There are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafik 2024 464pg

 A story of London and Mesopotamia    11/9/25

640 BC In the ancient city of Nineveh, on the bank of the River Tigris, King Ashurbanipal of Mesopotamia, erudite but ruthless, built a great library that would crumble with the end of his reign. Epic of Gilgamesh the great poem emerged.

Lamassus are protective spirits with eagle wings and body of a bull or lion and head of a man. Splendor of the Assyrian Empire. A ziggurat dedicated to Ishta, goddess of love , sex, beauty passion and war. In his luxurious garden with fruit trees hangs the head of his enemy Elamite king Teumman

Nisaba is the goddess of stories, the king was the 3rd son and so not trained in marshal arts to be the king but in philosophy and literature but then his father chose him to be the heir. The kings tutor who had taught him to appreciate literature by  whose guards  found the man was not loyal to the king by supporting the kings brother. The kings in his name soldiers had been expanding the empire by destroying many people. Instead of stabbing the traitor to death he has him set on fire and the burning man runs to try and get into the Khosr River thus burning the kings childhood memories with him.

1840 The crowded city of London which pollutes the Thames river in every way. Toshers people who scavenged along the river and the dangerous  sewers for valuables like copper, rings. They worked in groups and one women Annabel went into labour with dirt around her, and gives birth to a boy, with the help of the tosher team. But she say throw it into the Thames. Her husband who was a successful carpenter has become a drunk and she has had to be the breadwinner. .The Team name him King Author of the sewers and slums. Arthor Smyth has a fantastic memory but becomes a terrible curse. At the same time 21 year old Queen Victoria was giving birth to her first baby a girl called Victoria (Vicky)

He knows everyone in the street and by the time he is 5 he has picked up Yiddish. At 9 he goes to a charity school. Where he points out to the teacher that the figures in the sum are wrong and gets beaten for bad manners.. 

At the British museum he sees Lamasus(symbolizes the kings divine power) being unloaded. He tell a man that he has seen there is a book by Austen Henry Layard on Nineveh. The Man Dr. Samuel Birch (1813 to 1865) invites him to visit him in his office at the museum.* 

1853 Arthurs did odd jobs like collecting horse dropping to take to tanners who used it in their work. Cages of budgies are popular since Queen Victoria was given pair from Australia. His father takes him to a printer who agree to give him a weeks trial. There is the book by Omar Khayyam which he says he is keen to read.. At first he has to do odd jobs around but slowly he starts being trained to run the machines. When you publish a book you are setting a caged bird free. When he get home with his first wage packet his father says it belongs to him. Mr Bradbury lend him any book he wants to read however except for moon full nights he is unable to red till he is also given a gift of 2 tallow candles. He read every  important book available at the time. He wants to be involved in book publication as books "never end even when you have finished reading them"   

Austen Henry Layard 1817 to 1894 Archeologist in Assyria, writer and politician. Wrote on Nineveh.

1851 The World Exhibition in Hyde Park but only the wealthy could enter as it was expensive. By 1854 it had been rebuild at Sydenham and was finally only a shilling entrance so Arthur saw manufactures from every country and finally a Lemusus displayed from the British Museum. At the end of a day he is chatting to Mr. Bradbury about a picture of the  Thames .a century ago. Mr. . Bradbury " all to often we humans destroy nature and call it progress." Arthur wants to visit the British museum but can't afford a jacket to go in respectably. Next morning he finds Mr Bradbury dead in the office - the only person who took an interest in him.

There are 300,000 horses in the capital and the leave and that leaves 12,000 tones of crap all over the city. His one twin brother drinks the water from the flask he brought home and dies very quickly of Cholera. Dr. John Snow has figured out that Cholera comes from water and from the Broad Street pump but everyone laughs at him.  He can't  get the municipality to take the handle of the pump, puts up a warning which is stolen. 1853 to 1894  10,740 people die of cholera in London. Finally the people recognize that they are killing the water. We humans destroy nature and call it progress. In the office he meets up with Charles Dickens (1812-1870). Who tells him that nobody is useless in this world who lifts the burdens of others. Arthur can't visit the British museum as he does not have the clothes. A parcel arrives in the office from Dickens containing a set of clothes his correct size.

Every spare minute Arthur is at the Museum and fascinated by the cuneiform tablets. This is noticed by the staff there and he is offered a part time position. A museum in deciding what will be remembered is also deciding what will be forgotten. 1857 Later on he takes up a  full time position at the museum for a lower wage and works out the epic poem of Gilgamesh. Author his lost contact with his father and family his whole effort is his  work.

The story of the flood and Noah's  Ark appear in the coniform writings so this all predate the Bible.

Charles Darwin (1808 to 1882) His book the  Origen of Species(1859) had a profound effect on society later book Descent of Man (1871)

He is invited to give a lecture at the Society of Biblical Archaeology and the Prime Minister William Gladstone (1808- 1898)is there to listen. He is now invited to mix and toast with lawyers, bankers, politicians and philanthropists but down below feels frustrated. The Daily Telegraph offers him a £1,000 to lead an expedition, of archaeological exploration. His mother is in a asylum and he was not allowed to visit her now that he is famous he is given permission. There has recently been an need for asylums to treat cases caused by syphilis 

1872 he describes the trip staying in Paris which also has cesspools and pollution.  Which he knows about from reading Victor Hugo's (1802–1885) .Les Misérables.

The British Embassy Constantinople looks like a mini Buckingham Palace. He has to wait to get a firman to be able to got to Nineveh and dig there .Here he hears Turkish, Armenian ,Kurdish , Arabic, Persian , Ladino and French spoken. The Hammams or public baths are also a place of prostitution, women are taken as spoils of war and are displayed naked and auctioned across the empire. Sometimes if they bear their master a child may get freedom. Arthurs firman has arrived but also a letter that his mother died. 

King Sennecherib (705 till assassinated in 601)expanded his dream of empire as did his grandson Ashurbanipal the last of the great kings of Assyria (reigned 668 to 627 bce)

Arthur arrives in Zerav the nearest village to Nineveh but the guide will not stay in a devil worship village of Yazidis and absconds. Yazidis are "heretical Moslems, renegade Christians perhaps  apostate Jews or odd Zoroastrians?" They do hot have a sacred scripture which fascinated someone like Arthur.  He is treated very well here and meets Leila the diviner. For decades the British have excavated to the north here and French to the south, and people in London and Paris are waiting for the antiques.

1876Arthur arrives in Constantinople the 2nd time when the sultan Abdel Aziz  has been associated but made to look like a suicide. The pasha of Mosul with the help of the qadi have mustered the army to massacre the Yazidis. First they destroyed the bridge and removed all boats leaving no escape before the massacre. When Arthur gets to the village the people who entertained him are gone including the girl who enchanted him Leila.

When King Gilgamesh died his body was interred under the  Euphrates which had to be diverted to do this. The greediest kings had corralled the rivers and the bloodiest wars were fought over water. Arthur also discovers that what is called civilization is so destructive and sooner or later will engulf everything in its path.

Arthur realizes that he has to return home as their is a cholera plague but the Museum no longer wants to employ him. He found a lapis lazuli tablet amongst the archeological dump. This show information on the goddess Nisiba and he had now achieved something for his trip . He is now ill  in a shepherds hut near the village of Castrum Kefa . A thief finds the blue tablet and takes it and he dies  there.

