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Here are the list of the inaccuracies that occur in the Horrible Histories books, magazines and TV series.

Savage Stone Age[]

  • (Series 3, Episode 11) In the Stone Age Dragon's Den sketch, the caveman from 6,000 years ago speaks in the same primitive language as the one from 1.5 million years ago, but language would've been a lot more developed by then. Additionally, the sketch also claims that a caveman invented the wheel. This is inaccurate as the wheel is first recorded in Mesopotamian civilization, and while the wheel developed independently on many occasions, it all largely occured post-Stone Age while the sketch appears to take place in Stone Age Europe. He also claims to have invented beer, which is in fact believed to have first been brewed in Mesopotamia. Though in Britain the Stone Age is often extended to 800 BC and the wheel would not have developed there until around 1300 BC, so it would have been "A caveman introduced the wheel in Britain" to make it more accurate.
  • In one sketch, Sir Robert Dudley gifts Queen Elizabeth I with the very first writs-watch (called the Wrist clock) as a Christmas present. However, the very first wristwatch was actually created in 1810 by French inventor Abraham-Louis Breguet in Paris, and gifted to Caroline Murat, the Queen of Naples.
  • (Series 4, Episode 6) In the The Early Show sketch, Early Man creates the word 'dogs' to describe domesticated wolves. The word dog in fact had its origins during Saxon England, from the Old English word, 'docga'. The words 'canine' and 'hound' were generically used to describe dogs in the past. However, this is largely meant for comedic effect to illustrate the character's difficulties in his attempts to domesticate the wolves, rather than to be taken as a genuine fact.
  • (Series 5, Episode 10) Words We Get From the Stone Age: The narrator claims the caveman who is speaking the words is dumb, which he is. However, the words that caveman spoke likely came from the Paleolithic Era, and humans were already sophisticated at that time, so they wouldn't be stupid. Additionally, it isn't known what language many early peoples spoke, as they have no descendants in the modern age. (Although this isn't really an issue, because the show is made for an English speaking audience and so characters are almost always portrayed speaking English even when the language they would've actually spoken is known to have been something different, e.g. Latin for Ancient Romans or German for officers in Germany during the World Wars.)

Awesome Egyptians[]

  • (Series 1, Episode 13) It is claimed that Hatshepsut was "murdered, probably by [her] stepson." Recent evidence shows that she in fact died of a nasty tooth abscess.
  • (Fierce Females - Series 8, Episode 10) (Historical First Dates) During Cleopatra and Ptolemy XIV's date, her future husband Julius Caesar recognises and eats a Caesar salad, further stating that it's his favourite food. The Caesar salad was in fact invented in 1924, long after Julius Caesar's death. Furthermore, the Caesar salad was first created in Mexico, not in Ancient Rome.

Groovy Greeks[]

  • (Series 1) (Stupid Deaths) General Pausanias and Aeschylus give the years of their deaths as being in the 'BC' era, but they wouldn't have known that the BC/AD system would be adopted in the future.
  • (Series 1, Episode 4) While Alexander the Great finally names his new city 'İskenderiye', he replies with saying that it is Turkish for Alexandria. Early variants of the Turkish language didn't occur until the 7th-8th centuries, 1000 years after the sketch takes place.

Rotten Romans[]

  • (Series 1 - Episode 4) Roman Emperor Caligula claims to have made his horse Incitatus a Consul. However, it's believed that Caligula only told a Consul of his that his horse would make a better consul than him. This plays into the common stereotype of Caligula being mad, when there is very little contemporary evidence for this (though he likely suffered from bi-polar disorder and had something of a sadistic streak).
  • (Series 1, Episode 10) A quiz question claims that Caligula was murdered by his niece. However, Caligula was assassinated by Cassius Chaerea and the Praetorian Guard. It was his successor Claudius, who was murdered by his niece (also his wife and incidentally Caligula's sister) Agrippina. She had plotted with Livilla and Drusilla's widower to assassinate Caligula and was exiled as a result.
Honorius

A young Honorious depicted by Jean-Paul Laurens.

