Researchers have tried to find cogent reasons for Hitler’s pathological hatred of the Jews. Nothing in his childhood in Austria happened which might have sown the seeds of that poisonous dislike growing in his innermost soul. His military service during the Great War brought him wounds, but what influence could Jewish people have had on him in the trenches? The enemy was British or French, not Jewish. (more…)
Friedrich Ebert did not believe in the Allies’ victory / en.wikipedia.org
Learnéd, and sometime not so learnéd people have started myths right down through the centuries almost since the human race was ‘uncivilized’. King Alfred ‘burning the cakes’, ‘Robin Hood and Maid Marian’, Richard III ‘murdering his nephews’, changelings occupying thrones in Europe, what lay behind the sinking of the Titanic, foreknowledge of Pearl Harbor, was the Russian royal family killed in a cellar in Siberia? Plus a long line of etceteras. (more…)
Prince Metternich painted by Laurence / en.wikipedia.org
Of all the great statesmen and diplomats whose many different names have managed to confuse so many history students in the last century or two, this one is perhaps the most important, because of the significance of what he achieved before he finally failed. We have dealt with most of them in this general-history blog – John of Gaunt, Cardinal Richelieu, Thomas Cromwell, von Bismarck, both William Pitts, Palmerston, Gladstone, Disraeli – the list is long indeed. (more…)
Le Mans 1955: Pierre Levegh lies near his crashed car that killed over 80 spectators /documentingreality.com
Most (but not all) of the sports which are super-popular with the public today were invented, improved and regulated in the independent private schools of Victorian Britain; that is to say, what in England are still called ‘the public schools’, as opposed to state ones. The most popular of all – Soccer – was being played in early medieval England, and has always been an almost entirely working-class game. (more…)
Most of the eighteenth century featured wars in Europe, as rulers came and went and tried to dominate other rulers. Nearly always the same countries were involved, and the Seven Years War was no exception: Prussia, Britain and Hanover (then a separate state) ranged up against Austria, France, Sweden, Spain and you guessed it – Russia. The date was 1756. (more…)
To avoid confusion, one remembers that there were two Frederick IIs, Frederick ‘The Great’, an eighteenth century monarch, and our subject in this article, Frederick ‘Stupor Mundi’ a title given him by his courtiers, meaning ‘wonder of the world’.
He was born in 1194, son of Henry VI King of ‘Germany’ (Germany was divided into kingdoms, principalities, dukedoms, archdukedoms and palatinates) and a mother whose background was Sicilian. His grandfather was Frederick I, known as ‘Barbarossa’. (more…)
The Sforzas were an Italian family prominent in the 15th and 16th centuries. They stem from one Muzio Attendolo (1369 – 1424), a forceful condottiere of the period, indeed, he adopted the name from the Italian word for ‘force’.
An illegitimate son of his called Francesco (born 1401) was an equally successful condottiere (meaning landowner, soldier, leader, head of the local ‘mafia’ etc.) whose private armies got involved in a three-way war with the republics of Milan and Venice. Having won, he entered Milan in triumph, shortly becoming Duke of Milan (in 1450) and ruling ably from that moment.
Ludovico was born in Pavia in July, 1452, second son of Francesco. From childhood he had the nickname El Moro due to black hair and dark complexion. Francesco his father died in 1466, and the young Ludovico stayed in the service of the new ruler of Milan, Galeazzo Maria, who was murdered ten years later, leaving the dukedom to his 7-year-old son Gian Galeazzo II. Due to his young age, there had to be a regent – his mother Bona of Savoy.
Ludovico thought he might take the dukedom away and plotted against Bona, but failed and was exiled for his pains. Time passed, Ludovico grew older and wiser, and brought about a reconciliation with Bona, at the same time arranging for the arrest, trial and subsequent execution of her chief adviser and minister Simonetta, in 1480. Ludovico had started his dubious career as a ‘diplomat’.
Bona of Savoy was ‘persuaded’ to leave Milan for the sake of her health, and Ludovico kindly assumed the regency for her, becoming more or less Head of State. He then instituted a species of government he called ‘Equilibrium Politics’, by which a delicate balance was maintained between the principal Italian states – Milan, Venice, Florence, the Papal States and Naples. He took advantage of his position and made Milan supreme. He distrusted Venice, describing her as a ‘floating whore’, but stayed on good terms with the ruler of Florence under Lorenzo di Medici (q.v.). He made alliances with Ferdinand I, King of Naples, and married Gian Galeazzo to Ferdinand’s granddaughter (1489). He also stayed at talking distance with Pope Alexander VI (a Borgia) through the influence of his brother Ascanio, who happened to be a Cardinal.
