Stephen of Blois usurped the throne from his cousin, Empress Matilda, and was crowned King Stephen of England on 22 December 1135. After the White Ship disaster in 1120, the only legitimate child of King Henry I of England was his daughter, Empress Matilda. The English Barons did not want to accept a mere woman… Read more The Usurpation of Matilda’s Throne
There are some historical figures that the more one reads about them, the more one loathes them. For me, one of those figures is Thomas Wriothesley, who was born on 21 December 1505 to upper-middle-class family in London but would claw his way up to becoming Lord Chancellor for King Henry VIII by having the morals and… Read more Thomas Wriothesley Becomes Chancellor
After years of the brutal civil war known as The Anarchy, the usurper Stephen of Blois died and Empress Matilda’s son was crowned King Henry II on 19 December 1154. The new monarch was the grandson of King Henry I of England, but he was not the only great-grandson of William the Conqueror in England. King… Read more Henry II Takes His Crown
Catalina de Aragón, who signed her name Katherina in England but is usually called Catherine of Aragon in English histories, was born on 16 December 1485, the youngest child of Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon. There is a persistent myth that Katherina was born in the midst of a combat zone,… Read more Katherina of Aragon
Anne of Demark was born the second daughter of King Frederick II of Denmark and his wife, Sophie of Mecklenburg-Güstrow, on 12 December 1574. In the 1580s, King James VI of Scotland sought the hand of a Danish prince in marriage. Demark was a stable and economically strong country, and Scotland would greatly benefit from… Read more Anne of Denmark
Llywelyn ap Grufudd, called Llywelyn Ein Llyw Olaf (“Llywelyn, Our Last Leader”) in Welsh, died on 11 December 1282 during the Battle of Orewin Bridge at Builth Wells. Llywelyn, the son of Gruffudd ap Llywelyn Fawr and the grandson of Llywelyn the Great, had been doing all he could to unit Wales and keep it independent. He was not only fighting King Edward Longshanks,… Read more The New Principality of Wales
Francis Dereham and Thomas Culpeper were executed on 10 December 1541 for treason; one for the treason of sleeping with with King Henry VIII’s fifth wife, Katheryn Howard, before she was married and the other for flirting with her with the intent to canoodle. I am always bothered when I think of the death of Dereham. He was… Read more The deaths of Dereham and Culpepper
Many historians have condemned King Henry VIII for beheading his Plantagenet first cousin, Henry Courtenay, 1st Marquess of Exeter, on 9 December 1538. On the surface the odious act looks to be the result of paranoia and cruelty and heartlessness . But was it? And was Henry the prime motivator of Courtenay’s death? God knows the king was by… Read more The Exeter Conspiracy?
Mary, Queen of Scots, was born on 8 December 1542, the last child and only daughter of Marie de Guise and King James V of Scotland. Mary’s two elder brothers had died as infants, and now the tiny newborn was heir to the throne of Scotland. John Knox recorded the almost certainly mythical tale that… Read more Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
Willem Frederik George Lodewijk, the future William II of the Netherlands, was born the eldest son of Willem Frederik, Prince of Orange-Nassau, on 6 December 1792 and would become a popular figure in England during the Regency Era thanks to his purported heroics during the Napoleonic Wars. The Dutch were fellow protestants and allies of… Read more Slender Billy, William II of the Netherlands