On the 30th of May 1536, King Henry VIII of England and Lady Jane Seymour were married at Whitehall palace at the Queen’s Closet. Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had married Jane’s predecessor, now dead Anne Boleyn, and the Tudor monarch in the winter of 1533, conducted the quiet...
End of the Capets: the beginning of the Valois royal dynasty
On the 29 May 1328, King Philippe VI of France, once simply Count de Valois, was crowned at Reims Cathedral. The nearest male relative to the last Capetian monarch, Charles IV of France known as the Fair (le Bel), Philippe inherited the throne because of the direct male line of...
The visit of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to England in 1522
On the 26th of May 1522, Holy Roman Emperor Charles V arrived at the English city-port of Dover. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Archbishop of York, as well as his entourage of approximately 300 Englishmen, specially selected for this occasion in advance, greeted the Habsburg emperor. At the time of the emperor’s...
Release of ‘Robin Hood’s Widow’ (part 2 of our Robin Hood Trilogy)
Attention! Our New Novel was released on the 8th of May 2020! Robin Hood’s Widow (The Robin Hood Trilogy Book 2) by Olivia Longueville and J. C. Plummer is now available in both e-book and paperback formats from Amazon. You can learn more information about our Robin Hood project on...
The Treaty of Le Goulet
The Treaty of Le Goulet was signed on the 22nd of May 1200 between King John of England and King Philip II of France. It was a complete victory for Philip who had long envied the #Angevin and coveted the Angevin lands. According to this treaty, the war between the...
Death in Youth: Henry the Young King
Henry the Young King was born on the 28th of February 1155. At the time of his birth, he was the second son, so he was not expected to become king. However, his elder brother, William, passed away in 1156 at the age of three, making Henry the eldest son...
King Henry II’s illegitimate half-brother: Hamelin de Warenne, a man of unwavering loyalty
Hamelin of Anjou, or Hamelin de Warenne as he would become known years later, was the illegitimate son of Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine. His mother seems to have been Adelaide of Angers; he also had two illegitimate half-sisters – Emma and Mary of Anjou. Hamelin himself...
A fateful royal marriage only a few weeks after Eleanor’s annulment
Today marks another anniversary of a royal marriage that helped create the vast and once very powerful Angevin Empire. On the 18th of May, 1152, Henry Plantagenet, also known as Henry Curtmantle and Henry FitzEmpress who would soon become King Henry II of England, married Eleanor (Aliénor) of Aquitaine in a private ceremony...
Fra Girolamo Savonarola: execution of an unorthodox friar in Florence
On the 23th of May 1498, Fra Girolamo Savonarola and his two most fervent supporters – Fra Girolamo and Fra Domenico – were escorted out of their prison into the main Florentine square (Piazza della Signoria). They faced a high ecclesiastic tribunal, who condemned them as heretics and schismatics, having...
Marriage of François d’Angoulême and Claude of France
On the 18th of May 1514, François d’Angoulême, the future King François I of France, married his distant cousin Claude, the eldest of the two surviving daughters of Queen Anne and King Louis XII. The quiet ceremony took place in the atmosphere of lament in a chapel at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which...
Golden Florentine Renaissance: Sandro Botticelli
Sandro Botticelli, born as Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, lived at the time when all things intellectual, humanistic, and progressive flourished in the Florentine Republic. The city was truly the cradle of the new era dawning. The artist belonged to the Florentine School under the patronage of Lorenzo de’...
Day of mourning: executions of George Boleyn and the other men unjustly condemned
Today is a day of mourning for historians and Tudor enthusiasts. On the early morning of the 17th of May 1536, several men, among them the queen’s own brother, were escorted out of the western entrance of the Tower under heavy guard. They were George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford, as well...
The Lion is Snared
Historians and history enthusiasts know the legends and tales about Richard the Lionheart, the third son of King Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. Perhaps one of the most fascinating stories of his reign is the account of his travels after leaving the Holy Land and his capture in...
The tragedy of Anne Boleyn: more arrests
The tragedy of Anne Boleyn was also connected with the tragedies of several other people – her alleged lovers, including her own brother – George Boleyn, Viscount Rochford. On 5th of May 1536, Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder, who was a famed court poet, and Sir Richard Page, who was...
Leonardo Da Vinci: a genius’s life in Italy and his last years in France
Leonardo Da Vinci was born on the 14 or 15th of April 1452 in the Tuscan town of Vinci, in the Republic of Florence. He was undoubtedly the quintessential Renaissance man, one who spent most of his life in Italy and his last years in France. Leonardo’s areas of interest...