I adore Queen Elizabeth II. Many people have lauded QE2 for her scandal-free life. Her kids have scandals and her relatives have scandals and her husband gets in trouble for gaffes (i.e. he says racist, stupid things sometimes), but the Queen does none of that. Queen Victoria has had more ‘sex scandals’ than Queen Elizabeth.… Read more Queen Elizabeth II and Her Descent From Jezebels
On 1 September 1532, one year and six days before the birth of the their daughter, the future Queen Elizabeth I of England, King Henry VIII invested his intended bride, Anne Boleyn, with Marquessate of Pembroke and its income of more than ₤1,000 per annum. Anne was now the highest ranking peeress in Great Britain.… Read more The Lady Marquesse of Pembroke
This is a significant date for fans of horror, the Gothic, and the macabre. Both Vlad Dracula (AKA Vlad the Dragon and Vlad the Impaler), the inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein and his monster, were born on 30 August. Vlad Dracula was born 30 August 1400 and… Read more Happy Birthday Dracula and Frankenstein!
I think we all know the old saw about how for the want of a nail a kingdom was lost. Well, it became a proverb because it is true. It is the little things on which history often pivots. Lewis of Caerleon is one of those small things on which the arc of history depended. Lewis… Read more Lewis of Caerleon
Geoffrey V of Anjou was born on 24 August 1113, the eldest son of Foulques V d’Anjou and Eremburga de La Flèche, daughter of Elias I of Maine. He was the heir to several important titles and properties, and he grew into a good-looking, strapping young lad as well. He was often called Geoffrey le… Read more The Man Who Sired the Angevin and Plantagenet Dynasties
The is an episode of Star Trek (Original Series) called “The Enemy Within” that’s stuck with me since I was a kid. The premise is simple – “A transporter malfunction splits Captain Kirk into two halves: one meek and indecisive, the other violent and ill tempered. The remaining crew members stranded on the planet cannot… Read more Star Trek, Edward I, and the Execution of William Wallace
The outcome of the Battle of Bosworth Field was incredibly unlikely. People forget, now the the event is history and seems set in stone, how discombobulating everything must have been at the time, not least of all for Harri Tudur. You see, the man we think of as King Henry VII, founder of a dynasty and… Read more Bosworth, with Betrayal and a Brandon
Howard Phillips Lovecraft, more widely known as author H. P. Lovecraft, was born on 20 August 1890 in Providence, Rhode Island. Like Edgar Allan Poe, Lovecraft was a master of horror who would die in poverty, obscure and unloved except by a few die-hard fans, but after his death his works became famous. Now, like… Read more Cthulhu Called
One of the most published crimes of the Regency era was the Red Barn Murder, which had the perfect trifecta to arouse public interest – a pretty girl, a conman, and the ghost of the victim returning from the grave to rat out her killer. The victim was Maria Marten, the pretty daughter of Thomas… Read more Murder Most Regency: The Red Barn
One of the most interesting things about the Regency Era, to me, if how universally loathed the Prince Regent was, and how much he set the fashion for the Glittering Throng nonetheless. One of the things the future George IV brought into style was going to Brighton for a bit of time by (and in)… Read more Brighton, By George!