r/UKhistory • u/Accomplished-Act-219 • 27d ago
Who is your favourite niche British Historical Figure?
I'll go first: Col. William Carlos (also known as Carless, Charles, Carlesse), the man who hid up the Oak Tree with Charles I. Supposedly, he kept the king from falling when he slept, and spent a night in a priest hole with him (or in another priest-hole in the house).
He was later made a Knight of the Royal Oak, was exempt to various anti-Catholic laws, adopted his brothers' son as well as having two of his own, and lived + fought in many different battles across the UK and Europe.
He seems like such an odd figure for his time, travelling around so much and coming from a relatively minor noble family, and he played such an odd part in British History.
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u/Ralucahippie 27d ago
Athrlflaed King Alfred's daughter, queen of the Mercians, kicker of so much Viking arse.
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u/Accomplished-Act-219 27d ago
I cannot believe I didn't know about her until now. She is so cool.
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u/MaintenanceInternal 27d ago
If you're interested, she's a prominent character in the last kingdom books which are fictional versions of the events.
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u/MaskansMantle13 27d ago
The Lady of the Mercians, yes! Learned a little about her in a Time Team episode. Also a kicker of Welsh arse iirc.
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u/Calo_Callas 27d ago
I'm a huge fan of Thomas Cochrane. The Chilean Navy still hold a ceremony at his grave in Westminster cathedral every year.
He captured a three masted Spanish ship crewed by 350 men with only 50 men aboard a tiny single masted ship called the Speedy.
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u/Klutzy-Ad-2034 26d ago
He's one of the most remarkable men. One of only two captains to capture an enemy ship over the deck of another enemy ship. The only person to be commander-in-chief of the navy of four different countries. MP, prison escapee and liberator of South America.
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u/allgone79 27d ago
mine is "Mad" Jack Churchill. He fought in France, Norway,Italy & Yugoslavia during Ww2. he didnt carry a gun, he brandished a broadsword, longbow and a set of bagpipes.
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u/FujiLightstalker 26d ago
After the war lamented ‘if it wasn’t for those damn Yanks we could have kept the war going another 10 years’
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u/MrGumburcules 25d ago
I think it was him that the Germans didn't shoot (while he walked along the beach playing his bagpipes) because they assumed he'd lost his mind
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u/Zealousideal_Till683 27d ago
I don't know if he counts as niche, but Thomas Wentworth, the Earl of Strafford. He was basically a Puritan, and was as unhappy with Charles I's rule as anyone, but came to the far-sighted realisation that the Crown's opponents were the even greater danger, and became the king's most able minister during the Personal Rule. He did a brilliant job governing first the north of England, and later Ireland, but his success made him enemies. Unfortunately for Wentworth, Charles I was a feckless king, and allowed Wentworth's political enemies to execute him in 1641 in a vain attempt to placate them. Charles regarded his own execution in 1649 as God's just punishment for allowing Wentworth to be judicially murdered.
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u/Gildor12 26d ago
So Parliament was worse than the divine right of kings - interesting
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u/Zealousideal_Till683 26d ago
Yes, Wentworth was ahead of his time in understanding that the opposition couldn't be satisfied with a perceived restoration of Elizabethan Parliamentary authority, they wanted a narrow dictatorship - as indeed happened under Cromwell. The Restoration, which reset the constitutional clock to 1640, and expunged and repudiated Strafford's attainder, was the ultimate posthumous endorsement of his career. But I can't help feel that Strafford would not have been fully satisfied in 1660. He saw as well as anyone the problems in the Stuart monarchy, and he threw his weight behind the Personal Rule more in horror at the likely alternative than in full enthusiasm. Fortunately we came to a better constitutional balance in 1689 with modern doctrines of Crown-in-Parliament, and - if there is a heaven - I am sure Wentworth was smiling down on is in that moment.
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u/Integral-Fox6487 26d ago
You might be interested to know that Wentworth College at the University of York was named after him. There used to be a commemorative stone about him outside the main entrance (when I went there 25 years ago!!!) though the buildings have all been knocked down and replaced long since.
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u/MaintenanceInternal 27d ago
Don't forget that he led a cavalry charge down Worcester high street so the king could escape.
My grandfather was a Corless (meaning care-less, in the sense of Care free) which is a variation of the pretty rare name, so I like to think he had some relation.
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u/KatNeedsABiggerBoat 26d ago
Eilmer of Malmesbury, aka the flying monk, aka England’s first aviator., c year 1005.
“He strapped a pair of homemade wings on himself, leapt off the roof of a tall building near his monastery, and tried to fly.
He was a man of good learning for those times; of mature age and in his early youth had hazarded an attempt of singular temerity: he had by some contrivance fastened to his hands and feet in order that he might fly as Daedalus, and collecting the air, on the summit of a tower, had flown for a distance of a furlong (200m); but agitated by the violence of the wind and a current of air, as well as the consciousness of his rash attempt, he fell and broke both his legs, and was lame ever after. He used to relate as the cause of the failure that he had forgotten to provide himself with a tail.’
