dressed as uniformed police officers, while the others wore suits, ties, overcoats and hats, according to witnesses who saw the "police" leading the other men at gunpoint out of the garage after the shooting. John May's German Shepherd, Highball, who was leashed to a truck, began howling and barking, attracting the attention of two women who operated boarding houses across the street.

One of the women, Mrs. Landesman, sensed something was wrong and sent one of her roomers to the garage to see what was upsetting the dog. The woman ran out, sickened at the sight. Frank Gusenberg was still alive after the killers left the scene and was rushed to the hospital shortly after real police officers arrived at the scene. When the doctors had Gusenberg stabilized, police tried to question him but when asked who shot him, he replied, "I'm not talking," despite having sustained fourteen bullet wounds.

George "Bugs" Moran was the boss of the long-established North Side Gang, formerly headed by Dion O'Banion who was murdered by four gunmen five years earlier in his flower shop on North State Street. Everyone who had taken command of the North Siders since O'Banion's rule had been murdered, supposedly by various members or associates of the Capone organization. This massacre was allegedly planned by the Capone mob in retaliation for an unsuccessful attempt by Frank Gusenberg and his brother Peter to murderJack McGurn earlier in the year and for the North Side Gang's complicity in the murders of Pasqualino "Patsy" Lolordo and Antonio "The Scourge" Lombardo – both had been presidents of the Unione Siciliana, the local Mafia, and close associates of Capone. Bugs Moran's muscling in on a Capone-run dog track in the Chicago suburbs, his takeover of several Capone-owned saloons that he insisted were in his territory, and the general rivalry between Moran and Capone for complete control of the lucrative Chicago bootlegging business were probable contributing factors to this incident.

The plan was to lure Bugs Moran to the SMC Cartage warehouse on North Clark Street. Contrary to common belief, this plan did not intend to eliminate the entire North Side gang – just Moran, and perhaps two or three of his lieutenants. It is usually assumed that they were lured to the garage with the promise of a stolen, cut-rate shipment of whiskey, supplied by Detroit's Purple Gang, also associates of Capone. However, some recent studies dispute this, although there seems to have been hardly any other good reason for so many of the North Siders to be there. One of these theories states that all of the victims (with the exception of John May) were dressed in their best clothes, which would not have been suitable for unloading a large shipment of whiskey crates and driving it away – even though this is how they, and other gangsters, were usually dressed at the time. The Gusenberg brothers were also supposed to drive two empty trucks to Detroit that day to pick up two loads of stolen Canadian whiskey.

12 February. 2001.Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous.

The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous - Shoemaker (NEAR Shoemaker), renamed after its 1996 launch in honor of planetary scientist Eugene Shoemaker, was a robotic space probe designed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for NASA to study the near-Earth asteroid Eros from close orbit over a period of a year. The mission succeeded in closing in with the asteroid and orbited it several times, finally terminating by touching down on the asteroid on 12 February 2001.

1554 February 12th. Execution of Lady Jane Gray.

1554 February 12th. Execution of Lady Jane Grey: On the morning the authorities took Lord Guilford Dudley from his rooms at the Tower of London to the public execution place at Tower Hill and there had him beheaded. A horse and cart brought his remains back to the Tower of London, past the rooms where Lady Jane Gray remained as a prisoner.
Lady Jane Gray was then taken to Tower green, inside the Tower of London, and beheaded in private. With fewer, exceptions, only royalty were offered the privilege of a private execution; Lady Jane Gray's execution was conducted in private on the orders of Queen Mary I, as a gesture of respect for her cousin. According to the account of her execution given in the anonymous Chronicle of Queen Jane and of Two Years of Queen Mary I which formed the basis for Raphael Holinshed's depiction, Lady Jane Gray gave a speech upon ascending the scaffold: "Good people, I am come hither to die, and by a law I am condemned to the same. The fact, indeed, against the Queen's highness was unlawful, and the consenting thereunto by me: but touching the procurement and desire thereof by me or on my be- half, I do wash my hands thereof in innocency, before God, and the face of you, good Christian people, this day". She then recited Psalm 51(Have mercy upon me,O God) in English, and handed her gloves and handkerchief to her maid. John Feckenham, a Catholic chaplain sent by Queen Mary 1 who had failed to convert her, stayed with her during the execution.
The executioner asked her forgiveness, and she gave it. She pleaded the axeman,"I pray you dispatch me quickly." Referring to her head, she asked, "Will you take it off before I lay me down?" and the axe- man answered, "No, madam." She then blindfolded herself. Lady Jane Gray had resolved to go to her death with dignity, but once blindfolded, failing to find the block with her hands, began to panic and cried, "What shall I do? Where is it?" An unknown hand, possibly Sir Thomas Brydges', then helped her find her way and retain her dignity at the end. With her head on the block, Lady Jane Gray spoke the last words of Jesus as recounted by Luke: "Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit!" She was then beheaded(aged 16/17years. Lady Jane Gray and Lord Guilford Dudley are buried in the Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula on the north side of Tower Green. 

