Empress Catherine II of Russia didn’t earn the title of “the Great” by being a sweetie. She was, like almost all successful rulers, capable of playing hardball and cagey about maintaining her power. She was determined to make Russia a world power, and that she would force Europe to give her adopted country the respect… Read more Trying to Save Russia From Itself Was a Thankless Job
Lady Catherine Willoughby, the only surviving child of Maria de Salinas, Lady Willoughby, and William Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby de Eresby, was born 22 March 1519. Catherine’s father died when she was seven, and King Henry VIII gave wardship over the rich young orphan to his best friend and brother-in-law, Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. A… Read more Catherine Willoughby
Thomas Cranmer, the Archbishop of Canterbury under King Edward VI and Queen Jane, was a brilliant writer and theologian, finishing the Book of Common Prayer in 1549, revising it again in 1552, and basically creating the Anglican church. On March 21, 1556 the elderly prelate was burned at the stake on the ordered of… Read more Cranmer’s Coerced Confessions
Les Cent-Jours (The Hundred Days) began on 20 March 1815 when Napoleon returned to Paris at the head of a grass-roots army comprised of soldiers (including the theoretically royalist 5th Infantry Regiment at Grenoble) who had joined him as he came overland through the Alps (now known as the Route Napoléon) and through France after… Read more The Hundred Days of Napoleon
Alexander III became King of Scotland at the tender age of 7 following the death of his father, Alexander II, on 8 July 1249. The king showed himself to be strong willed even as a child, when power in the realm was being fought for by two rival guardians, Walter Comyn, Earl of Menteith, and… Read more The Strange Death of Alexander III, King of Scots
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was born on 15 March 1933 and has been kicking ass ever since. After she was demoted at her day job for daring to be married and pregnant in 1955, the tiny yet stalwart Bader Ginsburg enrolled in Harvard law school in 1956, one of nine women out of a class of… Read more Happy Birthday to the Notorious RBG
Yesterday marked the anniversary of the Dunblane School Massacre, when a monster named Thomas Hamilton entered Dunblane primary school in Scotland and used four handguns to murder 16 children, 1 adult teacher, and injure dozens before killing himself and (hopefully) heading to hell where he belonged. The teacher and half the class pictured below died… Read more Dunblane and Gun Control
Charles Grey, future Prime Minister, 2nd Earl Grey, and progressive hero, was born on 13 March 1764 to General Charles Grey, who was created 1st Earl Grey and Viscount Howick in 1806. A genius, Charles Grey wowed his way through Trinity College, Cambridge and was only 22 years old when he was elected to Parliament for… Read more Happy Birthday Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey!
Christian VII, King of Denmark-Norway and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, shuffled off his mortal coil on 13 March 1808, leaving his son – who had already been ruling as Prince Regent of Denmark-Norway since 1784 – to become monarch Frederick VI in name as well as in fact. Christian was born on 29 January… Read more The Madness of King George’s Cousin
Thomas Boleyn, 1st Earl of Wiltshire and 1st Viscount Rochford, passed away on 12 March 1539 at his family home of family home, Hever Castle, Kent, where he had been born some 61 years before. The only members of his family to survive him were his eldest daughter, Mary Boleyn, and his three grandchildren, Catherine… Read more Thomas Boleyn, Villain or Victim?