Late in the evening of 9 November 1518, Katherina of Aragon delivered her last child, an unnamed daughter that was either stillborn or did not survive very long past her birth. The ambassador from Venice, Sebastian Giustinian, wrote a letter the next day, reporting that, “In the past night the Queen had been delivered of… Read more Katherina of Aragon’s Last Childbirth
Let’s talk about the courage shown by Isabella of Valois, who was married to King Richard II and was Queen of England for the last four years of the 14th century. She was born on 9 November 1389, the third child of King Charles VI of France and Isabeau of Bavaria. Her older siblings died… Read more Let’s Talk About Queen Isabella of Valois
Katheryn Howard, the very young fifth wife of King Henry VIII, spent the second week of November 1541 being interrogated by special investigators – led by no less a personage than Archbishop Thomas Cranmer – to determine the extent of her tawdry sinfulness and lewd shenanigans. Katheryn, though barely in her twenties at the time… Read more Wondrous Naughty?
Princess Augusta Sophia of the United Kingdom was born on 8 November 1768, and most unusually for a king, her father was hoping for a girl. King George III and Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz already had four strapping, healthy little boys, but only one daughter. The king in particular was adamant he hoped for another daughter,… Read more Princess Augusta … Mrs Spencer?
(Today I am lucky enough to have a guest blog post by Mary Anne Yarde, the fabulous author of the fabulous Du Lac Chronicles. The books are set in the Dark Ages Britain, when politics was still a matter of combat and moistened tarts lobbing swords at you from overly-large ponds, and are great reads!… Read more Guest Post: Henry Tudor and the King Arthur Claim by Mary Anne Yarde
On 7 November 1775 the royal governor of Virginia, John Murray, 4th Earl of Dunmore, issued Dunmore’s Emancipation Proclamation, offering freedom to any slave who would fight for the British during the American Revolutionary War. This caused the slave-owning elites of Virginia, both loyalist and rebel, to shit a brick. In the last quarter of… Read more Dunmore’s Emancipation Proclamation
Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March and 7th Earl of Ulster, was born on 6 November 1391, at New Forest, Westmeath, in Ireland, the eldest son of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, and Eleanor Holland. The newborn baby Edmund was third in line to the throne while King Richard II lived. His father,… Read more Edmund de Mortimer, Rightful King of England
Most people know that the 5 November is about the Gunpowder Plot, “a failed mass assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland and the entire House of Lords by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.” It’s celebrated now by burning bonfires with effigies of Guy Fawkes… Read more The Last Gunpowder Plot: The Newport Rising
Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was King Henry VIII’s right hand man for years, and when he fell from the king’s favour, the prelate — along with everyone else — blamed Anne Boleyn for his disgrace. This is, however, poppycock. Wolsey was accused of committing treason because he committed treason. Motivated by his hatred of Henry’s intended… Read more The Arrest and Treason of Cardinal Wolsey
Princess Sophia Matilda of the United Kingdom was born on 3 November 1777, the 12th child of King George III and his consort, Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Little Sophia was loved, but what is considered “good parenting” has changed so radically since her time that her upbringing can horrify the modern reader. Her parents, especially her… Read more The Scandals of Princess Sophia