historia est vitae magistra

Everyone wants to end up in the history books. Will you? apply ⦁ creations ⦁ message tracking #historynetwork

[saintdanica]

Alas! that my body, clean and whole, never been corrupted, today must be consumed and burnt to ashes! — God forgive us: we have burned a saint.

[glorianas]

“But for her sex she could have surpassed all the heroes of history.”

—Thomas Cromwell

[rosemaryhhoyt-deactivated201912]

“ ― Father asks to…Remember that the evil which is now in the world will become stronger yet and that it is not evil which conquers evil, but love.”

Happy heavenly 124th birthday to Grand Duchess Olga, the eldest daughter of Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra, the beloved sister to Tatiana, Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei.

[lupevensies-deactivated20210104]

mais je n'avais pas voulu non plus qu'un enfant qui m'aimait mourût à vingt ans. — but i had not desired, either, that a boy who loved me should die in his twentieth year.

Marguerite Yourcenar, Mémoires d’Hadrien.

[thedaughtersofthetsar]

Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia with Princess Victoria of the United Kingdom in 1908

[laurensgraham]

hürrem sultan, haseki sultan of the ottoman empire

“there has not been in the Ottoman house a lady that has had more authority.”

[juliacaesaris-deactivated202109]

Dearest, deeply loved Victoria, I need not tell you that since we left, all my thoughts have been with you at Windsor, and that your image fills my whole soul. Even in my dreams I never imagined that I should find so much love on earth. How that moment shines for me when I was close to you, with your hand in mine. Those days flew by so quickly, but our separation will fly equally so. Heaven has sent me an angel whose brightness shall illumine my life. Body and soul ever your slave, Albert

Letter from Prince Albert to Queen Victoria, dated 15 November - a month after their engagement on 15 October 1839.

[annesidora]

7 February - Birth of Empress Matilda

Matilda was born to Henry I, King of England and Duke of Normandy, and his first wife, Matilda of Scotland, possibly around 7 February 1102 at Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire. Henry was the youngest son of William the Conqueror, who had invaded England in 1066, creating an empire stretching into Wales. The invasion had created an Anglo-Norman elite, many with estates spread across both sides of the English Channel. These barons typically had close links to the kingdom of France, which was then a loose collection of counties and smaller polities, under only the minimal control of the king. Her mother Matilda was the daughter of King Malcolm III of Scotland, a member of the West Saxon royal family, and a descendant of Alfred the Great. For Henry, marrying Matilda of Scotland had given his reign increased legitimacy, and for her it had been an opportunity for high status and power in England.

[effulgentpoet]

history aesthetics

MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS 

Mary, Queen of Scots, the only surviving legitimate child of King James V of Scotland, was six days old when her father died and she acceded to the throne. She spent most of her childhood in France while Scotland was ruled by regents, and in 1558, she married the Dauphin of France, Francis. Mary was queen consort of France from his accession in 1559 until his death in December 1560. Widowed, Mary returned to Scotland. Four years later, she married her half-cousin, Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, and in June 1566 they had a son, James. In February 1567, Darnley was found murdered. James Hepburn, 4th Earl of Bothwell, was generally believed to have orchestrated Darnley’s death, but he was acquitted of the charge in April 1567, and the following month he married Mary. Following an uprising against the couple, Mary was forced to abdicate in favour of her one-year-old son. After an unsuccessful attempt to regain the throne, she fled southward seeking the protection of her first cousin once removed, Queen Elizabeth I of England. Elizabeth had her confined in England. After eighteen and a half years in custody, Mary was beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle in 1586.

[scotlandsladies]

The Ladies ♕ Queen Consorts [17/25] ↳ Mary of Guelders (c.1434 -1463), Queen Consort from 1449 to 1460

