We all know that the splendid knight Lohengrin was an invention. Created as a minor character for an epic poem written by Wolfram von Eschenbach, he entered as a mainstream hero by means of Richard Wagner's opera of the same name. If he was not a historical figure, what is this article doing on a history blog, you might ask. But there is a real history to tell about Lohengrin. It is all about Norway.
I like history. If it is sometimes weird and wonderful, so much the better.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Monday, September 16, 2013
The Town of Baden in Baden
The German town of Baden-Baden acquired its name officially in 1931 with a formal decision of the town's council.
Before that, it was simply called Baden and was the capital of the Grand Duchy of Baden until 1918. Baden was a bathing spa in
Roman times and was known as Aquae like Bath in England. Aquae in Latin and Bath in English have the same
meaning as Baden in German. How did Baden end up with the weird tautology of being called Baden-Baden?
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Livia, First Empress of Rome
Livia was the first First Lady of Rome. As the wife of Octavian Augustus, she was the first Empress of Rome. She was grossly vilified by Roman writer Tacitus roughly a hundred years after the event. Matthew Dennison came to her rescue with a book about her life. The biography was intended to rectify some entrenched myths even historians had a problem leaving behind.
Monday, August 26, 2013
The Knights Templar in Switzerland
According to Swiss history writing, the foundations for modern Switzerland date to 1291. The date being conveniently close to the dissolution of the Order of the Knights Templar many see a connection between the two in later developments. Did the Knights Templar bring their legendary treasure to Switzerland and made it as rich as it is?
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Cologne Cathedral: The Shrine of The Magi
The German city of Cologne on the Rhine houses one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Central Europe. In it, visitors will find one of the most extraordinary works of art in existence: The shrine of the three holy Magi. Shrine and cathedral draw thousands of worshipers as well as art lovers from all over the world.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
Royal Changelings
While discussing the possibilities and impossibilities of exchanging Royal offspring and heirs in times of turmoil is amusing, it doesn't bring you much further in search for the truth. What you accept as possible is your point of view and so called proofs usually are pretty flimsy. Looking at the usual suspects, though, might give you some new ideas as to whether it should or could have been done or not.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
City on the Language Divide: Fribourg
The city of Fribourg is located only 20 miles from Bern, but is today mainly French speaking though it started out as a German (or Alemannic) speaking city. It boasts the only Catholic University in Switzerland and has retained its medieval character throughout the city to this day. If you want to get a feeling for the lifestyle 600 years back, this is the place to visit.
Sunday, July 28, 2013
The Pirates of Barbary Coast
The Coast of Barbary extends from the Straits of Gibraltar to Tripoli. Barbary is derived from Barbarians, but in fact it shouldn't be applied to its inhabitants. The term describes the truly barbarian pirates operating from there who were for a greater part Europeans. 400 years ago, cruising in the Mediterranean Sea was not the ideal holiday destination.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Saint Helena, Empress of Rome
Flavia Iulia Helena is one of the few early saints that really existed. She must have been an energetic lady, and this into high age. She shared the Roman Emperors' penchant for building representative stone piles and went on a spending spree on churches. According to legend, she was the first archaeologists and an avid collector of assorted bric-a-brac.
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
How Many Monarchies Exist in Europe?
Looking for a good pub quiz question? This one might catch some people out. Europe has a surprising number of monarchies, ranging from the well known to the obscure. They cover the spectrum from constitutional monarch through power sharing to absolute ruler. The youngest monarchy was instituted in 1929 (and that's a clue).
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Lausanne, World Capital of Sports
The Swiss city of Lausanne is best known as the world’s Olympic capital; sometimes it is called the World Sports Capital as well because it houses both the International Olympic Committee as well as the CAS. But it is also a charming small town on Lake Geneva with a friendly population that makes you feel very much at home anytime you visit.
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Doors to The Otherworld
Besides many other jobs assigned to him by God, St Michael is the foremost door warden. As such, his churches and chapels may often be found on doorways to the Otherworld. Therefore, whenever you find some building dedicated to St Michael, it is worth while investigating its history. It might stand on one of the doorways to the Otherworld.
Sunday, July 7, 2013
The Invention of George Eliot
In a time when open adultery was officially frowned upon and perpetrators faced social stigma and exclusion, (unlike to today when it is everyday life to a senile Italian prime ministers, dwarfish French presidents, and the despicable classe politique in general) George Eliot was born. He was to become one of the most read, most mocked, and best earning writers of the 19th century. Oh yes, and he was a she.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
United Nations World Capital Geneva
Geneva is mostly seen as the seat of the United Nations and the International Red Cross. This is flattering, but it is also a very old city full of history with a unique international charm. At some time or another, it was capital to three kingdoms, home to a handful of saints and to many more less saintly. Situated on Lake Geneva (in French Lac Leman), it is a beautiful place to spend some days of a holiday.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
The Race For The First Flight Over The Channel
The first flight over the Channel was not a sedentary affair. It was a race. And there were no rules. Read a book that gives the wider view rather than the known story behind Louis Bleriot s first flight over the Channel. Barbara Walsh compiled the details on the life and career of Hubert Latham and many facts around the days leading up to the historic flight in 1909.
