Images Dated 16th December 2005

Alfred in the Neat-Herds Cottage, 1776. Artist: I Hall

Alfred in the Neat-Herd's Cottage, 1776. King Alfred, in disguise, is rebuked by the Neat Herd's Wife, for letting the cakes burn. Alfred the Great (849-899), Anglo-Saxon king of Wessex from 871. Much of Alfred's reign was taken up with the struggle against the Danish invaders. After Alfred defeated the Danes at Edington, Wiltshire, in 878, England was divided in half, with the south-western part in the hands of the Saxons, and the north-eastern portion, the Danelaw, administered by the Danes. War broke out again in the 890s, but by 897 the Danes had been defeated. A plate from The Copper-Plate Magazine or A Monthly Treasure, London, 1776

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Captain Cook, 19th century. Artist: E Scriven

Captain Cook, 19th century. James Cook, English explorer, navigator and hydrographer. Captain Cook (1728-1779) in naval uniform, seated, with his hand resting on a map of the world. Cook made three voyages of discovery. On the first he observed the transit of Venus and charted the coasts of New Zealand and eastern Australia, claiming them for Britain, and on the second he explored the Southern Ocean. The main objective of his last voyage was to find a northern sea passage between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. He was killed when a fight broke out with natives in Hawaii

© The Print Collector / Heritage-Images

Cortez, 19th century. Artist: William Holl

Cortez, 19th century. Hernan Cortes (1485-1547), Spanish conquistador who conquered Mexico. Cortes landed in Mexico in 1519. With a force of only some 600 men, he succeeded in overthrowing the empire of the Aztecs, a civilization numbering 5 million. He was able to achieve this partly due to the natives being terrified of the Europeans horses and firearms, neither of which they had seen before. In addition, the Aztecs believed a prophecy that they would be visited by a light-skinned bearded god, the Quetzalcoatl, who had taught them agriculture and government in the past, and whose return they were to welcome with great ceremony. Cortes was able to exploit his resemblance to the Quetzalcoatl to great effect

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