Mary was born sometime in 1434 to Arnold, Duke of Guelders and Catherine of Cleves. She was a great-niece of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy and spent many of her adolescent years at the Burgundian court; there she was educated and greatly influenced by Philip’s third wife, Isabella of Portugal. After a failed marriage negotiation with France, Philip and Isabella, negotiated and helped pay for her Scottish marriage to James II, King of Scots. It was mid-June, when she landed in Scotland and both nobles and the common people came to see her as she made her way to the capital. On 3 July 1449, the fifteen-year-old Mary married the nineteen-year-old James, at Holyrood Abbey in Edinburgh. Promptly after the marriage ceremony, James’ spouse was dressed in purple robes and crowned queen. James gifted Mary several presents, of which included several castles and the income of many lands making her independently wealthy. The couple had seven children together, two of which died in infancy. In May 1454, she was present at the victorious siege of Blackness Castle, James gave the castle to Mary as a gift. The queen made many donations to charity and to religion; she founded a hospital outside Edinburgh for the poverty-stricken and benefited the Franciscan friars in Scotland. On 3 August 1460, King James was accidentally killed by a cannon explosion and Mary acted as regent for their nine-year-old son James III. Before his death, James had been involved in the planning of a new castle, Ravenscraig Castle, as a home for his queen. Sometime in 1460, Mary began the construction of the castle as a memorial to her husband and as a dower house. In 1461, Mary willingly gave shelter in Scotland to Margaret of Anjou and her son Edward of Westminster, when they fled from England during the Wars of the Roses. She aided the deposed queen further, by giving her Scottish troops to help the Lancastrian cause. The women grew a companionship and had arranged a preliminary betrothal between their children. When Mary’s uncle Philip, Duke of Burgundy struck up an alliance with the new king of England, Edward IV, Mary’s support for Margaret began to threaten this alliance. Edward proposed marriage to Mary, but she rejected. After Philip was able to coerce Mary to call off the betrothal of her daughter and Margaret’s son, her relationship with Margaret became strained. In 1462, Mary paid the Lancastrian royals to leave Scotland and peace was made with the York King. She even hinted at the prospect of marriage between herself and Edward IV, curiously it never happened. The former queen never remarried, but she reportedly had several affairs when she was regent, notably one with Patrick Hepburn, 1st Lord Hailes. On 1 December 1463, Mary of Guelders died at the unfinished Ravenscraig Castle, from severe sickness, at the age of thirty. She was buried in Trinity College Kirk in Edinburgh, which she founded. In 1848, despite a formal protest, the church was demolished to allow for the construction of the Waverley Railroad Station. At that time, Mary’s remains were relocated to Holyrood Abbey.

[juliacaesaris-deactivated202109]

ancient history meme | women 4/9

Fulvia, in Roman history, the wife of Mark Antony, and a participant in the struggle for power following the death of Julius Caesar.

Fulvia was the daughter of Marcus Fulvius Bambalio of Tusculum. She was first married to the demagogic politician Publius Clodius Pulcher. Their daughter Claudia was subsequently the wife of Octavian (the future Augustus). In 52 BC Clodius was murdered by a political rival, Milo; his body was carried to Rome and placed in the atrium of his house, where Fulvia made a show of her grief and displayed her husband’s wounds to the people in order to inflame them against Milo and his party. The result was a brief period of public disorder and the temporary banishment of Milo.

Fulvia next married Caius Scribonius Curio, who died in Africa in 49 BC, and in 44 she married Mark Antony. She apparently was deeply in love with him and had great ambition for him. During the proscriptions of 43 BC—from which she enriched herself—Fulvia was reported to have viewed with pleasure the heads of Rufus and Cicero, Antony’s victims.

After Antony and Octavian had deprived Lepidus of his place in the triumvirate and Antony was living with Cleopatra, Fulvia conspired with Antony’s brother, Lucius Antonius, against Octavian, who was given the unpopular task of taking land from Italians to give to Caesar’s veterans. Perhaps out of jealousy, wanting to force Antony’s return to Italy, Fulvia induced Lucius Antonius to rebel against Octavian. Coinage shows that, at least initially, Antony knew and approved of her actions, even if he later repudiated them. During the winter of 41–40 BC, Lucius Antonius was besieged in Perusia (present-day Perugia) and starved into surrender. Octavian’s propaganda, confirmed by surviving sling bullets with abusive comments on them, blamed the problems on Fulvia. Perusia was sacked, but Lucius Antonius was spared and given a command in Spain (where he died), while Fulvia was allowed to escape unharmed and crossed over into Greece, where she met with the returning Antony at Athens. His extreme anger with her over her meddling is supposed to have caused her profound grief. Her death soon after came at an opportune time for Antony, because it made possible his marriage to Octavian’s sister, Octavia, which cemented the reconciliation with Octavian that he had achieved upon his return to Italy. Fulvia’s sons with Mark Antony, Marcus Antonius Antyllus and Jullus Antonius, were important (and embarrassing) figures during the reign of Augustus.

for @jacksewards <3

[ottomanladies]

Ottoman Princesses named: Hatice

Hatice is the Turkish equivalent of the Arabic name Khadija, the name of the first wife of Prophet Muhammad. As such, it was one of the most popular names in the Ottoman Dynasty both for princesses and consorts.

[germanaustriannoblesandroyals]

Women of the House of Hanover (7/?) & Royal Women of Prussia (10/?): Princess Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Princess of Great Britain

Sophia Dorothea was the second child and only daughter of King George I of Great Britain, The Elector of Hanover, and his wife Princess Sophia Dorothea of Brunswick-Lüneburg-Celle, better known as Sophia of Celle or The Princess of Ahlden.

After the imprisonment of her mother, Sophia and her brother were raised in Hanover by their grandmother Princess Sophie (Sophia) of the Palatine, The Electress of Hanover, through who the House of Hanover would also ultimately claim the British throne. Until he was three years old, Sophia Dorothea’s future husband Electoral-Prince Frederick William of Prussia was raised by their common grandmother as well. However, Frederick did not care for Sophia as a child and even bullied her brother, the future King of Britain.

