One of my personal historical favorites is Queen Philippa of Hainault, the wife and consort of King Edward III. Philippa was the second daughter born to William I, Count of Hainaut, and his wife, Joan of Valois, Countess of Hainaut. A lot of historians, and websites, list her birthday as 24 June 1314, but this… Read more Philippa of Hainault, a Most Excellent Queen
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
On 12 August 2017, a single white 32-year-old legal assistant and civil rights activist named Heather Heyer was murdered by a radicalized Christian white supremacist terrorist, James Alex Fields Jr, when he drove his car into a crowd of people who were peacefully counter-protesting the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, VA. A further 19 people… Read more The Slut Shaming of White Women in the Civil Rights Movement
Yolande of Aragon was born on 11 August 1384 to King John I of Aragon and his second wife, Yolande of Bar. She was not only a king’s daughter, through her mother she was also the granddaughter of King John II of France. As a well-dowered and noble bride, she was a marriage prize from… Read more Yolande of Aragon, Queen of Four Kingdoms and Preserver of France
When you research royalty in history, it is mostly about how desperately they needed to be fertile. The last thing a royal wanted was a way of preventing conception. The ideal was as many kids as fast as possible, with all-star standouts such as Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine (10 births/9 surviving), Queen Eleanor of Castile… Read more No More Crocodile Dung!
On 31 July 1492 the Alhambra Decree, which targeted the Jewish population for expulsion or death, went into effect in Spain. Jews were given three choices: they could convert to Catholicism, or surrender their goods and leave the country, or be executed horribly if they tried to remain in their homes and retain their religion. Tens… Read more The Alhambra Decree
The Wars of Scottish Independence were long, bloody, and brutal. A major turning point in the English’s favor during the first of these wars was on 20 July 1304, when King Edward I of England accepted the surrender of Stirling Castle. The castle was a military gateway into Northern Scotland, and the site of one… Read more Warwolf? Warcastle!
The worst thing about Jane Austen dying on 18 July 1817, when she was only 41 and should have had decades of writing ahead of her, is that those of us – and we are legion – who love her work must be content with the few novels and scattered essays she left us. We… Read more For the Love of Jane Austen, Peeress of Prose
Jane Austen tragically died at the young age of 41 on 18 July 1817, leaving behind a grieving family and an astonishing literary legacy. Her family was grateful that she did not suffer, or become disoriented, even at the very end of her life. Her brother Henry reported that she, “retained her faculties, her memory,… Read more The Last Thing Austen Ever Wrote
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?