1567 February. Lord Darnley's murder.

1566. 1567  February One night after Mary Queen of Scots had left to go to the wedding of one of her maids of honour, an explosion occurred in the house, and Henry Stuart ( Lord Darnley), was found dead in the garden, apparently of strangulation; historian Alison Weir, however, concludes he died of post-explosion suffocation. It turned out that James Hepburn (4th.Earl of Bothwell), had supplied the gunpowder for the explosion, and he was generally believed to be guilty of Henry Stuart (Lord Darnley)'s murder.
      

1567 February 10th. James's father, Henry Stuart (Lord Darnley), was murdered during an unexplained explosion at Kirk o' Field, Edinburgh, perhaps in revenge for David Rizzio's death. Upon his father's death, James became Duke of Albany and Earl of Ross. 

The Marian Martyrs.

1555 The Mary 1.(Bloody Mary) The Marian Martyrs. First Four Martyrs.
1555 February. Rowland Taylor,Rector of Hadleigh,Suffolk,and John Hooper, deposed Bishop of Gloucester, are burned at the stake in England.
1555 February 8th. Lawrence Saunders,preacher,rector of London church of All Hallows,burned at Coventry. 1555 February 9th.John Hooper;King Edward-era bishop of Gloucester and Worcester,burned in Gloucester. 1555 February 9th. Rowland Taylor, rector of Hadleigh in Suffolk – burned at Aldham Common.

February 7th.1649. Charles Stuart was buried

1649 February 7th. Charles Stuart was buried in private at night, inside the Henry VIII vault in St George's Chapel,
Windsor Castle.The royal retainers Sir Thomas Herbert (1st.Baronet), Captain Anthony Mildmay (Courtier),
Sir Henry Firebrace (Courtier), William Levett Esq. (Courtier), and Abraham Dowcett (sometimes spelled Dow- sett) conveyed the King's body to Windsor. King Charles II, later planned an elaborate royal mausoleum, but it was never built.ten days after Charles I's execution, a memoir purporting to be written by the king appeared for sale, this book, the Eikon Basilike (Greek: the"Royal Portrait"), contained an apologia for royal policies, and it proved an effective piece of Royalist propaganda. William Levett Esq. (Courtier), Charles I's groom of the bed- chamber, who accompanied Charles I on the day of his execution, swore that he had personally witnessed the King writing the Eikon Basilike. John Cooke published the speech he would have delivered if Charles I had entered a plea, while Parliament commissioned John Milton to write a rejoinder, the Eikonoklastes ("The Icono- clast"), but the response made little headway against the pathos of the Royalist book. Following the death of the king, several works were written expressing the outrage of the people at such an act. The ability to execute a king, believed to be the spokesman of God, was a shock to the country. Several poems, such as Catherine Phillips' Upon the Double Murder of King Charles I express the depth of their outrage. In her poem, Catherine
Phillips describes the "double murder" of the king; execution of his life as well as execution of his dignity. By kill- ing a king, Catherine Phillips questioned the human race what they were capable of, how low they would sink. 

Begging during the reign of King Henry VIII.

1529. 1530  Begging, During the reign of Henry VIII, a proclamation was issued, describing idleness as the "mother and root of all vices" and ordering that whipping should replace the stocks as the punishment for vagabonds. This change was confirmed in statute the following year, with one important change; a distinction was made between the "impotent poor" and the sturdy beggar, giving the old, the sick and the disabled licence to beg. Still no provision was made, though, for the healthy man simply unable to find work. All able-bodied unemployed were put into the same category. Those unable to find work had a stark choice; starve or break the law. 
      