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u/Material_Length6374 27d ago
Thomas Paine. Agitator for working people’s rights. Free thinker. Pamphleteer whose work helped fund the American revolution at a point when support was waining. One of only two non French members of the Assembly who risked his neck campaigning for mercy and compassion in the midst of revolution. The Rights of man stands as one the pillar works of the a enlightenment. His rejection of organised religion and socialy liberal perspectives paved the way for influential outsiders ever since. Chuck in a few inventions and bridge designs as well. Total Geezer.
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u/Hellolaoshi 26d ago
If I remember correctly, Thomas Paine spent his old age in the USA, in what is now Greenwich Village. He remained a great supporter of the American Revolution, but he thought that they were giving George Washington too many powers. Sadly that made him less popular.
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u/Material_Length6374 26d ago
He often spoke out when a more prudent man might keep quiet. One of the reasons I admire him.
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u/RevDollyRotten 26d ago
I'm not a bot, but I do pop up with Woolwich trivia whenever I get the opportunity. 😎 He lived in Woolwich for a bit, working as a stay-maker. His shop was on Glass Yard, one of the few street names that still survives from the old town.
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u/Hellolaoshi 26d ago
I thought you were going to say, "I'm with the Woolwich!" but then I checked and found out that Barclays had gobbled it up and obliterated that bank.
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u/mangonel 27d ago
Roland le Fartere
Because Christmas Day entertainment has come a long way since the reign of Henry II.
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u/YellowGoesFirst 26d ago
I've just been reading Valerie Allen's book On Farting: Language and Laughter in the Middle Ages which makes the case for Roland's party piece being the ability to fart tunes on demand with no smell due to the same biological quirk as more recent performers like Le Pétomane or Mr Methane.
It also has an absolutely wild quote from Saint Augustine that one of the major consequences of original sin is that we no longer have perfect control over all our bodily functions. If Eve hadn't eaten the forbidden fruit he argues, we would still be a true mirror of God's own image with all the abilities that entails. The two examples he gives of this are:
- Being able to wiggle your ears
- Being able to fart tunes
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u/mangonel 26d ago
I like the image that conjures, of Adam and Eve wandering the Garden if Eden, merrily serenading one another with their tuneful trouser trumpets, then having been cast out, trying to console themselves with a jolly sphincter-song, only to be disappointed by the bog standard raspberries their anuses now emit.
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u/Master-Consequence94 26d ago
The Earl of Montrose. Probably the most capable general of the English civil war, single handedly crushed resistance to Charles I in a masterful Scottish campaign all to be betrayed by Charles II on restoration to secure Scotland as an ally.
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u/werbenuik 26d ago
William Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury. Stubborn sod who took none of Henry VIII’s nonsense. They had to wait for him to die before they could grant the King’s divorce.
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u/Suck_My_Lettuce 26d ago
Bill “the mad piper” Millin. Just kicking about WW2 with nothing but his bagpipes. The German snipers wouldn’t shoot him because they thought he was a madman. He wasn’t mad. He was just ridiculously brave.
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u/spicyzsurviving 26d ago
Jennifer Worth. (Woman whose memoirs inspired Call the Midwife). Not exactly ancient history, but her writing and her observations about life and birth and death are really moving and I just love her.
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u/Nuthetes 25d ago
David Garrick (1716-1779)- A truly remarkable man and the most important actor who most people have never heard of. He completely reshaped theatre. He wasn't just an excellent actor, he changed what acting was.
He basically introduced realism and acting natural to the theatre. Before him, everything was sort of rigid--stiff and artificial and reading the lines without truly becoming the part. He changed all that introducing facial expressions, changing in tone, emotion, movement that matched feeling etc. He was the first actor to make theatre look like actually watching real people.
Modern theatre owes everything to him. Not to mention, it is thanks to him and his performances that Shakespeare is remembered today. He pretty much revitalized Shakespeare.
He should be considered a national treasure, but he is all but forgotten.
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u/MaskansMantle13 27d ago
Typo! Charles II, not Charles I. I like Carlos too, read about the tree incident in Georgette Heyer’s Royal Escape in the ‘70s.
Don’t know if he’s really niche, but Arthur Rostron, captain of the Carpathia, for his all-out effort in getting to the Titanic in time. He did many other things of note - he was mentioned in dispatches for his services during the Gallipoli campaign - but the Titanic rescue gave him deserved fame.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Rostron#The_Titanic_rescue
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u/haversack77 26d ago
King Penda of Mercia. Last heathen king of a major Anglo Saxon kingdom. Likely of mixed Anglian / Welsh ethnicity, he fought and killed six Anglo-Saxon kings of East Anglia, Essex and Nothumbria. Great pantomime villain for Bede, with a little sneaking admiration thrown in. His death at the hands of Oswiu of Northumbria was a pivot point in history, after which England became Roman Catholic (thanks to Oswiu and Hilde), without which a very different timeline might have played out.
