December 10 1041 The adopted son of Empress Zoe of Byzantium succeeds to the throne of the Eastern Roman Empire as Michael V. Zoe is (possibly) 16th Great Grandmother of His Majesty George 1st (United Kingdom) (fabpedigree.com)

1394 – King James I of Scotland (d. 1437) Windsor Castle where James I was held prisoner 1406 to 1424.

1508 – The League of Cambrai is formed by Pope Julius II, Louis XII of France, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor and Ferdinand II of Aragon as an alliance against Venice. Their wars lead to the 1513 Flodden Field Scots disaster.

1520 – Martin Luther burns his copy of the papal bull Exsurge Domine outside Wittenberg’s Elster Gate. 40 years later Scotland turns protestant.

1483-1983 USA 20C Martin Luther postage Stamp

1541 – Thomas Culpeper and Francis Dereham are executed in the scandal with Catherine Howard, Queen of England and wife of Henry VIII. Henry’s failure to have grandchildren (because he failed, as King, to arrange marriages for Mary and Elizabeth) moves the English royal succession to Henry 8th’s sister Margaret’s Scottish great grandchildren, Douglas, Ruthven, Stewart and his sister Mary.

1688 Rabble riot and seize James’ palace, in Edinburgh. Holyrood House, the ancient palace of James’s ancestors, forcing their way into the royal sepulchres, and pulling about the bodies of the deceased princes and kings of Scotland, showing the complete superiority of the Presbyterian party. [TG55-341] Catholic curates expelled.  HOLYROOD PALACE. The Spell of Scotland by Keith Clark, 1916 to the Lord Marischall, Boston The Page Company. P.111

1688 Feversham. James 2nd King of England, 7th of Scotland, disappears with Sir Edward Hales but is found. From November 5th, anniversary of the Gunpower Plot, when prince William Stewart of Orange landed at Torbay, every day brought a defection from James. Lord Churchill, afterwards Duke of Marlborough, deserted James to prince William with several regiments. Princess Anne Stewart, James’s favourite daughter, younger sister to Mary, supported the Prince of Orange. James remarked ‘God help me, my own children desert me.’ James sent his queen and son to France, then resolved to leave the kingdom, leading to Feversham. Tytler’s Britannica 215.

1695 The Darien colony between North and South America. Sometime in December. The hopes entertained of the profits to arise from this speculation were in the last degree sanguine; not even the Solemn League and Covenant was signed with more eager enthusiasm. Almost every one who had, or could command, any sum of ready money embarked it in the Indian and African Company; many subscribed their all; maidens threw in their portions, and widows whatever sums they could raise upon their dower, to be repaid an hundredfold by the golden shower which was to descend upon the subscribers. Some sold estates to vest the money in the Company’s funds, and so eager was the spirit of speculation, that, when eight hundred thousand pounds formed the whole circulating capital of Scotland, half of that sum was vested in the Darien stock.  Which would lead directly to the Union of the Parliaments and dissolving of the Scottish Parliament.  Republic de Panama Antillas Pacifico 3 Nov 1903, 1911 postage.

1813 St Jean de Luz, France. English army advances against French. Tytler’s Britannica 272.

Battle of St Jean de Luz – December 10th 1813

 

1824 Novelist and poet George MacDonald, born.

1825 Sir Walter Scott is ruminating over Wallace’s Sword and the cannon Mons Meg:  Mons Meg. The Spell of Scotland by Keith Clark, 1916 to the Lord Marischall, Boston The Page Company. P.90.  ‘A third rogue writes to tell me—rather of the latest, if the matter was of consequence—that he approves of the first three volumes of the H[eart] of Midlothian, but totally condemns the fourth. Doubtless he thinks his opinion worth the sevenpence sterling which his letter costs. However, authors should be reasonably well pleased when three-fourths of their work are acceptable to the reader. The knave demands of me in a postscript, to get back the sword of Sir W[illiam] Wallace from England, where it was carried from Dumbarton Castle. I am not Master-General of the Ordnance, that I know. It was wrong, however, to take away that and Mons Meg. If I go to town this spring, I will renew my negotiation with the Great Duke for recovery of Mons Meg.’ Mons Meg was originally a gift from Burgundian Duke Philip the Good to James II of Scotland.  It was taken from Edinburgh Castle to Woolwich England in 1757.  Scott’s efforts to secure its return were eventually successful, and Mons Meg was returned to Edinburgh Castle in 1829.  Scott included Mons Meg in “Rob Roy”: ‘Andrew Fairservice was far from acquiescing in these arguments of expedience, and even ventured to enter a grumbling protest, “That it was an unco change to hae Scotland’s laws made in England; and that, for his share, he wadna for a’ the herring-barrels in Glasgow, and a’ the tobacco-casks to boot, hae gien up the riding o’ the Scots Parliament, or sent awa’ our crown, and our sword, and our sceptre, and Mons Meg, to be keep it by thae English pock-puddings in the Tower o’ Lunnon.’

1886 Victor Andrew de Bier Everleigh McLaglen (10 December 1886 – 7 November 1959) was an boxer and World War I veteran who became a successful film actor. Scotland, Kent, South Africa, and Naturalised as a U.S. citizen.

Wee Willie Winkie poster 1937. Note the kilt on the soldier.

 

1937 Donald’s Ostrich released by RKO Radio Pictures.  Poster (clan McDuck)

 

1941 – World War II: The Royal Navy capital ships HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse are sunk by Imperial Japanese Navy torpedo bombers near Malaya. Repulse builder was John Brown & Company, Clydebank, Scotland.

HMS Repulse on manoeuvres in the 1920s.

December 10 1942 canoes Catfish and Crayfish had paddled a further 15 miles. Germans announced that a sabotage squad had been caught on 8 December near the mouth of the Gironde and ‘finished off in combat’. Operation Frankton, the December 1942 raid by canoe-borne British commandos on shipping in Bay of Biscay port of Bordeaux Harbour. Royal Navy submarine HMS Tuna (N94) left from Holy Loch in Scotland.

1943 Spider Woman released. Sherlock Holmes movie. Holmes is on holiday in Scotland with Dr. Watson and Holmes falls in the river.

 

 

 

1962 Lawrence of Arabia. Movie Released. Soldiers in kilts marching around Syria in the Arabian Peninsula. Best picture.

Rolls Royce with the Highlanders in kilts, marching to Damascus, in Lawrence of Arabia.

 

 

2010 Hannah Faith Choate born. (clan Haliburton of Dirleton 1488, Hamilton Earl of Arran 1529, Hamilton of Cadzow or Cadyou and Hamilton 1479, Hamilton of Sanguhar 1580, Hay of Yester 1440, Haya 1266, Hepburn of Hailes Hales 1470 Hyburne, Hibburne of Newton (1300), Hunter of Drumdow, Huntington Earl 1152, Huntley 1420)

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