Monday, June 24, 2013
The Star Puzzle of Bethlehem
For years, astronomers have tried to puzzle out what made three astrologers travel from Persia to Israel at a certain date 2,000 years ago. Missing data, unclear sources, later additions and elisions, and religious bias make the job just more interesting. But are astronomers the right people to unravel an astrological puzzle?
Friday, June 21, 2013
Town of Embroidery: St Gallen
The Swiss city of St Gallen is linked with high quality embroideries used by leading fashion designers around the world. It is also a beautiful town with a long history and a picturesque historic city center. At its very center stands the magnificent monastery dedicated to St Gall with its baroque cathedral and UNESCO World Heritage library.
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Bruce Castle or Lordship House
Bruce Castle is a misnomer, a historical cheat. It is a manor house in Tottenham in London and was just plain Lordship House for most of its existence. Trying to live up to a grand name, it does have some history and even a resident ghost, as well as quite a few historical questions that need to be worked out.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Lost and Found, Britannic's Organ
The ocean liner Britannic was the latest Olympic class passenger ship built by the White Star Line and the sister ship of the Titanic. Being unfinished at the start of the Great War, the ship was drafted into service as a hospital ship and sunk in the Mediterranean Sea in 1916. An Organ was obviously not needed on a hospital ship and it disappeared from history in 1914 to surface in Switzerland in 2006.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Robert Koch: With System Against Disease
May 27, 2010, marked the 100th Anniversary of the death of Nobel Laureate Robert Koch. He discovered the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis and laid the ground-work for modern bacteriology and epidemic research. His true ambition, though, had been to become an explorer and world traveler like Alexander von Humboldt. Instead, he became an accomplished explorer in the world of the microscope.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Museum City: Basel
Basel is a cultural center with more than 60 museums. The city's special geographical situation bordering both Germany and France has brought forth peculiarities, such as three railway stations in the town center and a trinational airport. It is also a city steeped in legend, most of which is fervently believed by its inhabitants.
Friday, June 14, 2013
The Sex Workers of Georgian London
If the word ‘Georgian’ brings pictures of lofty buildings sporting large staircases and high ceilings to your mind, then it is time to look into the gutter of Georgian London. Observe the genteel people from Georgette Heyer's period novels in their time off the set meeting the people who never made it onto it.
Antoine De Saint Exupéry and The Lost Prince
60 years after his death, Antoine de Saint Exupéry, author of The Little Prince, solved the riddle of the lost Hereditary Prince Alexis at Bentheim and at Steinfurt by default. This is for once not a ghost story or a conspiracy theory. Instead it is the story of two fighter pilots lost in World War II that never met in real life.
Alexis Prince zu Bentheim and zu Steinfurt |
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Queen Edith of the Eastern Franks
When German archaeologists found Queen Edith’s remains in 2008, they were baffled and confounded. The remains had been found in a grave in Magdeburg's cathedral. Nobody had expected the find. True, documents mention her grave in the cathedral, and the grave had been a prominent one marked with her name. Then why the confusion?
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Prince and People of Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is sandwiched between Austria and Switzerland. It is a hereditary principality with political powers shared equally between the elected parliament and the prince. Nobody knows what happens if ever they should agree to disagree because there is no proviso for a resolution process. The prince is also head of state.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Saturday, May 25, 2013
French Princess or Changeling: The Sister of Louis XVII
Princess Marie-Thérèse of France was born the only legitimate daughter of King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. Together with her parents and her brother Louis XVII, she was imprisoned by the republicans in the Temple. Her illegitimate half-sister Ernestine wasn't imprisoned with them, though, and added another unsolvable puzzle to the French Revolution.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
Christina, the Female King of Sweden
Christina of Sweden was five when her father King Gustav II Adolf fell in the battle of Lützen. Upon his death, her mother Queen Maria Eleonora was put under house arrest and exiled to castle Gripshom. On the express wish of the king, Christina was raised and trained as a prince and not a princess. At 16, she declined to co-rule with a regency council; instead she took full control at 18 when coming of age.
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Bern: Seat of The Swiss Federal Government
Bern (or Berne, or Berna) is usually referred to as the capital of Switzerland, which it isn't. The first mistake lies in calling the Confoederatio Helvetica Switzerland; Switzerland doesn't exist. And of the Helvetian Confederation, it is the seat of the Federal Government and as such is quite simply called Federal City and never capital. The Swiss constitution shuns the term capital. Bern's history goes back quite a long way before all that happened, and part of that history allows you to go shopping in town on a rainy day without getting wet.
Saturday, May 4, 2013
The First Family of Science: The Piccard Scientists
'The First Family of Science' was a sentence coined for the Piccard family which has produced an unbroken line of explorers and scientists over four generations. The latest scion is Bertrand Piccard, the man who surrounded the globe in a hot air balloon. And now we are all waiting for him to do the same with the first aircraft powered by solar power only: Solar Impulse.
