The Time Travel Handbook Read online

  THE

  TIME TRAVEL

  HANDBOOK

  RESEARCHED AND WRITTEN BY

  JAMES WYLLIE, JOHNNY ACTON & DAVID GOLDBLATT

  WYLLIE, ACTON & GOLDBLATT’S

  TIME TRAVEL

  HANDBOOK

  A SELECTION OF TRIPS AND TOURS FROM THE ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS TO THE WOODSTOCK FESTIVAL

  First published in Great Britain in 2015 by

  Profile Books:

  3 Holford Yard, Bevin Way

  London WC1X 9HD

  www.profilebooks.com

  Copyright © 2015 James Wyllie, Johnny Acton and David Goldblatt.

  Thanks to Sally Holloway, Sonia Land, Karim Noorani, Nikky Twyman, Henry Iles, Dominic Beddow and Mark Ellingham.

  The moral right of the authors has been asserted.

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the publisher of this book.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

  e-ISBN 978 178283 1327

  PHOTO CREDITS

  Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders of images used in this book. If anyone has been omitted, they are asked to kindly contact the publisher so we can correct these details.

  Francis I by Jean Clouet (p.8), Louvre Museum; Henry VIII at the English Camp (p.10–11), Royal Collection Trust/Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II; Henry VIII after Hans Holbein (p.15), Walker Art Gallery. V For Victory (p.45), Picture Post/Getty Image; Dancing in the streets (p.50), Photo12/UIG/Getty Images; Piccadilly Circus (p.52) and Churchill, Attlee and Bevin (p.55), Keystone/Getty Images. Michael Lang and Artie Kornfeld (p.60), Bill Eppridge/Life/Getty Images; Breakfast (p.65), John Dominis/Life/Getty Images; Undress Code (p.69), Silver Screen/Movipix/Getty Images; Swami Satchidananda (p.72), Mark Goff/WikiCommons; Country Joe (p.75), Jason Laure/Woodfin/Getty Images; Lost girl (p.78), Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images. Charles I (p.85), Fine Art Images/Superstock/Getty Images. Tardivet and Miomandre (p.116), Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Berlin Wall ‘Death Strip’ (p.133), Thierry Noir/WikiCommons; Brandenburg Gate (p.139), Sue Ream/WikiCommons; Rostropovich (p.145), L. Emmett Lewis Jr. © Stars and Stripes. Charlie Parker (p.189), Gilles Petard/Getty Images; Lindy Hoppers at The Savoy (p.192), Charles Peterson/Hulton Archive/Getty Images; Outside Minton’s Playhouse (p.197), William Gottlieb/Redferns/Getty Images. Fab Five (p.203), Astrid Kirchherr/K&K/Redferns/Getty Images; The Beatles at The Top Ten Club (p.210), Ellen Piel/K&K/Redferns/Getty Images; The Beatles at The Star Club (p.215), Ulf Kruger/K&K/Redferns/Getty Images. Mobutu introduces Foreman and Ali (p.218), George Walker/Liaison/Getty Images; Foreman in training (p.224), Neil Leifer/Sports Illustrated/Getty Images; Ali prepares (p.227), Stringer/AFP/Getty Images; Ali throws the Big One (p.231), The Ring Magazine/Getty Images. Kublai Khan (p.243), Dea/Getty Images. Tahitian women (p.263), Time Life Pictures/Mansell/Life/Getty Images; The Endeavour (p.270), SSPL/Getty Images. Up Pompeii! (p.282), Art Media/Print Collector/Getty Images. John Ball (p.289), British Library Board. Union artillery unit (p.308), Zouave uniform (p.313), Colonel Dixon Miles (p.316), Union attack (p.319), Federal Cavalry at Sudley Springs (p.320), Senators Zachariah Chandler and Benjamin Wade (p. 321), all Library of Congress.

  All MAPS by Magnetic North.