2014  The Tigris flowing  from  Turkey a girl is to be baptized Narin, They originate  in the valley of Lalish in Iraq to a Yazidi family. Lamb of faith. Along the shores of the river where a llisu dam , Sirnak Province Turkey (built between 2006 and2018)is being build that will flood the whole area and the destroy a millennium of history. The village  Hasankeyf will be flooded by 2020 and they people have all received a pittance as compensation in their bank accounts. The bulldozer driver  wont let them have the ceremony and Narin reads his lips "filthy fallen devil worshipper" She has heard this before. The grandmother say this is an omen that the ceremony should take place in Lalish Narin has a genetic disease and will go completely deaf. Her mother died giving birth and her father is never around as he is a musician and plays at weddings and festivals everywhere to Iraq and Lebanon and says they can now travel to Iraq. 72 times the Yazidis have been massacred.

The government has promised that all their graves will be moved but they don't believe them. What about the Englishman's grave his family don't even know where it is, it is never attended to. Some people travel they are restless like rivers.  We know now  that the Englishman was Arthur from the sewer and slum as Narin's cousins visit from Germany and figure this out. Narin's grandmother tells her that she heard the story of the Englishman from her grandmother Leila., "Some people are restless like rivers" 

Grandma says that when she was a girl there were 500  oryxes today the are gone. The Mosul Dam built between 1981-1986 on the Tigris river by Saddam Hussein (1937-2006) also displaced thousand year old Yazidi settlements. Saddam also destroyed the swamplands to get rid of the marsh Arabs.

The Kurdish forces Peshmerga who  protect their village leave. ISIS arrive and tell the population to come out with their phones and valuables and hand them over. The men are taken and executed by a pit the women are taken  to be slaves and converted Islam.  High peaks are considered religious sanctuaries and Yazidis flee there, there is no water and grandma devines for water.

Narin and the women are taken in truck and will be made slaves , servants and sex objects.to accompany the noble army in Jihad, because their fathers were heathen. Because Narin speaks Turkish she is good for  the commander who also does. The commanders wife speaks Arabic with an American accent. Salma who knew Narins grandmother warns the jihadist that Narin has special powers. Salma say it would have been better to die by Sadam Hussein gassing the Kurds of Halabja in 1988. While ISIS rape murder and pillage that also have a sideline business of selling antiquities which the are supposed  to destroy.

 

2018 Zeleika ( Potiphar's wife in the Bible) or Dr. Z Clark has divorced her husband after 3 and a half years or marriage because he wanted children?. Both were Water Scientists she has moved to a London house boat on the Thames in Chelsea. Her family are immigrants from the Middle East and her parents died and she was brought up by the Uncle Malik with his daughter. She is planning to drown herself.

A man is collecting Chinese mitten crabs are alien creatures on the Thames they were first seen in 1930. A man is collecting them and she thinks of the plastics they find in these creatures. Global warming is going to be felt by lack of water in places, and water will be the big issue.

She visits her uncle Malik in his mansion in Kensington where she  was brought up from the age of 7 when her parents died. She and Helen their daughter was regarded as siblings but Helen got married and had 3 children, and they parted ways. Immigrants always have to be prepared for contingencies. Malik came from Mesopotamia to England had everything about him is English including his wife and business partners. They discuss her marriage and he tells her he hates eating fish but will have a fish dinner not to upset his wife.

They discuss that all the great cities are places on rivers, even Athens you are not aware  that it has 3 rivers. Uncle Malic at 8 years old was sent to boarding school in England he was the first of his family, after that he always considered himself British. Became a successful businessman and a politician and philanthropist.

They discuss that there are many hidden rivers that have been concealed and culverted like the River Effra of South London. Zeleika works for the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.   She has left her husband after 3 years of marriage and moved to a house barge on the Thames. She visits her landlady Nen next to the British Museum where she has a  tattoo shop with the slogan Our tattoos last longer than most marriages. Most of her tattoos are cuneiform words. A script used by Sumerians , Arcadians Babylonians Assyrians ,Elamites and Hittites. She says people think tattoos are a form of rebellion to her they are a form of story telling. Zeleika has a tattoo of the sign for water.  Nen often goes mudlarking, A mudlark is someone who scavenges the banks and shores of rivers for items of value they use metal detectors nowadays.

As a child Uncle Maliks house was more a shelter from a storm rather than a home.

With Nen she goes to the British Museum the bas-reliefs have no women on them. People can be cultured but still commit cruel acts.

  We know that 1 in 4 children today across the world are living with water so polluted it will kill them. She is always surprised that Uncle Malik has never shown an interest in visiting the part  of the world he came from and totally cut ties with his childhood. Helen tells her they have found a donor of a kidney for her daughter Lily and are going to Istanbul to a private hospital to get her daughter a kidney.  Zeleika for the first time is busy kissing a women Nen.

Nisaba is the god of literacy and  libraries, later women are stripped of powers so the god Nuba takes her place, and references to her have been erased.

We now discover that on a vacation to their homeland her parents wanted to stay in the hotel and she wanted them to camp on the banks of the Tigres while  Zeleika got up to have a pee they were washed away by the sudden river surge. Uncle Malik had to collect Zeleika at the police station in Turkey.

Zeleika finds a  picture of a young girls that looks just like her and it is marked that she is to be the donor.

 

Becoming Michelle Obama 2018, 344pg

The Autobiography of the US First Lady, Michelle Obama wife of Barak 16/2/19

Michelle LaVaugen Robinson born 1964 was brought up in inner city Chicago with her brother Craig. The Robinsons shared a flat with her aunt and uncle and the aunt taught her the piano. The neighborhood was mixed and slowly turned blacker. The one neighbor moved into the suburbia and passed as white. In the 30s blacks could not get work as the unions kept blacks out and couldn't earn enough to send their children to collage. When the aunt and uncle died they left them the flat.

Her parent made a point of getting both children to speak correctly and her cousins commented that she spoke like a white. Her parents were prepared to invest everything they had into their children and when her French class organized a tour of Paris her parents felt it was a priority that she go. Her close friend Santina Jackson was he daughter of Rev Jesse Jackson at the time his slogan for blacks was "no dope more hope" He also said everyone should take of 2 hours from TV every night to study they could get the grades they needed. Michelle got good grades and the school principal encourage her despite the councilor who indicated she was aiming too high. She got into Princeton and was involved in an afternoon program looking after children. Did very well there and describes what it was like being a woman and black amongst a WASP and male majority. She then went to Harvard Law School and returned to Chicago to work for a big prestigious law firm. Barak arrived there on a summer job and had a further 2 years to study. He had been working on community projects in Chicago after he graduated. Obama read vastly and widely and was not one for party small talk. After 2 years he moved into Michelle's home. Her father died just before that. She was earning well as a top corporate lawyer but reached a point she hated the job and found work at the Chicago municipality but at a lower salary.

