This is a translation of the 'Memoires of Jacques du Clercq', published in 1823 in two volumes, edited by Frederic, Baron de Reissenberg. In his introduction Reissenberg writes: 'Jacques du Clercq tells us that he was born in 1424, and that he was a licentiate in law and a counsellor to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, in the castellany of Douai, Lille, and Orchies. It appears that he established his residence at Arras. In 1446, he married the daughter of Baldwin de la Lacherie, a gentleman who lived in Lille. We read in the fifth book of his Memoirs that his father, also named Jacques du Clercq, had married a lady of the Le Camelin family, from Compiègne. His ancestors, always attached to the counts of Flanders, had constantly served them, whether in their councils or in their armies.' The Memoires cover a period of nineteen years beginning in in 1448, ending in in 1467. It appears that the author had intended to extend the Memoirs beyond that date; no doubt illness or death prevented him from carrying out this plan. As Reissenberg writes the 'merit of this work lies in the simplicity of its narrative, in its tone of good faith, and in a certain air of frankness which naturally wins the reader’s confidence.' Du Clercq ranges from events of national and international importance, including events of the Wars of the Roses in England, to simple, everyday local events such as marriages, robberies, murders, trials and deaths, including that of his own father in Book 5; one of his last entries.
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1850-1900 Second Half of the 19th Century is in 19th Century Events.
In 1851 Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom [aged 31] appointed two Knights of the Garter:
706th Constantine Phipps 1st Marquess Normanby [aged 53].
707th Charles Wentworth-Fitzwilliam 5th and 3rd Earl Fitzwilliam [aged 64].
On 2nd February 1852. Around 1am, following a period of heavy rain, the embankment of the Bilberry reservoir collapsed, releasing 86 million gallons of water down the River Holme. It caused 81 deaths and a large amount of damage to property in the valley leaving many homeless and without work. The buildings and structures destroyed included four mills, ten dye houses, three drying stoves, 27 cottages, seven tradesmen's houses, seven shops, seven bridges crossing the River Holme, ten warehouses, eight barns and stables.
The flood was featured on the front page of the Illustrated London News the following day.
Between 7th July 1852 and 31 Jul 1852 Robert Windsor-Clive [aged 28] was elected MP Ludlow.
On Friday 6th November 1854 a great fire in which significant parts of Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland [Map] and Gateshead, County Durham, were destroyed in a series of fires and an explosion which killed 53 and injured hundreds. There is only one building extant on the Newcastle Quayside which predated the fire.
The 1854 Broad Street Cholera Outbreak, aka Golden Square Cholera Outbreak, as a severe outbreak of cholera that occurred in 1854 near Broad Street (which has since been renamed Broadwick Street) in Soho, London. This outbreak, which killed 616 people, is best known for the physician John Snow's study of its causes and his hypothesis that germ-contaminated water was the source of cholera
In 1855 Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom [aged 35] appointed five Knights of the Garter:
709th George Howard 7th Earl Carlisle [aged 52].
711th Francis Leveson Gower aka Egerton 1st Earl Ellesmere [aged 54].
712th George Hamilton-Gordon 4th Earl Aberdeen [aged 70].
713th Emperor Napoléon III [aged 46].
714th King Victor Emmanuel II of Sardinia [aged 34].
On 6th June 1855 Captain George Frederick Dawson [aged 28] was killed at the Siege of Sevastopol.
On 23rd July 1855 Edward Fitz-Clarence [aged 18] was killed at the Siege of Sevastopol.
Edwyn Sherard Burnaby [aged 25] and Henry Hugh Manvers Percy [aged 37] fought.
After 1855. St Asaph Cathedral [Map]. Memorial to John and James Blewer killed at the Siege of Sevastopol.
The Battle of the Great Redan was a major battle during the Crimean War, fought between British forces against Russia on 18 June [1855] and 8th of September 1855.
On the 7th September the bombardment opened, and continued until noon of the 8th. The signal for the British to begin their assault (the flag of St. George raised over the Mamelon) was then made and the British then assaulted the Great Redan.
Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes
Récits d’un bourgeois de Valenciennes aka The Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes is a vivid 14th-century vernacular chronicle written by an anonymous urban chronicler from Valenciennes in the County of Hainaut. It survives in a manuscript that describes local and regional history from about 1253 to 1366, blending chronology, narrative episodes, and eyewitness-style accounts of political, military, and social events in medieval France, Flanders, and the Low Countries. The work begins with a chronological framework of events affecting Valenciennes and its region under rulers such as King Philip VI of France and the shifting allegiances of local nobility. It includes accounts of conflicts, sieges, diplomatic manoeuvres, and the impact of broader struggles like the Hundred Years’ War on urban life in Hainaut. Written from the perspective of a burgher (bourgeois) rather than a monastery or royal court, the chronicle offers a rare lay viewpoint on high politics and warfare, reflecting how merchants, townspeople, and civic institutions experienced the turbulence of the 13th and 14th centuries. Its narrative style combines straightforward reporting of events with moral and civic observations, making it a valuable source for readers interested in medieval urban society, regional politics, and the lived experience of war and governance in pre-modern Europe.
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The London Gazette 21997. 7th Regiment. Lieutenant William Hope. Date of Act of Bravery, 18th June, 1855.
After the troops had retreated on the morning of the 18th June, 1855, Lieutenant W. Hope being informed by the late Serjeant-Major William Bacon, who was himself wounded, that Lieutenant and Adjutant Hobson was lying outside the trenches badly wounded, went out to look for him, and found him lying in the old agricultural ditch running towards the left flank of the Redan. He then returned, and got four men to bring him in. Finding, however, that Lieutenant Hobson could not be removed without a stretcher, he then ran back across the open to Egerton's Pit, where he procured one, and carried it to where Lieutenant Hobson was lying.
All this was done under a very heavy fire from the Russian batteries.
7th Regiment. Assistant-Surgeon Thomas Egerton Hale, M.D. Date of Act of Bravery, 8th September, 1855
First. For remaining with an officer who was dangerously wounded, (Captain H. M. Jones, 7th Regiment), in the fifth parallel, on 8th September, 1855, when all the men in the immediate neighbourhood retreated, excepting Lieutenant W. Hope and Dr. Hale; and for endeavouring to rally the men, in conjunction with Lieutenant W. Hope, 7th Royal Fusiliers.
Secondly. For having, on 8th September, 1855, after the regiments had retired into the trenches, cleared the most advanced sap of the wounded, and carried, into the sap, under a heavy fire, several wounded men from the open ground, being assisted by Serjeant Charles Fisher, 7th Royal Fusiliers, Coldstream Guards (late of the 49th Regiment). Brevet-Major John Augustus Conolly Date of Act of Bravery, 26th October, 1854.
In the attack by the Russians against the position held by the Second Division, 26th October, 1854, Major Conolly, then a Lieutenant in the 49th Regiment, while in command of a company of that regiment, on outlying picket, made himself most conspicuous by the gallantry of his behaviour. He came particularly under the observation of the late Field-Marshal Lord Raglan [aged 66], while in personal encounter with several Russians, in defence of his post. He ultimately fell, dangerously wounded. Lieutenant Conolly was highly praised in General Orders, and promoted into the Coldstream Guards, as a reward for his exemplary behaviour on this occasion.
The London Gazette 21997. 7th Regiment.Assistant-Surgeon Thomas Egerton Hale, M.D. Date of Act of Bravery, 8th September, 1855
First. For remaining with an officer who was dangerously wounded, (Captain H. M. Jones, 7th Regiment), in the fifth parallel, on 8th September, 1855, when all the men in the im mediate neighbourhood retreated, excepting Lieutenant W. Hope and Dr. Hale; and for endeavouring.to rally the men, in conjunction with Lieutenant W. Hope, 7th Royal Fusi liers.
Secondly. For having, on 8th September, 1855, after the regiments had retired into the trenches, cleared the most advanced sap of the wounded, and carried, into the sap, under a heavy fire, several wounded men from the open ground, being assisted by Serjeant Charles Fisher, 7th Royal Fusiliers
In 1856 Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom [aged 36] appointed three Knights of the Garter:
715th Hugh Fortescue 2nd Earl Fortescue [aged 72].
716th Henry John Temple 3rd Viscount Palmerston [aged 71].
