Alcatraz. The elaborate plan was fictionalised in the book and movie ‘Escape from Alcatraz’, starring Clint Eastwood. In a plot masterminded by Morris, the inmates got out via an unused corridor, leaving papier-mache facsimiles of their heads in their beds. They got off the island using an inflatable raft made of raincoats. The fate of the prisoners remains unknown to this day; some claim they died because of fast currents and cold water, but there are fragments of evidence that the escape bid was a success. A fourth member of the team, Allen West, failed to get out of his cell in time and was left behind.

St Helena

It was an antidote to any poison. According to legend, Mithridates was so paranoid about being poisoned that he regularly took small doses of various poisons and antidotes to build up his immunity. He also supposedly made, or commissioned, a universal antidote. When faced with capture, Mithridates failed to commit suicide with poison because of his immunity and had to get a retainer to stab him. His antidote was taken to Rome. Up until the 18th century, reputable physicians and quacks alike sold various concoctions as ‘Mithridatum’.

Utrecht, 1713. The town had been captured by British and Dutch forces in 1704. Given its strategic importance Britain wanted to retain it when the War of Spanish Succession ended. Spain made two attempts to recapture it, in 1727 and later during the American War of Independence where the ‘Great Siege’ was resisted for four years.

1844

Richard. Richard was the second surviving son of Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. He born at Shrewsbury in 1473 and created Duke of York the following year.

Archibald Campbell, Earl of Argyll. Like the Monmouth Rebellion, the abortive “Argyll’s Rising” was backed by Protestants opposed to the Catholic King James. In May, Argyll arrived from Holland with around 300 followers and hoped to rally significant numbers of supporters. This proved illusory; infighting and Argyll’s incompetence meant the rising was easily defeated. Argyll was beheaded.