On 23 June 1794 Empress Catherine II of Russia, known historically as Catherine the Great, formally granted permission for Jews to move into Kyiv, which is now the Ukrainian city of Kiev. This was an unpopular move on Catherine’s part, since the Orthodox Christians of Kiev insisted that their community was “profaned” by Jewish residency.… Read more Catherine the Great Allows Jewish Settlement in Kyiv
Happy Birthday to Georgiana Spencer Cavendish, the 5th Duchess of Devonshire! She was born on 7 June 1757, the eldest child of John Spencer (who would later become 1st Earl Spencer) and Georgiana Poyntz. As a girl she was affectionately called “Little Gee” by her family, and she was an indirect ancestress of Lady Diana Spencer’s. During their… Read more Georgiana Cavendish, an Amazing Woman
Anne Boleyn was crowned queen on 1 June 1533. It was a day of many mixed blessings for the new queen. She was publically acknowledged as Henry VIII’s wife, adored by her husband, and she was heavily pregnant with the baby she felt sure would be a boy. On the other hand, supporters of the Henry’s… Read more Anne Boleyn Crowned Queen of England
Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt is remembered as a seductress and man-eater. What she SHOULD be remembered for is her devotion to her nation and her children. From the evidence, Cleopatra’s main goals were to keep her kids safe and keep Egypt independent of Roman control. She seems to have genuinely fallen in love with Mark Antony… Read more Cleopatra Selene
It’s May 19th, the anniversary of Anne Boleyn’s execution, so let’s talk about Anne’s enduring and unjustified reputation as a home-wrecking whore. Bearing the historical facts in mind, what exactly did Anne do to be slut shamed for more than five centuries? She refused to date a married man until she knew he was getting… Read more For Anne Boleyn
Queen Anne Boleyn was put on trial on 15 May 1536. According to Imperial ambassador Eustace Chapuys, she was tried “by a tribunal composed of the principal lords of the kingdom … the Duke of Norfolk presiding over it .” The trial took place in the Tower rather than in Westminster Hall, “yet the trial… Read more The Trial of Anne Boleyn
On the surface Anne Boleyn’s judicial murder seems quite straightforward. Henry VIII wanted to marry a new, hopefully more fertile, son producing wife, and so he ordered Thomas Cromwell to rid him of his troublesome and miscarrying second queen. Cromwell, a brilliant legal mind, soon came up with a way to dispatch Anne and a… Read more The Plot Against Anne Boleyn
Historians and history-buffs alike have strong opinions about facts and persons and those opinions aren’t universal. Nevertheless, there tends to be enough commonality that two “camps” will spring up regarding an event. For those interested in the Tudor era, there is often a spilt into (let’s overly-simplify it for the sake of argument) people who… Read more What Anne Boleyn Did That Jane Seymour Didn’t
King Henry VIII’s widow, Kateryn Parr, married the king’s third wife’s brother Thomas Seymour on 4 May 1547, just a few months after her royal husband had bitten the dust. The former queen had loved Seymour even before she had been coerced into marrying Henry, and thus she must have been very happy, but frankly she… Read more Unlucky in Love
Queen Anne Boleyn was arrested on 2 May 1536. The befuddled queen was told she was suspected of adultery (which was treason) with Henry Norris, King Henry VIII’s friend and groom of the stool, and with lowly court musician Mark Smeaton, as well as one other unidentified man, but given no other details of her… Read more The Sudden Arrest of Anne Boleyn