  CONTENTS

  Introduction, Terms, Conditions & Regulations

  CELEBRATIONS & EXHIBITIONS

  1520 The Field of the Cloth of Gold, The English Pale, near Calais

  1851 The Great Exhibition, London

  1945 VE Day, London

  1969 Woodstock Festival, Bethel, New York State

  MOMENTS THAT MADE HISTORY

  1649 The Execution of Charles I, London

  1789 The Women‘s March on Versailles, Paris

  1914 Assassination of Archduke Ferdinand, Sarajevo

  1989 The Fall of the Berlin Wall, East and West Berlin

  CULTURAL & SPORTING SPECTACULARS

  161 The 235th Olympiad, Olympia

  1599 Opening Night at Shakespeare’s Globe, London

  1942 The Birth of Bebop, New York City

  1960–62 The Beatles in Hamburg

  1974 The Rumble in the Jungle, Kinshasa

  EPIC JOURNEYS & VOYAGES

  1271 In Xanadu with Marco Polo, China

  1768–71 Captain Cook’s First Epic Voyage, The Pacific

  EXTREME EVENTS *

  79 The Eruption of Vesuvius, Pompeii

  1381 The Peasants’ Revolt, Essex, Kent and London

  1861 The First Battle of Bull Run, Virginia

  * These events are not covered under the Company’s insurance policy.

  Past, Present & Future Reading

  WYLLIE, ACTON & GOLDBLATT’S

  TIME TRAVEL

  TOURS

  ‘History repeats itself. First time as tragedy, second time as vacation.’

  SOME SAY THE PAST IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY. We say get your passport. At WYLLIE, ACTON & GOLDBLATT (WAG) TIME TRAVEL TOURS, we take you back, set you down and bring you home from some of the finest moments in human history. With our unique ChronoswooshTM time exchange plasma shuttle technology, we not only offer the most accurate return to the past, but minimal interference with the time-space continuum. No more getting abandoned in the wrong century, no more returning to find you are your great aunt.

  At WAG we believe that history second time round need not be farce, but a celebration, a party and a vacation. If that sounds like your idea of a good time past, then our CELEBRATIONS & EXHIBITIONS suite of trips is for you. Try the late feudal pomp of the FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD, where the nobilities of France and England gathered in great alfresco camps, drink, feast, joust and doff their caps to King Henry VIII and King Francis I. The GREAT EXHIBITION OF 1851 certainly deserves another look and we give you the opportunity to explore Victorian London and the cornucopian contents of the Crystal Palace. For the more hedonistic, VE DAY IN LONDON 1945 and the 1969 WOODSTOCK FESTIVAL in Upstate New York offer contrasting experiences of collective ecstasy.

  For more experienced time travellers we recommend moving on to an event that has really made a difference. Our carefully curated selection of MOMENTS THAT MADE HISTORY show the wheels of change in motion while delivering the most extraordinary sensory experiences. Feel the ancien régime crumble and the modern world emerge as CHARLES I IS EXECUTED at the end of the English Civil War or MARCH WITH THE WOMEN OF PARIS in the heat of the French Revolution. For those with more contemporary tastes we offer the poles of the short twentieth century: the ASSASSINATION OF ARCHDUKE FERDINAND IN SARAJEVO that triggered the First World War in 1914; and the FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL in 1989 that brought the long European struggle to a close.

  For a more reflective journey to the past, WAG also offers a great treasure trove of CULTURAL & SPORTING SPECTACULARS. Our selection of classic moments takes you to events that seemed un-repeatable and offers them up in all their replayed glory. From the spectacle of the ANCIENT OLYMPICS to the opening night of SHAKESPEARE’S GLOBE, from the BIRTH OF BEBOP in war time New York City to the invention of the BEATLES IN HAMBURG, or Muhammad Ali fighting George Foreman in THE RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE, there is something to suit all tastes.

  For the more adventurous and stoical of our travellers, we have recently developed the long form EPIC JOURNEYS & VOYAGES: six months with MARCO POLO IN XANADU in thirteenth-century China; or the chance to crew on the THREE-YEAR VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN COOK to Australia. For those with the stro
ngest nerves and most balanced dispositions we are pleased to include our EXTREME EVENTS: the ever popular ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS and cataclysmic destruction of Pompeii, the late medieval madness of the PEASANTS’ REVOLT that set London alight, and our newest offer, a front seat view of our first American Civil War trip, the hubris and the chaos of the FIRST BATTLE OF BULL RUN.