  • (Series 3, Episode 10) In the question what did Honorius do when he was told that Rome had fallen, it claims that he hid with his pet chickens. However, what actually happened was when his advisors told Rome had fallen, Honorius only replied with "And yet it had fallen from my hands," because he thought they were referring to his pet chicken and not the declining empire. Also in the same episode, the Visigoths says that Rome has fallen. However, the sketch takes place in 410 AD and not 476 AD, and it was mistaken for the Sack of Rome rather than the fall of the Western Roman Empire. Additionally, both Honorius and Lucius are wearing togas in the sketch. However, by the beginning of late antiquity, foreign influences, particularly ones from the Barbarian tribes, made dramatic changes to the Roman dress, which eventually evolved into both early Medieval and Byzantine clothing. For example, trousers, tunics and cloaks started to become common for the average male Roman to wear, while highly decorated silk dresses wear worn by the upper class. Furthermore, togas were never popular throughout their existence, and by late antiquity, they had become formal wear.
  • (Series 5, Episode 4) Roman senator and general Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus (played by Mathew Baynton) orders the punishment of decimation on his troops after being defeated by Spartacus. According to Plutarch, it was actually Marcus Licinius Crassus who ordered the decimation on his troops. However, in Series 5, Episode 4 they correct this mistake in the song Minted, performed by Crassus.
  • Sometimes, Caligula declares war on 'Poseidon', using the Greek name. The Roman name was Neptune. It is now known that Caligula never declared war on Neptune, but rather made his men collect sea shells as a punishment, due to their refusal to fight the British.
  • Usually in Horrible Histories, it explains that Romans when they are too full to eat food, they try to make themselves throw up so they can consume more food. Not only is this gross, but it is a myth created by pop culture.
  • Series 9, episode 9 features the famous Ides of March (Idus Martiae) coin. In the sketch, Marcus Iunius Brutus says that the coin features daggers on one side (the reverse in numismatic terminology) and a portrait of himself on the other (the obverse). This is incorrect: the portrait is of Lucius Iunius Brutus, Rome's first consul (509 BC), who threw out Rome's last and tyrannical king and was the alleged ancestor of Marcus Iunius Brutus. The legend on the obverse of the coin reads BRVTVS, cleverly referring to them both and therefore suggesting that Marcus Brutus followed in his ancestor's footsteps in freeing Rome from a tyrant.
  • Series 9, episode 9 has a sketch about a fire in Rome in 50 BC. Marcus Licinius Crassus turns up with a fire brigade to rent. However, Crassus died at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BC.

Vicious Vikings[]

  • (Horrible Histories - Series 4, Episode 6) (HH Movie Pitch) Leif Erikson attempts to pitch the story of his discovery of America, but the Vikings wouldn't have called it 'America' as that name comes from Amerigo Vespucci, and Leif's voyage was around 450 years before Vespucci was born. The proper term should be Vinland which comes from the stories of many grape vines being present on the land he visited (now known to be Newfoundland). In truth though, the grapes were likely cranberries.

Smashing Saxons[]

