Eleanor of Aquitaine was one of the most influential people of the medieval period, and one the most famous women in the history of Europe. She was the richest heiress in Europe at the age of 15, and arguably the greatest beauty as well. If her money didn’t hook a man, the fact she was… Read more The Death of Eleanor of Aquitaine
The theory that Henry VIII had McLeod’s syndrome rests largely on the king’s drastic change in personality after his 40th birthday. Henry was not the same man in 1530 that he was in 1535, and it was such a drastic change it almost requires a medical reason to explain it. Prior to the 1530s, the… Read more Why Didn’t the King Kill William Peto?
Margaret of Anjou was born on 23 March 1430, the second legitimate daughter of René, King of Naples and his wife, Isabella, Duchess of Lorraine. The 15 year old Margaret was married to King Henry VI 23 April 1445, and was crowned Queen Consort a few weeks later. She did her best to be a good wife and queen. She… Read more In Defense of Margaret of Anjou
Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset, judicially murdered his own brother, Thomas Seymour, in the name of their nephew King Edward VI on 20 March 1549. Why did the duke do something so vile as to kill a sibling? To keep as much power as he could all to himself for as long as possible.… Read more The Death of Thomas Seymour
On 16 March 1190 the Jewish community of York committed mass suicide to escape being tortured to death by a mob whipped into anti-Semitic frenzy by pro-Crusade propaganda. The Norman invaders had brought the first Jewish communities into England to fulfill a special economic role as moneylenders. The Jews were even given a special status… Read more An Atrocity at York in 1190
King Edward I and his first wife, Queen Eleanor of Castile, had their 13th child – a little girl, whom they named Mary – on 11 March 1279 at Woodstock Palace in Oxfordshire. Due to rampant child mortality, the tiny princess was one of only six royal children to live to adulthood out of a… Read more Mary of Woodstock: Life as a Nun Could be Fun
Henry, Count of Anjou and Maine, the second born son of King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, came into the world on 28 February 1155. He was the much welcome ‘spare’ son to follow his elder brother, William, who was still a toddler. Alas, little William died a few months after Henry’s first birthday,… Read more Henry the Young King
Happy Birthday to Queen Mary I of England! She came into the world on 18 February 1516, and was the only one of Henry VIII’s six children with Katherina of Aragon to survive past early infancy. Mary was a pretty little girl, with her father’s strawberry-blonde hair and ruddy cheeks, and she spent her early… Read more Queen Mary I of England
Henry VII’s fifth wife, Katheryn Howard, was beheaded in the Tower’s icy courtyard on 13 February 1542. In spite of her youth, she was said to have made a “most Godly and Christian end”. The former queen had even asked that the headsman’s block be brought to her in her rooms, so that she… Read more Katheryn Howard’s Death
Henry Percy, 2nd Earl of Northumberland, was born on 3 February 1393 to Henry “Hotspur” Percy and Elizabeth Mortimer. He was just a 10 year old boy when his father died at the Battle of Shrewsbury on 21 July 1403, but if Hotspur had not been killed by a rogue arrow to the face during… Read more The Percys — Aphids on the Yorkist Rose