  Whatever trip you choose, the TIME TRAVELLERS’ HANDBOOK is your Owl of Minerva. In putting together this guide we’ve been where you are going, we’ve flown home at dusk and, at last, with the wisdom of hindsight actually available to us, charted a course through the past on your behalf. We really will take you to the right place at the right time, every time. Alongside the key moments, we let you know WHERE TO STAY, WHAT TO EAT and HOW TO PAY, and of course HOW TO GET HOME. Our Uncle Karl thought that ‘Man made history but not in circumstances of his own choosing’. We can’t let you make history – it’s already a done deal – but we can let you choose the circumstances. Welcome to the past; we’ll take you there.

  THE SMALL PRINT: TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF TRAVEL

  APPEARANCE AND DRESS CODE

  It is important to blend in with the crowd as far as possible and for this reason WAG will provide you with suitable attire for all of your journeys. You may, however, already possess appropriate clothing or want to try making your own. If so, please read the guidance notes carefully. In cases where having a skin tone and physiognomy markedly differ from that of the locals would attract undue attention, WAG’s experienced prosthetic and make-up department will swing into action.

  HEALTH ISSUES

  All travellers will be subject to stringent HEALTH CHECKS ahead of their journey. An innocuous seeming virus could have devastating consequences for a historical community which has not developed immunity to it. For similar but reverse reasons, travellers to high-risk destinations will be subject to health checks on their returns, and quarantine will be enforced if necessary. Some trips are more strenuous than others, the long voyages and extreme events in particular. We reserve the right to refuse time travel to clients whose medical condition renders them vulnerable. We advise all travellers to take out appropriate backdated medical insurance.

  LANGUAGES AND COMMUNICATION

  Travellers should assume that in all but the most contemporary journeys their mother tongue will be of limited use. English speakers who go unprepared to Elizabethan London will find it hard to understand others or to make themselves understood. Consequently WAG provides a basic grounding in the LOCAL LANGUAGE of your journey and an introductory course to body language, ritual, customs and deportment. The quoted price of each trip includes a two-day residential preparation and orientation programme. Please note: these courses are compulsory and a minimal standard of competence is required of all travellers.

  THE TIME–SPACE CONTINUUM

  All of our trips have been carefully selected so that you can blend into the past without drawing special attention to yourself. (It is for this reason, of course, that we cannot offer Moon Landings or intimate liaisons with the likes of Caesar or Napoleon). Even so, you must exercise great care not to do anything that might interfere with the events you have chosen to visit. The time–space continuum is sufficiently robust to cope with your presence and your minor interactions with the events of the past, but grand gestures are simply not on. WAG reserves the right to transport any customer who appears poised to infringe this regulation instantly back to the present, with no compensation payable.

  Minor interactions with other members of the crowd are permitted, as are everyday activities such as EATING AND DRINKING. Any changes such interactions make to the course of history will be negligible and tolerable (e.g. you may return to find that you like speed metal rather than jazz, or that your partner is called Lionel rather than Pam). Such alterations must be regarded as an occupational hazard. It goes without saying that bringing back SOUVENIRS is not permitted, as this would play havoc with the market for antiques. Strictly no mobile phones and no cameras. Don’t even think about selfies.

  WAG will accept no responsibility for the consequences of failing to adhere to these terms and conditions.

  PART ONE

  CELEBRATIONS & EXHIBITIONS

  The Field of the Cloth of Gold

  8–24 JUNE 1520 NEAR CALAIS, ENGLAND

  FOR JUST OVER TWO WEEKS IN JUNE 1520, Henry VIII and Francis I, the kings of England and France, and most of their feudal nobility, gathered for a great outdoor meeting in northern France. They came together ostensibly to make peace and celebrate the betrothal of Francis’s son and Henry’s daughter but it was an occasion soaked in sixteenth-century realpolitik. THE FIELD OF THE CLOTH OF GOLD (as it was dubbed by eighteenth-century historians) provided an extraordinary opportunity for two great Renaissance princes to display themselves to each other and their followers as warrior kings, chivalric gentlemen and luminous stars in Europe’s political firmament.

  Settled into vast and ostentatious tent cities, equipped with splendid temporary palaces, the two sovereigns first met and then joined together to stage a great knightly tournament of jousting and foot combat, punctuated by intense merrymaking, feasting and dancing.

