History is full of all sorts of things. Some of those things are commonly known, we take a look at some events from history you won’t believe happened! There are so many to choose from.
Hello, and welcome to the Not-So-Romantic blog. My name is Andy Lickley and today we’re taking a look at some events from history you won’t believe happened. I certainly didn’t when I was researching these events. We’ll be looking at Napoleon taking on a hoard of rabbits, a never ending dance show, a lioness taking the role of Dick Turpin and a historical Ancient Greek belief about vampires.
Napoleon vs. Rabbits
Here’s a question I bet you never thought you’d ask yourself… was Napoleon defeated by rabbits? The answer is- yes.
Napoleon could be a blog/ book in his own right but here’s a two paragraph really top level summary of who he was to make sure we all know who I’m talking about.
Napoleon Bonaparte was a famous leader from France who lived over 200 years ago. He started out as a smart and brave soldier and rose through the ranks to become the ruler of France. He became emperor and was known for winning lots of battles and changing how countries were run. He helped create new laws that many people still use today, and he built schools so more children could get an education- bet the children loved that.
But Napoleon wasn’t always successful. He tried to take over too many places, including Russia, and ended up losing a lot of his army. His final big battle was called the Battle of Waterloo, and after losing it, he was sent far away to live on an island until he died on the 5th of May 1821.
This event from history happened on a day that Napoleon organised a rabbit hunt for his army. He had the rabbits released and instead of running for their lives the rabbits turned around and sprinting as fast as they could towards the army- a bold move! I should mention as well there were around 3000 rabbits in this charge.
This caused confusion and panic in the army and forced them to retreat. Many professional armies fell to Napoleon’s military strength but they were conquered by a hoard of rabbits- even Napoleon apparently had to take shelter in his carriage.
It turns out that instead of getting “wild rabbits” Napoleon’s chief of staff had got tame and domesticated rabbits from local farms and they probably thought they were being fed.
This story was kept fairly quiet to save Napoleon’s “fearsome image” but the story came out and well known in later historical accounts… There might well have been some embellishment going on mind you.
The dancing plague
If you’re anything like me, you’ll enjoy throwing down some moves on the dancefloor now and again. I’ll admit that my dancing doesn’t progress much beyond “dad dancing” but I’m enthusiastic which is the main thing, right?
In Strasbourg, Alsace – now France- dance mania reached a whole new level back in 1518.
In July of 1518, a woman by the name of Frau Troffea started to dance in the street and over the next week more and more people started to join in until – according some accounts- there was anywhere between 50 and 400 people dancing all at the sametime!
What caused this dance mania? Was it fear of missing out? In reality, we’ll probably never know the cause of it. Some theories include, mass hysteria, ergot poisoning – wheat being infected with something- and some sort of religious implications.
Don’t worry if you don’t quite believe this one happened- I wasn’t convinced myself- but there is plenty of historical records and accounts that confirm this dancing plague was really a thing!
The highway lioness
Back in the early 1800s, mail- like letters and stuff- were transported around the country via what were called mailcoaches. They weren’t anything special to be honest. Just a coach pulled by upto four horses. Because they travelled all around the country, people could purchase tickets to travel with the mail and get around the country on the stagecoaches as well.
I’m not just talking about Mail Coaches for no reason. This event from history you won’t believe happened, happened on Sunday 20th October 1816.
This particular Mail Coach- nicknamed quicksilver for its speed- was travelled from Exeter – in England- to London. About half way through the journey the driver glanced down to see a lioness- a lady lion- running alongside the Mail Coach.
I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t have been the most comfortable with a lioness accompanying me on a journey. It wouldn’t be at all Roar-Some. It would honestly be petrifying.
Now, the problem here, is the driver didn’t recognise the animal as a lioness and presumed it was a cow calf. You’ll have your own opinions but to my eyes a calf doesn’t look anything like a lioness. Their feet look completely different- I suppose their tails are very similar though. Surely the teeth would be a giveaway?
Anyway, I’ll carry on before I get too fixated on that point.
As the Mail Coach approached Winterslow coaching inn- in Wiltshire- the lioness attacked and decided one of the horses would make a lovely meal after all the running. Naturally, the passengers on board, the driver and the Mail Coach guard decided they didn’t want to be on the coach anymore and dashed into the coaching inn and barricaded themselves inside.
Unfortunately for the guard, he was on the outside of the door when they barricaded it- talk about every man for himself eh? The guard- real name Joseph Pike- had a job of ensuring that the mail remained safe and secure and, despite his earlier terror fleeing- was determined a lioness wouldn’t mean people didn’t get their post. So, he grabbed his trusty blunderbuss gun.
Before he could fire a man by the name of Mr. Ballard appeared and begged Joseph Pike not to shoot the lioness. It turns out the lioness had escaped from Mr. Ballards menagerie of animals- a collection of wild animals captured and kept in cages for public display- kind of like the early zoos, but smaller and more private.
Mr.Ballard set his dog- I’m guessing it was bigger than a Yorkshire terrier- which spooked the lioness into running way and hiding under the grain store where she was removed and returned to the menagerie. Mr. Ballard also bought the horse the lioness had ridden to keep as part of his animal collection as well.
To put everyone’s mind at ease, the Royal Mail were quick to announce that no mail had been damaged or lost during the ordeal- we’ll all sleep easier knowing that eh? The Mail Coach was delayed by 45 minutes while a new horse was found- not a bad delay time considering the coach was attack by a lioness!
What do you think of this event from history?
Red heads turn into vampires?
This one is a weird one- because naturally the other three have been the height of sanity…
In Ancient Greece they believed that when red haired people died they turned into vampires. What made them think this? The stereotypical pale skin and sensitivity to sunlight probably- just like a vampire.
There isn’t any major evidence that they treated the bodies any different from anyone else when they died so I think we can probably say that Ancient Greeks weren’t afraid of vampires… do they eat a lot of garlic in Greece?
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