  • (Series 6, Episode 2 - Awesome Alfred The Great) - A sketch from the episode parodies "I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here" and features Empress Wu Zetian, who would have been dead during Alfred The Great's life as she reigned from 665 to 705. The emperor that ruled China at the same time as Alfred The Great would be Emperor Zhaozong of Tang. Wu claims that the food she eats such as camels and bugs are foods the Chinese "normally eat" when it would entirely depend on the region and class of a person in China. And even then, most of these would have been eaten occasionally such as festivals or banquets, not daily. The same episode in another sketch "Horrible Histories Health Direct" shows an Egyptian giving advice on stomach problems while dressed up as an Ancient Egyptian. During this time Egypt would have occupied by Arabs under the Abbasid Caliphate who would have brought Islam to the country and thus would have likely worn Islamic style clothing instead.  
  • Horrible Histories likes to depict the Saxons as being a unified people invading England. In reality, the Saxons were just one of a group of Germanic tribes who lived in what is now Northern Germany and also included the Angles (hence the term Anglo-Saxon) and Jutes from Denmark, and the Frisians from the Netherlands. They were not a unified people at this point, and thus they did not have a single leader. There's also evidence that the Saxons did not go through one single invasion, but instead through multiple gradual migrations, likely starting with Romano-British kings hiring them as mercenaries to fight the Picts, the Irish and each other in exchange for land.
  • Horrible Histories also portrays the Saxon tale of Vortigen, Hengist, and Horsa as entirely a historical fact. The story of Hengist and Horsa is first recorded in the 8th century Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. However, there is no archaeological evidence to support the story. It is possible that Hengist and Horsa were real people, but it is also possible that they are purely legendary figures.
  • (Series 4, Episode 10) - The Saxons are portrayed as being very superstitious and believing in all sorts of mythological creatures, such as dragons and unicorns. However, there is no historical evidence to support this claim and they were likely no more superstitious than other peoples living at the time.
  • (Series 5, Episode 1) - The Saxons are shown struggling to count to ten. However, this is not an accurate representation of Saxon society. The Saxons were actually quite sophisticated people and had a well-developed system of education, especially under Alfred the Great who encouraged education and built many schools.

Measly Middle Ages[]

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Skeleton of Richard III

  • (The Truth About Richard III) In September of 2012, months after The Truth About Richard III premiered, the bones of Richard III were discovered, leading to the discovery that he actually did have a crooked spine and suffered from suspected scoliosis. However, this would not have resulted in the exaggerated hump portrayed by Shakespeare and could easily be concealed by clothing.
  • In many instances of Horrible Histories media, people usually throw their waste out into the streets from their windows, even during the Tudor Era. However, this isn't true since there were strict health regulations in the streets during the Middle Ages. The reason Horrible Histories shows people throwing their waste into the streets was due to how Hollywood likes to portray the Middle Ages.
  • (Series 2, Episode 5) HHTV News: Bob Hale explains the Crusades, which were a series of religious wars, but when he was talking about the Fourth Crusade, he said that the Crusaders brought nothing back. However, the Fourth Crusade wasn't actually fought in the Holy Land which the animation showed, and they actually sacked Constantinople in the Byzantine Empire. It also leaves out other crusades, such as the Livonian Crusades against the pagan Baltic and Finnic tribes or the Albigenisian Crusade against the Cathar heresy in Southern France.
  • (Series 3, Episode 6) HHTV News: Bob Hale explains the Wars of the Roses and erroneously says Richard II was Richard Plantagenet's great-great-grandpa when in reality Richard II and Richard Plantagenet were distant cousins, as Richard II had no children. He also says Henry IV was Henry VI's great great grandpa, when Henry IV was just his grandpa.
  • (Series 6, Episode 1: Crooked King John and Magna Carta) Chatty Deaths: Death claims that the Magna Carta was the foundation of Democracy. Though it is an important part of the history of democracy, it was only the foundation of it in England and had been a concept among numerous ancient societies. Additionally, it was primarily for the benefit of the English nobility rather than the rights of the peasantry.
  • (Series 4, Episode N/A Cut Sketch.) During the Historical Dentists Sketch, the medieval dentist claims that people from his time period had very terrible and rotten teeth. However, this is not the case and based on stereotypes about the era. An average medieval person's diet rarely had sugar in it, thus they had nicer looking teeth in reality.

Radical Renaissance[]

  • (Series 4, Episode 9) After meeting with the deacon, Pope Alexander VI asks "Where's my pizza?", but pizza wasn't invented until the 18th or 19th century, almost 300-400 years after this scene takes place. This is likely a reference to the famous stereotype of Italians craving pizza.
  • (Atrocious Artists - Series 7, Episode 4) This episode shows Leonardo painting the Mona Lisa on a canvas, when in reality it was painted on a sheet of poplar wood.

