Western Europe
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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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Prester John
In the time of the crusades, Europeans were looking for any allies in their battles against the Muslims for the Holy Land. Medieval writings often feature a fabulously wealthy Christian king in the East. This was Prester John. He was believed to be a member of the Nestorian Church, which was an independent Eastern Christian church that did not fall under the purview of the patriarch in Constantinople. He was supposed to be an ally against the Muslims for the crusaders to take advantage of. The story of Prester John was first recorded by Bishop Otto of Freisling Germany in his Chronicon published in 1145. It was based on…
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Ancient Who Dunnit- The Death of Philip II of Macedon
Philip had been the ruler of Macedon for twenty-three years and was currently on wife number seven. He had turned Macedonia into a force to reckoned with by revolutionizing the army into a efficient fighting force. He subdued Greece and conquered the surrounding territories. Now he had a raft of children from his various wives. His son, Alexander, was from wife number four, Olympias, whom he divorced and was Greek to boot. Even though Alexander was older, the oldest son did not always get the throne and Philip and wife seven had a young son named Caranus. In fact, there had been an incident where members of the court expressed…
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The Dreadnought Hoax
The Bloomsbury Group were a band of influential intellectuals who bummed around Bloomsbury, London during the first half of the 20th century. Some of the members include Virginia Woolf, John Maynard Keynes, E.M. Forster and Lytton Strachey. According to historian Ian Ousby, “although its members denied being a group in any formal sense, they were united by an abiding belief in the importance of the arts”. They also perpetrated one of the biggest pranks in British Military History. I guess they were sitting around bored one afternoon in 1910 when Horace de Vere Cole got the bright idea to see if they could prank the British Navy. He sent a…
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Dorothy Lawrence- The Woman in the Trenches
History is full of women who disguised themselves and fought along their menfolk for causes they believed in. A prime example are the women who inspired the legend of Molly Pitcher during the American Revolution. (For more on this, please see this post: http://www.historynaked.com/searching-molly-pitcher/ ) According to historian, Elizabeth Shipton, many women made it to the front line as nurses in the trenches or helping those wounded in No Man’s Land. Some women took up arms and called “she soldiers”, but they had to operate in secret. Dorothy Lawrence was one of these. She disguised herself as a man and fought in the trenches along with the men. Dorothy…
