Mmm...Donuts
Trooper
Good guesses, but none relate to the glacier fiasco.
Clue: It's in the tv show, Monk.
Clue: It's in the tv show, Monk.
Random trivia
- Thread starter StrangerInAStrangeLand
- Start date
A
Anonymous
Guest
I don't think anyone will get this.
Powergirl81
Trooper
Without cheating and looking it up on Wiki, no, Perun 
I never saw Monk anyhow, so I'm clueless
I never saw Monk anyhow, so I'm clueless
Mmm...Donuts
Trooper
Hahaha, anyways, it's Megalopagophobia. The next question asker, if you please?
A
Anonymous
Guest
Which island has the glorious distinction of being the only one that has not been under foreign occupation or dominance, keeping its own independent government for the last millennium?
Oooh, not England, we're 59 year short of a millennium there.
Powergirl81
Trooper
It wouldn't be as simple as Easter Island, would it, Perun?
Iceland was a thought...so was Madagascar
Iceland was a thought...so was Madagascar
A
Anonymous
Guest
LooseCannon said:
Actually, it is. I didn't think the 59 years mattered.
Japan would easily have surpassed Great Britain by a couple of millennia, hadn't it been occupied by the Americans between 1945 and 1955.
Hell, nobody's been able to invade Britain in a thousand years. I hope I'm still around in 2066. That's gonna be one hell of a freaking party.
A
Anonymous
Guest
Albie said:I don't wish to be pedantic, but it is correct that England has not been invaded since 1066 but England is not an island, and for a few hundred years it is Britain that has not been invaded - if you see what I mean.
That's why I actually asked for the island of Great Britain
Forostar
Ancient Mariner
I thought of the island of Great Britain as well!! My first thought was 1066. However, I can't totally agree for various reasons. Read on, if interested. I collected some info from Wikipedia and made this nice "little" compilation, related to Perun's trivia question. 
The isles to the north and west of Scotland were heavily colonized by Norwegian Vikings. Shetland, Orkney, the Western Isles, Caithness and Sutherland were under Norse control, sometimes as fiefs under the King of Norway and other times as separate entities. Shetland and Orkney were the last of these to be incorporated into Scotland in as late as 1468. As well as Orkney and Shetland, Caithness and Sutherland, the Norse settled in the Hebrides. The west coast was also heavily settled, and Galloway, which got its name from the Gall-Gael or Foreigner Gael (as the mixed Norse Scots were known).
In the late 11th century, the Norwegian King Magnus III Berrføtt ("Barelegs") led a campaign of subjugation in the Irish Sea world. In 1097, he sent his vassal, Ingimundr, to take control of the Kingdom(s) of Man and the Isles. However, when this man was killed, Magnus himself launched the first of his two invasions, the campaigns of 1098-1099 and of 1102-1103. In the former campaign, he took control of the Western Isles of Scotland, and deposed King Lagmann of Man. (Incidentally, this campaign also brought him to Wales, where he killed the Earl of Chester and the Earl of Shrewsbury, who were at war with the Prince of Gwynedd). In this campaign, Magnus almost certainly brought Galloway under his suzerainty too. Magnus, moreover, gained the recognition of these conquests from the then-king of Alba, Etgair mac Maíl Coluim.
The Battle of Hastings resulted in Norman control of England.
The Norman conquest was the last successful conquest of England, although some historians identify the Glorious Revolution of 1688 as the most recent successful invasion from the continent.
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England (VII of Scotland) in 1688 by a union of Parliamentarians and the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange), who as a result ascended the English throne as William III of England. It is sometimes called the Bloodless Revolution, but this is anglocentric as it ignores the three major battles in Ireland and serious fighting in Scotland. Even in England it was not completely bloodless, since there were two significant clashes between the two armies, plus anti-Catholic riots in several towns. The expression "Glorious Revolution" was first used by John Hampden in the autumn of 1689, and is an expression that is still used by the Westminster Parliament.
William III
King of England, Scotland and Ireland, stadtholder of Guelders, Holland, Zealand, Utrecht and Overijssel.