1992 They were married Barak worked on getting voters to sign up before the election that got Bill Clinton elected. They went to Kenya and met Barak's fathers family. Barak now published his first book an autobiography but deals with race issues. He got elected into the Illinois Legislature and then saw an opportunity to get into the Washington Senate. Michelle had to get used to bringing up the 2 girls alone. Malia born 1998 and Sasha born 2001.The one daughter put on weight and she realized that she was buying too much ready foods and had to remedy this. She took a half time job but discovered that she got half the pay but couldn't only do half the work. After the 2nd daughter was born she took a different job under her own terms. A senators wife phoned her and told her that not living in Washington could be hard on a marriage. The Public wanted Barak to run for president. With her brother Craig encouragement she agreed. 2009 to 2017 The Whitehouse years describes the security can be very restrictive especially for the children unless they plan ahead. Michelle worked on solving US obesity by improving children's diets but she did not want to deal with legislation of this. She rather approached food companies and asked them to take action before the government was forced to deal with this problem. This is a major US problem and never been dealt with. 2008 TIME magazine called her their women of the Year. She discusses the issue of having to find the correct dress for herself without being overtly ostentatious and how the First Lady automatically become a fashion model. During school vacations if Barak went on state visits children went with and met Putin and the Pope for example. Michelle went to Southern Africa and met Mandela who was in his last senile time but his wife Graca Michel was a personality. She had a number of weekends when she invited her girl friends to meet at Camp David to keep up contact.

2011 May The killing of Bin Ladin without US casualties was a great feather in Barak's hat but it was a great risk. Michelle set herself the mission and devoted much time to getting better conditions for wounded soldiers and getting companies to employ veterans. Prince Harry took part and memorials to soldiers with her and also encouraged her. Also going to inner cities especially Chicago and encouraging disadvantaged children that even they could achieve. She was not very pleased about Trump as the Republican candidate. Later his inauguration showed his guests were the typical WASP crowd. Generally I found her background and meeting Barak fascinating. She is very modest about her role as First Lady, perhaps to say - I am a very ordinary perhaps educated African American woman. In 2020 she still remained high for 3 years on the list of most admired US women.

No great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod 2001 283pg

 The Scots Highlander who settled in  Canada’s Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. 17/8/25

 Chullum Ruaidh or red hairs in Gaelic.  Families and the nature of love and loyalty, and the ways in which rural people, in a kind of primitive tribalism, will help and nurture one another through the unexpected griefs of life in a harsh climate.   

When an American cousin arrives, dodging his Vietnam draft, it becomes apparent that loyalty can become destructive when pointed in the wrong direction. " All of us are better when we are loved."  is the key phrase in the book. The good relations between the French-Canadian workers and those of Scottish descent – will not last. You have to read the book to find out what the title means: it’s a quotation from the 18th century General Wolfe of Quebec. Talking about the Scottish highlanders in his army.  “no great mischief if they fall.”   old family maxim, “You will get used to almost anything, except a nail in your shoe.”

The narrator Alexander is for a time the youngest of the family, is a Southern Ontario orthodontist, on a visit to a frail, alcoholic older brother. The original  Calum their ancestor tried to leave the dog behind in  Scotland but that beast just jumped in and swam to their boat, how his wife died on the passage, and how his grave now occupies an outcropping that is falling bit by bit into the sea:

Easier for the families to get together in winter when the bodies of water froze and it became easier to travel.

1314 Battle of Bannockburn  this lasted 14 years and Robert Bruce led a  victory and Scottish Independence in the Treaty of Edinburgh. .

1689,Battle of Killiecrankie Jacobite rising  Viscount Dundee led and died in this, causing the victory not to achieve anything. It was the Highlanders who were the fighters. The Battle of Dunkeld 1689 supported King James 7th.

1692 In Glencoe the Mac Donalds were massacred in their beds by government troops that they had given shelter to.

1746 The Battle of Culloden led by Charles Edward Stuart or Bonnie Prince Charlie, who also had red hair. Here the Mc Donalds had fought against Wolfe This followed the Jacobite uprising of 1745 it put an end to the Stuart claim to the British throne.Duke of Cumberland led English forces. The Mac Donalds fled to France and learned French.   They were pardoned and returned and fought under Wolfe and because they spoke French were able to fool the sentries. If not for this the history of Canada might have been different.

1759 General James Wolfe on the Plains of Abraham  , near Quebec City. This battle was a key moment in the Seven Years War. This led to British control of North America with the death of both Wolfe and Metcalfe. resulting in a British victory over the French and ultimately leading to the capture of Quebec and the end of French colonial power in North America. Metcalf was from France and did not understand the people under his command who were French Canadian and Indians.

.

----The book begins with him going to an old building of single flat mostly men with bathroom at the end of the  common corridor to meet his eldest brother Culem an alcoholic., brings him some booze there is no food in the flat. The narrator was born in 1955 and is 15 years younger than his  brother.

He tells the story of his ancestors who left the Highlands a place with few trees a man with 6 children from his first wife, his daughter gave birth on the ship "Catherine of the sea." Thus the original Culem arrived a widower and a grandfather by the end of the journey.

1784 in Colony  Cape Breton he walked 100 miles to Sydney and got a document of deed for his land.

1820 This was now part of Nova Scotia and he died in 1834.The decedents of Culem family spread out along the island her and you could recognise as part of  Mc Donald family  by their red hair and kept up the Gailic speech.

1867 Confederation of Canada was formed.

The narrators Alexander's father ran the lighthouse on an island and in winter they could walk across the ice. The also used a sulkies and a horse sharpshod would pull a sleigh over the ice.The parents and son Colin were walking across the ice when the sea opened up and just a lamp was left on shore and they died. So Alexander and his twin sister who had been at the grandparents remained there and they brought them up. "Always look after your blood"

After the parents died none of the brothers returned to school 2 returned to the farm and were given back all the equipment by their neighbours  or family who had taken it over temporarily. The grandparents gave the twins  more than they were able to give their own children and some other grandchildren were jealous of them.  If they had meat they would lower it into the well in a bucket as a form of refrigeration for a short period.

His other grandpa was always reading history and talked to him about Highland history or tutored him in chess.

He was working on the brothers farm and brought the cows in to milk when he saw a dead whale on the beach and polluting the area. The waves were rising and they pulled the fishing boat up to the highest point. After the storm the whale was hundred of metres on land.

Alexander was a student of dentistry at the Halifax university. Later as an orthodontist he improved on "god's work" Making people looks improve.In this area most  people never went to a dentist till it was too late and then in their early 20s  got dentures.

 At Barney's River Nova Scotia his father had done logging.

The day he graduated from school they got a message that his cousin Alexander had died in a work accident in the mine. Some said he was not academically inclined but the narrator believes he went to help out his family. The whole MacDonald team had flown home for the funeral. They were contacted by the manager and offered a better bonus and all returned to work earning by the footage of the tunnel they cut out of the mine. The narrator joined them to make a full team. Many of the workers who had families far away would send international money orders to them.

They would meet Irish speakers and compare their languages and heard that in Ireland there is an effort to revive Irish.

The sister wanted to be an actress and they said to her why did she want to spend her life acting as somebody else. Is it not easier being yourself?

Their sister  was married to an oil engineer and they went off to Aberdeen where off shore oil had been found in the late 1960s. She took a car and drove to a small town and someone saw her and said something in Gaelic and she answered, even their dog recognized she was one of them from "the land of the trees" It is as if you never left said the old man. In this area they had heard the story of a dog swimming after the boat to the ship and was watch from the hill. She said that a lot of people had gone there in those days and they were the lucky ones and thought is strange that in Canada houses are made of wood.

Fruit pickers Jamaicans , Mexicans and French Quebecers families  some from New Brunswick arrive. They would pick from dawn till there was not enough light. For their children, school was considered a luxury. The foreigners have a 9 month visa to stay in Canada and make their way back home some in cars.

