Richard Plantagenet, future Duke of Gloucester and King Richard III, was born on 2 October 1452 at Fotheringhay Castle. He was twelfth child (and eighth son) of Richard Plantagenet, 3rd Duke of York, who was the great-great-grandson of King Edward III via Lionel of Antwerp, 1st Duke of Clarence and Edward III’s grandson through Edmund… Read more Richard III
Rhys ap Thomas was born the third son of Thomas ap Gruffydd, and would die the most powerful man in Wales. Neither birth order nor family would have predicted Rhys’s rise to greatness. His paternal grandfather, Gruffydd ap Nicolas, had earned the family fortune, but the family was made more respectable by marriage when Rhys’s… Read more The Descendants of Rhys ap Thomas
Richard Plantagenet, the 3rd Duke of York and the father of King Edward IV and King Richard III, came into the world on 21 September 1411. The 3rd Duke of York’s lineage was impeccable and his blood was as blue as the sky. He was descended from King Edward III on both sides of his… Read more Happy Birthday to Richard, 3rd Duke of York
Arthur, the firstborn child and eldest son of King Henry VII and Elizabeth of York, was born on 20 September 1486 about an hour after midnight. He was the longed-for male heir, the tangible sign of God’s favor for the Tudor/York marriage, and the hope of peace in a kingdom long beset by internal wars… Read more Arthur, Prince of Wales
The future King Francis I of France was born on 12 September 1494, the eldest and only son of of Charles, Count of Angoulême, and Louise of Savoy. The infant was a paternal great-great-grandson of King Charles V of France, but no one thought that with so many male heirs to the throne of France… Read more Happy Birthday to King Francis I of France, Who Probably Never Had Sex With Mary Boleyn
Queen Elizabeth I was born on 7 September 1533 in Greenwich Palace, the first and only living child of Henry VIII of England and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Her mother would be murdered and Elizabeth herself declared illegitimate just 2.5 years later, in May 1536, but she would survive the reigns of her father,… Read more The Birth of Gloriana
King Henry VIII of England became engaged to Anna of Cleves on September 4, 1539. The union was a failure, but Anna was lucky, inasmuch as the king annulled their marriage without demanding her head for it. The man who had arranged the match, however, was not so fortunate. The man who ran Henry’s government for him, Thomas Cromwell,… Read more Cleves, Cromwell, and Crazysause
I was recently reading some fascinating new information about the brain. Recently, a group of “University of California, Berkeley, researchers have shown that chronic stress generates long-term changes in the brain that may explain why people suffering chronic stress are prone to mental problems such as anxiety and mood disorders later in life … conditions… Read more Did Henry Drive Anne Boleyn Crazy?
King Henry VIII married his sixth and final wife, Kateryn Parr, on 12 July 1543. The widowed Lady Latimer was well known for her piety and virtue at court. Her mother had been a lady-in-waiting to Queen Katherina of Aragon, and as fate would have it, Henry’s last wife was probably his first wife’s goddaughter… Read more The 6th Time is the Charm?
King Louis XI of France was the original Machiavellian monarch, although ironically Niccolò Machiavelli stoutly criticized Louis in Chapter 13 of The Prince, “calling him shortsighted and imprudent for abolishing his own infantry in favor of Swiss mercenaries”. Nonetheless, Louis had a gift for turning situations to his advantage, duplicity, formulating conspiracies, and laying false… Read more Louis the Cunning, the Prudent, the Universal Spider, the Tudors’ Best Friend