In this case I cannot do my usual playing with papal names and invented adjectives; some of my faithful followers might like to read about ‘Julian Popes’, as…
Category: Italian History
Important European families: Este and Esterhazy
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 misty beginnings…
‘Benedict’ popes before Benedict XVI
Pope Francisco recently reached the throne of Peter because his predecessor decided, wisely perhaps, to retire from the Papacy before his death – a rare festivity in the…
An infamous trio, Darnley, Bothwell & Rizzio
These three sixteenth century men had a lot in common, though the first had royal blood, the second noble blood, and the third was a foreign commoner. What…
What was ‘The March on Rome’?
(a) The end of Rome as an empire. (b) An asssault by angry unelected popes. (c) An attempt to seize power by the fascists of Mussolini. Those of…
The Austro-Prussian War (1866)
Though it has been put into the shadow by the Franco-Prussian War, this was one of the most important conflicts in the 19th century, because it overturned the…
Four Sforzas
It would be hard to think what the history of Italy would have been without the Sforza family. We have already studied the Visconti, the Medici, the Este…
Fascism – a dreaded word
Fasci, literally meaning ‘bundles’, and perhaps descending from the fasci of thin staves of wood carried by Roman officials as symbol of authority, were established in Sicilian towns…
Some Alexander Popes
These four Italians and one Spaniard made a contribution to the history of the Catholic Church, positive or negative according to your view and that of historians. Each…
Some Urban Popes
Three French popes and one Italian, dating from the eleventh century, the thirteenth, fourteenth and finally the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, form up for inspection in this post:…