Henry VIII - "...Good Company, Good Wine, Good Welcome, Can Make Good People"

Lego Henry VIII 
(1491-1547)

Henry was born on 28th June 1491 at Greenwich Palace. He was the second son of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York. 

His elder brother, Arthur, died in 1502, making Henry the heir to the throne of England. Henry VII died in 1509, making the 18 year old Henry king. The Pope dispensation allowed him to marry his brother's widow Catherine of Aragon.

Henry VIII inherited 5 warships and in 1509 he commissioned for 2 ships to be built the Mary Rose and the Peter Pomegranate. In doing this Henry started a maritime force later to be known as the Royal Navy. By the time of his death, Henry had built over 50 warships. He used these war vessels to try to gain his claimed French throne. Most of his campaigns were almost fruitless and expensive. Almost making England officially bankrupt. 

In 1521, Henry was given the title of Defender of the Faith by Pope Leo X for his book, 'Assertio Septem Sacramentorum', which affirmed the supremacy of the Pope and condemned the German theologian, Martin Luther.

Henry was worried as his only surviving child was Mary and Catherine was in her 40s, becoming close to the change. Henry asked Cardinal Wolsey to get the marriage annulled by Pope Clement VII, on grounds that he has unlawfully married his brother's wife and God has condemned it to be a childless marriage. Although the Pope was under control by the most powerful ruler in Europe, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, who was nephew to Catherine. So the Pope refused Henry's request. Wolsey fell out of favour with the King for not gaining a annulment. Losing his positions and wealth. He died in 1530.

Lego Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

In 1533, Henry VIII broke with the Church and married Anne Boleyn. He was excommunicated by the Pope for his blasphemy and heresy.

Thomas Cromwell became the Chief Minister and earned the confidence of the King after he helped to break with Rome and established Henry VIII as the Head of the Church of England. Cromwell was entrusted to investigate all the English monasteries for corruption and wealth. With this he was ordered to disband over 800 monasteries and their lands and wealth went to the Crown.

Although the growing number of courtiers and people of the nation were embracing Protestantism, Henry VIII was believed to still remain Catholic. As throughout his reign he was reluctant in removing a lot of Catholic beliefs and traditions.

Anne Boleyn's execution, 1536 

In September 1533, Anne gave birth to a daughter, Elizabeth. After 2 miscarriages, Henry grown tired of her. After a jousting accident in 1536, Henry seemed to become more aggressive. In that same year Anne was arrested on trumped up charges of adultery, incest and treason. She was later publicly beheaded at the Tower.

Henry married Jane Seymour. In 1537 she died in childbirth, giving Henry his desired son, Edward. She was given a queen's funeral.

In attempt to establish a German Protestant alliance, Cromwell arranged a marriage between Henry and the German Princess, Anne of Cleves. The marriage was a disaster and Henry divorced Anne a few months after. Henry blamed Cromwell for the mismatch and soon after he was executed for treason in 1540.

In his final years Henry's reign, witnessed his physical decline and his continuous expensive and fruitless campaign in France.

In 1540, the King married the teenage Catherine Howard. It was alleged that she had a relationship with Henry's courtier, Francis Dereham and a affair with Thomas Culpeper. Catherine was later found out and executed for adultery and treason in 1542.

Henry's final marriage was to Catherine Parr, who acted as his nurse, and who outlived him even when she was close to being executed herself.

On 28th January 1547 Henry VIII died of possibly kidney failure and was succeeded by his son, Edward VI. He was buried next to Jane Seymour, his favourite wife, in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle. 

Sir Winston Churchill - "We shall fight in the hills, we shall neversurrender"

Sir Winston Churchill
(1874-1965)
'V' for victory

Sir Winston Churchill was born on 30th November 1874 at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. Son to the Lord Randolph Churchill. He attended the Royal Military College, in Sandhurst, before embarking on his military career in the army.

In 1900, Churchill became a Conservative member of parliament for Oldham. However in 1904 he disaffected to the Liberal Party. He became the undersecretary at the Colonial Office when the Liberal Party won the election in 1905. This setting him on the road of his political career.

In 1911, he became the first Lord of the Admiralty. He was able to hold his post in the first few months of World War One, but he resigned after being blamed for the disaster of the Dardanelles Expedition. 

Churchill then served on the Western Front for a while on joining the army. Although, by 1917, he was back in government. From 1919-21 he was the Secretary of State for War and Air, and from 1924-29 he was the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

When the World War Two broke out in 1936, Churchill became the first Lord of the Admiralty again. In May 1940, Neville Chamberlain resigned as Prime Minister and Churchill took his place. He inspired the nation with his refusal to surrender to Germany. Building strong relations with the US President, Roosevelt and maintained a difficult alliance with the USSR, Stalin.

"We shall fight in the hills,
we shall never surrender" 
- Churchill

In 1945, Churchill lost power after the war elections in 1945, but still MP, he voiced his opinions of the Cold War, giving the phase the 'Iron Carton' to the Berlin Wall. In 1951, he once again became Prime Minister. However, in 1955, he resigned, but remaining a MP until his death. 

In 1953, he was awarded a Nobel Prize for Literature because of his impressive number of publications, such as, his six-volumes of 'The Second World War'.

He died on 24th January 1965 and was the first former Prime Minister to be given a state funeral.

Julius Caesar - "I Came, I Saw, I Conquered!"

"Veni, Vidi, Vici" - Caesar

Julius Caesar born in Rome 12th or 13th of July 100 BCE into the Julian clan. 

Caesar became a politician and general of the Late Roman Republic, who raised himself in the political system. Greatly expanding the Roman Empire in doing so.