 Culem thinks back that he had an argument with Fern Picard. Later Alexander was asked to clean the sump between shifts and was keen on the extra money. When they returned after the funeral Culem went to look for the hoistman who had a very poor English. He had left his job and returned to Quebec. Had Alexander asked  Culem would have told him not to take that job.

Another cousin Alexander McDonald  flies in from San Francisco to Sudbury airport, Ontario to evade the Vietnam War. The narrator lived with his grandparents who knew more about the family that others. They make him one of their team and he is a good worker. However he does not show blood loyalty like the rest of the Canadian family.

The hoist had broken down and they all came out many by climbing up a long step ladder up the shaft, sit around and  and start drinking .There is a brawl between the Quebecois workers and the MacDonalds and the French groups leader Fern Pecard  gets killed and Cullum ends up in jail for murder. Both they and the Quebious had lost their leaders.

 The US Alexander immediately leaves as he does not want to be  part of this. Later they find Ferns wallet in Alexanders locker with $1000. Fern had accused the Scots of stealing from him. The posted the money back to Quebec. Les pays des Laurentides a specific part of Quebec. It did arrive as he received a message of thanks.

The story ends with him taking Culem for a ride to Cape Breton and even though the causeway is flooded Calum drives through counting  the 3rd wave and they get to the island  1968 Pierre Tradeau replaced Lester Pearson as PM at the time this story takes place.

Note- there is mentioned that Zulu's came to work on the mines and this is an error perhaps S African white miners .

 

Track Changes by Sayed Kashua 2020, 231pg Dancing Arabs

 Sayed Kashua is born in Tira an Arab town in Israel, he  is a leading Hebrew writer     10/8/25

Leaving his wife and their three children, he returns to Jerusalem and to his hometown of Tira in Palestine to be by his family’s side.  But few are happy to see him back and, he is geographically and emotionally displaced, he feels more alienated from his life than ever. linked to a short story he published years ago about a young girl named Palestine. Whether or not the pen is mightier than the sword, careless use can destroy lives.”

At the Chicago O'Hare airport a smoker is officially despised, cigarettes is the habit of beggars and criminals. His ear is not attuned to the American accent  there are words that he won't attempt to say. Yet he can always detect a foreign accent in any language. His middle son asked him what a autobiography is and why he writes them for other people, why don't they write them themselves. At the stopover at de Gaul airport he is condemned to smoke in a glass cage with people speaking in many Arabic accents.

Tira is the place of his birth and that of his parents and siblings that he has not seen for 14 years. At Ben Gurion airport the driver has a Russian accent and says he can smoke in the cab just open the window. His grandmother went on hajj with the first group of Israeli's to be granted visas to visit Saudi.

When he was a child it was obligatory to visit a sick family member in hospital. When in high school he was asked to stay in Maier hospital with his uncle who was recovering from a car accident, they did not want the uncle to know yet that his child had died in the same accident and the clan was at the funeral. His mother is pleased to see him but his older brother indicated that he smelled death and  came to take some remains.

He has 2 sons and a daughter and thinks that they will never know of the Arabic music of Umm Kulthum , Abdul Halim or Fairuz. His kids have never been to Tira and since their marriage his wife had wanted to leave Israel. 

He thinks of many of the boys in his school who failed in learning and thinks what happened to them? In  Jerusalem downtown he started work  in an office at Zion Square , but they later moved to the Industrial zone. Far fewer reporters were needed and many sent their news to the press by email and the digital camera replaced the dark room and less reporters or office space was needed and he got the role of editor in chief.

He was stopped driving his car and had too much alcohol in his blood and was given a fine and had to do 60 hours communal service. Every Sunday he went to the retirement home to give a 2 hour writing workshop. Residence there asked him to write their memoirs and were prepared to pay. Holocaust survivors , Palmach fighters , a man born in Bagdad. All of these he documented but someone asked him to write about their dead soldier son and here he had to add his own style of fiction and it was well accepted. A good editor can rewrite, reorder, delete and add without the reporter noticing the changes.

Over the next 4 years he wrote 30 books and was paid 10 thousand shekels a book of 100 pages.

An Arab worker's family left the village of Irtakh in the West Bank in 1940 and they moved into the hut of an orchard owned by a family in Jaffa. In 1948 the owner family fled for "3 days" and never returned and his family moved into the big house where they stayed after that.. How good it has been since the Jews came he said.

Sometimes the hardships of life leave no place for memoirs. he wrote a memoir for an Arab MK who had been in a Jewish left wing party. This was supposed to be published by a known Hebrew publisher. Only in Hebrew did it have a chance of being read.

While he was doing his MA in Hebrew lit. He had written a short fiction story about a women from Tira named Palestine as a metaphor for the political situation, not knowing that a girl named Palestine lived in Tira. She had been married 6 months and her husband divorced her as a result. The Sheik told him it is better that he marry the girl. Both families honor was badly besmirched. They registered the marriage and took a bus straight to Jerusalem. People called her Faula, Folo or even Paula like Ben Guions wife.

The summer they left for the US there were fires burning the Jerusalem forests and 3 Jewish kids had been kidnapped and were later found dead. An Arab kid was later found burned to death with rumours his family had killed him as he was homosexual?

His memories go back to going with his father in the wild, collecting za'atar on the hills which is a protected wild specie and you had to watch out for "insbektors" Nowadays  za'atar is grown in hothouses the leaves are bigger and sadder. 

Their children hear Arabic spoken at home but spoke Hebrew at school. They thought maybe this was the way of the world. On holocaust and  memorial day the children asked if the grandparents had died in the war. The daughter was named Yasmin a name that goes in Hebrew and Arabic and they changed the family name to Hadad. Yasmin never heard a word about Tira from her parents.

In the States he tried to make typical food he knew with rice and different beans but had to drive to a Arab neighbourhood mostly Palestinian to buy molokhyiyeh leaves.(Jew's Mallow or  tossa jute)

In the Midwest in the States,  Palestine has a academic post and supporting the family. They go out for dinner she has never told him about her first husband.and what had happened or if he loved her. He says perhaps if he found a job he would get to know the society better, perhaps would have American friends.

At the hospital he describes that in the bed next to his father is an Arab man with a Taiba accent and the other side an old  Jewish man thus diseases and death are still to be shared experiences. Births are however segregated.with Seperate rooms for Arabs and Jews.

Muslims bury their dead on their sides not on their backs.

He wrote a memoir called The folk tales of Grandma Mirriam. 2 days after the 30 copies were delivered and had been read to her she died of a heart attack. He figured out that she died a precisely the  moment  he was erasing her from his tape recorder and blamed himself. 

His mother said that she never believed she would have to intervein in a conflict of her sons and that their father was his biggest defender. He tells that his grandmother came to the house and gave him a pack of cigarettes and said he should smoke to show his now a man. He realizes that he has nowhere to return to. How pride becomes a thing of honor. Immorality gnaws away the foundations of a society, indicating the weakening of  faith.

