‘Forget not to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.’ ‘Peidiwch ag anghofio llety-garwch, oherwydd trwyddo y mae rhai, heb wybod hynny, wedi rhoi llety i angylion.’ Y Llythyr at yr Hebreaid/ Letter to the Hebrews, chapter 13: 2. Introduction – Providing Sanctuary: In recent weeks and months, there has been much discussionContinue reading “Entertaining Strangers as Angels – Chilean Refugees in Wales, 1974-2024”
Category Archives: Central Europe
The Peacemakers/ Y Tangnefeddwyr
The recent confluence of several events, from Donald Trump’s announcement of the renaming of the US Department of Defence as the War Department to the Last Night of the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, featuring the Kanneh-Mason family playing their favourite Welsh folk song, Ar Lán Y Mor (‘Along the Seashore’), also mine, promptedContinue reading “The Peacemakers/ Y Tangnefeddwyr”
The Bloodied Sword, the Precious Pearl and the Black Cross; Chronicles of the Royal House of Wessex – VI
Episode Six: End of Dynasty – Exit the Cerdicingas, Enter the Angevins: Scene Sixty-four; October 1173 – The Battle of Fornham, Bury St Edmunds and the Revolt of 1173-74: By the early 1170s, the king had already decided that, after his death, his dominions should be partitioned between his three eldest sons. Young Henry wasContinue reading “The Bloodied Sword, the Precious Pearl and the Black Cross; Chronicles of the Royal House of Wessex – VI”
The Bloodied Sword, the Precious Pearl and the Black Cross; Chronicles of the Royal House of Wessex – II.
Episode Two: Conquest, Flight and Resistance, 1066-70 Scene Twenty; 1066 – The Norman Invasion: After Hardrada’s defeat at Stamford Bridge, Harold was holding a celebratory feast at York, when news arrived of the Norman landing on the beach at Pevensey, 270 miles away. Harold’s army made the journey in under a fortnight, while Harold, onContinue reading “The Bloodied Sword, the Precious Pearl and the Black Cross; Chronicles of the Royal House of Wessex – II.”
The Bloodied Sword, the Precious Pearl and the Black Cross; Chronicles of the Royal House of Wessex – I.
Episode One Above: Hungarians at Kyív – a painting by Pál Vágó (1853-1928). It is extremely difficult to maintain, based on archaeological relics that have been unearthed in territories now forming part of Ukraine, that these objects are unmistakably the relics of the ancient Hungarians, or Magyars. It is probable, though, that as a resultContinue reading “The Bloodied Sword, the Precious Pearl and the Black Cross; Chronicles of the Royal House of Wessex – I.”
Is Hungary’s Appeasement of Putin Justified by its Past Experiences? V
Chapter Five: Hungary under Horthy – In the Eye of the Hurricane: It was largely the impossibility of reconstructing the order of Europe and the wider world as it was in January 1919 that swept away the ‘pacifist democracy’ that took over Hungary at the end of the First World War. It thwarted the firstContinue reading “Is Hungary’s Appeasement of Putin Justified by its Past Experiences? V”
Is Hungary’s Appeasement of Putin Justified by its Past Experiences? IV
Chapter Four: What was/ is Appeasement? – Hungary in The Era of the Two World Wars. Preface: Present Day ‘appeasers’? On 8th July 2024, Hungary’s Prime Minister and current President of the European Council paid another visit, on his own initiative, to Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Later the same day, the Kremlin launched yet anotherContinue reading “Is Hungary’s Appeasement of Putin Justified by its Past Experiences? IV”
Is Hungary’s Appeasement of Putin Justified by its Past Experiences? III
Chapter Three – From Sarajevo to War & Revolutions, 1914-1919: Archduke Franz Ferdinand favoured a policy of reconciliation with the Slavs in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Because of this attitude, he was disliked both by the traditional ruling élite in Vienna and the Magyar bourgeois statesmen of Hungary. The Slavs within the empire, seeking union withContinue reading “Is Hungary’s Appeasement of Putin Justified by its Past Experiences? III”
Is Hungary’s Appeasement of Putin Justified by its Past Experiences? II
Chapter Two: All Roads Led to Sarajevo – How Austria-Hungary Went to War in 1914: The Trigger: On 28th June 1914, the heir to the Austrian and Hungarian thrones, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, paid a visit to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, which had been occupied by Austria-Hungary in 1878, and annexed by Emperor Franz JosefContinue reading “Is Hungary’s Appeasement of Putin Justified by its Past Experiences? II”
Is Hungary’s Appeasement of Putin Justified by its Past Experiences?
Introduction: The recent attempted assassination of the Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Fico, reminded many Hungarians, along with other Central Europeans, of the events leading to the outbreak of the First World War which ended with the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Hungary’s loss of two-thirds of its 1914 territories (as part of the ‘DualContinue reading “Is Hungary’s Appeasement of Putin Justified by its Past Experiences?”
Andrew James 