  PLEASE NOTE that this trip is based on attendance in the English camp. For those that prefer a more Francophone experience, we hope to be able to offer le champ de la toile d’or experience in the near future.

  BRIEFING: GRAND SUMMITS

  Grand summit meetings between the French and English kings had a considerable track record. In 1254 Henry III of England met Louis IX of France in Chartres and rode together to Paris for a great banquet. Things went so well they did it all again in 1259 and signed a peace treaty. Things were taken up a notch in scale and splendour by the 1396 meeting of Richard II and Charles VI. Held in the midst of the Hundred Years War it secured a temporary peace by marrying Richard to seven-year-old Princess Isabelle of France.

  Like nearly every European monarch since the fall of the Roman Empire, Henry VIII of England and Francis I of France spent a great deal of time and money on warfare; that, after all, was the very purpose of the sovereign, to defend and expand the realm (and in his own body and demeanour express the warrior manliness of the feudal nobility). However, in the early sixteenth century there were countervailing trends. Intellectually, the new humanism of writers like Erasmus argued that monarchs’ power was best expressed by keeping the peace, and the warrior creed shifted towards the restraints of the chivalric code. Politically, two of Europe’s most important statesmen had reasons for wanting to halt the internecine warfare. Pope Leo X sought unity because he feared the rising power of the Ottoman Empire in the east. England’s Cardinal Wolsey, who was pushing England from the periphery to the centre of European politics, sought stability.

  The 1518 Treaty of London was the outcome of a short period of competitive peacemaking with Wolsey and the Pope inviting all European states to agree an enduring peace. The French signed up and to seal the deal the Dauphin Francis was betrothed to Henry’s daughter, Princess Mary. The small print included an agreement that the monarchs would meet and hold a tournament. The combination was essential, for the jousts and tourneys would allow both sovereigns to demonstrate warrior credentials but simultaneously show they could forsake war for chivalric reasons.

  There then followed eighteen months of competitive gift-giving between the kings and petty-fogging, super-politicised debate over the details and protocols of the event, led by Gaspard de Coligny, Marshal of France, and Charles Somerset, Earl of Worcester and Lord Chamberlain. However, by April 1520 the deal was done and the senior officers of both Royal Households bent to the enormous logistical task of staging the event, transporting over 6,000 people, their horses and baggage from England and an equal number of the French court from around the country.

  THE TRIP

  Your POINT OF ARRIVAL on the morning of 8 June 1520 will be the very rutted road that runs between the small towns of ARDRES and GUINES (in what is now northern France). When you ar
rive on the path about a mile short of Guines you will actually be in England, or rather the PALE OF CALAIS, an area of land extending about ten miles from the English port ceded by the French in 1347. You will need to return here on 24 June for your departure.

  The main body of the English court, nearly 6,000 strong, will have arrived a day beforehand but the road is still likely to be busy. As you head east towards the English camp in GUINES you might see the French nobles Lord Chancellor Antoine Duprat and Admiral Bonnivet riding brusquely past you. They are paying a final courtesy call on Henry. A half dozen English nobles will, on their part, ride out to Ardres to see King Francis. There will also be a steady flow of carts and mules carrying the enormous quantity of supplies required to build and feed the English camp. Expect a selection of vagabonds, beggars and thieves to be lurking around the fringes of the camp sensing that plentiful scraps and charity will be made available over the coming days.

  THE ENGLISH CAMP

  When GUINES first comes into view it will not be the town’s stone castle, church spire or cluster of housing that catches your eye, but the vast tent city of over 300 pavilions in front of it. Almost the entirety of the Tudor nobility and their retinues are here under canvas. Round, square and rectangular tents draped in sparkling coloured cloth are clustered to create instant noble houses, some with as many as a dozen tents linked by covered corridors and galleries. Glastonbury Festival it isn’t – though the flags, banners and pennants flying from every mast and central tent pole are vaguely reminiscent, and around the edges is less salubrious accommodation where servants, scullery maids, armourers and stable hands are based. Right at the heart of the site, directly before Guines castle, is the King’s Palace: a magnificent set of canvas-roofed, double-storeyed, brick buildings.