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
St. George's Day: April 23
April 23rd is St. George’s Day; it’s the nearest England gets to a national celebration. Unbelievably, this national day is a cause for contention instead of a big party. The St. George’s cross has been the national emblem of England for so long, it should be part of everyone’s heritage. Instead, we have the unspeakable Union flag (what everybody used to call Union Jack, but seemingly some brain and nameless git decided this is not politically correct).
Good Queen Berta in Switzerland
Queen Berta of Burgundy, formerly Princess of Swabia, Queen of Upper Burgundy, Queen of Italy, and Empress of Rome, was buried in Payerne, a small town in today's Republic and Canton of Jura, Switzerland. She was first revered as a saint there, but her story started to grow as time went by. Soon she was known as Good Queen Berta. Still later, she acquired the name Queen Berta the Spinner. Even later, she would become godmother to a newly established republican state. And her story lives on today.
Friday, April 19, 2013
Bulla Aurea: The Golden Bull
The Golden Bull of Rimini was a document issued by Emperor Frederick II of the Holy Roman Empire on behalf of the Teutonic Knights. It ceded land to them which didn't belong to Frederick's Empire in the first place in return for the conquest of the same land and the conversion of its pagan population to Christianity.
Friday, April 12, 2013
Did Louis XVII of France Have Children?
Louis XVII would have been King of France after the beheading of his father Louis XVI but for the fact that France was a republic at the time. He died while imprisoned in Paris; or maybe he didn't. The case is puzzling to this day, and conflicting evidence is offered from likely or unlikely sources.
Saturday, April 6, 2013
San Marino: The World's Oldest Republic
San Marino is the oldest existing Republic in the world. This is not just some boast, but historical fact. The beginnings of San Marino, as befits any good story, are shrouded in legend, putting the founding of the city into the hands of a saint, St Marinus. Like most of the early and many of the later Catholic saints, he is mythical but features a nice story.
Monday, April 1, 2013
All at Sea With Nelson
Jack Tar: Life in Nelson's Navy by Roy and Lesley Adkins was published by Little, Brown. The book tells of the ruthless conscription drives leading to the victories of Nelson's navy in the Napoleonic Wars. Getting men on board and describing the shocking living conditions there, it also unveils the startling truth about women on board.
Friday, March 29, 2013
When One Prince is Not Enough: Andorra
Among the dwarf states of Europe, the Principality of Andorra is the largest. Until quite recently, it was an absolute monarchy. It was governed not by one, but two princes, and both are not citizens of Andorra. They don't even live in Andorra. To make the case even more curious, it is not a hereditary monarchy.
The White Sex Slaves of 1874
Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was married to Princess Charlotte of the United Kingdom. Charlotte would have been Queen instead of Victoria, had she not died in child-bed. His time spent in England might explain the German Prince's predilection for all things British. Once he was crowned King of the Belgians, Leopold ran a £800 a month account with a London madam to supply him with medically certified virgins.
Thursday, March 28, 2013
Easter Eggs, Taxes, and Tithes
These days, Easter eggs are painted by children and adults alike in a variety of colors and with an array of symbols and pictures. Painting eggs as a custom has been documented to reach back over several thousand years. The colors and symbols used in painting eggs held special meanings and were often part of rituals. Those meanings changed and adapted over time depending on which culture and which religion people belonged to that were painting eggs.
The President's Slaves
At a time when the first Afro-American President resides at the White House, Annette Gordon-Reed’s The Hemingses Of Monticello: An American Family published by Norton is a timely reminder. Presidents of the United States of America used to own slaves. This book covers the story of the 'second' family of a historic president residing in pomp at Monticello.
Assassinate Hitler: Maurice Bavaud
On November 9th, 2008, it was 70 years since Maurice Bavaud tried to assassinate Adolf Hitler in Munich. After prolonged torture, he was murdered by the Nazis on May 14th, 1941, after ‘legal’ proceedings followed by a sentence to death on the guillotine. He was officially rehabilitated by Germany in 1956.
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
King Solomon Turning Copper Into Gold
As archaeologists dug deeper in the modern kingdom of Jordan, more light was shed on the historical times of King Solomon and the historic kingdom of Israel. By proving a mine found 40 years ago to date back to the 10th century B.C., they theorized that they had constituted a probable contribution to Solomon’s filled treasuries.
Queens Consort of England
Lisa
Hilton wrote Queens Consort, published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. The
medieval lives of England’s Queens are presented in a well researched book. As
a bonus, it’s a darn good read as well. The book dispels any notions of powerless damsels in distress and reveals the female power-brokers behind the throne.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
The Prince, The Princess, And The Perfect Murder
If you think that wanting to marry serial divorcee Wallis Simpson was the only blunder of King Edward VIII, then here is a book to make you think again. It is also a book for all conspiracy theorists, because this conspiracy is well enough documented to hold water. It was a conspiracy to keep the promiscuous and rather stupid Crown Prince of the United Kingdom David Prince of Wales out of a sordid murder trial. The price that had to be paid was the freedom of a murderess and princess. The Prince, The Princess, And The Perfect Murder by Andrew Rose is published by Coronet.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)