mental-post: England

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The Hundred Years War lasted for 116 years

The Hundred Years’ War was a series of conflicts waged from 1337 to 1453 between the Kingdom of England and the Kingdom of France for control of the French throne. Many allies of both sides were also drawn into the conflict. The war had its roots in a dynastic disagreement dating back to the time of William the Conqueror, who became King of England in 1066 while retaining possession of the Duchy of Normandy in France. As the rulers of Normandy and other lands on the continent, the English kings owed feudal homage to the king of France. In 1337,Edward III of England refused to pay homage to Philip VI of France, leading the French king to claim confiscation of Edward’s lands in Aquitaine.

Edward responded by declaring that he, not Philip, was the rightful king of France, a claim dating to 1328, when Charles IV of France died without a male heir. Edward was the closest male relative of Charles IV as son of Isabella of France, daughter of Philip IV of France and sister of Charles IV. But instead, Philip VI, the son of Philip IV’s younger brother, Charles of Valois, was crowned king of France in accordance with Salic Law, which disqualified female succession and the succession of males descended through female lines. The question of legal succession to the French crown was central to the war over generations of English and French claimants.

The war is commonly divided into three phases separated by truces: the Edwardian Era War (1337–1360), the Caroline War (1369–1389) and the Lancastrian War (1415–1453), which saw the slow decline of English fortunes after the appearance of Joan of Arc in 1429. Contemporary European conflicts directly related to this conflict were the Breton War of Succession, theCastilian Civil War, the War of the Two Peters, and the 1383-1385 Crisis. The term “Hundred Years’ War” is a periodization invented later by historians to encompass all of these events.

In 1793, the fattest man in the world fought a bear in England

Daniel Lambert (13 March 1770 – 21 June 1809) was a gaol keeper and animal breeder from Leicester, England, famous for his unusually large size. After serving four years as an apprentice at an engraving and die casting works in Birmingham, he returned to Leicester around 1788 and succeeded his father as keeper of Leicester’s gaol. He was a keen sportsman and extremely strong, on one occasion he fought a bear in the streets of Leicester. He was an expert in sporting animals, widely respected for his expertise with dogs, horses and fighting cocks.

Although by his own account Lambert did not eat unusually large amounts of food, at about the time of his return to Leicester his weight began to increase steadily, and by 1793, he weighed 32 stone (450 lb; 200 kg). Concerned for his fitness, in his spare time he devoted himself to exercise, building his strength to the point where he was able to easily carry five hundredweight (560 lb; 250 kg). On one occasion, while he was watching a dancing bear on display in Blue Boar Lane, his dog slipped loose and bit it. The bear knocked the dog to the ground, and Lambert asked its keeper to restrain it so he could retrieve his wounded animal; however, the keeper removed the bear’s muzzle so it could attack the dog. Lambert reportedly struck the bear with a pole and with his left hand, punched its head, knocking it to the ground to allow the dog to escape.

Despite his increasingly large girth, Lambert remained fit and active, once walking seven miles (11 km) from Woolwich to the City of London ”with much less apparent fatigue than several middle-sized men who were of the party”. Although not particularly agile, he was not significantly restricted by his bulk, and was able to stand on one leg and kick the other to a height of 7 feet (2.1 m). He continued to teach swimming in Leicester, and was able to stay afloat with two grown men sitting on his back. He disliked changing his clothes, and each morning habitually wore the clothes he had worn the day before, regardless of whether they were still wet; by Lambert’s own account he suffered no colds or other ill effects from this behaviour.

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From 2016, the £5 note will feature Winston Churchill face

He was a British politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. Widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the 20th century, Churchill was also an officer in the British Army, a historian, a writer, and an artist. He is the only British Prime Minister in history to have received the Nobel Prize in Literature, and was also the first person to be made an Honorary Citizen of the United States.