lizzietudor

[lizzietudor]

KICKASS WOMEN IN HISTORY : [3/5] HATSHEPSUT

Hatshepsut was one of the most powerful women in the ancient world. She was the fifth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt and she ruled longer than any other woman in Egyptian history. Hatshepsut was married to her sickly half brother, Thutmose II, and the two of them began to co-rule after the death of their father, Thutmose I, in 1492 BC In 1479 BC, Thutmose II died and Hatshepsut continued to rule by herself until her own death in 1458 BC. It is believed by many Egyptologists and historians that Hatshepsut was one of Ancient Egypt’s most successful monarchs. She commissioned many building projects and reestablished trade networks that had been disrupted by the Hyksos invaders of the Second Intermediate Period. Hatshepsut also led a large-scale expedition to the Land of Punt, a wealthy and sophisticated country to the south of Egypt. Hatshepsut is also believed to have led successful military campaigns in Nubia, the Levant, and Syria during her reign.

[lizzietudor]

HISTORY MEME | 1/10 moments: Jadwiga is Crowned King of Poland.

The coronation ceremony that took place in the Wawel Cathedral in Krakow on 16 October 1384 was truly a splendid event: Polish nobles spared no expenses and the grandeur of the coronation impressed everyone present. But the historical significance was even greater. For one thing, the young girl who was being crowned (only 11 years old at the time) was to go down in history as one of Poland’s greatest and most beloved Monarchs. And for another, the aforementioned lady was crowned not as Queen of Poland (as would be expected considering her gender) but as King.

There is no humorous tale of a mix-up: the decision was made for quite practical reasons. Polish law was very specific that the ruler had to be King – but it did not state the King had to be a male. And so instead of re-writing the law and to emphasise the fact Jadwiga was a ruler in her own right, it was decided she should be crowned as Hedvig Rex Poloniæ (Hedwig, King of Poland) and not Hedvig Regina Poloniæ (Hedwig, Queen of Poland).

[lizzietudor]

My blood alone remains: take it, please. But do not make me suffer long.

[lizzietudor]

ANCIENT HISTORY MEME - 1/10 Events in the Ancient World

“Ashes were already falling, not as yet very thickly. I looked round: a dense black cloud was coming up behind us, spreading over the earth like a flood.’Let us leave the road while we can still see,’I said,’or we shall be knocked down and trampled underfoot in the dark by the crowd behind.’We had scarcely sat down to rest when darkness fell, not the dark of a moonless or cloudy night, but as if the lamp had been put out in a closed room.”

           ~ Pliny the Younger, eye-witness account of the Destruction of                       Pompeii addressed in a letter to Tacitus.

[lizzietudor]

[lizzietudor]

and I have a lion’s heart

[lizzietudor]

THE LAST IMPERIAL FAMILY: The Romanovs ( insp. )

[lizzietudor]

29th of September 1464 - Elizabeth Woodville is formally introduced to the royal council and acknowledged as Queen of England at Reading

Elizabeth was formally introduced to the court on Michaelmas Day, when the Duke of Clarence and the Earl of Warwick escorted her into the chapel of Reading Abbey. There she was ‘openly honoured as queen by all the lords and all the people’, although Warwick’s close associate, John Lord Wenlock, probably expressed the feelings of many when he wrote ‘we must be patient despite ourselves’.

The idea of a young, handsome king marrying for love on Mayday may have been borrowed from romantic tradition and Edward, who was constantly attended by courtiers and had virtually no privacy, would have found it difficult to meet his bride secretly over a period of almost five months… But if some of the details of the tradition are speculative, it is clear that there was little time between the proposal and the marriage, and that Elizabeth was surprised by the speed of events… many contemporaries would probably have agreed with Charles Ross that it was the ‘the impulsive love match of an impetuous young man’.

From David Baldwin’s Elizabeth Woodville: Mother of the Princes in the Tower

[lizzietudor]

    Anne of Austria was born on 22 September 1601 at Benavente Palace in Valladolid, Spain, and baptised Ana María Mauricia, she was the eldest daughter of King Philip III of Spain and his wife Margaret of Austria. She held the titles of Infanta of Spain and of Portugal and Archduchess of Austria. In spite of her birth in Spain, she was referred to as Anne of Austria because the rulers of Spain belonged to the House of Austria.