At school other children were Jealous of Palestine as she was engaged to the guy, who was one of the  first to become an  accountant in Tira and had build a fancy house for her. Sayed had gone strait to the Sheik and told him he had never met Palestina and didn't know of her existence and the Sheik believed him. however he saw no way but for him to marry her. He had to save her from Tira , her husband  a privative family that did not have the decency to stand by her side. After signing marriage his father took them to Kfar Saba and put them on a bus  and said he never wanted to see him again. Ever since this story of Palestine he is incapable of making up stories.  The love stories he used to hear in his youth have been erased and replaced by murder of women. Willingness of neighbours was swapped for bitter feuds. Instead of blessing there were pistols and rifles. Family ties became inheritance wars, and games of hide and seek became land quarrels. Hope of victory had become a fate of knowledge of defeat.

He took his wife out  for dinner and they were able to leave the oldest daughter looking after the 2 younger boys. He realized that his wife had had a life or her own as she must have used a baby sitter when she went out. Palestine told him that she had been asked to extend her stay and had been offered a tenure track position that she sought after.

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 Dancing Arabs by Sayed Kashua 2003 227 pages. 9/10/19

This is autobiographical of the writer written in Hebrew and translated. He lived in Tira and Israeli Arab town on the border of the West Bank. Some residents originate there but others are refugees from towns destroyed. The first incident he mentions is the Karama Battle which was March 1968 later on Sabra and Shalita 1982 are mentioned. The story is of a school kid his relationship to his grandmother who lives in a room of what was his grandparents home. Sayed's father took over the house while his sisters got married and moved out. The grandfather died fighting against Israel in 1948, his father got into trouble supporting anti Israel protests and so never finished his education, his grandmother he to visit him in detention. They mention driving into Kalkalya to buy clothes but there is an anti Israel protests. His grandmother was what was known as an exchange bride. Her brother wanted to marry the daughter of a man who wanted his sister as a second wife. After his grandfather died his grandmother had to fight her stepchildren for the property. Some Arabs in Tira are hoping that Sadam Husseins rocket will harm Israel during Operation Dessert Storm Aug 1990 till Feb1991. Arab society is certainly portrayed as violent. He mentions that his school friend ended up in a hospital in Ramatayim which we know is for Mental Patients. He portrays that Arab school then in Tira had very unprofessional teachers and mostly men. Many kids went all the way through school and remained illiterate. The Jewish school in Kfar Saba had a lot of women teachers. He gets a scholarship to got to a boarding school in Jerusalem and describes weird things about Jewish society and how they react to Arabs. Coming from a village getting used to open modern society, sitting next to girls at school or going with girls to movies. He marries Samia from Tira but they rent in East Jerusalem as it is cheaper. His father has build a shell of a home for him in Tira but they have to come live there. His father worked from the Ministry of Interior office in Tira thus was a collaborator? But later when he went to Hebron or Tulkarm was able to get hold of birth certificates from the mandate period for old relatives and his status went up. Kfar Warburg today is where some Tira residents lived. The book ends with his father visiting Egypt and returns shocked at the fact that the Arab leaders cannot cope with the poverty and have not time to deal with Zionism. He says that Palestinians will be better off as 7th grade citizens under the Zionists than 3rd grades citizens under Arab leaders.

The Dove Flyer by Eli Amir 2010 544 pg

 

Memoir of Jewish Life in Bagdad 12/11/16

The writer was born in Bagdad in 1937 and the book describes the period after Israel's war of Independence when life for Jews in Iraq became difficult after the Farhud 1941, in which 175 Jews were killed and many homes and businesses were looted or destroyed,.. The book narrated by Kabi (Yacob Imri) or is called Id in Arabic. Salim the schoolteacher whose parents died when he was young and doesn't feel spiritually Jewish and becomes a communist but is attracted to Bahai the Moslem belly dancer. The book shows how under the Turks and later the British, Jews were part of the society but an Independent Arab country has no place for minorities.
The writer's uncle Hizakil is arrested as a Zionist and the family tries all sorts of soothsayers to find out what has happened to him.
They bunk school go to movies and are beaten up. There is British lady teacher who teaches English and is so alien to the Arab customs. Ismael was born the same week as him and was a neighbor in the Moslem quarter and the families were very close but the times have changed and they moved to a poorer house in the Jewish quarter.
There is a protest of the community about where are their men are and the fact that chief rabbi Bashi can't do anything about it.
1942 Rashid Aali al-Kaylani the PM influenced by Nazi and Hajj Amin Husseini wanted to deport Jews to a concentration camp in the dessert.
1905-1944 Enzi Sereni was in Iraq and very influential in organizing the Jewish movement there.
Selema Murad born 1900 was a famous Jewish singer who never left Iraq and died in 1974. She was married to Nazem al-Ghazali a  famous singer
You get a description of a hanging in the town square. The only Moslem in the Jewish neighbourhood is an Islamist he has a son who was a soldier in the war against Israel and the other son who is a civil rights lawyer. we read about the foods they ate including quince jam. How unsafe Jewish life became under the dictator
The British Mandate ended in 1932 negotiated by Nuri Said. The monarchy was toppled in 1958 and massacred. Abd al-Karim Qasim became PM between 1958 and 1963 when he was assassinated.
Tewfiq el Hakiman 1889 -1987 Arabic writer in Egypt
Taha Hussien 1889 to 1973 wrote theater works in Cairo
You get a description of the way a bribe is arranged and what Kabi's visits to his uncle in prison where a lot of political are together. He tell him that they must take his wife Reshel to Israel.
Kabi is made editor of the magazine and is taken by George Imari to his home where he meets Big Imari and wife and see the photograph of his great grandfather on the wall. Big Imari who entertains the Regent and Nuri Said does not want to recognize the poorer relatives as he manipulated and inherited the family wealth.

"Big Amari," the sole inheritor of the rice farms that made the family fortune.
We meet the Regent at Big Amari's house and the fact that the leaders drink all the best alcohol. Feisal 11 was king from 1944 till 1958 when he and the royal family were all executed. Till 1953 his uncle Abdullah was regent.
Big Amari is approached to get Hizakil out of jail. He doesn't believe that Israel will survive the next Arab attack and that Iraq needs the Jews to remain there. The Iraqi government is going to allow Jews to leave. Palestinians do appear in Bagdad. Slowly people are leaving and other Jews are moving into the Jewish neighborhood.
He describes going to the bathhouse and Arab men wanting to molest him. The people who get the worst job are Kurds who come from the mountain regions and are also discriminated against and also want their own country. Jewish communists who fled to Iran ended up in Israel. Big Imari is tipped off that his son is involved in politics and will get into trouble and he gets sent to England to go to school at Eton. Amira who applies for a scholarship to study engineering in the States is told she is wasting money applying as Jews are not being sent.
Finally their turn arrives to go to Israel and by this time the neighborhood is no longer Jewish so even non Zionists don't feel happy. The image of the Jewish Dove Flyer's territory being displaced by the new Moslem neighbor who sets eye Jewish women.
We also read that Rabbi Bashi had arranged that certain wealthy Jewish families would entertain and cultivate connections to the great Iraqi or princely families and this paid dividends for years.
In Big Imari talks to the Pasha we discover that is doing all he can to get Jews to Israel for their own good as he seen no place for them in the future Islamic Iraq. We also read that the Iraqi fighters against Israel were not professional soldiers but Islamic inspired volunteers who mostly got killed and the coffins returned.
The book ends with the arrival in a transit camp in Israel, and the struggle to settle down adapt to the new life and the birth of a son.

