Famous People Throughout History

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William Wallace

It is not known exactly when William Wallace was born but many believe it was in 1270. He is regarded as Scotland's national hero because of his stand against the English King Edward I, and was responsible for many uprisings and discontent with the English occupation of Scotland.

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Homer, The Greek Poet

Homer was the earliest and most famous poet of ancient Greece. No one knows for certain when and where he lived, nor what sort of a life he led, but various stories about him were told and believed to be true by the Greeks themselves.

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Mary, Queen of Scots

Mary, Queen of Scots was born a Catholic at Linlithgow Palace, West Lothian, Scotland on 8 December 1542. She was the daughter of King James V of Scotland and his French wife Mary of Guise so was the rightful heir to the Scottish throne.

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William Pitt the Younger

William Pitt the Younger was the greatly admired son of William Pitt the Elder. He rose to become Britain's youngest prime minister in 1784 when he was just 24 years of age after spending one highly successful year as Chancellor of the Exchequer

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Derek Bentley - Unfairly Hanged in 1953

Derek William Bentley (1933-1953) was hanged in Wandsworth Prison, London for the 1952 murder of a policeman which he did not commit. He was unfairly convicted as a party to murder by the English law principle of joint enterprise used at the time.

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Queen Elizabeth I

Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn and born at Greenwich Palace on 7 September 1533. She had a very difficult early childhood as her mother was executed by the king on 19 May 1536 and later, when she was just three years old, her half-sister Mary had her imprisoned.

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Queen Anne

Anne was born on 6 February 1665 at St. James's Palace, London and became Queen of England, Scotland and Ireland on St George's Day, 8 March 1702. A few years later, in 1707, the kingdoms of England and Scotland united as a single sovereign state known as Great Britain under the Acts of the Union.

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Queen Mary

Mary, the Catholic daughter of King Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, was a woman of plain features, but like all the Tudors, possessed a resolute spirit and determined courage. Mary was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death in 1558.

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Sir Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Raleigh, born in Budleigh Salterton, Devon in 1554, was a great favourite of Queen Elizabeth I and first attended the queen's court in 1581. In the early days at court the queen was impressed by his humour, impecible manners and his handsome appearance.

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Wat Tyler, Peasants Revolt in 1381

Wat Tyler (full name Walter Tyler) was the leader of the English Peasants' Revolt in 1381 during the reign of the 14 year old King Richard II. The revolt was triggered by the shortage of labour since the Black Death swept through Europe killing one third of the population.

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Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Engineer

Isambard Kingdom Brunel was one of the greatest engineers of the Industrial Revolution in Victorian times. He was born on 9 April 1806 near Portsmouth and was responsible for many of the biggest constructions of the time.

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Richard the Lionheart

Richard became king of England in 1189 and was the third son of King Henry II and Duchess Eleanor of Aquitaine. He spent most of his childhood in England but spent most of his adult life in south-west France where he was more concerned with defending his French lands and properties.

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Sitting Bull, Lakota Sioux Chief

Sitting Bull was the Indian (Native American) chief who united the various Sioux tribes in their struggle to survive on the North American Great Plains after gold was found in the Black Hills of South Dakota by Custer's expedition in 1874.

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King Henry VII

King Henry VII was a wise king and his reign finally brought a time of peace to England after the Wars of the Roses ended after more than 30 years with King Richard III's death at the battle of Bosworth.

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King Edward V

Edward, Prince of Wales was only thirteen years old when his father Edward IV died, and his brother Richard, Duke of York was just ten years old. The Prince of Wales and his brother Richard were brought to a palace in the Tower of London by his uncle as several loyal noblemen feared for Edward's safety.

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King Richard III

Just before King Edward V and Richard, Duke of York were murdered in the Tower of London, Richard, Duke of Gloucester had himself proclaimed king after telling the people that the young princes had died suddenly. Richard's first problem was a cousin of his, the Duke of Buckingham, who had helped him become king in return for certain promises.

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Sir Thomas More (1478-1535)

Sir Thomas More was born in the City of London on 7th February 1478 and was the son of the prominent lawyer Sir John More and his wife Agnes. He was executed on Tower Hill in London on 6th July 1535 for being brave enough to oppose King Henry VIII.

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Thomas Telford (1757-1834)

In 1793 Telford became engineer for the Ellesmere Canal. This was planned to join the Severn at Shrewsbury with the Dee and Mersey rivers, but it was never completed. Instead of leading the canal across the Vale of Llangollen by using a series of locks to follow the dip of the land, Telford built an aqueduct.

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Vasco da Gama, Explorer

Many of the world's great seamen and explorers have been Portuguese and one of the greatest of these was Vasco da Gama, the first man to find a sea route to India. Da Gama sailed from Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, in ]uly 1497 and by November he had safely reached the Cape of Good Hope.

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Giuseppe Garibaldi - Achievements for Italy

The son of a seaman, he was born on July 4, 1807, in Nice, which is now in France but was then an Italian town. From his earliest years he loved adventure, and at the age of 15 tried to run away to sea. With his father's agreement he later went to sea and by the time he was 25 had worked his way from cabin boy to captain.

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King George I

George I was born in Hanover, Germany on 28 May 1660 and was king of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death in 1727. The nearest blood relative at the time was the son of James II who was a Roman Catholic, George was Protestant.

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King George II

George II was born and brought up in Hanover, northern Germany in 1683 and was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1727 until his death in 1760. His reign was aided by the Acts of Union 1707, which restricted the succession to Protestants, and was not without problems caused by foreign wars, civil war and family disputes.

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The Reign of King George III

George III reigned from 1760 to 1801 as King of Great Britain and Ireland and as King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1801 until his death in 1820. His reign was longer than any other British monarch before him.

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Elizabeth Fry, Prison Reformer

Elizabeth Fry, born Elizabeth Gurney to a Quaker family in 1780, first became concerned about prison conditions when she was a young teenager living in Norwich and listened to a sermon by the American Quaker called William Savery.

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Bonnie Prince Charlie

Bonnie Prince Charlie was born in Rome where he enjoyed a life of comfort and privilege. In England, he was known as The Young Pretender to the thrones of England and Scotland. His first attempt at reclaiming the throne started with the Jacobite uprising in 1745 which ended in failure and final defeat at the battle of Culloden.

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