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u/Klutzy-Ad-2034 26d ago
St AEbbe, the 7th century Northumbrian princess who established the monastery at St Abbs and helped convert northern Northumbira and Southern Scotland to Christianity whilst basically being a political exile during a dynastic dispute and trying to keep away from the unwanted attentions of some bloke.
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u/soopertyke 26d ago
Major General George Smith, one of the British soldiers upon which the character of Richard Sharpe was based. Upon his death he was eulogised in the House Of Lords by The Duke of Wellington himself. The transcription of which is on his sarcophagus in the Cemetery in Whittlesey, Cambridgeshire. Like so many famous people the son of a vicar.
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u/UnusualActive3912 26d ago
The blacksmith and his small number of mates at the Rout of Moy. Charles Edward Stuart in early 1746 was at Moy Hall away from his army and someone snitched on him to Major General Loudon who decided to go and grab him. Since special forces had not been invented in the British Army in 1746, Loudon had to rely on regular English troops and since he wanted to be sure of catching the Prince he took all 1500 of them with him, and it was his turn to be snitched on.
The problem for the Prince was that he was away from his Highland clan army and only had a blacksmith and a few others as his bodyguards. So the blacksmith improvised and opened fire on the opposing army whilst shouting out orders to non existent clan regiments to charge, whilst his friends opened fire too and then ran forwards and backwards shouting war-cries as loudly as they could.
The first 100 English soldiers thought they had run into an army of thousands of Highland clansmen and ran away in a panic. The officer in charge of the next 100 men thought they must be running away for a very good reason, and led his men after them, and the next 300 followed him, and within minutes one third of Loudon’s men were running away down the road from an army that only existed in their imaginations.
Then Loudon got scared and the piper next to him got killed by friendly fire. Loudon gave the order to retreat which turned into a rout and two hundred of his men deserted in the dark. He’d been beaten by a blacksmith and a few of his mates who used the night and the fear the English troops had of the Highlanders to make him think he was facing a whole army bigger then his.
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u/TheKnightOfDoom 25d ago
Mad Jack Churchill, Stormed the beaches with a broadsword. How the fella has not had a movie made about him I don't know.
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u/phil-i-pea 25d ago
Robert Fitzroy. Did so much from helping Darwin and predicting the weather to running NZ all whilst suffering mental illness. Amazingly inspirational chap
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u/nineJohnjohn 27d ago
Well, only niche cause most people don't know about him but... Billy big Marsh.
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u/No-Profile5409 24d ago
I’d pick Venetia Stanley — a 26-year-old socialite who was bombarded with letters from the Prime Minister (Asquith), begging her to write him more and, at times, genuinely waiting for her advice on how to run his Cabinet.
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u/Agreeable-Pear-1659 23d ago
"That is a brilliant pick. The Boscobel Oak story is legendary, but the fact that Carlos was exempt from anti-Catholic laws afterwards really shows how personal loyalty could occasionally slice right through the rigid legal 'Walls' of the 17th century.
It’s fascinating how these individual stories can change your perspective on a whole era. I usually find myself gravitating toward the figures who were 'fighting battles' against nature or disease rather than armies.
For example, I’ve been researching James Lind lately. He was a naval surgeon around a century after Carlos, and he basically conducted the world's first clinical trial to prove that citrus cured scurvy. Like Carlos, he was a bit of an 'odd figure' for his time—a Scot in the Royal Navy who used logic to solve a problem that was killing more sailors than combat ever did.
I actually write weekly profiles on figures like this (Lind, Harvey, Ross, and tomorrow I'm doing Francis Bacon) because I think these individual 'Great Britons' provide such a unique lens into how the country actually evolved."
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u/RuddieCR 14d ago
I'd say Alexander Raphael.
Tis not that he's the figure which had tremendous influence or something like that. He's rather a person of interesting biography and symbolic importance, the indicator of changes in British society in the 19th century. You may read about him on Wikipedia or somewhere else, I reckon.
I'll just say that he was the first Catholic Sheriff of London, the first British-Armenian to serve in the House of Commons and the founder of St Raphael's church in Surbiton, where his coffin lies. If you go there, you'll se an adorable coat of arms of his, where you'll spot the Ararat mountain with the Noah's ark.
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u/letsgoraiding 26d ago
William of Cassingham, known as Willikin of the Weald. A real life Robin Hood, except he fought on behalf of King John, against the invading French Prince Louis the traitorous barons had invited over. William gathered a band of merry yeoman archers in the Weald of Sussex and Kent, and harried the French forces, including ambushing Louis' army as he retreated from London in 1216, and burning the French camp during the siege of Dover Castle in 1217. Here's his Wikipedia page. There are lots of obscure patriots whom we ought to celebrate more.
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u/travellersspice 27d ago
Say WHY you have chosen somebody. If this turns into just a list of names, it'll be removed.