4 MIN READ ·
Margaret of Norway: The Queen of Scotland Who Never Saw It
She was seven years old when she died. She had been Queen of Scotland for four of those years. She never saw it once.
ON THIS DAY THIS HAPPENED · THE ARTICLE COLLECTION
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Royal scandals, forgotten lives and moments that changed everything. Take a little longer with the stories behind them.
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167 articles
4 MIN READ ·
Madame de Ventadour and the Child Who Became Louis XV, 1712
In the winter of 1712, the French royal family died.
7 MIN READ ·
Mariana Victoria: The Infanta France Sent Back
France spent three years making her French. Then they sent her back. She was seven years old. She had not been consulted about either decision.
5 MIN READ ·
Brehon Law: The Rights of Women in Gaelic Ireland
Sometime in the fifth century, in a country that Rome never reached, a woman could divorce her husband for hitting her.
4 MIN READ ·
Walpurga Hausmännin: The Midwife of Dillingen, 1587
She had delivered babies in Dillingen for nineteen years.
13 MIN READ ·
Richard of Gloucester, April–May 1483: From Hastings' Letter to the Arrests at Northampton
The letter arrived within days of the ninth of April.
2 MIN READ ·
Amelia Bloomer: Born 27 May 1818, the Woman Who Championed Trousers
Born on May 27 1818, Amelia Bloomer revolutionized female fashion by fiercely advocating for a new style of trousers that finally allowed women to breathe, move, and work without the suffocating physical constraints of Victorian dress. During the mid-nineteenth century, women were expected to wear heavy skirts layered over tight corsets that crushed their internal organs. These garments were not just uncomfortable but actively dangerous to female health and mobility. Amelia saw this enforced fashion as a physical prison that kept women subservient and physically weak.
5 MIN READ ·
Anthony Woodville, Earl Rivers: Arrested at Northampton, Executed at Pontefract, 1483
On the evening of the twenty-ninth of April 1483 Anthony Woodville dined with Richard of Gloucester at Northampton. The sources describe the dinner as apparently amicable.
2 MIN READ ·
Elizabeth Woodville Crowned at Westminster Abbey, 26 May 1465
561 Years ago today.. On the twenty-sixth of May 1465, Elizabeth Woodville was crowned Queen of England at Westminster Abbey, precisely one year after a marriage the court had not been told about until four months after it happened.
4 MIN READ ·
Petronilla de Meath: Left Behind to Burn at Kilkenny, 1324
When Alice Kyteler fled Ireland to escape the stake, she took only one person with her: the daughter of the servant she left behind to burn.
4 MIN READ ·
Elizabeth Woodville, April 1483: Ready Within Hours
Edward IV died before anyone was ready for it. Elizabeth Woodville was ready within hours. She knew what the will said. She knew the threat a formal Protectorship posed to her family, and she knew the constitutional loophole that could render it void. She knew the coronation was the mechanism and the fourth of May was the date and speed was everything. What she did not know was that the information she was moving on was already moving against her, sent north in a sealed letter by a man who had been in the same room and drawn a different conclusion.
2 MIN READ ·
Maria I of Portugal: The Death of Pedro III, 25 May 1786
The death of her husband on this exact day, May 25th in 1786, triggered a devastating psychological collapse for Queen Maria I that would ultimately rip her absolute power away. Before May 25th, Maria ruled alongside King Pedro III in a partnership that helped shoulder the immense burden of the Portuguese Empire. When he took his final breath, she was suddenly left entirely alone at the helm of a global superpower. The immense grief of losing her life partner was compounded by the sudden and suffocating isolation of absolute monarchy.