In the Tudor era the New Year began at sunset on December 31, and it was customary to give a gift then, rather on Christmas Day as many do in modern times. Happily for the historical record, in the early 1540s John Leland gave King Henry VIII a present that has been a cause for… Read more John Leland’s New Year’s Gift to the King
The 28th of December is the 4th Day of Christmas, and the Feast of the Holy Innocents, or Childermas. It is the commemoration of a terribly sad event. According to an account in the Gospel of Matthew, the Roman puppet-king of Judea, Herod the Great, “ordered the execution of all young male children in the… Read more The Boy Bishop on Childermas
Jane Austen’s novel Emma was first published on 23 December 1815, just in time for Yuletide gift-giving. Emma sold well, and was giving good reviews, including one by Sir Walter Scott. Although Austen famously claimed that the title character, Emma Woodhouse, “handsome, clever, and rich,” was a protagonist that no one but the author “will… Read more Happy Birthday to Emma
Stephen of Blois usurped the throne from his cousin, Empress Matilda, and was crowned King Stephen of England on 22 December 1135. After the White Ship disaster in 1120, the only legitimate child of King Henry I of England was his daughter, Empress Matilda. The English Barons did not want to accept a mere woman… Read more The Usurpation of Matilda’s Throne
There are some historical figures that the more one reads about them, the more one loathes them. For me, one of those figures is Thomas Wriothesley, who was born on 21 December 1505 to upper-middle-class family in London but would claw his way up to becoming Lord Chancellor for King Henry VIII by having the morals and… Read more Thomas Wriothesley Becomes Chancellor
The Louisiana Purchase was officially completed on 20 December 1803, when Napoleon Bonaparte handed over New Orleans and 828,000 square miles of French territory (never mind the pesky natives who had been on it for thousands of years) to the USA. The Americans had paid only sixty-eight million francs (about $250 million) to double their country. Why did Napoleon Bonaparte give… Read more Napoleon Sold the Louisiana Territory because Haitians Kicked His Butt
After years of the brutal civil war known as The Anarchy, the usurper Stephen of Blois died and Empress Matilda’s son was crowned King Henry II on 19 December 1154. The new monarch was the grandson of King Henry I of England, but he was not the only great-grandson of William the Conqueror in England. King… Read more Henry II Takes His Crown
Catalina de Aragón, who signed her name Katherina in England but is usually called Catherine of Aragon in English histories, was born on 16 December 1485, the youngest child of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. There is a persistent myth that Katherina was born in the midst of a combat zone,… Read more Katherina of Aragon
Jane Austen came into the world, considerably past her due date, on 16 December 1775 at Steventon Rectory. Her parents had been expecting her arrival for more than three weeks, and since she was the seventh child the stork had bequeathed to the Austen’s, they had been sanguine about their estimation of her appearance and… Read more Happy Birthday Jane Austen!
Ernest Renan, an incredibly important French historian, pointed out in his famous 1882 speech “Qu’est-ce qu’une nation?” (“What is a Nation?”) that “Forgetfulness, and I would even say historical error, are essential in the creation of a nation.” If you want to build a ideal of a nation, the concept of a nation that can… Read more Why Study History?