4 MIN READ ·
Veronica Franco: The Venetian Poet Tried by the Inquisition
She was acquitted. It did not matter.
ON THIS DAY THIS HAPPENED · THE ARTICLE COLLECTION
History worth reading.
Royal scandals, forgotten lives and moments that changed everything. Take a little longer with the stories behind them.
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214 articles
7 MIN READ ·
Eleanor Talbot: The Secret That Unmade Edward IV's Sons
She kept a secret her whole life. She died with it. Fifteen years later, two boys were taken into the Tower on the strength of it, and they were never seen again.
5 MIN READ ·
Margaret of Anjou: She Fought for His Crown Harder Than He Did
She fought for his crown harder than he ever did. He was buried in an unmarked grave. She was ransomed like cargo and sent back to France to die in poverty.
6 MIN READ ·
The Field of the Cloth of Gold, June 1520: Catherine of Aragon and Claude of France
In June 1520 Henry VIII built a palace out of wood and canvas, filled a fountain with wine, and invited the King of France to watch him joust. It cost England nearly half the crown's annual revenue. The fountain ran dry. The cloth of gold was packed away and sold.
6 MIN READ ·
George Boleyn: Poet, Diplomat, and the Sentence He Read Aloud
He was a poet, a diplomat, and the most trusted male voice in his sister's court. Henry VIII sent him to France to negotiate with kings.
7 MIN READ ·
Bess of Hardwick: Four Husbands, Four Great Houses, and Arbella
She was born with nothing. She buried four husbands, built four great houses, and died the second wealthiest person in England after the queen herself.
5 MIN READ ·
Anne Askew: The Preacher Who Walked Out of Her Marriage, 1545–1546
She walked out of her marriage in 1545 and went to London to preach on street corners. Women were not permitted to speak in church. She did not find this a compelling reason to stay quiet.
7 MIN READ ·
Catherine Parr, Thomas Seymour and the Young Elizabeth
History remembers her as the sensible one. The survivor. The wife who outlived Henry VIII and had the good sense to stay out of trouble.
4 MIN READ ·
Juliane de Fontevrault: The Daughter Who Aimed a Crossbow at Henry I, 1119
She raised a crossbow and aimed it at the King of England.
6 MIN READ ·
Thomas Howard, Duke of Norfolk: The Marriage Proposal That Led to Tower Hill
The most powerful nobleman in England raised a reasonable proposal with the Queen's own council. Elizabeth did not find it reasonable. She found it useful, which is a different thing entirely.
5 MIN READ ·
Arbella Stuart: Thirty Years Without a Charge
Elizabeth I never charged her. Never tried her. Never explained. She simply decided that a girl born with royal blood was too dangerous to be free, and Arbella Stuart spent thirty years learning what that decision felt like from the inside.
7 MIN READ ·
Mary Stuart: Nineteen Years in England
She crossed into England in a fishing boat at twenty-five and wrote to her cousin asking for help. She would not leave for nineteen years. She would not leave alive.