Clarinda

On December 29, 1788, Robert Burns wrote to his friend “Clarinda” referring to her friend Mary Peacock as 'a charming girl, and highly worthy of the noblest love'.  Clarinda was Agnes Craig M’Lehose, who wrote verse which Burns laid against the tune “ The Borders of Spey”. He also wrote the song "Ae fond kiss" about Clarinda.

Agnes Craig was born to Andrew Craig, and according to the online Burns encyclopedia, Sir Walter Scott met her once at his friend Lord Craig’s, Agnes’s uncle, when she was 'old, charmless and devout'.

William Ewert Gladstone

William Ewert Gladstone was a very successful public servant, serving four times as Chancellor of the Exchequer, as a member of Parliament, and as Prime Minister, retiring at the age of 84.  He was also an enthusiastic Walter Scott fan.  According to Clayton Windscheffel, in his article for The Scottish Historical Review titled Gladstone and Scott: family, identity and nation:

'Amongst the poet-novelist's nineteenth-century political admirers, William Ewart Gladstone was possibly the most ardent, genuine, and significant. Scott's poems and novels were amongst the earliest texts Gladstone read; he read no works (in English), except the Bible, so consistently or completely over such a length of time. They offered him a plethora of inspirations, ideas, and language, which he imbibed and appropriated into his public and private lives. His concept of self, his understanding of family, and his sense of home, were all forged and conducted within a Scottian frame of reference. Scott's life and works also crucially influenced Gladstone's political understanding of the Scottish nation and its people, and his conception of how he could best serve their political interests. ...'

It is the long-lived Gladstone's birth that is celebrated on December 29.  The year was 1809.

Thomas Becket's Martyrdom

Thomas Becket's birth was celebrated recently.  On December 29, 1170, Becket met his death at the hands of four of Henry II of England's knights.  There are multiple accounts of the scene near the cloister in Canterbury Cathedral.  According to one: Reginald FitzUrse struck the first glancing blow to Becket's head.  William de Tracy aimed next, partially intercepted by the arm of a monk who attempted to intercede in Becket's defense.  Tracy ultimately stunned the archbishop; Richard le Breton (or de Brito) then severed his head with a strong blow.  Hugh de Morville, the fourth knight, is not mentioned in the action.

Becket's destiny may have been sealed when he refused to sign the Constitutions of Clarendon, which were designed by King Henry to rein in the independence of the clergy.  Subsequently, Becket was tried and convicted on charges of contempt of royal authority.  He fled to France, where he lived for several years.  Through diplomatic efforts involving Pope Alexander III, a reconciliation was effected, and Becket returned to Canterbury in 1170.

A key element leading to Henry's final command, or interpreted command, to kill Becket was Becket's excommunication of the archbishop of York, and the bishops of London and Salisbury, who had presided in Henry's son's coronation.  This office was reserved for the Bishop of Canterbury.

Continuing from the December 21 post from "Ivanhoe":

“...—Tracy, Morville, Brito
loyal and daring subjects, your names, your spirit, are extinct!
and although Reginald Fitzurse hath left a son, he hath fallen
off from his father’s fidelity and courage.’’
“He has fallen off from neither,” said Waldemar Fitzurse;
“and since it may not better be, I will take on me the conduct
of this perilous enterprise..."