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Three de Medicis

Catherine de Medici, Queen of Henry II of France / heritage-history.com

Catherine de Medici, Queen of Henry II of France / heritage-history.com

Catherine de Medici was Queen of France despite her distinguished Italian name. She was born in 1519 and became the wife of Henry II of France in one of those dynastic marriages that litter the Middle Ages. Henry (or Henri) is supposed to have died of septicaemia following a jousting accident. (more…)

By | 2013-02-16T11:37:40+00:00 February 16th, 2013|Italian History, World History|0 Comments

A classic Anglo/American sports car, almost forgotten

 

The original Jensen Interceptor / joc.org.uk

The original Jensen Interceptor / joc.org.uk

The Jensen Interceptor came in two phases; Jensen made the original Interceptor between 1950 and 1957 at the Carter’s Green factory in West Bromwich in the north of England. The newly established Jensen Motors then built another high-powered sports car between 1966 and 1976 at the Kelvin Way factory.

The first model had used fibre-glass a great deal in the 1950s model, but the later model returned to a steel pressed body-shell, with a new design by the Italian firm Carrozzeria Touring. The 1950s model was also Italian designed and built (by Vignale) until Jensen began production themselves with some faint but subtle modifications. (more…)

Monks, Friars & Orders

The founder of the Franciscan Order / ginagenis.wordpress.com

The founder of the Franciscan Order / ginagenis.wordpress.com

Men who renounced a worldly life in order to enter a monastery were many in medieval times. They are few and far between now, but the three most celebrated orders these religiously inclined young men joined, or attempted to join were the Benedictines, the Dominicans and the Franciscans. Each of these ‘sects’ was founded by a man who was not necessarily a saint in his youth, but whose foundations have lasted under those names for centuries. (more…)

By | 2013-01-11T07:47:02+00:00 January 11th, 2013|History of the Cinema, Italian History, Today, World History|1 Comment

The Battle of Cannae

Cannae / forums.taleworlds.com

Cannae / forums.taleworlds.com

This was not just an armed, bloody struggle between fighting men. It was one of the classic victories in military history. Carthage’s general Hannibal (q.v.) faced a Roman army with larger infantry units, but Hannibal had more cavalry, well-trained and armed horsemen, kept out of sight. The armies were engaged at the village of Cannae, in southern Italy. (more…)

By | 2013-01-08T13:52:44+00:00 January 8th, 2013|History of Rome, Italian History, World History|2 Comments

Historians Polybius, Sallust, Seneca, Suetonius & Tacitus

POLYBIUS (204 – 122 BC) had the good luck (from the intellectual point of view) to be a historian during the rise of Rome after the 2nd Punic War. He was a Greek of noble blood not without political importance, but he was taken toRome with several other Greeks as hostages. This happened after the Roman intervention in Athens by Aemilius Paullus and others. Polybius formed a circle of clever fellows around his captor who became his mentor. (more…)

The League of Nations

This preamble to the United Nations has vanished without trace. It was one of the oddest disasters waiting to happen the world has ever seen. It appeared after the Treaty of Versailles (1918 – 25) had sealed the fate of this planet. Indeed its creation was the last and most important of President Woodrow Wilson of the United States’ famous ‘Fourteen Points’. Wilson insisted that it should appear in each one of the peace treaties, covering the Covenent or Constitution of the League. But then the United States itself refused to join. (more…)

Disasters waiting to happen: Publius Quintilius Varus & his Three Legions

Varus losing his legions / en.wikipedia.org

Varus losing his legions / en.wikipedia.org

Varus was a Roman general and consul commanding a Roman army in Germany in 13 AD, during the long reign of Augustus Caesar (q.v.). He and his three legions fell into a trap laid by the cleverest of the Teutonic commanders, Arminius, in the middle of an almost boundless wood called the Teutoburg (near what is now Bielefeld) (more…)

Disasters waiting to happen: Getúlio Vargas

   

Getulio Vargas / elreports.com.uy

Getulio Vargas / elreports.com.uy

Vargas was born in 1883. A small, chubby and discreet man, he grew to become a rich cattle man in Brazil, and in 1928 became the Governor of his state –Rio Grande do Sul. In 1930 he was propelled into the Presidency of his country by the army, which claimed that too much of the country’s wealth was being invested in the coffee trade, in effect propping it up, which it needed due to bad management. The second of many things the army disliked was that too much money was going in the direction of one state of Brazil –Sao Paulo.

Having Vargas in the presidency did not amuse the coffee barons, and they (and the rest of this enormous country) came to dislike even more Vargas’s methods of governing, which he did by decree. He replaced state governors at will, and constructed a patronage network in individual states. Historians agree that he appeared not to recommend any particular political stance, Right or the Left for instance. He was, however, a master of political opportunism, changing policies according to circumstances, and coinciding with the mood in general of the nation. (more…)

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