Scandinavia
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Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte- From Pauper to King
This is a story of rags to riches and of an unlikely king. Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was born in France to a lawyer, but through an extraordinary turn of events became king of a country far from his own. Born in Pau, France on February 5, 1818, Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte was the son of a prosecutor and his wife. His family wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps to become a lawyer as well, but Jean-Baptiste enlisted in the French Marines in 1780 instead. When the French Revolution and its aftermath of the Terror happened (for more on the Terror, please see this post http://www.historynaked.com/the-terror/ ), he rose rapidly through the ranks.…
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Eva Ekeblad
I don’t know about you, but sometimes I could use a nice cold drink. We’ve talked about the origins of beer (Please see this post: http://www.historynaked.com/nin-kasi-lady-fills-mouth-beer/), but sometimes something a bit stronger is necessary. So we move on to vodka. In fairness, the lady who is the subject of this post did not only pave the way for vodka but many other things. However, as I sip a Moscow Mule, vodka seems the most important. Eva Ekeblad was born July 10, 1724 to statesman Count Magnus Julius De La Gardie and his wife Hedvig Catharina Lilja. Interestingly, her brother was married to Catherine Charlotte De La Gardie, who also a…
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Edgar the Ætheling- The Boy Who Wasn’t King
England in the 11th century was not always a great place to be if you were royalty. Young Edgar was the grandson of Edmund Ironside, king of England, and great grandson of the infamous Æthelred the Unready, also king of England. So you would think Edgar would be next in line? Well, not exactly. There was a little problem named Cnut the Great. Cnut was the son of Sweyn Forkbeard of Denmark. In the summer of 1015, Cnut mounted an invasion of England and fought with Edmund for the throne of England. It was a year or so of battles, and ultimately Edmund lost and ceded all of England north…
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Forseti, Norse God of Truth and Justice
Not much is known about Forseti as he is only mentioned twice in Old Norse literature. Our main source is from the Poetic Edda. The first mention of him is in the 15th stanza of the Grímnismál or “The Song of the Hooded One”, part of the aforementioned Poetic Edda. The Poetic Edda is a collection of poems by anonymous Old Norse-speaking poets collected by Snorri Sturluson. Sturluson then took the information in the Poetic Edda and extrapolated it into the Prose Edda. The debate about the authenticity of the Prose Edda has been raging amongst scholars for some time. For example, the second mention of Forseti is in the…
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La Petite Struensee
In an earlier post, we told the story of the tragic Caroline Matilda of Great Britain. She had an affair with her deranged husband’s doctor and had a child by him. (For more on that story, please see this post: http://www.historynaked.com/princess-caroline-matilda-unhappily-ever/ ) She was sent in to exile and never saw her children again. What happened to the little girl they called La Petite Struensee in reference to her bastard parentage? Louise Auguste was born July 7, 1771 at Hirschholm Palace in Denmark. She was heralded as the child of King Christian VII of Denmark and his wife Caroline Matilda of Great Britain, but it was an open secret that…
