Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for 1809-1812, was a nice man. He was a sincerely devout Anglican, loved his wife and his 13 children, wasn’t a greedy monster who sold his soul for lucre, and although he was a Tory who didn’t support Catholic emancipation and reform of Parliament, he was a… Read more The Assassination of Spencer Perceval
Louis-Nicolas Davoust was born into a noble Burgundian family on 10 May 1788, and would become one of Napoleon Bonaparte‘s greatest generals and France’s most devoted Minister of War and Marshal of the Empire. In spite of his illustrious birth, Davoust was anything but a royalist. He loved the French Republic every bit as much… Read more Louis-Nicolas Davoust, Napoleon’s Man’ O War
Historians and history-buffs alike have strong opinions about facts and persons and those opinions aren’t universal. Nevertheless, there tends to be enough commonality that two “camps” will spring up regarding an event. For those interested in the Tudor era, there is often a spilt into (let’s overly-simplify it for the sake of argument) people who… Read more What Anne Boleyn Did That Jane Seymour Didn’t
On 9 May 1726, five men were hanged at Tyburn for the crime of having committed homosexual sex acts, which became punishable by death in Henry VIII’s reign (under the Buggery Act 1533) and would remain a capital offence until 1828. The men had been some of the 40 individuals arrested during a raid on Mother… Read more Murdering Mollies
Anne Boleyn was left isolated from her friends and miserable the entire time she was in the Tower awaiting her unjust death. Thanks to the informants surrounding her in her imprisonment, she was (ironically and cruelly) condemned more by her own words than anything else her enemies could come up with. Thomas Cromwell had assigned… Read more Cunning is Not the Word for Anne Boleyn
On 6 May 1527 the military forces of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V sacked the city of Rome, kidnapping and looting and burning and murdering and raping as they went. An army of 24,000 soldiers, half of whom were in the Imperial forces and half of whom were mercenaries under the command of Georg von Frundsberg, were… Read more The Sack of Rome; Why Henry VIII Didn’t Get His Divorce
King Henry VIII’s widow, Kateryn Parr, married the king’s third wife’s brother Thomas Seymour on 4 May 1547, just a few months after her royal husband had bitten the dust. The former queen had loved Seymour even before she had been coerced into marrying Henry, and thus she must have been very happy, but frankly she… Read more Unlucky in Love
Cecily Neville, Duchess of York was born (or at least Christened) on 3 May 1415. Her father was Ralph Neville, 1st Earl of Westmorland and her mother, Joan Beaufort, Countess of Westmorland, was the granddaughter of John of Gaunt, 1st Duke of Lancaster and Katherine Swynford. Thus Cecily was the great-granddaughter of King Edward III.… Read more Cecily Neville, Duchess of York
Queen Anne Boleyn was arrested on 2 May 1536. The befuddled queen was told she was suspected of adultery (which was treason) with Henry Norris, King Henry VIII’s friend and groom of the stool, and with lowly court musician Mark Smeaton, as well as one other unidentified man, but given no other details of her… Read more The Sudden Arrest of Anne Boleyn
Catherine the Great wasn’t Russian. She came into the world on April 21, 1729 [May 2 in the Western calendar] as the first child of a minor Prussian noble and was christened Sophie Friederike Auguste von Anhalt-Zerbst. Her father, Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, was the third son of the ruler of a small Prussian… Read more Happy Birthday to Catherine the Great!