587 



NOTABLE ANNIVERSARIES OF THE 



MONTH. 



Bonaparte, full of dreams of Eastern 

 conquest, landed in Egypt in 1798. He 

 won several brilliant victories, but Nel- 

 son, who had been eluded by the French 

 fleet, found it at last in Aboukir Bay. 

 He promptly attacked it, and in the 

 ''Battle of the Nile," on August i, de- 

 stro)'ed it utterly. This victory isolated 

 the French army, and, together with Sir 

 Sidney Smith's defence of Acre, frus- 

 trated Napoleon's schemes. On August 

 2, 1 810, William Rufus, second Norman 

 king of England, was shot by Sir 

 Walter Tyrrel, whether b)- accident or 

 design is not known, in the New Forest. 

 A stone now marks the spot. It is en- 

 cased in an iron frame, as oversea visitors 

 were rapidly chipping the stone away ! 

 Richard Arkwright, the famous inventor 

 of cotton spinning machinery, died on 

 August 3, 1792. To him England owes 

 her vast cotton trade. Other notable 

 men who died in August were: — Lord 

 North, August 5, 1792, the puppet of 

 George III., who was largely responsible 

 for the loss of the American colonies ; 

 Ben Jonson, August 6, 1636, a dramatist, 

 ranking second onh- to Shakespeare ; 

 Admiral Blake, August 7, 1657, the 

 great Parliamentarian naval commander. 

 He did not go to sea until he was fifty ; 

 his victories were chiefly over the Dutch 

 under Tromp. George Canning, August 

 8, 1827, was Minister of Foreign Affairs 

 during the later Napoleonic wars. 

 Colin Campbell, August 14, 1863, was 

 the commander who ultimately crushed 

 the p-reat Indian mutin\- ; Sir William 

 Wallace, the Scottish patriot, after l:>eing 

 defeated by Edward I. at Falkirk, was 

 betraved into the hands of the English 

 and executed, drawn and quartered m 

 London on August 23, 1305. Jean 

 \ ictor Moreau, the French general, who 

 defeated the Austrians at Hohenlindeii, 

 was born August ii, 1763. Robert 

 Southe\-, made Poet Laureate in 1813, 

 was born August 12, 1774. He is re- 

 membered rather for his "Life of Nel- 



son " than for his verses. On August 

 15, 1 77 1, Sir Walter Scott, the great 

 singer and novelist of the North, was 

 born. He Anally killed himself through 

 overwork in an attempt to pay off the 

 £■100,000 debts of a firm of publishers 

 in which he had an interest. Richard III.,, 

 when Duke of Gloucester, murdered the 

 little princes, Edward V. and his brother, 

 in the Tower of London, on August 

 17, 1483. The mystery surrounding 

 their disappearance was solved in the 

 reign of Charles II., when their bones 

 were discovered beneath the steps of the 

 White Tower. Henry V. of England, 

 the victor of Agincourt, died in Paris 

 on August 31, 1422. 



THE FIRST ENGLISH PARLIARIEKT AND 

 THE BATTLE OF EVESHAM. 

 During the years 1264-5, the struggle 

 in England known as the Barons' W'ars 

 took place. Simon de Montfort, leader 

 of the Barons, won the battle of Lewes, 

 and arranged that in future all disputes 

 were to be referred to Parliament. The 

 first Parliament met in 1265. King 

 Henry III., helped by many jealous 

 noblemen, collected an army, and at- 

 tacked Montfort at Evesham on August 

 4, 1265. Simon and his son were de- 

 feated and slain. Present-day England 

 owes much to the struggle he made for 

 freedom. 



Two other epoch-making battles took: 

 place during August. The Duke of 

 Marlborough won his greatest victor)- at 

 Blenheim, crushing the French there- 

 under Marshal Tallard on August 13,. 

 1 7 14. The battle of Bosworth Field 

 brought the Wars of the Roses to an 

 end. They raged for thirty years, and 

 vvere useful in breaking the power of the 

 Barons, who held England under thrall. 

 King Richard 111. was killed, and Henr)' 

 VII. was crowned on the field of battle. 

 He was the first king of the Tudor line,, 

 whose greatest monarch was Queea 

 Elizabetii. 



