Queen Mary I of England, daughter of Henry VIII and his first wife, Katherina of Aragon, came to the end of her uncharmed life on 17 November 1558. The abdominal pain that had plagued her since menarche had revealed itself to be not the stirring of new life, but the growth of a deadly cancer.… Read more The Sad Reign of Mary I Comes to an End
King Henry III died of a lingering illness on the evening of 16 November 1272, at the Palace of Westminster, his loving wife of more than three decades, Queen Eleanor of Provence, at his side. He had had been the crowned head of England for 56 years, and had been an ineffectual, weak monarch for… Read more A Good Man, A Bad King
Bridget of York, the 10th and youngest child and of King Edward IV of England and Queen Elizabeth Woodville, was born on 10 November 1480 at Eltham Palace. At the time of Bridget’s birth, she had seven of nine full siblings and two half brothers still living, the only exceptions being a sister, Margaret of… Read more Bridget of York, King Edward IV’s Last Child
Late in the evening of 9 November 1518, Katherina of Aragon delivered her last child, an unnamed daughter that was either stillborn or did not survive very long past her birth. The ambassador from Venice, Sebastian Giustinian, wrote a letter the next day, reporting that, “In the past night the Queen had been delivered of… Read more Katherina of Aragon’s Last Childbirth
Robert Burns published the poem Halloween on 31 July 1786, when Jane Austen was ten years old. The devoted lover of poetry that she was, she would have doubtlessly have been familiar with it as a teen. But did she celebrate Halloween, the way others did in her time? Alas, we cannot know for sure … but it… Read more Regency Hallowmas
Renée of France, the youngest and second surviving daughter of King Louis XII of France and Anne of Brittany, was born on 25 October 1510. Like the other women in her family, Renée of France would show her mettle from an early age … which included religious devotion, a stainless-steel spine, and the kind of… Read more Renée of France
Why is Friday 13th unlucky? Because King Philip IV of France strong-armed Pope Clement V into helping him launch a secret attack on the Knights Templar at dawn on Friday, 13 October 1307, leading to their persecution and destruction, which brought down a curse upon the 300-year-old ruling House of Capet. The curse and scandal… Read more The Curse of the Knights Templar
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
William Wilberforce, the spearhead and focal point of the English abolitionists, as well as one of my favorite historical personages, was born in Hull, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, on 24 August 1759. He was the only son of Robert Wilberforce, whose family had become wealthy thanks to maritime trade with Baltic countries,… Read more William Wilberforce, a Truly Great Man
Napoleon Bonaparte, the future Emperor of the French and one of the greatest military leaders Western civilization has ever known, was born on 15 August 1769 in Ajaccio, the capital of the island of Corsica, to Carlo Maria di Buonaparte and Maria Letizia Ramolino. He was the fourth child the stork brought to Casa Buonaparte,… Read more Happy Birthday to Napoleon Bonaparte, the Corsican Who Transformed the Modern World