Nevertheless, Sophia Dorothea and Frederick William were wed on November 28th, 1706. The couple could not have been different. While he would become known as The Soldier King, she was a person who was interest in the fine arts which her children, to their father’s displeasure, would mostly inherit from her. Sophia Dorothea also corresponded with Princess Palatine Elisabeth Charlotte “Liselotte”, The Duchess of Orléans who was a cousin of her mother’s and had also been raised once by Electress Sophia.

Frederick William and Sophia Dorothea would go on to have 14 children. Among them Frederick the Great, Princess Wilhelmine, Princess Anna Amalia and Princess Louisa Ulrika, who would become Queen of Sweden. Sophia Dorothea had always wanted to marry one of her children to one of her British relatives. However, although she tried it multiple times, a Prussian-Anglo alliance was never made in that generation. Instead most of her children married within the kingdom of Prussia or into the House of Welf she herself descended from.

Sophia was close to her eldest son all life long. She knew about his escape plans and together with her daughter Wilhelmine destroyed as much evidence as they could after the escape failed. Frederick showed his appreciation of his mother by keeping her the first lady of Prussia even after his father’s death. Sophia Dorothea outranked her daughter-in-law Princess Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel-Bevern. Additionally, Frederick demanded that she would be referred to as Queen Mother and not as Queen Dowager as it should have been by tradition. Furthermore, he asked his mother not to adress him as Majesty but as her son as this was to him the highest honor he could ever receive by her.

Sophia Dorothea died on June 28th, 1757, after her health had been declining. Her final resting place in the Hohenzollern vault in Berlin Cathedral. She was the last Queen in Prussia, since her son and by that his wife became monarch of Prussia in 1772.

// Christina Große as Sophia Dorothea in Friedrich - Ein deutscher König (2011)

[glorianas]

“I most humbly beseech your Majesty to pardon your poor old servant to be thus bold in sending to know how my gracious lady doth, and what ease of her late pains she finds, being the chiefest thing in this world I do pray for, for her to have good health and long life… I humbly kiss your foot. From your old lodging at Rycote, this Thursday morning, ready to take on my Journey, by your Majesty’s most faithful and obedient servant,”

Robert Dudley’s last letter to Elizabeth I

[ottomanladies]

KÖSEM SULTAN WEEK | day 2: Kösem and Ahmed I

Although she was not the mother of Ahmed I’s eldest child, Kösem quickly became his absolute favourite, outranking everyone else in the harem. She also received the title of Haseki Sultan at some point during his reign: a document dated between Handan Sultan’s death in 1605 and the Grand Vizier’s death in 1606 reveals that Ahmed I had ordered a daily stipend of 500 aspers for the “Hasseki Sultan”. She may have become Haseki Sultan after she gave birth to her eldest son Mehmed.

In 1612, Kösem was described as a woman of “beauty and shrewdness, and futherniore … of many talents, she sings excellently, whence she continues to be extremely well loved by the king…. Not that she is respected by all, but she is listened to in some matters and is the favorite of the king, who wants her beside him continually”. In 1616, “she can do what she wishes with the King and possesses his heart absolutely, nor is anything ever denied to her.” Nevertheless, she “restrains herself with great wisdom from speaking [to the sultan] too frequently of serious matters and affairs of state.”

According to Kumrular, Kösem was Ahmed I’s legal wife; her claim rests on a letter sent to Venice on the eve of Murad IV’s succession in which it was stated that she had been very important for “the late sultan Ahmed” and that “he loved her and honoured her by marrying her”.

Sources: Barozzi/Berchet - Relazioni degli stati europei…, Özlem Kumrular - Kösem Sultan: İktidar Hırs ve Entrika, Leslie P. Peirce - The Imperial Harem, Baki Tezcan - Searching for Osman: A Reassessment of the Deposition of the Ottoman Sultan Osman II (1618-1622)

[teatimeatwinterpalace]

Poem written by Mary Stuart on the death of her husband King Francis II ⚜

In my sad, quiet song, A melancholy air, I shall look deep and long At loss beyond compare, And with bitter tears, I’ll pass my best years.

Have the harsh fates ere now Let such a grief be felt, Has a more cruel blow Been by dame Fortune dealt Than, O my heart and eyes! I see where his bier lies?

In my springtime’s gladness And flower of my young heart, I feel the deepest sadness Of the most grievous hurt. Nothing now my heart can fire But regret and desire

He who was my dearest Already is my plight The day that shone the clearest For me is darkest night There’s nothing now so fine That I need make it mine.

Deep in my eyes and heart A portrait has its place Which shows the world my hurt In the pallor of my face. Pale as when violets fade True love’s becoming shade

Bittersweet within My Heart by Robin Bell.

[sparklygoblin]

Underrated Queens: Joan of Arc, the burnt savior