Edmund de Mortimer, 5th Earl of March and 7th Earl of Ulster, was born on 6 November 1391, at New Forest, Westmeath, in Ireland, the eldest son of Roger Mortimer, 4th Earl of March, and Eleanor Holland. The newborn baby Edmund was third in line to the throne while King Richard II lived. His father,… Read more Edmund de Mortimer, Rightful King of England
Most people know that the 5 November is about the Gunpowder Plot, “a failed mass assassination attempt against King James I of England and VI of Scotland and the entire House of Lords by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby.” It’s celebrated now by burning bonfires with effigies of Guy Fawkes… Read more The Last Gunpowder Plot: The Newport Rising
King Edward V was born on 2 November 1470 in Westminster Abbey where Queen Elizabeth Woodville, had taken refuge during the very brief period when the baby’s father, King Edward IV, had been dethroned and the crown returned to King Henry VI. Edward’s birth must have been seen as an excellent sign for the Yorkists,… Read more King Edward V
Robert Burns published the poem Halloween on 31 July 1786, when Jane Austen was ten years old. The devoted lover of poetry that she was, she would have doubtlessly have been familiar with it as a teen. But did she celebrate Halloween, the way others did in her time? Alas, we cannot know for sure … but it… Read more Regency Hallowmas
Today is Hallowmas, also known as All Hallows’ Day, All Saints’ Day, Feast of All Saints, or Solemnity of All Saints. It is a day to honor all Christian saints, both known and unknown, but honestly it mostly makes me think of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. This feast day begins at Vespers (sunset… Read more Hallowmas
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!! Last Halloween I posted about the correlation between monsters and politicians and how Democrats are connected vampires while Republicans are analogous to zombies in the public mind. I explained that when the POTUS is a Democrat the horror de jure becomes vampires, and when the GOP is in the catbird seat zombies… Read more Turns Out It Was Zombies
Imagine a world where a married woman could work faithfully for her employer for more than fourteen years, chronically underpaid, yet still be thrown out like garbage because she was pregnant with her husband’s baby. This is exactly what happened to Mrs Dorothy Doar in 1832, which I recently read about in the excellent book… Read more A Regency Crime: The Persecution of Mrs Doar
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
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