717th Sultan Abdulmejid I [aged 32].
On 30th March 1856 the Treaty of Paris was signed at the Congress of Paris bringing to an end the Crimean War between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the Ottoman Empire, the United Kingdom, the Second French Empire and the Kingdom of Sardinia, which had begun in 1853. The treaty diminished Russian influence in the region. It returned Sevastopol and other towns and cities in the south of Crimea to Russia, but prohibited Russia to establish naval or military arsenal on the coast of the Black Sea, that was made neutral territory, closing it to all warships and prohibiting fortifications and the presence of armaments on its shores.
30th March 1856. Édouard Dubufe [aged 36]. The Congress of Paris. Those portayed include Camillo Benso, conte di Cavour, Henry Wellesley [aged 51], Earl Cowley, Karl Ferdinand von Buol-Schauenstein, Aleksej Fëdorovič, Orlov François-Adolphe de Bourqueney, Alexander von Hübner, Otto Theodor von Manteuffel, Alexandre Colonna Walewski, George Villiers [aged 56], Earl of Clarendon, Mehmed Alì Pascià, Philipp von Brunnow, Salvatore Pes, VIII marchese di Villamarina, Max von Hatzfeldt, Mehemmed Djemil Bey, Vincent Benedetti, Napoleone III di Francia [aged 47], Napoleone Bonaparte.
In 1857 Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom [aged 37] appointed two Knights of the Garter:
718th Granville Leveson-Gower 2nd Earl Granville [aged 41].
719th Richard Grosvenor 2nd Marquess Westminster [aged 61].
On 26th June 1857 the first sixty-two recipients of the Victoria Cross had the decoration pinned to their breasts by Queen Victoria [aged 38] in Hyde Park [Map]. Henry Hugh Manvers Percy [aged 39], who was the most senior office present to receive the Victoria Cross, commanded on the day.
In September 1857 Edward Adolphus Ferdinand Seymour [aged 22] was present at Lucknow during the Relief of Lucknow.
In 1858 Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom [aged 38] appointed five Knights of the Garter:
720th Frederick III King Prussia [aged 26].
721st Arthur Wellesley 2nd Duke Wellington [aged 50].
722nd William Cavendish 7th Duke Devonshire [aged 49].
723rd King Pedro V of Portugal [aged 20].
724th The Prince of Wales [aged 16].
On 25th January 1858 Frederick III King Prussia [aged 26] and Victoria Empress Germany Queen Consort Prussia [aged 17] were married in the Chapel Royal, St James's Palace. She the daughter of Prince Albert Saxe Coburg Gotha [aged 38] and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom [aged 38]. He the son of William I King Prussia [aged 60]. They were third cousins.
In 1859 Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom [aged 39] appointed two Knights of the Garter:
725th Dudley Ryder 2nd Earl of Harrowby [aged 60].
726th Edward Smith-Stanley 14th Earl of Derby [aged 59].
Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes
Récits d’un bourgeois de Valenciennes aka The Chronicle of a Bourgeois of Valenciennes is a vivid 14th-century vernacular chronicle written by an anonymous urban chronicler from Valenciennes in the County of Hainaut. It survives in a manuscript that describes local and regional history from about 1253 to 1366, blending chronology, narrative episodes, and eyewitness-style accounts of political, military, and social events in medieval France, Flanders, and the Low Countries. The work begins with a chronological framework of events affecting Valenciennes and its region under rulers such as King Philip VI of France and the shifting allegiances of local nobility. It includes accounts of conflicts, sieges, diplomatic manoeuvres, and the impact of broader struggles like the Hundred Years’ War on urban life in Hainaut. Written from the perspective of a burgher (bourgeois) rather than a monastery or royal court, the chronicle offers a rare lay viewpoint on high politics and warfare, reflecting how merchants, townspeople, and civic institutions experienced the turbulence of the 13th and 14th centuries. Its narrative style combines straightforward reporting of events with moral and civic observations, making it a valuable source for readers interested in medieval urban society, regional politics, and the lived experience of war and governance in pre-modern Europe.
Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback format.
On 2nd January 1861 Frederick William IV King Prussia [aged 65] died. His brother William [aged 63] succeeded I King Prussia.