You're listening to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio and Aaron Manky.

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In 1786, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson visited the battlefield at Fort Royal Hill in

Woust, England.

Adams was the ambassador to Great Britain.

Jefferson was negotiating trade deals with Europe, and the two were political rivals, but

they had traveled together in order to see the place where the royalists had been utterly

defeated by Oliver Cromwell and his army over two centuries prior.

Adams and Jefferson found the place deeply moving.

After all, like Oliver Cromwell, the pair had first-hand experience in waging war to overthrow

a monarch.

But to the shock and shame of the future presidents, Wooster locals seemed to barely note or care

at all that they lived near the historic battle site.

And so John Adams delivered what he called an impromptu lecture to the townspeople.

Do Englishmen so soon forget the ground where liberty was fought for?

Tell your neighbors and your children that this is holy ground, much holier than that

on which your church is stand.

All English had come in pilgrimage to this hill once a year.

To Adams and Jefferson, Wooster represented the place where liberty-loving Englishmen

had risen up to conquer a despotic would-be-king.

But less than a decade after the battle, England had welcomed Charles II back to their

shores with open arms, parades, and celebration.

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