At one time a British colony, Virginia is a state in North America that consists of ‘tide-water’ land in the central-Atlantic coastal plain of the United States of…
Two very bad English kings
Two of the worst of a bad bunch of English kings were a father and a son. John I was a son, however, of a Good King and…
Bond films that weren’t, thanks to Harry
We’ve been having a bit of a Michael Caine season recently. We’ve seen the masterpiece Sleuth, the original of course, with old Sir Laurence pitted against young Mr….
What is ‘primogeniture’?
The word comes from the Latin, as do so many words connected with the Law. Nevertheless, the law of primogeniture is still operative in many originally Anglo/Saxon states,…
A tangled skein: the War of the Spanish Succession
Not even Frodo trying desperately to cut his way out of Shelob the Spider’s thick cobwebs is like my trying to explain the War of the Spanish Succession….
How much truth is there in fiction?
The shortest, and probably the most effective piece of drama Shakespeare wrote was Macbeth. Even the least educated among us will quote from this play, perhaps without knowing…
Charles ‘the Bold’, Philip ‘the Good’ & Philip ‘the Bold’ (of Burgundy)
Burgundy was an important former duchy in south-central France, originally settled by a German tribe called the Burgundii, there in the 5th century. It was first under Merovingian…
The sad story of ‘Sissi’
The Emperor Franz-Josef of Austria and Hungary was one of the last really powerful heads of state in Europe who was not only a monarch but a statesman….
The House of Habsburg
I know that many people who should know better write the above name as Hapsburg. I am not among them, perhaps because I am a retired journalist, not…