Terrible Tudors[]

  • The section on food claims that spices were used to cover up the taste of salted or rotten meat. This, however, isn't the case because only rich people could afford spices, poor people were more likely to eat salted meat and no one would have wanted to eat rotten meat (unless they were starving).
  • In the book and in several sketches, there are references to Henry VIII and Anne of Cleves having divorced, when the marriage was actually annulled, meaning that it was never valid. However, this is justified, as the terminology was simplified for the young audience.
  • (Series 3, Episode 9) The Frenchman in the Tudor money sketch quickly becomes confused by the many different denominations of English currency. However, at that time most other European countries had similarly complex money systems as well, so it wouldn't have been that different to what he was used to.
  • (Mardy Mary Queen of Scots - Series 6, Episode 4) When Mary Queen of Scots married Francis II of France, she wasn’t 17, she was 15 and Francis was 14. Francis died at 18, and Mary was a widow at 19. They were also in love, but in the show it seemed like Mary was grossed out by her husband, and glad he died, but she actually was devastated at the loss.
  • In the song Tudor Queens: Power, Edward VI sings "so I'm telling you, my stepsisters, they deserve respect." When in fact Mary I and Elizabeth I were his half sisters as they have the same father, Henry VIII.

Terrifying Tudors[]

  • On page 76 of the book, it is claimed that, following the execution of Dr. Lopez, the English beat, robbed and ran the Jewish people out of town. As a matter of fact, the Jews had been banished from England in 1290 under King Edward I and weren't permitted to return until 1650s, decades after the death of Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch.

Slimy Stuarts[]

  • The letter to Lord Monteagle that foiled the Gunpowder Plot is portrayed as having been written by Francis Tresham. However, it was actually anonymous and there's no proof that Tresham was the one that sent it.
  • (Series 2, Episode 1) Cutting someone's ears off wouldn't make them completely deaf. It's the organs in the inner ear that process sounds - the outer ear merely collects them, so their hearing wouldn't be impaired to the extent shown in the sketch of the men that had theirs cut off as a punishment.
  • (Series 4, Episode 2) In the sketch where Charles II allows commoners to watch him having dinner, he asks his guest from Calabria how Italy is at the moment. At that time, Calabria was part of the Kingdom of Sicily - Italy didn't become a unified country until the second half of the 19th century.
  • Caadc1 32b9541dd9124d419829ee4f300c31fb mv2

    The ‘design cavalry’ present the modern Union Jack flag.

    (Ruthless Rulers - Series 7, Episode 8) When coming up with the Union Jack, James I says that he will use it as the official flag of England and Scotland. However, both England and Scotland still used both of their original flags until 1707 through the Acts of Union during the reign of Queen Anne, when the Union Jack became the official flag of Great Britain. Later in the same sketch, Sophie and Sebastian even present the current version of the flag with the St Patrick's Cross, which wasn't added until 1801 when Ireland joined the Union.

Putrid Pirates[]

  • (Series 1, Episode 1) The idea of pirates receiving the "Black Spot" to tell another pirate that they have been marked for death comes from Robert Louis Stevenson's 'Treasure Island' and has no factual basis.
    1280px-Blackbeard Flag

    The purported Flag of Blackbeard.

  • (Series 2, Episode 6) During the song Blackbeard's Song, Blackbeard's crew sings, "With its smiling pile of skull & bones smashing hearts with a violent stabbing motion." It was referring to the so-called Flag of Blackbeard. However, contrary to popular belief, there is no accurate description of any specific flag used by Blackbeard during his days of piracy. According to history, Blackbeard flew a black flag with a skull on it along with a blood red flag.