Notes on the English Civil War Interregnum and Oliver Cromwell To edit

Lord Protector: Oliver Cromwell's vision for Ordered Liberty.by J. D. Moynihan 2025  159pg 4/8/25

1599 born in Huntingdon the fenland region of East Anglia. The Cromwells were connected by blood to the wealthy  and powerful through Thomas Cromwell who was Henry VIII chief minister.

His father died and he had to provide for his widowed mother and unmarried sister. He managed agricultural estates in Hunting don St. Ives and Ely in the 1630.Agricultural endeavors took place at a time of economic changes  in the  early 17C replacing traditional s subsistance farming. On  the farm he dealt with people across social barriers. Later on he was prepared  to promote soldiers based on merit and not social standing. Especially in a society where birth and connection mattered more than ability.From farming he had a understanding of the rhythm of agricultural season and this served him well in his military campaigns. 

1603 The Tudors reign ended with Queen Elizabeth 1st . James 1st a Stuart king from Scotland  was crowned in England. Even he discovered the limits placed on his power by parliament.

1605 The Gunpowder plot as the Catholics were disillusioned by James1 false promises.

1620 married Elizabeth Bouchier who brought a substantial dowry and the marriage lasted 38 yeas till his death. They had 5 sons and 3 daughters. We see the consistency of the family bonds through the decades of upheaval. We se balanced religious principles with practical flexibility in family management.

1625 Charles 1st crowned and married a French Catholic.

1628 at 29 years old Cromwell became MP for Huntington. The king had twice dissolved parliament for refusing to grant him funds. 1628 Parliament produced Petition of Right. This proclaimed that the  king could not impose taxes without parliament to stop royal overreach. 

Arminian tendencies Puritans claimed were close to Catholicism. The Kings marriage to Henrietta Marie a French  Catholic fueled Protestant anxieties'.

1629 The king dissolved parliament again through his frustration for 11 years there was Personal Rule. Thus both religion and taxation caused this breakdown.

1631 Cromwell now farmed in St Ives and Ely property inherited from a maternal uncle.

Religious practice headed towards more ceremonialism which the Puritans objected to and the king extended Ship money a tax paid to protect the coastal town to inland property. Cromwell objected to fen drainage schemes that benefited wealthy investors at the expense of common rights as small landowners had rights to fishing fowling and grazing on the fens.

Absence of parliament meant that opposition to royal policies had to find alternative networks. The Short Parliament lasted 3 weeks. The king wanted to impose Anglican practice on Scotland. The Long Parliament lasted from 1640 to 1660.

1641 Catholic Rebellion in Ireland.

1642 Cromwell MP for Cambridge emerged as recognized figure. Both the king and parliament looked for resources to fight a war and in Cambridge Cromwell intercepted a shipment of silver to support the king. Cambridgeshire began to organize armed men. Nineteen propositions were presented to the king to stop a war but Charles refused to be a constitutional monarchy.

Cromwell by emphasising discipline and cohesion rather than headlong individual charges made his forces unbeatable in pitched battle. Fighting forces needed more than just tactical knowledge, but proper support systems and clear purpose. Fighting for religious and civil liberty against tyranny. Cromwell became second in command to Earl of Manchester and led Parlements most effective armies his cavalry regiment earned the name of Ironsides, men of " iron resolution" Cromwell accepted  various Protestant perspectives. Previously the cavalry was dominated by gentlemen. Prayer meeting and scripture discussions were regular features  of army camp life. 

There were prohibitions against looting drunkenness and abusing the civilians.

1645 Marston Moor was a decisive victory by Cromwell's regiment which had few casualties. Even when Cromwell left the  field with a small wound there was no leadership vacuum till her returned. This success transformed Comwell reputation.This was  the largest battle of the civil war and 46,000 people determined the control of northern England.

The New Model army a unified nationally funded army under a central command. With merit base appointment and standardised equipment and consistent discipline.  I t was an army unlike any that had been in England.Cromwell straddled both military and political spheres and King Charles offered a bounty rewards of £10,000 .

1645 Battle of Nasby. The kings army was virtually destroyed and its baggage train was captured. King private correspondence showing he wanted to bring foreign forces against his subjects.  Thus in 3 yeas Cromwell had reshaped his career and the course of the English Civil War.

The Levelers proposed expanding male suffrage equal electoral districts ideas that challenged England social and political order and threaten property rights, and would lead to anarchy instead of liberty. The king might exploit such rifts to gain power. Cromwell attempted to find a middle ground between tradition and necessary reform.

1648 The Second Civil War  The scots prepared to invade supporting the Stuart king who had promised to establish Presbyterianism in England. Pembroke castle in Wales was sieged.  With Wales secured Cromwell marched north and won the battles of Preston to Warrington. As a student of Hebrew scripture Cromwell found parallels between contemporary events and biblical narratives. Military victory created conditions for political change.Charles was considered untrustworthy.

The Remonstrance rejected further negotiation with this "man of blood"   Pride's purge left about 70 of the 200 MPs in parliament resulting in a Rump parliament, this removed members who favoured negotiating with the king. This passed a ordinance establishing a high court of justice of 135 commissioner to try the king. They considered that power was derived from the people rather than Devine right. 59 commissioner signed the death warrant.

Cromwell  commissioned John Milton to write supporting him. The king had made promises without intention of keeping them.

For Cromwell the execution was a pragmatic response to the failure to reach a favourable settlement. This was followed by the abolition of the House of Lords

1849 Parliament officially abolished the office of king. Cromwell was now the principal authority and ultimate guarantor of the Commonwealths existence.

There were threats from Ireland and Scotland where Charles 2nd had been recognised as king. At the same time public debt chanalanged financial stability.  Cromwell lead troops against the Leveler soldiers who mutinied. Corruption in tax collection had to be dealt with. Effective service adn the common good led to effective authority.

The execution of Charles removed the head of the Church of England and Cromwell wanted to bring a pluralistic religious settlement. Religions tolerance however excluded catholics. 

1649 to 1650 Ireland was under a coalition of Catholics and Protestants royalist who declared allegiance to Charles 1st. The council of state appointed Cromwell Lieutenant Commander in Chief to reconquer Ireland. he undertook the largest  amphibious operation in history. With his use of terror, once he captured Drogheda and Westford numerous garrisons surrendered. His deputy Henry Ireton continued until he death in 1651 and  the campaign was completed by Charles fleetwood in 1653.  Over half of Ireland arable land was transferred to Protestant ownership. Many were English soldiers who received this in leu of back pay.

Scotland proclaimed Charles II king and was mobilizing. Scots were protectant who had fought in the First Civil war alongside parlement. The king said he would proclaim presbyterianism on his whole domain. Cromwell's army was in short supply but got aid at Dunbar by the english fleet. He then conquered Edinburgh  He considered that the Scots had been misled rather than opposed to godly rules. Charles army marched into England to try rally the English but later the King fled to France.

1653 Several member of the Rump parliament had enriched themselves through corruption. For Cromwell public service was a sacred trust.  Cromwell had supported practical justice like making all legal procedures in English rather than Latin and establishing county registration for lands. Since the Rump was so useless Cromwell oversaw the clearing of  the chamber. A "Barebones" parliament was meant to create a godly assembly "fit through few."

Now a document was drawn up of 42 articles by a Council of officers. This became the  "39 articles" core doctrinal standard for the Church of England. This was the first time England had a written constitution.

