King William IV of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as the King of Hanover, was born the third son of King George III and Queen Charlotte just before dawn on 21 August 1765 at Buckingham House. He only came to the throne due to the deaths of his second oldest brother,… Read more The Last Georgian King
On 19 August 1953 the democratically elected leader of Iran, Mohammad Mosaddegh, who was a modernizing and secular leader committed to Iranian nationalism and preventing Iran from become a theocracy, was overthrown by a British and CIA backed military coup that replaced him with the Shah Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, a totalitarian king. The pertinent… Read more The Iranian Coup of 1953
The Battle of Sampford Courtenay, the fifth and final battle of the Prayer Book Rebellion, took place on 17 August 1549. Centered in Devon and Cornwall, the Prayer Book Rebellion was spurred by the Catholic and West Country dislike of the new Anglican Book of Common Prayer they were forced to adopt. Archbishop Cranmer’s liturgical… Read more The Last Battle of the Prayer Book Rebellion
Philippa of Clarence, the only legitimate child of Lionel of Antwerp and his wife Elizabeth de Burgh, 4th Countess of Ulster, was born on 13 August 1355. She was the maternal ancestress that gave the Yorks their claim to the English throne, and the unsuspecting progenitor of the Wars of the Roses. Lionel of Antwerp… Read more Philippa of Clarence
The Insurrection of 10 August 1792 was one of the most pivotal moments of the French Revolution. Irate and antimonarchial Frenchmen, including members of the National Guard of the Paris Commune and the fédérés from Marseille and Brittany, attacked Tuileries Palace and arrested King Louis XVI of France. This scared the bejeezus out of the… Read more The French Revolution and English Culture
People tend to think of activism, protests, and boycotts as a modern (i.e started with hippies in the 60’s) phenomena, but they aren’t. Political and social activists have been protesting/rioting and boycotting goods to ‘vote with their money’ for hundreds of years. One of the biggest products to be boycotted from the mid 18th century… Read more Regency Activism and Boycotting Sugar