A bracing brace of Bentincks
3rd Duke of Portland / alaintruong.com Hans Willem, Baron Bentinck was born in the middle of the seventeenth century. An aristocrat by birth, he served as a page to the Stadholder (q.v.) William. [...]
The revolt of Portugal
Sunrise over an older part of Lisbon / the guardian.com The first king of this tiny country, washed by the Atlantic, and blessed with fine seamen, navigators and harbours, was Alfonso I, in [...]
Two Popes with the name Julius
Rex Harrison suitable pious as Julius II (right) & Charlton Heston wooden as Michaelangelo (left) in a Hollywood extravaganza / m759.net In this case I cannot do my usual playing with papal names [...]
Further thoughts on the Khmer Rouge
In 1970, serious trouble boiled up again when the Prince Sihanouk was knocked off the throne by a Cambodian communist guerilla force called Khmer Rouge. This brutal, well-organised group was inevitably opposed to an American [...]
Four revolutions of 1848
Gen. Moritz Karl Ernest von Prittwitz / wikiwand.com Revolutions are a regular feature in all history, human nature being what it is. The careful student can probably find a revolution of some kind [...]
Important European families: Este and Esterhazy
The Villa d’Este at Tivoli / en wikipedia.org Any family that distinguishes itself for eight hundred and seventy-five years must have something special, and the Italian family d’Este has it. Appearing first in [...]
The murder of Elisabeth Feodorovna
/ russiapastand present.blogspot.com This beautiful, doomed woman was the sister of the Tsarina Alexandra of Russia, and of Prince Ernest of Hesse-Darmstadt, and the daughter of Princess Alice of Great Britain, which made [...]
Seven Christian kings in Scandinavia
Christian X riding in Nazi-occupied Copenhagen / copenhagenet.dk Christian I was born in 1426 and became King of Denmark in 1448, King of Norway in 1450 and Sweden in 1457. In case this [...]
Further thoughts on Thomas Becket, martyr and saint
O’Toole & Burton (right) as the King and Thomas Becket in the famous movie / mrfalk.18.wordpress.com Thomas Becket, or Thomas à Becket as he was called by my teacher of History, was not [...]
‘Benedict’ popes before Benedict XVI
Benedict XIV, from a painting by Benoit / en.wikipedia.org Pope Francisco recently reached the throne of Peter because his predecessor decided, wisely perhaps, to retire from the Papacy before his death – a [...]
Bundeswehr
/ elrobotpescador.com After Federal Germany’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) in May, 1955, the Federal German Armed Forces came into being under the name Bundeswehr. At first, it consisted of [...]
Burgundy: Kingdom,Duchy and House
An artist’s impression of Burgundian knights in gothic armour / pinterest.com Burgundy, a region of France, was first a kingdom after the collapse of the Roman Empire, roughly speaking the fifth century. It [...]
The reputation of Benedict Arnold
/ popscreen.com Even in 2015, some two hundred and fourteen years after his death, the name Benedict Arnold can inspìre in thinking Americans either an adverse or admiring reaction. “Traitor!’ “Outcast!” some will [...]
Further thoughts on American colonial independence
1774: hundreds of anti-Revolution families leave the Colonies for Canada / travelanguist.com The war that established the independence from Britain of the thirteen American colonies took place between 1775 and 1783, and is [...]
That’s Hollywood!
During the 1980s and 90s of the last century a giant crop of young, or very young male actors began appearing in major films made in Hollywood, or on location by Hollywood. They were the [...]
Nikolai G. Chernyshevsky
/ goodreads.com The name is unknown to most of us in the 21st century, and seems to be in a state of banishment from the minds of some of today’s historians too. Yet [...]
Further thoughts on the Ardennes Offensive
US soldiers fighting in typical Ardennes winter weather /warfarehistorynetwork.com Shakespeare has generals dancing together in a suitably stately manner, on board ships in his play Antony and Cleopatra. The Battle of the Bulge, [...]
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