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, [...]
Alsace/Lorraine & Schleswig/Holstein
These two tongue-twisters used not only to twist tongues, but eject furious spittle from the pursed mouth of European statesmen and politicians. The problem is not only of dual nationality and two different languages, but [...]
Queen Elizabeth I (the ‘Virgin Queen’)
The queen in ‘the Armada Portrait’, note the right hand resting comfortably on the globe /en.wikipedia.org The only half-decent member of the infamous Tudor dynasty was Elizabeth, born in 1533. She was the [...]
The importance of being Okinawa
Yamato goes to war! / tamiya.com In April, 1945, the 2nd World War was very far from over. A huge invasion of the French mainland was planned for June. Japan, however, was seen [...]
The ‘White Terror’
Jean Cottereau, leader of the ‘Chouans’ / en wikipedia.org It is a common misconception that the French Revolution (q.v.), the ‘Terror’ and the fall of Robespierre and other leading Jacobins, led immediately to [...]
The dry martini cocktail
The green olive properly speared / noilly prat.com The history of this cocktail is not without incident. It is a potentially lethal mixture of a raw spirit – gin – with a distillation [...]
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