History, or indeed any story, often isn’t as straightforward as we like to think. For one thing, there are some surprising things that have, so to speak, slipped our memory down through the centuries.
Like the time Elizabeth the First rescued Scotland from the French, and didn’t try to outlast her welcome.
Or the demagogues of the French Revolution whipping up the winds of war for their own ends, as Mam’selle Guillotine claimed yet another victim.
Or Francis Drake sailing round the world, and taking on the whole Spanish Empire with a single ship.
A lot gets forgotten in history …
But we can vividly remember and rediscover it if we read widely enough.
There are, if we choose to look, many unexpected “aspects” of history like that, which suddenly make something that seemed dull, full of life and colour. Strange how that happens when we remember that the past was human.
When there’s a battle for the soul of mankind, as there frequently is, it’s important to realise what’s gone before. Because otherwise, the tides of history will sweep us out to sea in a strangely familiar way … and it’s déjà vu all over again.