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Making History
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 Tuesday 3.00-3.30 p.m |
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Vanessa Collingridge and the team answer listener鈥檚 historical queries and celebrate the way in which we all 鈥榤ake鈥 history. |
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Programme 12 |
18 December 2007 |
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Sedition
Where did the law of sedition that Malone was charged with originate? Making History consulted Professor Bernard Capp at the University of Warwick. He told the programme that Sedition was always about undermining the king (or the state); dangerous religious ideas were covered by heresy and later blasphemy laws.
The first acts of Parliament on seditious talk go back to Edward I in the 1270s, making it a crime to spread false and damaging stories about the king. This filled a gap in legislation - treason meant rising up in arms against the king, and something was needed to cover dangerous words which might incite such actions, even though the speaker himself had not taken any physical action at all. It becomes a far more pressing issue with Henry VIII and the Reformation: the nation was deeply divided over the break with Rome, so for several generations there were large numbers of people who thought the reigning king or queen was on the wrong side (whichever that was), and was therefore an evil person, tyrant, no fit monarch and so on. Henry VIII and Mary brought in new laws to cover seditious words or writings that fell short of treason, which the courts could now punish with fines, imprisonment, cutting off ears, or even death in certain circumstances.
Elizabeth approved, and her first Parliament confirmed all this in 1559. In both the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries there are cases of ordinary people being charged with sedition. This is not only evidence of ordinary people holding strong political views but, presumably, also people who opposed them and felt equally strongly. The civil wars brought another highly sensitive period, but the existing laws served king and parliament equally well. The law was interpreted during the interregnum to say that 'king' could stand for 'sovereign power', which covered Parliament and then Cromwell as Lord Protector. So in the 1650s it was seditious to abuse Parliament and praise the king; in the 1660s seditious to attack him.
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Harry Bensley, the man in the iron mask.
On January 1st 1908, Harry Bensley set out from Trafalgar square pushing a pram and wearing an iron mask. He was taking part in a wager that he couldn鈥檛 travel around Britain and Europe and take a wife without being identified. Making History reported on this story in 2002 and since that programme members of Bensley鈥檚 family have contacted the programme with more information. It now appears that Bensley took part in the wager after losing in a game of cards and being unable to pay his debts. He had to send postcards back from the places he visited, so there is evidence for his travels around the UK. But how far he got in Europe is pure conjecture. Furthermore, he was already married!
Useful links
Bensley鈥檚 family have their own
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Whittlesea Straw Bear
This Plough Monday custom in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire was revived in the early nineteen eighties, but what are its origins?
Making History consulted Brian Kell and historian Steve Roud.
Useful links
Further Reading
The English Year by Steve Roud Published by Penguin (January 2008) ISBN-10: 0141021063 ISBN-13: 978-0141021065
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Contact 听Making History |
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Use this link to email Vanessa Collingridge and the team : Email Making History
Write to: Making History
大象传媒 Radio 4
PO Box 3096
Brighton
BN1 1TU
Telephone: 08700 100400
Making History is produced by Nick Patrick and is a Pier Production
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See AlsoThe 大象传媒 is not responsible for the content of external sites |
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Vanessa has presented听science and current affairs programmes for 大象传媒, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Discovery and has presented for 大象传媒 Radio 4 & Five Live and a regular contributor to the Daily Telegraph and the Mail on Sunday, Scotsman and Sunday Herald.听