England

  • The White Ship Disaster

    On November 25, 1120 the newly refitted vessel the White Ship captained by Thomas FitzStephen White Ship sank in the English Channel near the Normandy coast off Barfleur. Only one of those aboard survived. William Adelin, the only legitimate son and heir of King Henry I of England, his half-sister Matilda, and his half-brother Richard would be one of many to drown. Adelin’s death would lead to a succession crisis and a period of civil war in England known as the Anarchy. FitzStephen offered his ship to Henry I of England to use to return to England from Barfleur in Normandy. Henry had already made other arrangements, but allowed many…

  • Princess Caroline Matilda-   Unhappily Ever After

    Despite what the fairy tales tell you, the life of a princess is not happily ever after.  A prime example of this is the life of Princess Caroline Matilda of Great Britain.  She was born on July 22, 1751 the daughter of the Frederick, the Prince of Wales and Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha.  In keeping with Hanoverian tradition, Frederick and his father King George II hated each other as hard as they could.  However, Frederick died suddenly three months before Caroline Matilda’s birth.  She was named after her grandmother, Queen Caroline, and her paternal aunt, Princess Caroline.  (Read more about Princess Caroline in this post:   http://www.historynaked.com/princess-caroline-great-britain/ )  To keep things…

  • The Crawford Expedition

    Okay, so we looked at the Gnadenhutten Massacre of 1782, here:http://www.historynaked.com/the-gnadenhutten-massacre/ where Pennsylvania Militiamen under the American Army murdered 96 peaceful Christian Native Americans in Ohio. Their people vowed revenge. Today we are going to take a quick look at what led up to this period, and then happened next. A few years prior to the slaughter at Gnadenhutten, in February 1778 Captain Pipe, a Chief of the Delaware Indians had lost several family members to the Americans in continuously retaliatory acts of violence between the two factions. The Americans, led by General Edward Hand, and consisting of a band of 500 Pennsylvania men had led a surprise march into…

  • The Delicate Investigation

    George, the Prince Regent of England and the soon to be George IV, hated his wife.  I don’t mean they didn’t get on well together, I mean he loathed the sight of her.  When Caroline of Brunswick was introduced to her future husband, George embraced her then retreated to the other side of the room where he flagged down the Earl of Malmesbury.  With a face as white as a sheet, he begged the Earl, “Harris, I am not very well, pray get me a glass of brandy”.  Then George proceeded to continue to drink for the three days prior to the wedding and be massively drunk throughout the entire…

  • The Story Behind Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

    Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was not a children’s author.  Not an author at all.  He was a mathematician, and was more at home with numbers than words.  Dodgson was a bachelor living in the college town of Oxford, England.  In 1856, Christ Church, where he was a member, had a new dean appointed.  Henry Liddell, a classical scholar of some renown, and his wife and children moved into town.  Dodgson and the Liddells struck up a friendship, and was especially friendly with their children.  Although he had none of his own, Dodgson seemed to have a way with children and charmed them with his ability to tell whimsical stories. One bright…