Anne was raised mainly at the Royal Alcazar of Madrid. Exceptionally for a royal princess, Anne grew up close to her parents, who were very religious. She was raised to be religious too, and was often taken to visit monasteries during her childhood. In 1611, she lost her mother, who died in childbirth. Despite her grief, Anne did her best to take care of her younger siblings, who referred to her with affection as their mother.

[lizzietudor]

The Royal Family from 1066 until today (very quickly ;D)

[lizzietudor]

the last words of Louis XIV, the Sun King, who died of gangrene on September 1, 1715

[lizzietudor]

ALFRED THE GREAT //  ÆLFRED OF WESSEX

born in 849 to Æthelwulf (King of Wessex) and Osburh (the first wife of Æthelwulf). He became King of Wessex on April 23rd, 871 shortly after his brother Æthelred died. As king, Alfred the Great defended his kingdom from the Vikings that attempted to take over Wessex and by the time of his death, he was the dominant ruler of England. Alfred is one of the only two English monarchs who were given the epithet “the Great” (which was given by writers in the sixteenth century) and he was the first to style himself as “King of the Anglo-Saxons.” 

Alfred is said to have been a devout Christian and a pious leader. He promoted English rather than Latin so that the translations he had commissioned would be viewed as untainted by late Roman Catholics with influences from the Normans. Alfred was described as a learned and merciful man with a gracious and level-headed nature. He also encouraged education in his kingdom, as well as improving the legal system, military structure and the quality of his people’s lives. 

While his biographer was Bishop Asser (who Alfred commissioned) did emphasize the more positive aspects and didn’t dwell on any of the ruthlessness that any King during that time would have, later historians also reinforced his favorable image. In 1441, Henry VI attempted to have Alfred the Great canonized as a saint. The attempt failed but some Catholics do regard him as a saint, the Anglican Communion regards him as a Christian hero (with a feast day on October 26th). And he his often found depicted in the stained glasses in Church of England parish churches. 

Throughout his life, Alfred the Great suffered through a painful illness. And while his death, which occurred on October 26th, 899 was due to unknown causes, his illness may very well have been the cause. Due to the detailed account in Bishop Asser’s biography of the late King, many modern doctors have given possible diagnoses. It’s mostly believed that he suffered from Crohn’s disease (a type of inflammatory bowel disease) or haemorrhoidal disease (Hemorrhoids). 

Alfred the Great was originally (but temporarily) buried in the Old Minster in Winchester. Four years after his death, he moved to the New Minster (which may have been built for him). When the New Minster moved to Hyde in 1100, the monks and Alfred’s body (and those presumably of his wife and children) were transferred to Hyde Abbey.  During Henry VIII’s reign, in 1539 the church was demolished (but the graves were left intact). In 1788, while a prison was being constructed by convicts, the graves were probably rediscovered. Coffins were stripped of lead and the bones were scattered and/or lost. The prison was then demolished between 1846 and 1850. And excavations in 1866 and 1897 were inconclusive. In 1866, an amateur antiquarian named John Mellor recovered somes from the site and claimed they were King Alfred’s. They then went to a vicar of the nearby St. Bartholomew’s Church and were buried in an unmarked grave. In 1999, an archaeological excavation uncovered a second pit in front of where the high alter would have been. The dig uncovered foundations of the abbey buildings and some bones (which at the time suggested they were Alfred but were later proved to belong to an elderly woman). 

In 2013, the Diocese of Winchester exhumed the bones from the unmarked grave at St. Bartholomew’s and put them in a secure storage. They were radiocarbon dated which told them that the bones were from the 1300′s, meaning they aren’t Alfred’s. However, in January 2014, a fragment of a pelvis bone from the 1999 dig was also radiocarbon dated and has been suggested that it either belongs to Alfred or his son Edward the Elder. But it still remains unproven. 

