Petrarch, Father of the Renaissance
I have written about Renaissance writers, artists, musicians, and scientists. But how did the Renaissance come about? Francis Petrarch, often called the “Father of Humanism,” played a pivotal role in laying the intellectual and cultural groundwork for the...
Breakspear
At time of writing there have been seven popes during my lifetime. The only other pope that I know much about was Pope Paul V, because he features in Fire and Earth, the second book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. But there was an English Pope and his relatives...
Austerlitz
Having served as an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve, when it comes to battles of 1805, I think of Trafalgar. Yet ashore the battle of the year was Austerlitz. The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was fought on the second of...
Expulsion of Jews from Russia
My post for 25th November concerned Elizabeth of Russia. She sounded quite good back then. But by 1st December 1742 she’d ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Russia. I sought in Called to Account, the fourth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, to explore...
Venice
By the 30th November 1630, 16,000 inhabitants of Venice had died that month from the plague. This outbreak, part of the Second Pandemic of bubonic plague, devastated northern and central Italy, including Venice, leaving a lasting impact on the city’s population,...
Bonnie Prince Charlie
On 29th November 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite army moved into Manchester and occupied Carlisle. Bonnie Prince Charlie, born Charles Edward Stuart on December 31, 1720, was a charismatic figure who became the symbol of the Jacobite cause to restore the Stuart...
Eleanor
Eleanor of Castile died on the 28th of November 1290. After her death, her husband King Edward I, known as Longshanks, commissioned the famous Eleanor Crosses, a series of twelve lavish monuments erected at the places where her funeral cortege rested on its journey to...
The Berner’s Street Hoax – Getting Talked About
I’m trying to be talked about now. I want my website to attract attention and hopefully sell my books, The Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. But I’m unlikely to be successful as Theodore Hook. The Berner’s Street Hoax was an elaborate prank orchestrated by the English...
Dracula
The On This Day website tell me that on 26th November 1476 Vlad III, known to history as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula, with the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Bathory defeated Basarab Laiota to become ruler of Wallachia for the third time. His legacy is a...
Petrarch, Father of the Renaissance
I have written about Renaissance writers, artists, musicians, and scientists. But how did the Renaissance come about? Francis Petrarch, often called the “Father of Humanism,” played a pivotal role in laying the intellectual and cultural groundwork for the...
Breakspear
At time of writing there have been seven popes during my lifetime. The only other pope that I know much about was Pope Paul V, because he features in Fire and Earth, the second book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. But there was an English Pope and his relatives...
Austerlitz
Having served as an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve, when it comes to battles of 1805, I think of Trafalgar. Yet ashore the battle of the year was Austerlitz. The Battle of Austerlitz, also known as the Battle of the Three Emperors, was fought on the second of...
Expulsion of Jews from Russia
My post for 25th November concerned Elizabeth of Russia. She sounded quite good back then. But by 1st December 1742 she’d ordered the expulsion of all Jews from Russia. I sought in Called to Account, the fourth book in the Sir Anthony Standen Adventures, to explore...
Venice
By the 30th November 1630, 16,000 inhabitants of Venice had died that month from the plague. This outbreak, part of the Second Pandemic of bubonic plague, devastated northern and central Italy, including Venice, leaving a lasting impact on the city’s population,...
Bonnie Prince Charlie
On 29th November 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Jacobite army moved into Manchester and occupied Carlisle. Bonnie Prince Charlie, born Charles Edward Stuart on December 31, 1720, was a charismatic figure who became the symbol of the Jacobite cause to restore the Stuart...
Eleanor
Eleanor of Castile died on the 28th of November 1290. After her death, her husband King Edward I, known as Longshanks, commissioned the famous Eleanor Crosses, a series of twelve lavish monuments erected at the places where her funeral cortege rested on its journey to...
The Berner’s Street Hoax – Getting Talked About
I’m trying to be talked about now. I want my website to attract attention and hopefully sell my books, The Sir Anthony Standen Adventures. But I’m unlikely to be successful as Theodore Hook. The Berner’s Street Hoax was an elaborate prank orchestrated by the English...
Dracula
The On This Day website tell me that on 26th November 1476 Vlad III, known to history as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad Dracula, with the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Bathory defeated Basarab Laiota to become ruler of Wallachia for the third time. His legacy is a...