Lovers and Kings

Jules| American| History Lover

[welshdragon-whiterose]

So over the past few months, I’ve seen a lot of heat about TSP on this site. I have not watched either season of TSP, nor have I read any of Philippa Gregory’s books, because honestly I have more self respect than reading them and I’ve been too busy at school to watch the show.

All of that being said, I’ve seen an egregious amount of people villainizing CoA and AB to suit their personal preferences. I got a BA in history and then decided to leave the field because I fixate on my own fancies. However, I did learn to cite a source. Which Gregory and Wier literally will not do. Their works are historical fiction at best, and trashy fan fiction if we’re being really real with ourselves.

Stop pitting CoA and AB against each other. Or any of the wives against each other. They were all Henry’s victims at some point. He was, quite frankly, a poor husband to all of them and the shared trauma that each woman endured in some form is what we should be talking about, not who was done the most wrong. They were all done wrong.

[welshdragon-whiterose]

So I haven’t caught up on season 2 and season 3 isn’t out on Netflix...but like tell me Clarice gives Lorenzo the cold shoulder for being an unfaithful bastard like all the time. Please Medici, if you do nothing else. Let Clarice be the strong woman I know she can be. Lorenzo is a dumpster fire of a husband.

[welshdragon-whiterose]

Hi, can we agree to leave poor Lucrezia Borgia to peace and stop demonizing her for having political and social prowess? The poor girl would’ve been eaten alive by the nobles and upper class of the Italian city-states, if not for her intellect and ambition. Strong women aren’t inherently evil.

[welshdragon-whiterose]

God as my witness, I intend to write a book on the relationship of Catherine of Aragon and Henry VIII in the early years of marriage, relative to the relationships of his later wives.

[welshdragon-whiterose]

I don’t particularly think it’s fair that it is rarely pointed out that all of the Tudor children, as well as Lady Jane Grey, were at least 4-5 years older than Mary, Queen of Scots. Elizabeth I, the notorious rival for the English throne, was 9 years, 3 months, and a day older than Mary. Mary is often portrayed harshly in contemporary accounts, citing that Elizabeth was Henry VIII’s last remaining legitimate child. Elizabeth was, in fact, particularly spiteful towards Mary. Once Mary knew she had made a mistake in staking a claim for the throne, she stepped back and tried to mend her mistake with Elizabeth. Elizabeth never accepted Mary’s attempts. No one, ever that I’ve seen, points out that Mary acts as the mature one and the one willing to make amends, even though she is almost a decade younger than Elizabeth.

[welshdragon-whiterose]

Honestly, the 1690s schism of the Swiss Brethren was just Jakob (Yakob) Ammann throwing a bitch fit about wanting to be the most righteous mortal.

[welshdragon-whiterose]

I find it quite unnerving that Saladin is considered the bad guy in history and Richard the Lionheart is revered as a savior. The Christians has desecrated most holy Muslim cites in Jerusalem and, to be fair, the Muslims were pretty merciful when they reclaimed the city under Saladin. Realistically, Saladin was being a pretty generous conqueror compared to the Christians only about 100 years before. The Christians exacted horrendous bloodshed and carnage on the Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem.

[welshdragon-whiterose]

The Mysterious Dibbuk Box

I was sitting around watching the History Channel today and the show I was watching talked about the Dibbuk Box. I hadn’t ever heard of this thing before. This box is considered haunted. It’s first known owner, as far as is believed to be true, was a Polish Jew who manages to survive the Holocaust. The box was purchased by Kevin Mannis at an estate sale. Mannis owned an antique store and the basement was thrown into chaos one day after he attained the box. After Mannis, a Truman State University Student purchased the box. This is what truly rocked me. I am a history major at Truman and had no knowledge of the Dibbuk Box in all my time when looking into the University, nor during my time at the University. Albeit, the box was no longer owned by the student. A local man had obtained the box. The box was still in town. Jason Haxton bought the box and sudden bouts of illness and obsession. The terrifying thing about the box and it’s original owner is the bizarre closeness to the story of Haxton’s grandmother. The woman, Havalah, was 103 when she passed away. Deeply religious and set in her ways, Haxton was shocked that Havalah and his grandmother’s stories so closely paralleled each other.

This would not have been so rattling to me is that none of the gruesome histories of the town are given to the students, except by word of mouth from other students. A forefront of Eugenics was based out of Kirksville. H.H. Laughlin was the man that Hitler’s vision of a superior race stemmed from. While Laughlin worked at his Eugenics, Havalah was under the wrath of Hitler’s attack on the Jews. In a Polish ghetto, the wine box become the entity it is now believed to be.

As of March 2017, the box no longer resides in the small college town. Zak Bagans purchased this terrifying box. The box now lies in Nevada, away from my college and the town that houses it.

I don’t necessarily believe in the connections of the box, or that the box is haunted. The box has simply opened my eyes to the sinister stories of the town I’ve now begun to call home.

[welshdragon-whiterose]

Whoever came up with trench warfare was an idiot.

[welshdragon-whiterose]

Okay but on the real, how many times does it take before someone figures out it is a BAD idea to invade Russia during the winter? How many? It’s not actually rocket science!

[welshdragon-whiterose]

Do you know how awful it would feel to be Julius Caesar when he saw Brutus among those who stabbed him? Do you know how terrible Brutus probably felt when he realized that it was probably very wrong? Like that is some massive bad blood and I would not want to die like that or live knowing I killed someone like that.

[welshdragon-whiterose]

Jack the Ripper

London streetwalkers were terrified of a man known simply as Jack the Ripper. He terrorized London’s Whitechapel. But who was he? That’s the question that still fascinates people to this day. How could a man so brutally kill those women, leaving no trace, and then disappear and never murder to the same degree. Fascinating.