Gorgeous Georgians[]

  • In page 24 of the Gorgeous Georgians book, it claims that George Washington had false wooden teeth. However, that is a myth. As a matter of fact, his teeth were made of hippo teeth, elephant ivory, and even the teeth of other people. This was later corrected in the TV series.
  • In both the book and sketch television series, there is confusion between George I and George II 's death, sometimes mistaking George I 's death with his successor's. This mistake is corrected later in the series, and the Proms Special has George II say he "died on the loo," instead of George I.
  • It is stated that George III was the son of George II. However, this is inaccurate because he was actually his grandson and his father was instead Frederick, the Prince of Wales, who died before he could take the throne.
  • (Series 3, Episode 7) Sir Robert Walpole asks George I to make him 'Prime Minister', but the position was originally called 'First Lord of the Treasury'. The first person to hold the office who was officially called 'Prime Minister' was Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman in 1905.
  • Walpole also asks George I if he's been over to Germany again. Germany wasn't a unified state at the time, with the area still being the Holy Roman Empire.
  • Georgian firefighters are shown to have let buildings burn if they weren't insured. However, it's thought that they usually would tackle fires regardless, because fires from uninsured properties could easily have spread to insured ones, plus it was good advertising for them to be seen rushing to extinguish fires.
  • (Series 4, Episode 7) In the Stupid Deaths segment Hannah Twynnoy died in 1703 in a menagerie near The White Lion public house in the centre of the English market town of Malmesbury in Wiltshire. However it was the Stuart Era and not the Georgian Era due to Queen Anne still being queen until her death in 1714.

Vile Victorians[]

  • On page 73, it claims that factory work increased, therefore people moved in large numbers from the country to work in these factories. While this is true, the real reason why this is the case is due to the Enclosure during the Georgian Era, wherein the land was privatised into estates by the landownets, which led onto people moving away from the countryside to seek work.
  • (Series 1, Episode 11) In the HHTV News report, Bob Hale explains the rise and fall of the British Empire, but he then claims that Great Britain discovered Australia. However, James Cook only drew out the east coast of the continent; the Dutch landed on the West Coast 164 years earlier and occasionally mapped it out and the Chinese may have identified it during the Ming dynasty. Additionally, the Indigenous Australians have lived there for between 40,000 and 70,000 years.
  • At the start of the British Empire report, Bob Hale refers to 'England' having the idea to start the Empire, which is chronologically correct, but the animation shows the Union flag instead of the St George's cross. Also, for expansions between the 1707 and 1801 Acts of Union, it shows the current version of the Union flag when it should be showing the one without the St Patrick's saltire.
  • (Series 1, Episode 11) In the 'British Things' song, the Butler explains that sugar originated in the Caribbean Islands. However, there are many other places where sugar cane also grows, such as Northern India and formerly Brazil. India was the first country to grow sugar cane. Also, some sugar is produced in Britain, from sugar beet grown in East Anglia. The song mentions British and American Slavery, but also depicts Queen Victoria in her old age. The slave trade in the British Empire was banned in 1807, 30 years before Victoria was Queen, and slavery itself was banned in 1843, when Victoria was only 23 years old. In the United States, slavery was banned after the American Civil War had ended in 1865, and Victoria was only 45 years of age.
  • (Series 1, Episode 13) In the song Burke & Hare, the sketch takes place between 1827-1829 at Edinburgh. However, it was the Georgian Era and not the Victorian Era due to George IV still being king until his death in 1830. Also, at the end of the song, Dr. Knox says that after Burke's execution, his body was sent to him for dissection. However, Burke's body was actually sent to Edinburgh University to be given a public dissection by Dr. Alexander Munro.
  • (Series 2, Episode 7) In the Cliff Whitley sketch, Mary Seacole said that after the Crimean war ended while Florence Nightingale would go on to be famous, Seacole would just be poor and penniless. The real Seacole actually died wealthy because of the success of her memoir as well as a "Seacole Fund" from Queen Victoria.
  • (Series 2, Episode 7) (Historical Dragon's Den) The third contestant, Chesterton Widebelly invents and introduces the dragons to his new invention, the vacuum cleaner. The first mechanical vacuum cleaner was in fact invented in 1860 by Daniel Hess and was entitled the 'carpet sweeper'.[1]
  • (Tricky Queen Vicky - Series 6, Episode 11) (Chatty Deaths) Queen Victoria refers to the British Empire as 'one of the largest empires in the world'. It was actually the largest - while not technically inaccurate, 'one of the largest' isn't generally used when referring to the largest.
  • (Series 7, Episode 11 - Formidable Florence Nightingale) X-Treme Survival: The Earl of Cardigan explains advice on shelter and how he uses his ship as protection. He notices his crew playing a game of Twister on the boat and wants to join playing with them. Although the joke was done for comedic effect, the board game Twister was not officially released until 1966, roughly 110 years after the sketch takes place.
  • (Series 8, Episode 8 - Putrid Politics) In the song, Mambo No. 10, Queen Victoria sings about her Prime Ministers and gives them their current title. However, the title "Prime Minster" was not official until 1905 and the title "First Lord of the Treasury" was used instead.
  • (Victorian Inventions) The Victorian Inventions song lists 'Trains and lines and bridges', but the first railways were actually built before Victoria came to the throne. It also lists concrete as a Victorian invention when it was actually developed since the Romans.

