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When and why was the medieval law of outlawry eventually repealed?
Illustration by Glen McBeth
Anyone declared an outlaw was denied any form of legal protection. Nobody was allowed to give them food, shelter or any kind of help, and they could be killed with impunity. Outlawry was most commonly imposed for failing to answer a court summons; with no national police force and plenty of hiding-places, outlawry was a simple, rough-and-ready, form of justice. There was also a civil equivalent,...
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The end of the road

Why were suicides supposed to be buried at crossroads?

Suicide used to be regarded as shocking and blasphemous, and a coroner’s verdict of ‘felo de se’ – literally crime against oneself – usually resulted in the body being...
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Mayflower illustration
The wandering pilgrims

It is claimed that the Pilgrim Fathers set sail from Plymouth but I’ve also heard that they started in Boston, Lincolnshire. Which is correct?
The short answer is that both are correct. The group of English colonists who settled in North America and later became known as the Pilgrim Fathers originated as a group of Puritans from...
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17th-century Ranter

Who was Abiezer Coppe?
The Ranters were the most radical of all the sects that flourished during the English Civil War. Abiezer Coppe was probably the most extravagant of the Ranters.   A preacher and former...
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Second World War spy

Why was Josef Jakobs the only spy during the Second World War to be shot rather than the more usual method of hanging?

Josef Jakobs was a German spy, who parachuted into a Huntingdonshire field early in 1941. Captured by the Home Guard after he had broken his right leg on exiting the aircraft, he was arrested and...
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Cornish invention

What was the ‘Catch Me Who Can’?
This was the name given to an early locomotive built by the Cornish inventor Richard Trevithick. In 1808, Trevithick created what was later called a ‘steam circus’, a circular track for...
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Religious changes

What religion was practised by the people of Lithuania before their conversion to Christianity in the 14th century?
Lithuania was the last place in Europe to adopt Christianity. Before 1387, when the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was finally baptised into Roman Catholicism as a condition of the dynastic union with...
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The Eidophusikon

What was the Eidophusikon?
Philip de Loutherbourg was an artist who became famous in 18th-century London for his set designs. He was employed by David Garrick at Drury Lane to create elaborate stage effects. In 1781, he opened...
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Philospher and scholar

Who was Maimonides?
Maimonides (1135–1204) was Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon (sometimes shortened by Hebrew acronym to Rambam), one of the most influential philosophers and scholars of the Middle Ages. He was born in...
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Royal matters

The missing son of Edward IV would have been crowned Edward V but as this never happened how could the son of Henry VIII become Edward VI? Shouldn’t the latter become the real Edward V?
A king is still a king if he has not been crowned. Edward V is one of only four English monarchs since the Norman conquest not to have been crowned (the others being ‘Empress’...
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British and Maori conflicts

What was ‘The Flagstaff War’?
Despite the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi, conflicts between the British and Maoris in New Zealand continued. One of the earliest began when Maori warriors cut down the pole from which the British flag...
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