I recommend the following article which is a very interesting reading (It also explains how England became the dominant maritime power of the world, how the world trade dominance shifted from the Dutch Republic to England, and why the Catholics in Britain were oppressed for many, many years): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_revolution
Fragment: (...On September 26 the powerful city council of Amsterdam decided to officially support the invasion. On September 27 Louis crossed the Rhine into Germany and William began to move his army from the eastern borders to the coast. On September 29 the States of Holland gathering in secret session and fearing a French-English alliance, approved the operation, agreeing to make the English "useful to their friends and allies, and especially to this state". They accepted William's argument that a preventive strike was necessary to avoid a repeat of the events of 1672, when England and France had jointly attacked the Republic, "an attempt to bring this state to its ultimate ruin and subjugation, as soon as they find the occasion". The States ordered a Dutch fleet of 53 warships to escort the troop transports. This fleet was in fact commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest and Vice-Admiral Philips van Almonde but in consideration for English sensitivities on October 6 placed under nominal command of Rear-Admiral Arthur Herbert, the very messenger who, disguised as a common sailor, had brought the invitation to William in The Hague. Though William was himself Admiral-General of the Republic he abstained from operational command, sailing conspicuously on the yacht Den Briel, accompanied by Lieutenant-Admiral Willem Bastiaensz Schepers, the Rotterdam shipping magnate who had organised the transport fleet. The States-General allowed the core regiments of the Dutch field army to participate under command of Marshall Frederick Schomberg.
William's landing
The Dutch preparations, though carried out with great speed, could not remain secret. The English envoy Ignatius White, the Marquess d'Albeville, warned his country: an absolute conquest is intended under the specious and ordinary pretences of religion, liberty, property and a free Parliament…. Louis XIV threatened the Dutch with an immediate declaration of war, should they carry out their plans. Embarkations, started on September 22 (Gregorian calendar), had been completed on October 8 and the expedition was that day openly approved by the States of Holland; the same day James issued a proclamation to the English nation that it should prepare for a Dutch invasion to ward off conquest. On October 10 William issued the Declaration of The Hague, 60,000 copies of the English translation of which were distributed in England, in which he assured that his only aim was to maintain the Protestant religion, install a free parliament and investigate the legitimacy of the Prince of Wales. He would respect James's position. On October 14 he responded to the allegations by James in a second declaration, denying any intention to become king or conquer England. Whether he had any at that moment is still controversial.
The swiftness of the embarkations surprised all foreign observers. Louis had in fact delayed his threats against the Dutch until early September because he assumed it then would be too late in the season to set the expedition in motion anyway, if their reaction would be negative; typically such an enterprise would take at least some months. Being ready after the first week of October would normally have meant that the Dutch could have profited from the last spell of good weather, as the autumn storms tend to begin in the third week of that month. This year they came early however. For three weeks the invasion fleet was prevented by adverse southwesterly gales to depart from the naval port of Hellevoetsluis and Catholics all over the Netherlands and the British Isles held prayer sessions that this "popish wind" might endure, but late October it became the famous "Protestant Wind" by turning to the east, allowing a departure on October 28. It had originally been intended that the Dutch navy defeat the English first to free the way for the transport fleet but because it was now so late in the season and conditions onboard deteriorated rapidly, it was decided to sail in convoy. Hardly had the fleet reached open sea when the wind changed again to the southwest forcing most ships to return to port, becoming a favourable easterly only on November 9. First the fleet, reassembled on November 11, four times larger than the Spanish Armada and having, including sailors and supply train, about 60,000 men and 5,000 horses aboard, sailed north in the direction of Harwich where Bentinck had a landing site prepared. It was forced south however when the wind turned to the north and sailed in an enormous square formation, 25 ships deep, into the English Channel on November 13, saluting Dover Castle and Calais simultaneously to show off its size. The English navy positioned in the Thames estuary saw the Dutch pass twice but was unable to intercept, first because of the strong easterly wind, the second time due to an unfavourable tide. Landing with a large army in Torbay near Brixham, Devon on November 5 (Julian calendar (November 15 Gregorian calendar)), 1688, William was greeted with much show of popular support (this was Bentinck's alternative landing site), and some local men joined his army. His personal disembarkation was delayed somewhat to make it coincide with the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot. On his banners read the proclamation: "The Liberties of England and the Protestant Religion I will maintain." Je maintiendrai ("I will maintain") is the motto of the House of Orange. William's army totalled approximately 15,000–18,000 on foot and 3,000 cavalry. It was composed mainly of 14,352 regular Dutch mercenary troops (many of them actually Scots, Scandinavians, Germans and Swiss), and about 5,000 English and Scottish volunteers with a substantial Huguenot element in the cavalry and Guards as well as 200 blacks from plantations in America. Many of the mercenaries were Catholic. On November 7 (November 17 Gregorian calendar), the wind turned southwest, preventing the pursuing English fleet commanded by George Legge from attacking the landing site. The French fleet was at the time concentrated in the Mediterranean, to assist a possible attack on the Papal State. Louis delayed his declaration of war until November 26 (Gregorian calendar), hoping at first that their involvement in a protracted English civil war would keep the Dutch from interfering with his German campaign. The Dutch call their fleet action the Glorieuze Overtocht, the "Glorious Crossing".
