King Edward II of England was born on 25 April 1284, the fourth son of King Edward I and his first wife, Eleanor of Castile, but the eldest son to survive to adulthood. Most people know more historical myths about Edward II – that he was the embodiment of the limp-wristed pouf negative stereotype like… Read more Happy Birthday Edward of Caernarfon!
Mary, Queen of Scots wed François, the Dauphin of France, at Notre Dame de Paris in a lavish ceremony (did they have any other kind for a royal wedding??) on 24 April 1558. The young couple, who had been raised together since Mary was 5 years old and the Dauphin only 4, seem to be… Read more Mary Marries Merrily
Elizabeth Barton, known as the “Holy Maid of Kent” or the “ Nun of Kent”, was executed on 20 April 1534 along with a handful of her followers, for the ‘crime’ that she predicted a bad end for King Henry VIII if he continued to flout the will of Rome and separate his kingdom from… Read more The Nun of Kent
Anne Stanhope Seymour Newdigate, Dowager Duchess of Somerset, former wife of Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, and once the most powerful woman in Britain, died in Hanworth, Middlesex, on 16 April 1587, the comparatively lowly widow of her first husband’s steward. She was born Anne Stanhope, the daughter Sir Edward Stanhope, sometime in 1510.… Read more Anne Seymour, Duchess of Somerset
The future King Henry IV was born in Bolingbroke Castle on 15 April 1367 to Blanche, the younger daughter of the Duke of Lancaster, and her husband John of Gaunt, the third surviving son of King Edward III. Although Henry of Bolingbroke was the grandson of a king he had no expectation of inheriting the… Read more Henry of Bolingbroke
The Battle of Barnet was fought on 14 April 1471, and it was during this engagement that Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, known as the Warwick the Kingmaker, was slain while retreating before the victorious Yorkists commanded by King Edward IV. Neville was the 16th Earl of Warwick and the most powerful nobleman in the… Read more A Kingmaker Dies
William III of Orange, who was the grandson of English King Charles I, and his wife (and first cousin) Mary of England, who was also a grandchild of King Charles I, became William III and Mary II of England on 11 April 1689 after a ginormous kerfuffle. King Charles II, who had recently reclaimed the throne… Read more William and Mary and Carrots
Although I think Katherina of Aragon was daffy to risk so much just to fight her divorce from Henry VIII so long, I have all kinds of respect and admiration for the strength and smarts it took to do so. Occasionally I stumble onto things that remind me of how effect her tactics were –… Read more Weak as Steel
The future Christian IX of Demark was born on 8 April 1818, the fourth son of Friedrich Wilhelm, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck and Princess Louise Caroline of Hesse. Although he was not really in line for any throne, the newborn was related six ways to Sunday to the crowned heads of Europe. Among other connections, his… Read more Happy Birthday to Christian IX of Demark, Direct Ancestor of BOTH Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip
Richard I of England, more famously known by his moniker Richard the Lionheart, died on 6 April 1199 as the result of an infected arrow wound. One of the enduring mysteries to me is WHY Richard was such a popular king in his lifetime. In the decade of his reign he spent about 6 months… Read more A Lionheart is No Substitute for Antibiotics