Succeed in became a Quaestor in 69, Aedile in 65 and Praetor in 62. In 61-60 BCE he served as the governor of Spain. On his return to Rome in 60, Caesar, Pompey and Crassus joined together in a political pact, the Triumvirate.

Giving him the opportunity to gain the Consulship in 59 BCE. In the following year he was appointed as the governor of Gaul (France), staying for eight years. He reduced the possibility of a Gallic invasion and revolt. He also attempted two expeditions to Britain in 55 and 54 BCE.

He returned to Rome without disbanding his army and starting a civil war. After Caesar defeated the republican forces, Pompey, their leader, fled to Egypt where he was assassinated. 

Assassination of Caesar

Caesar then became the master of Rome and made himself consul and dictator. He used his newfound political powers to carry out some radical reforms. Although, a dictatorship is normally a temporary position. In 44 BCE, Caesar took it up for life, in doing so he alienated the Republican Senators. A group of the senate assassinated Caesar on the 15th March 44 BCE in the Theatre of Pompey. 

With his assassination, sparked another civil war that ends the Republic and started the imperial system with Caesar's nephew and adopted son Octavian, as Augustus on becoming the first Emperor of Roman Empire.

Richard III - "A horse, a kingdom for a horse!"

Lego Richard III (1483-1485)

Born on the 2nd October 1452 in Northamptonshire, son to Richard Plantagenet, Duke of York and Cecily Neville. 

His brother Edward gained the throne of England during the War of the Roses after killing Henry VI.

After his brothers death, Edward IV, in April 1483 Richard was named the Protector of the Realm for Edward's son, Edward V only 12 years old. Edward V was escorted to London by Richard and he took up residence in the Tower. Edward's brother Richard of Shrewsbury, later joined him.

Richard soon condemns Edward IV's marriage to the boy's mother, Elizabeth Woodville, as invalid and their children are illegitimate. On the 25th June, both the Houses of Lords and Commons supported his claims. The next day Richard became Richard III officially starting his reign. He was crowned in July. The 2 princes in the Tower suddenly disappeared in August and were rumoured to be murdered by their uncle, Richard.

A horse, a Kingdom for a horse!!!

In August 1485, Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, a Lancastrian can from exile in France to South Wale to take his claim to the throne of England. Henry engaged Richard in battle at Bosworth Field in Leicestershire on 22nd August.

Although Richard had the advantage of numbers, most of his advances were defected. Refusing to flee, Richard was cut off in a mash and was killed after falling from his horse and Henry Tudor took the throne as Henry VII. 

Revolution! The brick chronicle of the American Revolution and the inspiring fight for liberty and equality that shook the world - BOOK REVIEW

Revolution is a history book by Brendan Powell Smith, which looks at the both the American and French revolution. Published in 2014. You can purchase a copy from Amazon. 

Revolution! The brick chronicle of the
American Revolution and
the inspiring fight for Liberty
and equality that shook the World.

Brendan is a Lego photographer, who has undertaken many different Lego projects such as the Brick Bible, where he has done a similar thing with his history books but also famous scenes from the Bible. Such as Adam and Eve and the Last Supper. 

Brendan's Brick Bible push started his new historic projects including the Assassination! and Revolution!; hopeful there will be even more of this calibre in the near future.

A scene of a Continental army massacre.

Looking at Revolution, I can see how much in approvement Brendan has made from his previous book, Assassination. Using the same methods of putting the events across to the read, with step by step scenes along side the facts. Although, the book seems to be divided in quality and realism. As I have said before in may last review of Assassination, he has made history seem more palatable but he somehow makes a lot of his work as realistic as possible, no matter how shocking or gory he has made it work in the materials he has available, Lego.

George Washington,
Commander-in-Chief
of the Continental army. 

The construction of some characters do sometimes spoil the amazing representation of history using Lego. He tries to recreate the fashion of the time of long stocks and high boots. His portail of this makes them look like they are short and standing on stilts to make them taller. Shown here with Washington. This seems to be very unnecessary creativeness but sadly doesn't look too good as the rest of the illustrations throughout the book.

Ichabod Alden being killed
by Iroquois outside
a fort at Cherry Valley.

It is also a shame that some of the scenes do look like that Brendan has used photo shopped for things that were hard to recreate out of Lego. Such as a scene of Ichabod Alden being killed with a tomahawk. Which is a shame as it destroys the idea of having all of it naturally made up of Lego. Although it does make it realistic.

On a happier note, in this book I could not find any typos, in comparison to in Assassination. Which is a great improvement.

Invasion of Quebec
by General John Burgoyne.

In Revolution, you will be able to see more hat and hair creations which make the scene so much more realistic. This technique can be seen in the recently released LEGO MOVIE. This is been portrayed in this book contrast to Brendan's other creations. Although this is a good thing, I have seen constantly inconsistency in the idea as well as the result of paint or colouring of the back of the heads to seem like there is hair. For example, the invasion of Quebec, General John Burgoyne has Lego hair and hat but the captured Continental soldiers have coloured in hair. Even though these are detailed in doing so, it doesn't look great with the inconsistence of Lego hair.

Brendan Powell Smith,
the Author of Revolution
and Brick Books. 

Moving past the mistakes and faults of the book, it is a great historic book to read and flick through. Has looked at both sides of the events of the revolutions which show bad and good events. Allowing the reader to gain all the facts to give their own judgement on the facts that are given to them. Making the book in some respects un-biased, which is rare in writing about history and past events. Most historians and writers seem to lavish themselves in putting their own point across but it seems that Brendan has skipped and ignored the idea. This makes a great read for history and Lego fans alike.

I can't wait to see if Brendan Smith publishes anymore books because I will love to read them and enjoy.