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Gunpowder Plot (rank 1 – most important)
In British history, the Catholic conspiracy to blow up James I and his parliament on 5 November 1605. It was discovered through an anonymous letter. Guy Fawkes was found in the cellar beneath the Palace of Westminster, ready to fire a store of explosives. Several of the conspirators were killed as they fled, and Fawkes and seven others were captured and executed.
In 1604 the conspirators, led by Robert Catesby, took possession of a vault below the House of Lords where they stored barrels of gunpowder. Lord Monteagle, a Catholic peer, received the anonymous letter warning him not to attend Parliament on 5 November. A search was made, and Guy Fawkes was discovered in the vault and arrested.
The event is commemorated annually in England on 5 November by fireworks and burning 'guys' (effigies) on bonfires. The searching of the vaults of Parliament before the opening of each new session, however, was not instituted until the Popish Plot of 1678.
Anti-Corn Law League (rank 2)
An extra-parliamentary pressure group formed in the UK in September 1838 by Manchester industrialists, and led by Liberals Richard Cobden and John Bright. It argued for free trade and campaigned successfully against duties on the import of foreign corn to Britain imposed by the Corn Laws, which were repealed in 1846.
Campaigning on a single issue, the league initiated strategies for popular mobilization and agitation including mass meetings, lecture tours, pamphleteering, opinion polls, and parliamentary lobbying. Reaction by the conservative landed interests was organized with the establishment of the Central Agricultural Protection Society, nicknamed the Anti-League. In June 1846 political pressure, the state of the economy, and the Irish situation prompted Prime Minister Peel to repeal the Corn Laws.
Stamford Bridge, Battle of (rank 3)
Battle on 25 September 1066 at Stamford Bridge, a crossing of the Derwent 14 km/9 mi northeast of York, England, at which Harold II defeated and killed Harold Hardraada, King of Norway, and Tostig, the English king's exiled brother. Harold then marched south to face the Normans at the Battle of Hastings.
Harold was in the south with an army he had collected to meet the anticipated invasion by the Normans, and upon news of the Norse invasion immediately marched north. He confronted the Norse army at Stamford Bridge and offered Harald generous compensation if he retired or seven feet of earth for a grave if he stayed. Harald elected for the latter and a fierce battle ensued, in the course of which both Harald and Tostig were killed and the Norse army driven back to their ships, to flee to Norway. A few days later, news came that William the Conqueror had landed at Pevensey; Harold marched south and with a weary army fought the Battle of Hastings.
livery and maintenance (rank 4)
In England, the traditional marks of a man's relation to his lord; livery being the uniform of the lord and maintenance the help a lord would give his followers in legal cases, often by illegal means or coercion of the courts. The practice led to widespread corruption and abuses of the legal system and Henry VII passed a series of acts against it but these largely amounted to little more than a system of licenses. Until the advent of a standing army in the 17th century kings depended on their lords having strong retinues, and so could do little to act against their followers.
propaganda, World War I (rank 5 – most specialized)
The promotion of biased or misleading information was used on all sides in World War I to encourage recruitment and uphold morale among the civilian and military population. Information coming from the front had to be censored, and a constant flow of good news kept up through the newspapers and cinema. In the UK the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) of August 1914 ensured government control over information, the penalty for spreading uncensored information being imprisonment. The War Office Press Bureau was established in 1914 to control news about the war, along with the War Propaganda Bureau to produce positive posters and pamphlets. Letters home were heavily censored; eventually soldiers were provided with pre-printed postcards containing positive statements to tick and sign, allowing no indication of the terrible casualties and conditions on the Western Front.
War Office Press Bureau
All news from the Western Front had to pass through the War Office Press Bureau for censorship. The 'information' was then given a final check by the war minister Lord Kitchener before its release to the press. This system filtered out any bad news, so that the resulting stories published in Britain's national and local newspapers became government propaganda. With the power to imprison without trial instituted under DORA, newspaper editors were forced to spread the messages that the government wanted the public to hear.
War Propaganda Bureau
The UK government produced its own propaganda pamphlets, posters, and paintings using the War Propaganda Bureau. Well-known authors and artists were recruited, such as Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book (1894–95), and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, creator of the Sherlock Holmes detective series. These authors were used to instil positive feelings about the war.
Throughout the war the British government and the armed forces used propaganda techniques to produce posters for recruitment, playing on the emotions and patriotism of the nation. As early as 1914 posters showed Kitchener pointing out towards the viewer with the message 'Join Your Country's Army'. In 1915 another image showed a woman watching her husband marching off to war under the caption 'Women of Britain say GO!' Men would be shamed and threatened into joining the army by poster images of their future children asking them what they did in the war. The power of persuasion based on appeal to social pressures was very strong and provided good results for the war effort. Messages of unity and the inevitability of victory made those who had doubts about the war less likely to spread their negative feelings for fear of being branded as unpatriotic and anti-British.
Censorship of correspondence
To ensure that information did not get back to the British public from the soldiers at the front, their private letters were heavily censored. No information about military positions or battles could be given, for the obvious risk that this might fall into enemy hands. However, the soldiers were also banned from telling their families how bad conditions were in the trenches for fear that this would spread alarm and despondency back home. All letters were checked and any offending passages blacked out. To speed up this process, basic pre-printed postcards for soldiers to use were produced to ensure that no real information could be given. A list of statements were given on the postcard, and the soldier just had to tick those that were most appropriate. The statements were worded to guarantee that a positive message would be communicated even if the soldier were injured. Nothing personal could be written on the postcard or it would be destroyed. In this way the British government and leaders of the armed forces kept control over a possible source of information about the actual casualties and conditions of war on the Western Front.
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