May 19th is an interesting date for Tudor England
This was the date of a marriage and an execution, both related to Henry VIII. On May 19th, 1499 Catherine of Aragon married Henry’s elder brother, Arthur, by proxy! Yes, by proxy, this was because Catherine was 13 and Arthur 12 and they were in two different countries. It all came about due to the […]
William the Conqueror
William the Conqueror was the first Norman king of England, reigning from 1066 until his death in 1087. He is responsible for commissioning ‘The Doomsday Book’, one of the most important historical documents ever created. William was the son of the unmarried Duke Robert 1st of Normandy and his mistress Herleva. His illegitimate status and […]
Theseus
Theseus was the hero of many Greek legends, most notably Theseus and the Minotaur but was he a real person? Theseus was a mythological king and founder hero of Athens, sometimes described as the son of king Aegeus and sometimes the son of the god Poseidon. He was everything a Greek hero should be handsome, […]
Henry VIII
If you think of an English monarch, 9 times out of 10 Henry VIII will come to mind. He was an imposing character in life, and what he did while he was King, good and bad he shaped the Britain we live in today! Henry VIII was born on the 28th June 1491 and became […]
Tutankhamun
Tutankhamun was a young Boy King, lost to history, until his fully intact tomb was discovered in the Valley of the Kings in 1922. He is now one of, if not the most famous of all the Egyptian Pharaohs! Tutankhamun became Pharoah of Egypt at the young age of nine years old, and reigned until […]
Dick Turpin
Dick Turpin has become a legendary figure, a heroic dandy, with ballads written about him, popular theatre shows in the 18th and 19th century, and even Film and TV shows. In reality though, he was far from dandy, and was a vicious and violent criminal! Richard (Dick) Turpin was born at the Blue Bell Inn […]
Ghandi
An Indian lawyer who used nonviolent resistance and persuasion to lead the successful campaign for India’s Independence from colonial British rule He inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on the 2nd of October in 1869. Born and raised in a Hindu family in coastal Gujarat, Gandhi […]
Rasputin
A mysterious and manipulative Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man. He is best-known for befriending the royal family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia through whom he gained influence and power in the later years of the Russian Empire. Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was born on the 21st of January 1869 in the Siberian village […]
Adolf Hitler
Here was a man always near the top in any list of real life Villains, Adolph Hitler, who was responsible for killing millions of innocent men women and children during World War II. Born on the 20th of April 1889 in Braunau am Inn in Austria-Hungary, he was raised near Linz. He moved to Vienna […]
Winston Churchill
Many consider him to be the Greatest Englishman of the 20th century, mainly due to what he did to lead the country to victory in World War 2. However, until he became Prime Minister, for nearly 40 years he was a contentious figure in British life. Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born on the […]