1653 Cromwell was made Lord Protector of England. No person could be imprisoned without due process of law, Regular compensation to state officials to reduce corruption.  No single denomination could controle pulpits.independant congregation could worship freely. Jews were allowed to return to England after being exiled in 1290. Only Catholics were excluded as they were seen as a political as well as religious threat.

Through open debate  people like John Milton emerged stronger.

1654 The First Protectorate Parliament had 400 newly elected members from across Britain. The rotton buroughs had been somewhat reduce and the protectorates legitimacy. However its potential quickly evaporated.because of radical religious groups like the Quakers and Ranters. 

Court of Chancery  this made it difficult to execute the law. Cromwell decide to find people who could do this. Localised civil marriages with Justices of the Peace became an alternate to Church ceremonies. County Registries were established to record wills and reduce corruption. Imprisonment and transportation were alternatives to execution.and a relaxation of religious based persecution.

Cromwell considered knowledge is godliness and increased funding for grammar schools. Francis Bacon (1561 to 1626) Baconian belief that knowledge should serve practical human benefits and subject from agricultural improvement to medical research were promoted.

1654 Treaty of Westminster The Anglo Dutch war was about commercial rivalry between these 2 protestant nations. Cromwell wanted a closer Protestant alliance with the Dutch.

In the war against Spain the attack on Hispaniola failed but Jamaica was obtained as a prize a very valuable property. Catholic Spains empire was both a spiritual and strategic threat to England .

1655 Penruddock's Rebellion a royalist uprising was quickly suppressed and the members were executed.

1856 To keep a standing army to secure the Protectorate required money, but Parliament refused to impose a land tax to pay for this. a commission proposed a 10% discrimination tax on Catholics and former royalists. To suppress ale houses gambling and punish blasphemy and enforce religious attendance, this represented the puritan conviction. Cromwell showed a consistent preference for merit over social status but also appointees of a more militant character. England was to be  divided into 11 military districts under commanders with broad powers.

Cromwell's foreign policy was to support Protestant interests in Europe expand English trade and nationalist prestige.

1651 Navigation Act imported good to be carried on English Ships or those of the country of origin.

1657The French recognised the Protectorate and Charles had to leave French territory and England and France joined forces against Spain.

1657 The Humble Petition and Advice. A parliamentary delegation presented Cromwell with a document to assume the title of king. He deliberated this for about 2 month where Divine providence that led to the abolition of monarch should allow restoration. Colonel Prides petition said they had hazarded their lives against kingship and could not agree to restoration. Thus there wee civilian supporters who wanted acceptance for constitutional stability and the military who considered this a betrayal.

In Westminster Hall echoes the coronation ceremony took place with purple velvet robe , sword and mace, but avoided the actual crowning to become Lord Protector. This was Cromwells pragmatic approach taking the middle ground. He also designated his eldest surviving son Richard through verbal declaration as his successor so that there would be stability. He elevated Richard despite his limitation in personality as he believed that the revolution had reached a stage of reconciliation and normalization mattered more than forceful leadership.

Cromwell was unhealth with gout and bladder or kidney stones, exposure to malarial like infection from Ireland and in 1658 his favourite daughter Elizabeth Claypoles died of terminal illness.

1658 Cromwell died on the anniversary of his greatest military victories at Dunbar, and had a royal type funeral at Westminster funeral, Richard was proclaimed Lord Protector. However this left a power vacuum.

In Breda, Charles II declared an amnesty to all former enemies.

1660  A convention of parlement formally invited the Charles II to return. His arrival showed the enduring popular attachment to monarchical government.

1661 Cromwell body was exhumed and he was posthumously executed with his head on a pole outside Westminster till 1685. Religious diversity was criminalized and Latin was reinstated for legal proceeding.

England enhanced international standing brought about by Cromwell was enhanced . The Navigation Act was fundamental to English commercial policy.

1688 -89 "The Glorious Revolution" established parliamentary supremacy and constitutional monarchy.The negative portrayal of Cromwell dominated elite British culture and  literary works of John Milton and Andrew Marwell were censored and reinterpreted to minimise their association with Cromwell.

1845 Thomas Carlyle's publication of Cromwell's letter and speeches portrayed him for  genuine religious conviction and was a major revisionist effort.

Note even after abolishing the monarchy and the House of Lords Cromwell sough to preserve the social hierarchies and property rights. He never embraced social leveling and redistribution of property. His Puritan beliefs was that governance existed to create condition for godly life and protect from tyrannical imposition.  

Afterthought - Cromwell's pragmatic adaptability in uncharted circumstances offers valuable perspective for contemporary leadership. By focussing on immediate problems while maintaining direction consistency rather ideological purity. His puritan world view offered tools for navigating uncertainly. He could act with decisiveness when circumstances required.

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 English Civil War history from beginning to end. 2016  51 pg  29/7/25

A series of disagreements between King Charles 1st and parlements. This ended in the deaths of 800,000 people.

In the years preceding you had the Bishops War in Calvinist Scotland.

In Catholic  Ireland the Ulster Rebellion

England was predominantly Protestant under the Church of England. 

It could be also called the Wars of the 3 Stuart Kingdoms.

1642 to 1646 First Civil War..

1648 Second Civil War ended in the execution of Charles 1

1649 till 1651 Third Civil War.

1534 Henry VIII with his ministre Thomas Cromwell passed the Act of Supremacy declaring replacing the Pope as head of the Church of England. He was excommunicated by the Catholic Church.

1567 James 1st the Stuart became king of England. He married his daughter Elizabeth to Frederick V and this unwittingly dragged England into the 30 Years War

1625 Charles 1st becomes king. Buckingham was his principal minister and was very unpopular and this led to a war with Catholics in Europe. Charles was married to a French Catholic and parliament would not vote money as they thought he was siding with the  Catholics. Buckingham was later assassinated. Charles like his father James believed in the Divine Right of Kings.

1929 House of Commons closed and did not meet for another 11 years.   

1629 to 1640 Charles's personal rule.

1635 A ship money was paid by port residents to keep the navy going but now it was imposed on inland ports 

1633 Wentworth was sent to Ireland to force the Irish to conform to the Church of England .

1637 Charles wanted the English book of Common Prayer to be used in Scotland, a disastrous decision that enraged the Scots.

 1642 In Nottingham Charles raised and army of his own. The terms Royalists supported the king  and Cavaliers or Roundheads because the way the shaved their head supported parliament. Parlament threatened to change the social order. Hundreds for mercenaries flocked to England when news spread of the country at war. Support was given for the  Church of England and more zealous Protestants wanted to rid the church of Catholicism. Cornwall and Wales aligned to the king. Charles retired to Oxford where he would remain and kept it as his headquarters.

1943 Parliament decisively gained the upper control.

Charles ordered a cessation of action in Ireland to bring home soldiers fighting there.

1644 by now England was divided equally in 2  Cromwell set up the New Model army of full time professional soldiers In 1645 Cromwell made Lieutenant General of the Horse only Protestant soldiers were recruited.

The Kings army was caught off guard at Naseby.

1647 The Scots handed King Charles over to Parliament for a Hefty fee.

Surrender at Colchester marked the end of the 2nd Civil war.

1648 The army conducted Prides Purge and 75 member were allowed to take part in what became the trial of Charles 1st. He was sentenced to death by 69 member of the court. The kings son immediately went into exile in Holland and began to plan his reclamation of the throne.

