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
Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux, was born on 19 September 1778, the eldest son of Henry Brougham and Eleanora Syme Brougham, a famous and influential lawyer in Edinburgh. Young Henry grew up in a Georgian townhouse at no. 21 St Andrew Square, and followed in his father’s legal footsteps. Brougham graduated from… Read more Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux
George I was proclaimed King of Great Britain and Ireland on 1 August 1714, but he did not set foot in his new realm until 18 September. He was a king with little title to the throne via blood, but the only one Parliament would tolerate. George was a student of the Enlightenment, a progressive… Read more The First Georgian King Arrives in His New Kingdom
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
First, let me just say I love the name Mungo. I’ve loved it forever. I first loved it when I found the name St Mungo in a book of Scottish folk tales and saints that I read in high school. I loved it when it popped up in the Harry Potter series as St Mungo’s… Read more Mungo Park, I presume?
On 8 September 1761 King George III married Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, whom he had first met less than six hours before the wedding, in the Chapel Royal of St James’s Palace. Remarkably, the two feel deeply in love and both remained faithful throughout their 57 years of marriage. George had been come king on… Read more The Marriage of King George III and Queen Charlotte
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
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, the future Marquis de La Fayette and hero of the American Revolutionary War, the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830, was born on 6 September 1757 in south central France. Lafayette’s family were among the most illustrious soldiers in French history, and he was… Read more America’s Lafayette