William considered his veteran army to be sufficient in size to defeat any forces (all rather inexperienced) James could throw against him, but it had been decided to avoid the hazards of battle and maintain a defensive attitude in the hope James's position might collapse by itself; thus he landed far away from James's army, expecting that his English allies would take the initiative in acting against James while he ensured his own protection against potential attacks. William was prepared to wait; he had paid his troops in advance for a three-month campaign. A slow advance had the added benefit of not over-extending the supply lines; the Dutch troops were under strict orders not even to forage, for fear that this would degenerate into plundering which would alienate the population. On November 9 William took Exeter after the magistrates had fled the city.... )
Major invasion attempts were launched by the Spanish in 1588 and the French in 1744 and 1759, but in each case the combined impact of the weather and the attacks of the Royal Navy on their escort fleets thwarted the enterprise without the invading army even putting to sea. Invasions were also prepared by the French in 1805 and by the Germans in 1940, but these were abandoned after preliminary operations failed to overcome Britain's naval and, in the latter case, air defences. Various brief raids on British coasts were successful within their limited scope, such as those launched by the French during the Hundred Years War and the Barbary pirates in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Spanish landing in Cornwall in 1595 and the Dutch raid on the Medway shipyards in 1667.
The Raid on the Medway, sometimes called the Battle of Medway or the Battle of Chatham, was a successful Dutch attack on the largest English naval ships, laid up in the dockyards of their main naval base Chatham, that took place in June 1667 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch, under nominal command of Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, bombarded and captured Sheerness, went up the River Thames to Gravesend, then up the River Medway to Chatham, where they burnt three capital ships and ten lesser naval vessels and towed away the Unity and the Royal Charles, pride and normal flagship of the English fleet. It is generally considered the largest Dutch naval victory in history and the worst English naval defeat. The raid led to a quick end to the war and a favourable peace for the Dutch.
The isles to the north and west of Scotland were heavily colonized by Norwegian Vikings. Shetland, Orkney, the Western Isles, Caithness and Sutherland were under Norse control, sometimes as fiefs under the King of Norway and other times as separate entities. Shetland and Orkney were the last of these to be incorporated into Scotland in as late as 1468. As well as Orkney and Shetland, Caithness and Sutherland, the Norse settled in the Hebrides. The west coast was also heavily settled, and Galloway, which got its name from the Gall-Gael or Foreigner Gael (as the mixed Norse Scots were known).
In the late 11th century, the Norwegian King Magnus III Berrføtt ("Barelegs") led a campaign of subjugation in the Irish Sea world. In 1097, he sent his vassal, Ingimundr, to take control of the Kingdom(s) of Man and the Isles. However, when this man was killed, Magnus himself launched the first of his two invasions, the campaigns of 1098-1099 and of 1102-1103. In the former campaign, he took control of the Western Isles of Scotland, and deposed King Lagmann of Man. (Incidentally, this campaign also brought him to Wales, where he killed the Earl of Chester and the Earl of Shrewsbury, who were at war with the Prince of Gwynedd). In this campaign, Magnus almost certainly brought Galloway under his suzerainty too. Magnus, moreover, gained the recognition of these conquests from the then-king of Alba, Etgair mac Maíl Coluim.
The Battle of Hastings resulted in Norman control of England.
The Norman conquest was the last successful conquest of England, although some historians identify the Glorious Revolution of 1688 as the most recent successful invasion from the continent.
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England (VII of Scotland) in 1688 by a union of Parliamentarians and the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau (William of Orange), who as a result ascended the English throne as William III of England. It is sometimes called the Bloodless Revolution, but this is anglocentric as it ignores the three major battles in Ireland and serious fighting in Scotland. Even in England it was not completely bloodless, since there were two significant clashes between the two armies, plus anti-Catholic riots in several towns. The expression "Glorious Revolution" was first used by John Hampden in the autumn of 1689, and is an expression that is still used by the Westminster Parliament.