In 1491 Ludovico married Beatrice d’Este, a daughter of the Duke of Ferrara, a union which proved to be surprisingly loving despite Ludovico’s multitude of mistresses. They had two sons, Massimiliano and Francesco.
Culturally speaking, Ludovico made the Court of Milan the most splendid and talked-about in Europe. He was patron of Leonardo da Vinci among others—painters, musicians, composers and poets all. He built canals and fortifications, and became hugely popular with the common people, who were delighted by his shows and celebrations, fairs and fiestas. The people of Milan were prosperous and happy, but the shadow of the cost was spreading over them. Taxation was high, and Gian Galeazzo was resentful of the ever-growing magnificence of the Sforza. He and his wife Isabella left Milan to take up residence in Pavia. It was Isabella who was made even more furious by Ludovico’s open usurpation of the dukedom than Gian Galeazzo, who always said he had no more than a passing interest in politics. Isabella appealed to her grandfather Ferdinand I, who responded in 1492, by ordering Ludovico to surrender control of the duchy to Isabella and her husband. Naturally, Ludovico was having nothing of it.
Instead, he formed an alliance with two foreign kings, the Emperor Maximilian I, and King Charles VIII of France. Vast sums passed hands, and Maximilian declared Ludovico the rightful Duke of Milan in 1494, which legitimized his usurpation. Maximilian also married Bianca Maria, Gian’s sister! Meanwhile, Charles VIII had an eye on the kingdom of Naples, and asked Ludovico if he could help – and received promises in return.
Charles’s campaign to conquer Naples horrified Italy and disturbed Ludovico himself. He changed colours, joined with Venice, and got Charles VIII expelled from Italy by force majeure. Both Gian Galeazzo and Ferdinand died in 1494, and Charles VIII became reconciled with Ludovico, whose pride and magnificence knew no bounds. He used to say that the Pope was his chaplain, the emperor Maximilian his general, the Governors of Venice his chamberlains, and Charles VIII his messenger. He was to be severely disillusioned.
Charles VIII died and was succeeded by Louis XII, a descendent of the 1st Duke of Milan. Hardly waiting to be crowned, Louis claimed Milan as his, and persuaded ‘the whore’ Venice and the population of Naples, more than fed up with the costly magnificence, to topple Ludovico. But the Milanese became bored with Louis, too, and turned back to Ludovico and Maximilian for help! Ludovico gathered German and Swiss mercenaries and rode into battle. The Swiss at the crucial moment decided to change sides, which tends to happen with mercenaries, and Ludovico was captured by the French. He was locked up in the prison castle of Loches, where he died, still claiming his rights to Milan, in 1508. The male ducal line died with him.
Fanciful images of Robert II of Scotland / celticjessica.blogspot.com
Stuart, originally Stewart, is the family name of Scottish kings and queens from nearly the end of the fourteenth century until 1714 – English monarchs as well from 1603 to 1714. It was founded by Walter Fitzallen, Steward of the King of Scotland. He in turn descended from Flald Fitzalan who had been Steward of Dol in Brittany.
Walter’s descendent became King Robert II of Scotland, her first Stuart monarch, ruling from 1371 to 1390. Robert’s son the Earl of Carrick became King Robert III, on the Scottish throne from 1390 – 1406. It was this Robert’s son who became James I of Scotland), who married Joan of the Beaufort family, English descendants of John of Gaunt, and this was the first English connection. (more…)
Winter queues 1948 / telegraph.co.uk
It was a surrealist time to be British. Six years of total war had left the people with their men and womenfolk dead, wounded and crippled as well as bemedalled, heroic and stoic. Most people had lost their home (or homes) to the German bombing. France and Belgium, just over the narrow Channel, had been occupied throughout almost all the Second War, and were recovering much faster than the British. The latter, having listened avidly to the words of a fat old man with a fondness for brandy and cigars asking them to sacrifice everything to beat the German menace, and having followed his indefatigable leadership, showed their loyalty by throwing him and his party out in the 1945 elections. The new Prime Minister was Clement Attlee, an Old Harrovian, who had been Churchill’s Deputy PM during the war. He was one of those patricians who become members of the Labour Party, presumably to reward their parents for sacrificing everything to educate them privately. He was all for NATO, against private incomes and country life. (more…)
Today we will concentrate on two bad men whose names constantly crop up in history. One, the first, was a Nazi leader in Germany, the second was a German-born President of a Latin American country.
Julius Streicher / fwjs.cn
Julius Streicher was born in 1885. Though it is difficult to believe he was once a schoolteacher. But he frightened his pupils by teaching them anti-Jewish propaganda. He also wrote at least three books for children with strongly anti-Semitic text. He used the periodical Der Stúrmer (which at one time he owned) to publish his virulent views, and probably because of this came to be noticed by Adolf Hitler. (more…)