Frightful First World War[]

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The Russian flag used in World War Once Cousins is missing the coat of arms. The map of the Russian Empire also shows modern borders for the rest of the world.

  • (Series 1, Episode 4 - Dodgy War Inventions) Zeppelin airships were actually very difficult to shoot down and it was some time before the British managed it.
  • (Series 3, Episode 1) In the Battle of the Somme sketch, the present German flag is used instead of the Imperial one.
  • (Frightful First World War Special) In the World War One Cousins song, the present Russian flag is used instead of the Imperial one. Also in the song, the German Empire appears to not occupy Alsace, a small region in France.
  • HorribleHistoriesWWIMIPhone

    The phone used in 'Mission: Incompetent'

    (Series 8, Episode 3 - Chaotic Collabs) Mission: Incompetent: In the Back Hand's hideout, the members receive a secret phone call which displays the events of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The phone used the sketch seems too recent for the year 1914, and is likely a phone from the interwar period or during WWII; circa 1930’s-1940’s. This sketch and the show itself has always made use of limited props, hence why a more recent telephone is used.

Woeful Second World War[]

HHWWIIMAP

The map that appears when Chamberlain opens Allyspace.com, showing post 1945 borders and Ireland as an ally.

  • (The Few) During the RAF pilots song, Douglas Bader describes how he lost both legs and now has false ones, but is able to dance and move just as easily as the other pilots. In fact, the prosthetic legs of the time which he would've had would've done little more than carry his upper body and so he'd only have been capable of very limited movement, not like with the bionic limbs of the 21st century.
  • (Series 5, Episode 11, Historical Desktops) When Neville Chamberlain checks the United Kingdom's allies on his desktop, the map that appears shows Europe's modern day borders and not its 1939 borders. Note: There are two maps shown in this segment, the first map brought up when he searches for "Munich Agreement Map" is factually accurate for 1939, the Allyspace map is indeed post 1945. The Allyspace map also shows Ireland as being an ally when it was neutral. Furthermore, that map isn't even entirely consistent with modern borders, as it shows the current borders in the Balkans, with Montenegro and Kosovo as independent countries, which declared their independence in 2006 and 2008 respectively (though Kosovo is still only partially recognised to this day), but it still depicts Czechoslovakia as one country when it divided into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 1993.
  • At the beginning of the sketch, Chamberlain comments on his profile on Chitter.com, saying that he had returned from Germany and enjoyed a meal of currywurst in Munich. The dish that would become currywurst was invented in the year 1949 by Herta Heuwer.
  • When Chamberlain searches the website, www.ratemytache, Salvador Dali's photo is seen in the website, but the photograph seen was taken in the year 1965, 26 years after the Second World War began.

