History
Anything to do with History
Marjory
@Marjory -
3 months ago
Convents as a Refuge in Early Modern Lisbon
On 21 November 1667 Afonso VI, king of Portugal, raged outside the convento da Esperança demanding axes break down the doors. He had driven from his palace with ‘thunderous speed’ after receiving a letter from his French wife, Maria Francisca de Sabóia. The queen had writ...continued
1 minute read
Torey
@Torey -
3 months ago
Pet Monkeys in Victorian Britain
In December 1900 distressed animal lover ‘V.E.N’ informed fellow readers of The Bazaar magazine about a disturbing incident involving his pet marmoset, Binkie. A recent purchase, the marmoset, ‘a common white-eared specimen’, appeared ‘thin and badly fed’, so was ‘tied to...continued
1 minute read
Priscilla
@Priscilla -
over 2 years ago
Dido and Aeneas | History Today
Dido, founder and queen of Carthage, falls in love with the Trojan hero Aeneas and they conduct a passionate affair. Dido’s sister Anna is pleased by the coupling; she believes Aeneas and the warriors alongside him will increase the might of Carthage. Jupiter thinks other...continued
1 minute read
Marjory
@Marjory -
6 months ago
Christianity’s Bloody History in Japan
Early in 1638, Japan’s Tokugawa shogunate found itself mired in a combination of embarrassment and crisis. Requests were coming into its headquarters in Edo – present day Tokyo – for troops to lay siege to a castle on the coast of Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island....continued
1 minute read
Manley
@Manley -
over 3 years ago
Before Empire | History Today
The English East India Company’s settlement of Madras was gripped by a ‘spirit of ffactious madnesse’ in late 1652, which led to months of rioting and looting. The city’s two main castes – the Left and the Right Hand – strived for dominance over the cultural and commercia...continued
1 minute read
Grayce
@Grayce -
over 2 years ago
The Judgement of Paris | History Today
Zeus, king of the gods, threw a banquet to celebrate the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, the parents of Achilles. Eris, the goddess of discord, was not invited, for obvious reasons, but turned up anyway, hurling a golden apple into the assembly, inscribed with the words: ‘...continued
1 minute read
Myles
@Myles -
over 3 years ago
The Best Articles of 2020
Trust in ChangePeter MandlerHistorians and curators in heritage organisations, such as the National Trust, do not invent the past, they uncover it. Leading Ladies Annalisa NicholsonThe French tradition of the royal mistress gave new opportunities for women at the court ...continued
1 minute read
Marlon
@Marlon -
over 3 years ago
Why Study the Past? | History Today
History matters; that much we know. Evidence of its importance is all around us, in cinemas, bookshops, days of remembrance, political discourse and, as has been underlined recently, statues. But why does it matter? Here there is less consensus. Many different justificati...continued
1 minute read
Erik
@Erik -
6 months ago
The Beer Hall Putsch: What Hitler Learnt
On 8 November 1923, Adolf Hitler, leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, attempted to take control of the Bavarian state government. It was his movement’s first step towards seizing power and destroying the democratic Weimar Republic. But it did not go as ...continued
1 minute read
Wilmer
@Wilmer -
5 months ago
Volcanoes on Tour: Recreating Vesuvius
On YouTube, you can join the nearly 29 million viewers who have watched Zero One Animation’s dynamic reconstruction of the devastating eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79. The nine-minute-long video imagines the eruption’s various stages as seen from Pompeii, culminating in a t...continued
1 minute read
Hulda
@Hulda -
over 3 years ago
Contested Legacy of the Conquistadors
In the autumn of 1520 Hernán Cortés, the conqueror of Mexico, was busy asserting control over a strategic region of central Mexico dominated by a mountain-top fortress. He had recently captured it with the help of thousands of indigenous allies, after suffering a humiliat...continued
1 minute read
Abbie
@Abbie -
about 1 month ago
Challenging the ‘Ugliness’ of Anne of Cleves