William III
King of England, Scotland and Ireland, stadtholder of Guelders, Holland, Zealand, Utrecht and Overijssel.
I recommend the following article which is a very interesting reading (It also explains how England became the dominant maritime power of the world, how the world trade dominance shifted from the Dutch Republic to England, and why the Catholics in Britain were oppressed for many, many years): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glorious_revolution
Fragment: (...On September 26 the powerful city council of Amsterdam decided to officially support the invasion. On September 27 Louis crossed the Rhine into Germany and William began to move his army from the eastern borders to the coast. On September 29 the States of Holland gathering in secret session and fearing a French-English alliance, approved the operation, agreeing to make the English "useful to their friends and allies, and especially to this state". They accepted William's argument that a preventive strike was necessary to avoid a repeat of the events of 1672, when England and France had jointly attacked the Republic, "an attempt to bring this state to its ultimate ruin and subjugation, as soon as they find the occasion". The States ordered a Dutch fleet of 53 warships to escort the troop transports. This fleet was in fact commanded by Lieutenant-Admiral Cornelis Evertsen the Youngest and Vice-Admiral Philips van Almonde but in consideration for English sensitivities on October 6 placed under nominal command of Rear-Admiral Arthur Herbert, the very messenger who, disguised as a common sailor, had brought the invitation to William in The Hague. Though William was himself Admiral-General of the Republic he abstained from operational command, sailing conspicuously on the yacht Den Briel, accompanied by Lieutenant-Admiral Willem Bastiaensz Schepers, the Rotterdam shipping magnate who had organised the transport fleet. The States-General allowed the core regiments of the Dutch field army to participate under command of Marshall Frederick Schomberg.
William's landing
The Dutch preparations, though carried out with great speed, could not remain secret. The English envoy Ignatius White, the Marquess d'Albeville, warned his country: an absolute conquest is intended under the specious and ordinary pretences of religion, liberty, property and a free Parliament…. Louis XIV threatened the Dutch with an immediate declaration of war, should they carry out their plans. Embarkations, started on September 22 (Gregorian calendar), had been completed on October 8 and the expedition was that day openly approved by the States of Holland; the same day James issued a proclamation to the English nation that it should prepare for a Dutch invasion to ward off conquest. On October 10 William issued the Declaration of The Hague, 60,000 copies of the English translation of which were distributed in England, in which he assured that his only aim was to maintain the Protestant religion, install a free parliament and investigate the legitimacy of the Prince of Wales. He would respect James's position. On October 14 he responded to the allegations by James in a second declaration, denying any intention to become king or conquer England. Whether he had any at that moment is still controversial.
The swiftness of the embarkations surprised all foreign observers. Louis had in fact delayed his threats against the Dutch until early September because he assumed it then would be too late in the season to set the expedition in motion anyway, if their reaction would be negative; typically such an enterprise would take at least some months. Being ready after the first week of October would normally have meant that the Dutch could have profited from the last spell of good weather, as the autumn storms tend to begin in the third week of that month. This year they came early however. For three weeks the invasion fleet was prevented by adverse southwesterly gales to depart from the naval port of Hellevoetsluis and Catholics all over the Netherlands and the British Isles held prayer sessions that this "popish wind" might endure, but late October it became the famous "Protestant Wind" by turning to the east, allowing a departure on October 28. It had originally been intended that the Dutch navy defeat the English first to free the way for the transport fleet but because it was now so late in the season and conditions onboard deteriorated rapidly, it was decided to sail in convoy. Hardly had the fleet reached open sea when the wind changed again to the southwest forcing most ships to return to port, becoming a favourable easterly only on November 9. First the fleet, reassembled on November 11, four times larger than the Spanish Armada and having, including sailors and supply train, about 60,000 men and 5,000 horses aboard, sailed north in the direction of Harwich where Bentinck had a landing site prepared. It was forced south however when the wind turned to the north and sailed in an enormous square formation, 25 ships deep, into the English Channel on November 13, saluting Dover Castle and Calais simultaneously to show off its size. The English navy positioned in the Thames estuary saw the Dutch pass twice but was unable to intercept, first because of the strong easterly wind, the second time due to an unfavourable tide. Landing with a large army in Torbay near Brixham, Devon on November 5 (Julian calendar (November 15 Gregorian calendar)), 1688, William was greeted with much show of popular support (this was Bentinck's alternative landing site), and some local men joined his army. His personal disembarkation was delayed somewhat to make it coincide with the anniversary of the Gunpowder Plot. On his banners read the proclamation: "The Liberties of England and the Protestant Religion I will maintain." Je maintiendrai ("I will maintain") is the motto of the House of Orange. William's army totalled approximately 15,000–18,000 on foot and 3,000 cavalry. It was composed mainly of 14,352 regular Dutch mercenary troops (many of them actually Scots, Scandinavians, Germans and Swiss), and about 5,000 English and Scottish volunteers with a substantial Huguenot element in the cavalry and Guards as well as 200 blacks from plantations in America. Many of the mercenaries were Catholic. On November 7 (November 17 Gregorian calendar), the wind turned southwest, preventing the pursuing English fleet commanded by George Legge from attacking the landing site. The French fleet was at the time concentrated in the Mediterranean, to assist a possible attack on the Papal State. Louis delayed his declaration of war until November 26 (Gregorian calendar), hoping at first that their involvement in a protracted English civil war would keep the Dutch from interfering with his German campaign. The Dutch call their fleet action the Glorieuze Overtocht, the "Glorious Crossing".
