Renée of France, the youngest and second surviving daughter of King Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany, was born on 25 October 1510. Like the other women in her family, Renée of France would show her mettle from an early age … which included religious devotion, a stainless-steel spine, and the kind of… Read more Renée of France
I married my Sweet Babou sixteen years ago today, on 20 October 2001. Our wedding day had times of sanctity and sacred promises, but also had moments of profound silliness, like when the belly dancers gave us a sheep wearing a garter belt: That day, with its mix of solemn glory and ludicrousness, accurately predicted… Read more Sweet 16
King John died on the night of 18 (or early morning of the 19th) October 1216, during a monstrous thunderstorm. This was probably nothing more than a coincidence, but for his contemporaries it was considered an indication that Hell had opened to received the blackened, twisted soul of this vile king. After all, this was… Read more King John: Lackland, Softsword, and Asshat
English poet, essayist, playwright, and novelist Thomas Love Peacock was born on 18 October 1785 in Weymouth, Dorset, into a lower-middle class family. From there he rose to become both an admired writer and wealthy, “a rare instance of a man improved by prosperity.” While working as a clerk with Ludlow Fraser Company in London,… Read more The Laughing Philosopher, Thomas Love Peacock
On 17 October 1814 beer vats belonging to the Meux and Company Brewery ruptured at the Horseshoe Brewery, inundating the neighboring streets with a tidal wave more than 15 feet high of more than 323,000 gallons (1,470,000 liters) of alcohol. The aptly named London Beer Flood sounds funny at first, but it was an industrial… Read more Poverty, Beer, and an Act of God
I am not a big fan of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset. He appears, based on the historical record, to have been a cruel, power-hungry tool. He coldly disowned his sons by his first wife, pimped his sister Jane out to King Henry VIII, pulled some serious shenanigans with the king’s will to make… Read more You Would Think Somerset Would Learn
Why is Friday 13th unlucky? Because King Philip IV of France strong-armed Pope Clement V into helping him launch a secret attack on the Knights Templar at dawn on Friday, 13 October 1307, leading to their persecution and destruction, which brought down a curse upon the 300-year-old ruling House of Capet. The curse and scandal… Read more The Curse of the Knights Templar
Divorces weren’t that hard to get for Medieval and Early Modern monarchs and nobility. Just throw enough money at the Pope and … voila! You were never married in the first place. Plenty of high born married couples sought this route to get out of a miserable marriage, or to make a more advantageous match.… Read more Medieval Monarchial Divorce
Mary Tudor, who was most likely born sometime in March of 1496, was approximately 18 years old when she married the 52-year-old King Louis XII of France on 9 October 1514. She was not only young enough to be the groom’s granddaughter, she was acclaimed as one of the most beautiful women in Europe. King… Read more The Autonomy of Mary Tudor, Queen of France
I’ve been reading Sharon Bennett Connolly’s blog, History … the Interesting Bits!, for a while now and always enjoyed her posts. Thus, when she published her debut history book, Heroines of the Medieval World, I bought it, and boy howdy am I glad I did. These are the stories of women, famous, infamous and unknown,… Read more Heroines of the Medieval World by Sharon Bennett Connolly