When Henry VIII’s third wife, Jane Seymour, died after giving birth to the long-wished-for prince in 1537, Thomas Cromwell immediately began enquiries into the marriageable ladies of the French royal family. The rapidity of this search reflected the reality of the situati...continued
1 minute read
Jimmy
@Jimmy -
about 4 years ago
The History Today Podcast | History Today
In this new series, leading historians share insights and stories in conversation with Paul Lay, editor of History Today.These discussions will be interspersed with long reads: articles specially selected from the magazine for an eclectic, fascinating and informative mix....continued
1 minute read
Anderson
@Anderson -
4 months ago
Syphilis and Scurvy: Diagnosing Henry VIII
In his younger days Henry VIII was something of a heartthrob. He sang like a troubadour, wrestled (though unsuccessfully) with Francis I of France at the Field of Cloth of Gold and enjoyed vigorously dangerous jousts, hunting and falconry. Encountering Henry in his heyday...continued
1 minute read
Leda
@Leda -
2 months ago
The First Anglo-Burmese War | History Today
In March 1824 the first in a series of three conflicts between Britain and Burma broke out. At the outset of hostilities Burma was an independent state ruled from Amarapura by the Konbaung dynasty; by 1886, following the conclusion of a brief, three-week war (the ‘Third’)...continued
1 minute read
Grayce
@Grayce -
over 3 years ago
The Last Sikh Queen | History Today
John Newmarch, a British solicitor, published a letter in the week before Christmas 1848 in the widely read Calcutta newspaper, The Englishman. It contained a searing indictment of East India Company policy. He was addressing none other than the Company’s Governor-General...continued
1 minute read
Marlon
@Marlon -
over 2 years ago
The ‘Stans’ Turn 30 | History Today
A horde of whooping warriors hurtled through a craggy mountain pass and galloped down onto an enemy encampment on the plain below. With a thunder of hooves and a shower of arrows, the horsemen burst through the fortifications and, swinging their swords, hurled themselves ...continued
1 minute read
Rowan
@Rowan -
over 3 years ago
August Quiz
[unable to retrieve full-text content]August QuizHistory Today What was Roman Fever? When was the Black Panther party founded?Source: History Today Feed
1 minute read
Ericka
@Ericka -
6 months ago
The Flies, Fleas and Rotting Flesh of Medieval Monks
In December 1170, in the hours after the shocking murder of Thomas Becket, the monks of Canterbury Cathedral prepared his body for burial. While doing so, they made a surprising discovery: the archbishop, a former courtier who was not particularly known for his piety, was...continued
1 minute read
Cynthia
@Cynthia -
2 months ago
Putting Pirates on Trial | History Today
In mid-June 1725 the Weekly Journal or British Gazetteer published a list of noteworthy London deaths over the previous week: three drowned, one who fell from a cart, one killed with a sword, and a child ‘overlain’ – a co-sleeping accident. Unusually, someone was also ‘Pr...continued
1 minute read
Cameron
@Cameron -
2 months ago
The Golden Age of Medieval Nostalgia
‘In my day, the kingdom was as good and as full as an egg.’ So the late-14th-century knight Philippe de Mézières expressed his longing for the old days: ‘Things have changed a lot I feel’, he mourned, plaintively. It is an odd image, but a very recognisable sentiment; nos...continued
1 minute read
Elaina
@Elaina -
over 4 years ago
History Today Quiz: October
[unable to retrieve full-text content]History Today Quiz: OctoberHistory Today Who – or what – was Martha? What was founded by Octavia Hill in 1895?
1 minute read
Izaiah
@Izaiah -
over 4 years ago
History Today Quiz: November
[unable to retrieve full-text content]History Today Quiz: NovemberHistory Today Which presidents are depicted on Mount Rushmore? Who apologised for dying?
1 minute read
Zackery
@Zackery -
3 months ago
Sand War: The Cold War in North Africa
On 25 September 1963 Moroccan army units, numbering around a thousand men, crossed into Algeria and seized the two border posts of Hassi Beida and Tindjoub, escalating a crisis which had been simmering since Algerian independence in July 1962. In the following days both c...continued
1 minute read