In my novel, Mansfield Parsonage, my heroine, Mary Crawford, loves Indian food. How, you may ask, is this possible in 1812? Its not like there were Indian restaurants in London that early in the 19th century! Well, there’s were you are going to be surprised. The first Indian restaurant in London was the Hindoostane Coffee House,… Read more Indian Food in Regency London
Anne of Demark was born the second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark and his wife, Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, on 12 December 1574. In the 1580s, King James VI of Scotland sought the hand of a Danish prince in marriage. Demark was a stable and economically strong country, and Scotland would greatly benefit from… Read more Anne of Denmark
Llywelyn ap Grufudd, called Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf (“Llywelyn, Our Last Leader”) in Welsh, died on 11 December 1282 during the Battle of Orewin Bridge at Builth Wells. Llywelyn, the son of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn Fawr and the grandson of Llywelyn the Great, had been doing all he could to unit Wales and keep it independent. He was not only fighting King Edward Longshanks,… Read more The New Principality of Wales
Ada Lovelace was born Augusta Byron, the only legitimate child of celebrated poet George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron and his wife, intellectual prodigy and heiress Anne Isabella Milbanke, on 10 December 1815. Lord Byron christened his daughter after his half-sister, Augusta Leigh, and nicknamed her Ada. Lord Byron would only see his daughter… Read more Ada Lovelace
Francis Dereham and Thomas Culpeper were executed on 10 December 1541 for treason; one for the treason of sleeping with with King Henry VIII’s fifth wife, Katheryn Howard, before she was married and the other for flirting with her with the intent to canoodle. I am always bothered when I think of the death of Dereham. He was… Read more The deaths of Dereham and Culpepper
Dear Bloggess, First, it feels a little weird to address you as The Bloggess when your name is really Jenny Lawson, but I cannot call you Jenny because that is too familiar for a gal from Kentucky and I cannot call you Ms. Lawson because that is too formal a way to talk to someone… Read more An Open Letter to The Bloggess About Mental illness
Many historians have condemned King Henry VIII for beheading his Plantagenet first cousin, Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, on 9 December 1538. On the surface the odious act looks to be the result of paranoia and cruelty and heartlessness . But was it? And was Henry the prime motivator of Courtenay’s death? God knows the king was by… Read more The Exeter Conspiracy?
Mary, Queen of Scots, was born on 8 December 1542, the last child and only daughter of Marie de Guise and King James V of Scotland. Mary’s two elder brothers had died as infants, and now the tiny newborn was heir to the throne of Scotland. John Knox recorded the almost certainly mythical tale that… Read more Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
Willem Frederik George Lodewijk, the future William II of the Netherlands, was born the eldest son of Willem Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau, on 6 December 1792 and would become a popular figure in England during the Regency Era thanks to his purported heroics during the Napoleonic Wars. The Dutch were fellow protestants and allies of… Read more Slender Billy, William II of the Netherlands
Queen Catherine of Valois gave birth to the future King Henry VI on 6 December 1421 at Windsor Castle. The queen would have given birth like any other woman of her era, with midwives attending and with her ladies to assist them. Medieval midwives were, in spite of modern calumny about them, very good at… Read more Henry VI, Long Reigned and Lost All