Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia, died on 17 November 1796, less than 24 hours after suffering a massive stroke. She was not anywhere near a horse. She was one of the strongest and most capable rulers that Russia, and the world, has ever known. She dragged Russia into its place as a modern European… Read more The Non-Equestrian Death of Catherine the Great
Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales died as a result of complications following the birth of her stillborn son on 6 November 1817. She was only 21, and the darling of Britain. The public mourning over her death would only be matched by the loss of Princess Diana nearly 180 years later. The reasons the public… Read more The Unpreventable Death of Princess Charlotte of Wales
In the 18th and 19th centuries the wives (and sometimes the mistresses) of naval officers would accompany their men aboard ship. One of these stalwart women was Elizabeth “Betsey” Wynne Fremantle, wife of Captain Thomas Francis Fremantle, and she left an amazing 40 volume diary to enrich the historical record. Their marriage was happy, as… Read more Captain Fremantle and Betsey
Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna came into the world on November 2, 1755 – the fifteenth born and the last daughter of the sixteen children of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and his empress Maria Theresa. Her life was taken from her, courtesy of Madame Guillotine, at 12:15 p.m. on 16 October 1793. Most people know… Read more Marie Antoinette’s Death
George II was crowned King of Great Britain and Ireland on 11 October 1727 at Westminster Abbey. History hasn’t been kind to the second Georgian monarch, in part because “in the memoirs of contemporaries such as Lord Hervey and Horace Walpole, George is depicted as a weak buffoon, governed by his wife and ministers” and… Read more The Reign of King George II
On 28 September 1795, Charles James Fox and Elizabeth Bridget Cane (AKA Mrs. Armistead), were quietly in Wyton by Rev John Pery. The only attendees at the ceremony were the bride’s literal maid, Mary Dassonville, and Rev Pery’s clerk, Jeremiah Bradshaw, who signed the marriage certificate as witnesses. Why such a hush-hush wedding? Because the… Read more Foxy Lady — Mrs Armistead Becomes Mrs Charles James Fox
Cuthbert Collingwood was born on 26 September 1748 in Newcastle upon Tyne, the eldest son of a respectable but poor tradesman. His personal merits would help take him from these modest beginning to the position of Vice-Admiral of the Red and eventually to raise him to the peerage as 1st Baron Collingwood. Hoping for a… Read more Admiral Lord Collingwood
America has been through rough patches before. Bad ones. Decades of race riots and anti-immigration hysteria and belief that the best kind of government was one that did almost nothing and certainly didn’t tax rich people. Frankly, it’s a little eerie how much America today echoes the America of a century ago. Eerie, and more… Read more Same Immigration Hysteria, Different Century
Without John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, there may have never been a Tudor reign. John de Vere, 13th Earl of Oxford, was born on 8 September 1442 to John de Vere, 12th Earl of Oxford and Lady Oxford, Elizabeth Howard. The Oxfords were devout Lancastrian loyalists, determined to fight to the death for… Read more The Oxfords and the Tudors
I adore Queen Elizabeth II. Many people have lauded QE2 for her scandal-free life. Her kids have scandals and her relatives have scandals and her husband gets in trouble for gaffes (i.e. he says racist, stupid things sometimes), but the Queen does none of that. Queen Victoria has had more ‘sex scandals’ than Queen Elizabeth.… Read more Queen Elizabeth II and Her Descent From Jezebels