Troublesome 20th century[]

  • (Series 5, Episode 1) The American flag that Neil Armstrong holds when describing his Apollo 11 weight loss programme has 48 stars, but Alaska and Hawaii had already been states for 10 years by the time of the Apollo 11 mission.
  • (Series 5, Episode 2) Captain Smith says that the Titanic has 'over 2,000 passengers on board', when it actually had around 1,300 passengers and 900 crew, so he should've said 'over 2,000 people'

Terrible Teachers, (Series 1, Episode 9)[]

  • During the 'It's Not True!' song, the policeman* (portrayed by Mathew Baynton) sings that King Arthur and his knights didn't exist. However, there is a debate between historians arguing if he existed or not, but the truth is unknown to this day as there is little evidence if Arthur was a real king and he was more likely a battle-chief in the employ of Post-Roman British kings (based on the writings of figures such as Nennius).

Potty Pioneers[]

  • (Series 1, Episode 3) The sketch depicting Captain Scott and Lawrence Oates setting off for the South Pole appears to portray them as working well together. In reality, Oates disagreed with Scott on many aspects of his management of the expedition.
  • (Mayflower Malarkey - Series 8, Episode 12) In the movie sketch called "America" Christopher Columbus discovers the West Indies. He claims to have arrived in America and then catches himself and finds out it is the Caribbean islands. However, Columbus actually was unaware that he discovered the West Indies and thought he had found a new trading route to India and kept ignoring his crew that they had found previously unknown islands. Additionally, there were already people living there, the Taino, who could have confirmed this.
  • (Black British History Animated Special) In the song "Black People Played Their Part" the singer says that the "Cheddar Man" from Mesolithic Britain was black, but in fact they were not only not black but were not even related to Sub Saharan African people and analysis of his nuclear DNA indicates that he was a typical member of the Western European hunter-gatherer population at the time and the wave of anatomically modern humans he was part of originated in the Middle East. They also bring up Septimus Severus as an example of a black Roman and the Aurelian Moors. Though Severus was born in the Roman colony of Leptis Magna, located in North Africa, his mother was Roman and his father Carthaginian. The Carthaginians themselves were colonists from Phoenicia, a region roughly corresponding to modern Lebanon. Therefore, he was certainly not black, and calling him ‘African’ is a bit of a stretch.  Similarly, the Moors were African, coming from the Roman North African province of Mauretania, but these Africans however were most probably Berbers, rather than black men from sub-Saharan Africa.

Ruthless Rulers[]

  • (The Monarchs' Song) In The Monarchs' Song, it ignores all the kings before William the Conqueror, as England had been a unified country since King Aethelstan over a hundred years before the Norman Conquest and the line of English monarchs typically begins with Aethelstan's grandfather, Alfred the Great, who styled himself as King of the English (though in reality, he didn't actively rule much outside of his own kingdom of Wessex) . It also ignores Queen Lady Jane Grey in the Tudor Era likely due to timing in the song. It could also be due to the fact that Lady Jane Grey is a disputed monarch as she was never officially crowned as queen (though Edward V and Edward VIII were never crowned either). The same could be said of Empress Matilda, mother of Henry II, who was rejected by the English nobility, despite having been declared the heir to the throne by her father, Henry I.

Fabulous French[]

  • (Series 6, Episode 5: Naughty Napoleon) Napoleon's wife Josephine has all of her husband's letters and poetry in a small tin bin. Modern bins did not originate until the latter half of the 19th century, and the first smaller sized bins were produced during the 1920s.

The Horrible Histories Collection[]

The Horrible Histories Collection - Terrible Timeline[]

Awesome Ancient World[]

  • 500 AD: The timeline mentions that the Eastern Roman Empire had renamed themselves to the Byzantine Empire. The term 'Byzantine' wasn't established until the Renaissance, where historians used it to better distinguish the Ancient Roman Empire with the Eastern counterpart that survived during the Middle Ages. The Eastern Romans themselves also had seen themselves as Romans until the Fall of Constantinople.

References[]

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