The Battle of Shrewsbury occurred on 21 July 1403 between the forces of King Henry IV of England (AKA Henry of Bolingbroke) and those of the rebelling Henry “Harry Hotspur” Percy, the 1st Earl of Northumberland. Henry IV had made Henry Percy a whole bunch of promises about how Hotspur would be rewarded if he backed… Read more The Battle of Shrewsbury
The longest-lived of Henry VIII’s sons, Henry Fitzroy, was born on 15 June 1519. Unfortunately for the king, this son was born on the wrong side of the blanket. Bessie Blount, a minor nobleman’d daughter, had given Henry what his queen, Katherina of Aragon, had tried to give him so many times in the past — a… Read more Henry Fitzroy Is Born
One of the best things about the Georgian Era was the 1807 Act suppressing the slave trade. King George III, die-hard conservative Tory and intermittently insane though he may have been, agreed with the majority of the Tories and Whigs that the slave trade was a disgusting affront to God and Humanity and Decency and… Read more Huzzah for the HMS Pickle!
Hey, remember the time in the middle of WWI when England and France agreed to divvy up the Middle East between them and screw over every Arab alive just as soon as they defeated the Ottoman Empire? No? Well, don’t worry about it; we don’t talk about it much in Western history classes so you… Read more The Sykes–Picot Agreement
Mary Tudor and Charles Brandon, Viscount Lisle and future Duke of Suffolk, wed for a third and final time on 13 May 1515. The Tudor princess seems to have loved Brandon since she was a girl, and she was as determined as the rest of her siblings to marry for love. Since she was as headstrong and brave… Read more Happy Anniversary to Mary and Charles
My darling middle daughter, my Beltane Baby, turned 12 years old today. Buttercup is a magnificent person, if I do say so myself. She is funny, with a lightening fast wit and the ability to quick-draw a pun that amazes me. She is also smart, interested in everything from the theories of quantum physics to… Read more Buttercup is 12
The 23rd of April is St. George’s Day, the feast day of one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers in Christian hagiography, a celebration of the saint who famously slew a dragon and rescued a princess in his youth. St George the Dragon-slayer has been one of the most venerated and renowned saints of Europe, especially adored in… Read more Saint George, the Oak, the Green Man, and Monotheism
Easter is (as most people reading this know) the Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion. It is the holiest day of the Christian liturgical calendar, and a day when most Christians, even those who normally eschew church-going, attend service. A lot of Americans are what we jokingly… Read more Have A Blessed Easter
Many people are aware that Queen Elizabeth II is a direct descendant of Henry VII via his eldest daughter, Margaret Tudor, who was the sister of King Henry VIII and the Queen of Scotland upon marrying King James IV of Scotland. Not as many people, however, are aware of the convoluted history that lies behind that genetic legacy.… Read more Gene of Thrones, and a Merlin’s Prophesy
Some people have argued that Henry VIII was clearly a psychopath, since psychopaths evince a “glib and superficial charm, grandiose (exaggeratedly high) estimation of self, need for stimulation, pathological lying, cunning and manipulativeness, lack of remorse or guilt, shallow affect (superficial emotional responsiveness), callousness and lack of empathy, parasitic lifestyle, poor behavioral controls, sexual promiscuity,… Read more Gee, WHY was Henry VIII so egotistical?