William considered his veteran army to be sufficient in size to defeat any forces (all rather inexperienced) James could throw against him, but it had been decided to avoid the hazards of battle and maintain a defensive attitude in the hope James's position might collapse by itself; thus he landed far away from James's army, expecting that his English allies would take the initiative in acting against James while he ensured his own protection against potential attacks. William was prepared to wait; he had paid his troops in advance for a three-month campaign. A slow advance had the added benefit of not over-extending the supply lines; the Dutch troops were under strict orders not even to forage, for fear that this would degenerate into plundering which would alienate the population. On November 9 William took Exeter after the magistrates had fled the city.... )
Major invasion attempts were launched by the Spanish in 1588 and the French in 1744 and 1759, but in each case the combined impact of the weather and the attacks of the Royal Navy on their escort fleets thwarted the enterprise without the invading army even putting to sea. Invasions were also prepared by the French in 1805 and by the Germans in 1940, but these were abandoned after preliminary operations failed to overcome Britain's naval and, in the latter case, air defences. Various brief raids on British coasts were successful within their limited scope, such as those launched by the French during the Hundred Years War and the Barbary pirates in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Spanish landing in Cornwall in 1595 and the Dutch raid on the Medway shipyards in 1667.
The Raid on the Medway, sometimes called the Battle of Medway or the Battle of Chatham, was a successful Dutch attack on the largest English naval ships, laid up in the dockyards of their main naval base Chatham, that took place in June 1667 during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch, under nominal command of Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, bombarded and captured Sheerness, went up the River Thames to Gravesend, then up the River Medway to Chatham, where they burnt three capital ships and ten lesser naval vessels and towed away the Unity and the Royal Charles, pride and normal flagship of the English fleet. It is generally considered the largest Dutch naval victory in history and the worst English naval defeat. The raid led to a quick end to the war and a favourable peace for the Dutch.
A
Anonymous
Guest
That's quite interesting, especially as I don't know very much about post 1066 English history. I didn't know about the Magnus thing, although he hardly conquered much of the island. As for the Glorious Revolution, I guess it's a question of semantics
Speaking of question...
Speaking of question...
Most British history scholars do not consider the Glorious Revolution to be an invasion (at least, the several I have had during my university career). They consider it to be a rebellion supported by some foreign troops. Really, it's the same as considering the return of Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1744 to be an invasion - one man and his guards show up, and a bunch of the locals rally to his cause. Public opinion was definitely in favour of William. There were a few clashes, yes, but in reality, the line of Kings was only bent, not broken (remember, William ruled in concert with Mary, who had a claim to the thrones of England and Scotland), Parliament continued as normal, and the aristocracy was generally unaffected by the crowning of William.
Besides, in keeping with the character of Perun's question, I would suggest that the reign of William and Mary suggests no more in a shift of government than Oliver Cromwell's Interregnum.
Besides, in keeping with the character of Perun's question, I would suggest that the reign of William and Mary suggests no more in a shift of government than Oliver Cromwell's Interregnum.
A
Anonymous
Guest
I've invaded England three times.
Oh, is that what they're calling it these days