Western Europe
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Titus Oates and the Popish Plot
Titus Oates was a giant liar, and had been a giant liar all his life. He was born at Oakham in Rutland on September 15, 1649. His father was a minister who started out in the Church of England and became a Baptist briefly during the Puritan Revolution and fought with the New Model Army. He came back to the Church of England during the Restoration, and became the rector of All Saint’s Church at Hastings. A bit radical beginnings, but the family seemed to have righted itself. Titus was sent to school at Cambridge and was described as a “great dunce” and gained a reputation for homosexuality, which was…
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Hürrem Sultan- From slave to queen
Born Aleksandra Ruslana Lisowska around 1502, little Nastia as she was known would never have dreamed she would rise to become a queen. She was born in the town of Rohatyn in Polish Ruthenia, which is now in Western Ukraine. Legend has it her father was an Orthodox priest. Some time in the 1520’s, Nastia’s world turned upside down when she was captured by the Crimean Tartars at the tender age of 12. Raids by the Tartars into this region were not uncommon, and Nastia was soon taken to the slave markets of Kaffa. From there she went on to Istanbul, where she was selected for the sultan’s harem. The…
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Princess Elisabeth of Austria- Sisi of the Sorrows
The Wittelsbachs had a history of crazy. Both Ludwig I and Ludwig II had their foibles (See posts on both of them here: http://www.historynaked.com/spanish-dancer-king/ and here: http://www.historynaked.com/ludwig-mad-king/ ) However, Ludwig II’s cousin, Elisabeth or Sisi as she was known, had a life more tragic than crazy. On the surface, Sisi had it all- beauty, wealth, a good marriage- but it was all a sham. The lady had a life full of sorrow. Born Her Royal Highness Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie on Christmas Eve 1837, Sisi as she was called by the family was the fourth child of Duke Maximilian in Bavaria and Princess Ludovika of Bavaria. As was customary with…
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Cassandra
Cassandra is a popular figure and made many appearances in Greek plays and poems. Her predicament even inspired a name for a present day problem- the Cassandra Syndrome. So who was this lady whose name inspires even today? Cassandra was born a princess of Troy, the daughter of Priam and Hecuba and the fraternal twin sister of Helenus. She was the most beautiful of their daughters and as such attracted divine attention. Homer tells a tale that she and her brother Helenus spent the night in Apollo’s temple where the temple snakes licked their ears clean so they were able to hear the future. Cassandra was a priestess of Apollo…
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The Defenestration of Prague of 1618
The wars of religion had been raging for years now and left their mark on the nations of Europe. Catholics and Protestants had been at each other’s throats fighting for the souls of men for what seemed like forever. However, the fighting took a strange form in what is now the Czech Republic. They liked to throw people out windows. The first instance of this was on July 30, 1419 when Jan Želivsky, a follower of the Czech reformer Jan Hus, led a procession through the streets to Charles Square to demand the release of Hussite prisoners. The Catholic town council refused and somehow a stone was thrown at Želivsky…
