“It was Twelfth Night, and the Saxons, who in these days of torment refreshed and fortified themselves by celebrating the feasts of the Church, were off their guard, engaged in pious exercises, or perhaps even drunk. Down swept the ravaging foe. The whole army of Wessex, sole guarantee of England south of the Thames, was dashed into confusion. Many were killed.”

On King Alfred's defeat by the Danes in January, w:878; Vol I; The Birth of Britain.
A History of the English-Speaking Peoples (1956–58)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It was Twelfth Night, and the Saxons, who in these days of torment refreshed and fortified themselves by celebrating th…" by Winston S. Churchill?
Winston S. Churchill photo
Winston S. Churchill 601
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1874–1965

Related quotes

Matthew Arnold photo

“And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.”

St. 4
Dover Beach (1867)
Context: Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Anne of Great Britain photo

“God be thanked we were not bred up in that communion but are of a Church that is pious and sincere, and conformable in all its principles to the Scriptures. … the Church of England is, without all doubt, the only true Church.”

Anne of Great Britain (1665–1714) queen of England, queen of Scotland and queen of Ireland (1702–07); queen of Great Britain (1707–14)

Letter to her sister, Princess Mary (29 April 1686), from B. C. Brown (ed.), The Letters and Diplomatic Instructions of Queen Anne (1935), p. 16.

Robbie Williams photo

“I'm glad that spending a night with me,
Guaranteed you celebrity.”

Robbie Williams (1974) British singer and entertainer

Monsoon
Escapology (2002)

Derren Brown photo
Bernard Cornwell photo
Hermann Göring photo

“The people were merely to acknowledge the authority of the Führer, or, let us say, to declare themselves in agreement with the Führer. If they gave the Führer their confidence then it was their concern to exercise the other functions. Thus, not the individual persons were to be selected according to the will of the people, but solely the leadership itself.”

Hermann Göring (1893–1946) German politician and military leader

Statement (18 March 1946) Cross Examination of Hermann Goering "Eighty-Fourth Day, Monday, 3/18/1946, Part 16" http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/nuremberg/Goering1.html in Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal Vol. IX. Proceedings: 3/8/1946-3/23/1946 (1947)

Alvin C. York photo

“You know we were in the Argonne Forest twenty-eight days, and had some mighty hard fighting in there. A lot of our boys were killed off.”

Alvin C. York (1887–1964) United States Army Medal of Honor recipient

On how he came to be known as "Sergeant York" when he was still technically only a corporal, as quoted in Sergeant York And His People (1922) http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19117 by Sam K. Cowan, Ch. I : A Fight In The Forest Of The Argonne.
Context: You know we were in the Argonne Forest twenty-eight days, and had some mighty hard fighting in there. A lot of our boys were killed off. Every company has to have so many sergeants. They needed a sergeant; and they jes' took me.

Alvin C. York photo

“You know we were in the Argonne Forest twenty-eight days, and had some mighty hard fighting in there. A lot of our boys were killed off. Every company has to have so many sergeants. They needed a sergeant; and they jes' took me.”

Alvin C. York (1887–1964) United States Army Medal of Honor recipient

On how he came to be known as "Sergeant York" when he was still technically only a corporal, as quoted in Sergeant York And His People (1922) http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19117 by Sam K. Cowan, Ch. I : A Fight In The Forest Of The Argonne.

Related topics