1660 February John Rhodes re opens Old Cockpit Theatre.

1660 February. John Rhodes reopens Old Cockpit Theatre in London, forms a company of young actors and begins
to stage plays. His production of Pericles will be the first Shakespearean performance of the Restoration era;
Thomas Betterton makes his stage debut in the title rôle.

1645 Battle of Inverlochy February 2nd.

1645 Battle of Inverlochy. February 2nd. was a battle of the Scottish Civil War in which General James Graham (1st.
Marquess of Montrose) routed the pursuing forces of the Archibald Campbell (1st. Marquess of Argyll).
1645 February 2nd. just before dawn, Archibald Campbell (Marquess of Argyll) and his Covenanters were dismayed
at the sight that lay before them, as far as they were aware General James Graham (Marquess of Montrose) should have been thirty miles north; Archibald Campbell (Marquess of Argyll) did not stay for the battle,instead he left the command of his army to General Duncan Campbell(2nd.Baronet and 6th.Lord of Auchinbreck) and retired to his galley that was anchored on Loch Linnhe.General Duncan Campbell (2nd.Baronet and 6th.Lord of Auchinbreck) lined up the Covenanters in front of Inverlochy castle, which he reinforced with two hundred mus- keteers to protect his left flank, in the centre he placed the Campbells of Argyll and put the lowland militias on the flanks. Unlike at Tippermuir and Aberdeen, where General James Graham (Marquess of Montrose) had annihilated hastily conscripted and poorly trained militias, the troops he faced at Inverlochy were veterans of the war in England. General James Graham (Marquess of Montrose), lined his army up in only two lines deep to avoid being out flanked, placing his six hundred Highlanders in the centre with the Irish on the flanks, the right being commanded by Alasdair MacColla Chiotaich(sir Alexander MacDonald); the fight did not start straight away and instead skirmishes broke out along the line, this is probably due to the fact that General Dun- can Campbell (Baronet, 6th. Lord of Auchinbreck) and his officers believed that they were only fighting one of James's lieutenants and not the man himself, believing he was still far up the glen. Just before first light, General James Graham (Marquess of Montrose) Royalists launched their attack, the Irish clashed violently with the lowlanders on both flanks and routed them while the Highlanders closed with the Campbells in the centre, the Campbells broke, and their retreat to Inverlochy castle blocked by the Royalist reserve cavalry under the command of Sir Thomas Ogilvie of Auchinbreck, He was shot in the thigh while trying to rally his men and died shortly after, the remaining Covenanters briefly rallied around their standard,then broke and ran, trying to reach Lochaber. The small garrison in Inverlochy castle surrendered without a fight; over fifteen hundred Covenanter troops died, while General James Graham (Marquess of Montrose) reputed to have only lost eight men, the most notable being Sir Thomas Ogilvie who was killed by a stray bullet. General James Graham (Marquess of Montrose)through his lieutenant, Alasdair MacColla Chiotaich (sir Alexander Mac-Donald (who commanded the two thousand Irish troops sent by the Irish Confederates) was able to use this conflict to rally Clan Donald against Clan Campbell; in many respects,the Battle of Inverlochy was as much part of the clan war between these two deadly enemies and their allies as it was part of the Wars of the three Kingdoms and that is how it was portrayed in Gaelic folklore. 

1609 to 1616, Britons as Slaves.

1609 to 1616. Britons as Slaves: Admiralty records show that during this time Barbary Corsairs plundered British shipping at will, England lost 466 merchant ships to Barbary pirates during this time, and 27 vessels from near Plymouth in 1625. In the first half of the 1600s, Barbary corsairs (pirates from the Barbary Coast of North Africa), authorised by their governments to attack the shipping of Christian countries - ranged all around Britain's shores. In their lanteen-rigged Xebecs (a type of ship) and oared galleys, they grabbed ships and sailors, and sold thousands of sailors into slavery.
Barbary Corsairs, lanteen-rigged Xebecs (a type of ship).

Potatoes come to UK & Ireland.

1597 Potatoes Come to the UK & Ireland: The potato started being grown in London by 1597, and soon became popular in Ireland and Scotland.Popularity for the potato came during the Industrial Revolution, when demand was created for cheap, energy-rich, non-cereal foods. Potatoes went on to become the basis for many peoples' essential nutrition around the world. When a fungus destroyed the potato crop in Ireland in 1845 the death toll of the infamous Irish Potato Famine was immense.