[lizzietudor]

and I have a lion’s heart

[lizzietudor]

AMERICA’S FIRST SERIAL KILLER // H. H. Holmes (Herman Webster Mudgett);

born in Gilmanton, New Hampshire, Holmes was the third child to two devout Methodist parents. Holmes excelled in school which often made him the target of ridicule. When he was still young, he had a fear of doctors, which when the bullies found out, they decided to force him to stand face to face with a human skeleton and even put the skeleton’s hands on his face. After that, Holmes was cured of his fear and became fascinated with death and even picked up dissecting animals as a hobby. His fascination didn’t end there, in 1882, he enrolled in the  University of Michigan's Department of Medicine and Surgery. During his time as a student, he would steal cadavers from the lab, disfigure the bodies and then claim they were victims of an accidental killing in order to collect insurance money from policies that he took out on the deceased. It was around then he abandoned his wife and son. He also changed his name to Holmes, possibly to avoid previous scams from catching up with him. 

In 1887, he married Myrta Belknap in Minneapolis, Minnesota while still married to his previous wife Clara (since 1878). He fathered a daughter with Myrtha in Englewood, Illinois. Holmes, his second wife and his daughter lived in Wilmette, Illinois together but he spent most of his time in Chicago, tending to business. In 1894, Holmes married Georgiana Toke in Denver, Colorado while still married to both Clara and Myrta. He also was reported to have a relationship with Julie Smythe, wife of on of his former employees and one of his future victims. 

In 1886, Holmes began working in a drug store in Chicago. After the owner of the drugstore died, Holmes offered to buy the store from his former boss’s wife, she agreed and sold it to him. He also purchased a lot across the street and began work on the three story, block long World’s Fair Hotel which was nicknamed The Castle (and then later, The Murder Castle). The hotel was opened to be used as an inn for the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893. The ground floor contained Holmes’ relocated drug store and various other shops while the second and third floor was a maze of windowless rooms, stairs leading to nowhere and doors that opened to brick walls. The true intent of the Castle was for murder. In order to keep anyone knowing the full floor plans, Holmes constantly fired contractors and hired new ones; letting them each only build a small part of the hotel. At the time of the opening, Holmes made all of his employees sign up for life insurance, he paid their premiums and in return, he was listed as beneficiary. His victims were mostly female employees, hotel guests and lovers.

There were a variety of torture rooms in the hotel; some were lynching rooms, some had iron walls with blow torches installed to incinerate his victims, some had gas leaking in them to  asphyxiate his victims at any time. The victims bodies were then dropped down a chute to the basement where some were stripped down and made into skeleton models and then sold to medical schools.

Eventually he left Chicago, reappearing in Fort Worth, Texas, where he began to create another murder castle, only to give up halfway through. But in 1894, Holmes was briefly arrested for a horse swindle. While in jail, he struck up a conversation with a convicted train robber about his plans to fake his own death to collect insurance money. The train robber directed Holmes to a trustworthy lawyer sot hat the plan could be carried out in exchange for $500. But ultimately it failed when the insurance company became suspicious and refused to pay. Instead of pressing the claim, Holmes came up with a new, similar idea. This time he would fake the death of his criminal friend, Benjamin Pitezel. Pitezel agreed to fake his death so his wife could collect $10,000 in life insurance, which would then be split between him, Holmes and the lawyer. Pitezel was supposed to get a life insurance policy under the name of B. F. Perry, an inventor. And then he was supposed to “die” in a lab explosion. Holmes’ job was to find a body that could pass as Pitezel’s. Instead, Holmes killed Pitezel by knocking him out with chloroform and then setting his body on fire. After which, Holmes convinced Pitezel’s unsuspecting wife to give him custody of three of their children (all of which he would later kill).

The downfall of Holmes came when the train robber tipped off police about Holmes because he never received his payment. His murder spree ended in Boston on Nov.17, 1894. It was around that when a former janitor of the Castle told police how he was never allowed to clean the second floor, which led to an investigation of the hotel. They uncovered Holmes’ torture rooms, a pile of human bones, a dissection table covered in dry bloods, balls of women’s hair, women’s bloody clothing, and lime pits of skeleton remains of his victims. Holmes’ victims count is anywhere between 20 to 200. He first confessed to 100 killings but later changed it to 27 for unknown reasons. Though he also claimed he was innocent at one point and then later claimed that he was possessed by Satan. However, the eventual finding of the three murdered Pitezel children were what sealed Holmes’ fate. 

