The Fatality of Days

In 1687 John Gibbon, the herald known as Bluemantle, printed a tract arguing that 14 October had always been a lucky day for the princes of England, not least because James II was born on it. He added that swans were birds of good omen, and that sailors in danger of shipwreck took it as good luck to meet them. Sir Winston Churchill, father of the first Duke of Marlborough, wrote to thank him, saying Friday was his own lucky day, on which he had been born, christened, married and knighted, and on which he always chose to begin anything important.