Jean de Valois, Duke de Berry (known as Jean the Magnificent) was born on the 30th of November 1340 (died on the 15th of June 1416). Jean had many titles: he was Duke de Berry and d’Auvergne, as well as Count de Poitiers and de Montpensier. He was the 3rd...
Between Two Kings: Q & A session with Olivia Longueville
Between Two Kings (Book One in Anne Boleyn Alternate History Trilogy) Blog Materials – use as much or as little as you like; please don’t feel that you have to use everything. I’ve included a variety of things so that you can select what you want to use for your...
The novel ‘Between Two Kings’ is out! Anne Boleyn lives!
Dear friends and subscribers! The novel ‘Between Two Kings’ is out! Anne Boleyn lives in my new Historical Fiction Alternate Aeries about Anne Boleyn! My novel ‘Between Two Kings’ is finally out! It was rewritten in my new style, and new plotlines were added. I hope you will enjoy this...
Veronica Gambara: a Renaissance poetess and stateswoman
Veronica Gambara was born on the 29 or 30th of November 1485 (she died on the 13th of June 1550). This illustrious woman was not only an Italian poet, stateswoman, and political leader, but also the ruler of the County of Corregio from 1518 until 1550. Veronica was born in...
Charles d’Orléans: life, poetry, incarceration
Charles d’Orléans was born in Paris at Hôtel Saint-Pol on the 24th of November 1394. It was a bad irony that he first saw the world on the next day after his father’s barbaric assassination in the dark street of Paris upon the orders of Jean the Fearless, Duke of...
The brutal murder of Louis I d’Orléans in the streets of Paris
Today is a tragic day: another anniversary of the brutal assassination of Louis I d’Orléans, the second surviving son of King Charles V of France known as the Wise (le Sage) and his consort, Jeanne de Bourbon. Louis was a younger brother to King Charles VI called the Mad (le...
Jeanne d’Albert: childhood and first marriage
Jeanne d’Albert was born at Château de Fontainebleau on the 7th of January 1528 (she died on the 16th of November 1572 in Paris, France, at the age of 43). This wonderful princess, later Queen of Navarre in her own right, deserves several articles dedicated to her, for she lived...
Death of Queen Mary I of England
On 17th of November 1558, Queen Mary I of England, the only surviving daughter of King Henry VIII and his first wife, Catherine of Aragon, breathed her last at St James’s Palace, London. Mary passed away childless at the age of 42, without her husband, Philip of Spain, by her...
Eleanor of Austria: a daughter of illustrious parents, a marriage pawn
It is not enough to have illustrious parents and lineages to be happy. The life of a queen, a princess, or a royal descendant did not belong to her: from her birth, a royal girl was a valuable commodity in the European marriage market, especially if her parents were the...
Charlotte de Savoy: a virtuous and traditional Queen of France
Charlotte de Savoy, a daughter of Duke Louis de Savoy and his wife, Anne of Cyprus, was born on the 11th of November 1441 or 1443. She was one of her parents’ 19 children; 14 of them survived into adulthood. Although the House of Savoy often intermarried with their French...
The goldsmith and sculptor Benvenuto Cellini: a turbulent and artistic soul
Born on the 3rd of November 1500 in Florence, Benvenuto Cellini was a son of Giovanni Cellini and Maria Lisabetta Granacci. As his father and mother were a musician and a creator of musical instruments, Benvenuto’s father wanted his son to become a musician. At the age of 15, Giovanni...
Coronation of Mary Tudor, sister of King Henry VIII, in France
On the 5th November of 1514, the 18-year-old-year Mary Tudor, sister of King Henry VIII, was crowned Queen of France at the ancient Basilica of Saint-Denis, located in the suburbs of Paris, France. It was not a felicitous day for the English princess who had become an unwilling French queen,...
Anne de Beaujeu: marriage and the Peace of Étaples
On the 3rd of November 1473, the 12-year-old Princess Anne, the eldest surviving daughter of King Louis XI of France and his wife, Charlotte de Savoy, married the 34-year-old Pierre de Bourbon. Pierre’s older brother, Duke Jean de Bourbon, ceded the title of ‘Seigneur de Beaujeu’ to Pierre, and the...
Marriage of Catherine de’ Medici and Prince Henri, Duke d’Orléans
Royal weddings were rarely fascinating fairytales of love – they aimed to foster allegiances and cement alliances. Soon after his return home, Prince Henri, Duke d’Orléans (future King Henri II of France), found himself at the center of his father King François I’s marial plans for him. Henri and his...
The meeting of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn with François I of France in Calais
Imagine that we are in the city of Calais in Tudor England. This place had a special meaning for King Henry VIII because it was the last remnant of the once substantial English possessions on the continent. King Henry and his beloved Anne Boleyn sailed to Calais to meet with...