The execution served to galvanize Scottish and Irish support for Charles 2nd. As a Scottish monarch had bee executed and Ireland wanted independence from parliament as the king had offered them free exercise of the Catholic church and independence. Cromwell went into Ireland and defeated itin 9 months..

If Charles had not been involved in the 30 years war and needed money the civil wars would not have happened. The result was the crown lost feudal rights over the courts and the rights to levy taxes. Parlement became a permanent British institution and the Church of England ceased to be the sole religious institution

It is estimated that the proportionally more lives than WW1  Over 600,000 people died from battle and disease including soldiers and civilians.

    

History of Charles the First of England  by Jacob Abbot 2005  204pg   8/8/25

  Mary Queen of Scots made Lord Darnley her husband and they had a son who was acknowledged to be King of Scotland after his parents died. He was James and he married the princess Anne of Denmark and their children were Henry who was the robust and healthy son while his younger brother was sickly looking but Henry died when  Charles was 12 so Charles succeeded to the throne. Being weak and helpless he wa the favorite. He learned to walk late , talk late and had a speech impediment. At 20 he became an athletic ayoung man, but till age 24 his father still  called him Baby Charley.

1623 Frederic the German Palatinate prince married Charles sister Elizabeth. The prince tried to gain power over the Catholics and lost. He was disposed of his dominions and Fled to Holland. Charles and  Buckingham went to Spain to see about him marrying the Spanish princess but on the way they visited Paris where he saw princess Harriette . In Spain he could get a dispensation from the Pope to marry and the Spanish king in marrying off his daughter to the English prince hoped to gain a foothold for  the Catholic faith there. This contact to Spain ended and later  Charles married Harriet of France.

In the English Monarchy there is always a king. When the old king dies the heritatory successor takes over immediately  inducted by a fiat of heaven an absolute sacred right. He takes the right to administer the armies and laws of the realm his sovereignty. Parlements roll is to give the king advice and raise funds by taxing the people. Parliament was always trying to extend their privileges. With the death of a king the parliament expires immediately and a new king must get a new   parliament. Two day after his father death he had to appoint a renew the kings  Privy Council appointments and that of foreign ambassadors and judges. The Coronation is  just to gain public recognition of the sovereign.

Because of disagreement Charles ruled on his own without  parliament for 10 years. But he now had heavy expenses.  The new  parliament met in Oxford at Christ Church College. Parlement objected to the king toleration of Catholics and that he had a Catholic bride who had a catholic chapel and  she had French  Catholic attendants.

There were laws against sending children out the country to Catholic seminaries. Jesuits and Catholic priests as the owed allegiance to Rome should be sent away. They objected to the kings extravagance of bestowing honors and rewards. The French government needed help in La Rochelle and Buckingham brought a fleet but the sailors would not fight Protestants in France. They deserted from the ships and got home.

Buckingham wanted to attack Spanish galleons bringing silver from America but this was not done as plague broke out on ships. Bucking was stabbed to death. One  parliament after another withheld funds. The king had estates adn some resources of his own. The king started seizing goods from MPs  Kings offices were sent to arrest MPs for treason and comms refused to admit them.  The king tried to raise money by his royal prerogative. Forced loans was not successful. Government granted monopolies giving exclusive right to manufacture a product like soap for payment. The manufacture would charge enormous prices, this injured more than the government benefited. Ship money here every  ports paid to build a navy to protect them.  Charles revived this plan but it applied to the whole country.

The Dutch had fishing boats called herring busses and the English attacked these fleets. The Dutch agreed to pay this extortion. Star Court - this was used to punish the stubborn and rebellious and below are ways the raised money.

In England in parts of the country some landowners wanted to change their land from tilliage to partoral to drive the peasants away . There were laws against this and the landlord was fined.

England and scotland each had their own laws. The Church of England has bishops and clergy supported by revenues from their vast property. These bishops are appointed by noblemen or high officers of state. The Archbishop of Canterbury, he crowns the kings and has a palace in Canterbury and one in  London called Lambeth Palace . He set about aggrandizing he Church and made the most of all ceremonies and worship. Most people considered this a return to Popery. So you had either bigoted High Churchman or fanatical Puritan who objected to dancing and entertainment. 

Archbishop Laud was not content with Anglicanism to be only in England he wanted the same system in Scotland. Whatever power the church could the king got . The church had laid down a prescribed set of  prayers psalms for each day t o be read by the minister this was called The Liturgy .The Puritans objected to this and hostility became so universal it could not be enforced, and Scotland was in rebellion. In the Presbyterian church you did not have a hierarchy all priest were equal. Charles had to get the best terms he could and the Scots gained a victory and returned north.

Thomas Wentworth  became Lord of Stafford refused to give a loan to the Crown without the action of Parliament. Stafford was given a high post by the king and now supported him instead of  Parliament. Stafford now had a new set of officers, he led the kings army against the Scots but realized that he had awakened in the country and wanted to be allowed to return to his post in Ireland.  Parliament would take off the head of the kings favourite and later the kings head.

Parliament was in session for only 3 weeks when the king decided to dissolve it. The Scots started marching south the king now needed Parliament but could only recall it with new elections that would have been humiliating for the king.

1640 Parliament and the king came to London to attend it. The house immediately began to attack both Laud and Stafford. In the constitution the King Can do no wrong. If we must submit to a Pope, I would rather obey one far off on the Tiber than have him come near the thames. By the bill of attainder High treason the person would lose his life and his children were disinherited and  all property forfeited. When th e king tried to defend Stafford he awakened loud displeasure. The execution of Stafford improved the kings position. 

Laud was also arrested for treason. But the more the King yielded the more they encroached "disarming tyranny of its power " The Houses could not be prorogued or dissolved with out it own consent. The king sent officers to arrest on charge of treason 5 influential and popular members of Parliament. Then the king came to the Commons demanding in person that they act according to his instructions , something unparalleled in English history.

The 5 accused called on the government and people in London to protect them. The Commons suspended its sitting on account of the unwarranted interference of the king. The king began to fear for his own safety.

London feeling unsafe the king retreated to York to organize his followers.

A civil war is more savage and sanguine than other wars, as every village and hamlet and sometime every family is divided against itself. Each side considers the other side traitors. Generally Episcopalians joined the king Presbyterians joined Parliament. Rural districts under the landlords the king  wile cities and towns Parliament. Both side began to raise armies while fruitless negotiations took place.

The Kings guard consisted of gentlemen and their servants, while the common people served Parliament and the armies marched and ravaged the country.

Prince Rupert was a famous character in these war. he was the son of the Queens sister Elizabeth. Charles trapped in Oxford agreed to  surrendered to the Scottish army. The Scots eventually received £400,000 to hand Charles over.

Parliament with the war over wanted to disband the army but the army refused.

Scrofula is a form of tuberculosis. Known as the Kings Evil and people believed that if the king touches you will recover.

1648 the King had 2 younger children in England , the 2 older ones had escaped into exile. In England the sovereign always sign the warrant of execution. In this case the commissioners who judged the king colluded to sign themselves and 59 judges signed the warrant.

A republic was established in England called the Commonwealth  with Oliver Cromwell at the head with the title of Protector. 12 years after the execution the people of England by common consent called the son Charles II to the throne.

No stable government results from violent revolution. Insurrection and violence result in unsteady and transient governments.

Act of Oblivion by Robert Harris 2022 448pg  This novel is also on the regicide and the    restoration.  On this blog 3/2/23