Germany
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Herald of Free Enterprise
Today is going to be a fairly short one; it was an event that remains within recent living memory for most of us, over a certain age. And it focuses on a tragedy that resonates deeply with me personally to this day. As a teenager, I traveled several times on the cross-channel ferries between England and France and Belgium in my ongoing research of the Great War, as a young amateur Historian. (It was on those journeys that I got to know Phoebe.) Those journeys were for the most part made on the three specially built Spirit-Class vessels that operated between the home ports and those of mainland Europe. I…
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The Spanish Dancer and the King
In a previous post, we took a look at the life of Ludwig, the Mad King of Bavaria. (Please see this post: http://www.historynaked.com/ludwig-mad-king/) He was not the only odd ball in the Wittelsbach family. The grandfather for which he was named had a distinctly overbearing personality and an obsession beautiful actresses. Ludwig came to the throne at the age of thirty-nine and cut a rather unimpressive figure. He was known as a stingy eccentric, who liked to wander the streets of Munich dressed in threadbare clothes and carrying a broken umbrella. As previously mentioned, he loved beautiful women and courted a string of women to whom he wrote reams of bad…
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Götz of the Iron Hand
Gottfried “Götz” von Berlichingen was born around 1480 into the noble family of Berlichingen in modern-day Württemberg. In 1497, Gotz entered the service of Frederick I, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach. In 1498, he fought in the armies of Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I, seeing action in Burgundy, Lorraine, and the Brabant, and in the Swabian War the following year. By 1500, he had left the service of Frederick, and formed a company of mercenaries, selling his services to various Dukes, Margraves, and Barons. In 1504, Gotz and his mercenaries fought for Albert IV, Duke of Bavaria. During the siege of the city of Landshut, a cannonball hit the knight’s sword, moving…
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Animal Trials
Yes, I know that sounds crazy but this actually happened and it occurred enough to find several instances of animals being put on trial. These Animal Trials are recorded as having taken place in Europe from the thirteenth century until the eighteenth. They ranged from horses kicking their owners all the way to insects damaging crops. The earliest record of an animal trial is the execution of a pig in 1266 at Fontenay-aux-Roses. Such trials remained part of several legal systems until the 18th century. Animal defendants appeared before both church and secular courts, and the offenses alleged against them ranged from murder to criminal damage. Human witnesses were often…
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Vidkun Quisling- The Norwegian Benedict Arnold
Most people know about Benedict Arnold, the general during the American Revolution who sold out to the British because his wife was a gold digger. (For more on that, please see post http://www.historynaked.com/benedict-arnold/ ) Well, Norway had one too. Vidkun Quisling’s name has gone down in the popular vernacular as a byword for collaborator and traitor. In fairness, he was a Nazi scumbag, so I am fine with this. Vidkun Abraham Lauritz Jonssøn Quisling was born on July 18, 1887 in Fyresdal, Telemark, Norway. He was the son of a minister who was also a famous geologist and the heiress to a wealthy ship owner. He was sent to school…
