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
James Barry, famous for being the first doctor in British history to keep both mother and baby alive after a cesarean-section, was actually a woman disguising herself as a man in order to practice medicine. Barry was born Margaret Ann Bulkley in late 18th century Ireland, and with the help of some progressive friends —… Read more James Barry, Nee Margaret Ann Bulkley
Happy Birthday to Georgiana Spencer Cavendish, the 5th Duchess of Devonshire! She was born on 7 June 1757, the eldest child of John Spencer (who would later become 1st Earl Spencer) and Georgiana Poyntz. As a girl she was affectionately called “Little Gee” by her family, and she was an indirect ancestress of Lady Diana Spencer’s. During their… Read more Georgiana Cavendish, an Amazing Woman
Georg Ludwig, future King George I of England, came into the world on 28 May 1660 in Hanover, the eldest son of Duke Ernest Augustus of Brunswick-Lüneburg and his wife, Sophia of the Palatinate, who was the Protestant the granddaughter of King James I of England through her mother, Elizabeth of Bohemia. No one thought of baby George as a possible… Read more King George I
Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom for 1809-1812, was a nice man. He was a sincerely devout Anglican, loved his wife and his 13 children, wasn’t a greedy monster who sold his soul for lucre, and although he was a Tory who didn’t support Catholic emancipation and reform of Parliament, he was a… Read more The Assassination of Spencer Perceval
Louis-Nicolas Davoust was born into a noble Burgundian family on 10 May 1788, and would become one of Napoleon Bonaparte‘s greatest generals and France’s most devoted Minister of War and Marshal of the Empire. In spite of his illustrious birth, Davoust was anything but a royalist. He loved the French Republic every bit as much… Read more Louis-Nicolas Davoust, Napoleon’s Man’ O War
On 9 May 1726, five men were hanged at Tyburn for the crime of having committed homosexual sex acts, which became punishable by death in Henry VIII’s reign (under the Buggery Act 1533) and would remain a capital offence until 1828. The men had been some of the 40 individuals arrested during a raid on Mother… Read more Murdering Mollies
Arthur Wellesley, future 1st Duke of Wellington, was born on 1 May 1769 in Dublin, Ireland, the fourth son of Anglo-Irish Protestant aristocrat Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, and the Hon. Anne Hill-Trevor, eldest daughter the 1st Viscount Dungannon. Until he became a military man, Wellington was bone idle. His mother despaired when he… Read more The Duke of Wellington
Want to avoid bringing debts into your new marriage? Well, there was a way to shift them away … During the 18th and 19th centuries many people in the UK thought (without any legal basis whatsoever) that if a woman got married in her shift (or smock) rather than a gown then any premarital debts… Read more The Shift Marriage
French Admiral Pierre-Charles-Jean-Baptiste-Silvestre de Villeneuve committed “suicide” on 22 April 1806 by stabbing himself in the right lung six times and once through the heart. Villeneuve was in command of the French and the Spanish fleets that were defeated by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, but his early career had been marked by victories.… Read more Suicide by Seven Stab Wounds