On May 7, 1896, H. H. Holmes was hanged at Moyamensing Prison for the murder of Benjamin Pitezel. Up until his death, he remained calm and amiable and showed very little signs of having any fear, anxiety or depression. However, he did ask that his coffin be contained in cement and buried 10 feet deep because he was concerned that grave robbers would steal his body and dissect him. Holmes’ death was not an easy one. His neck did not snap and instead he slowly strangled to death for 15 minutes. He wasn’t pronounced dead until 20 minutes after the trap had been sprung. 

In August 1895, the Murder Castle was mysteriously burned down to the ground. Some believe it was to cover up any remaining evidence that had yet been found by police while others believed it was outraged citizens wanting to rid their city of the horrible place and keep it from becoming a tourist attraction. The site is currently the Englewood Branch of the United States Postal Services. 

[lizzietudor]

That I’m pitiless, dangerous, such terrible things they say.

[lizzietudor]

Joan of Kent’s seal, attached to an indenture from 20 April 1380 made between Joan, Princess of Wales, and Richard de Walkington and others of the town of Beverley. The deed was signed at Missenden. This is the only surviving seal of Joan’s. It is circular and two inches in diameter. Around the border edge are the words, in Latin, ‘Joan, Princess of [obscured but probably Aquitaine], Wales, Duchess of Cornwall and Countess of Cheshire and Kent’. The round, ornamental inside panel surrounds a shield with France and England quarterly, a label of three points for Prince Edward, and a bordure for Edmund, Earl of Kent (her father). The letters around the shield are I, E and P. (x)

[lizzietudor]

history meme | four out of ten moments

↳ Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (19 April 1943 - 16 May 1943)

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising that occurred in the Warsaw Ghetto, the largest ghetto in German occupied Poland, in 1943 was the single largest Jewish revolt during World War II.

On 18 January 1943, the German forces began the second deportation of the Jewish in the Warsaw Ghetto. While families hid in “bunkers”, fighters of the ŻZW joined with the ŻOB and engaged the Germans in direct clashes. 5,000 instead of the targeted 8,000 were deported.

Hundreds were ready to fight. Both adults and children were armed with handguns, gasoline bottles, and few other weapons that had been smuggled into the ghetto by resistance fighters. Most of the fighters were not fighting to save themselves but instead they saw fighting as a battle to retain the honor of the Jewish people and to protest the world’s silence.

The ŻZW and the ŻOB took control of the ghetto soon after the fighting that occurred on 18 January. They built fighting posts and built prisons to hold and execute traitors and Nazi collaborators (including Jewish Police officers, member of the fake [German sponsored] resistance organization Żagiew, and Gestapo & Abwehr agents).

On 19 April 1943 — the eve of Passover — police and SS forces entered the Warsaw Ghetto, planning to complete the deportation of the Jewish inhabitants in three days, but were ambushed by Jewish guerrillas who fired and tossed Molotov cocktails and hand grenades from alleyways, sewers, and windows. Two vehicles were set aflame by insurgent petrol bombs. That afternoon, two boys took to the rooftops and raised two flags — A red and white Polish flag and a blue and white ŻZW flag. The flags remained on the rooftop for three days. The flags reminded hundreds of thousands of not only the Jewish cause but the cause and strength of the Polish.

As the battle continued in the ghetto, the Polish insurgent groups AK and GL engaged the Germans at six different locations outside of the ghetto walls between the 19 and 23 April. In one attack, three units of the AK joined up in a failed attempt to breech the ghetto wall with explosives. The ŻZW eventually lost all of it’s commanders and, on 29 April, the fighters of the organization escaped the ghetto through the Muranowski tunnel and relocated to the Michalin forest. This marked the end of the significant fighting.

On 8 May, the Germans discovered a large dugout at Miła 18 Street which served as a ŻZW command post. Most of the remaining leadership and dozens others committed mass suicide by ingesting cyanide. Deputy Mark Edelman escaped the ghetto with comrades through the sewers two days later. On 10 May exiled member of the Polish government, Szmul Zygielbojm, committed suicide in protest of lack of reaction from the Allied governments.

The uprising was officially suppressed on 16 May 1943 when the Great Synagogue of Warsaw was demolished.

It is estimated that 13,000 Jews were killed during the uprising and most of the remaining 50,000 inhabitants of the ghetto were sent to concentration and extermination camps. Only 17 Germans deaths were recorded, although it is suspected their are much more.