Lady Jane Grey is most well known for her nine-day stint as queen – the shortest reign of any British monarch. It was so short, that there is some question over whether she is actually to be counted among rulers of England. Her execution shortly afterwards, when she was still only sixteen years old, means… Read More The Unfortunate Marriages of the Ladies Grey Part I: Jane
Content Warning: As the title suggests, here be discussion of historical rape and pregnancy loss. The most asked question on this blog is; Was Mary, Queen of Scots raped? Reign, Starz’ highly dramatised series about the life of Mary, uses the threat of rape against the Queen frequently and on one occasion it goes ahead… Read More The R*pe of Mary, Queen of Scots
Content warning: This post considers issues of sexual assault and child sexual assault. In 1536, Henry VIII had his wife, Anne Boleyn, executed for adultery and treason. They had been married for only three years after a six year courtship that had turned the country on its head and forever changed the religious landscape of… Read More Condemning Katherine Howard
The early 1800s saw a massive global endeavour to circumnavigate the world. Naval technology was improving and every successful expedition improved cartography and in many cases opened up new trade routes. The British Admiralty was especially interested in discovering a potential passage over and around Northern Canada that would expand trade routes to Asia. To… Read More The History Behind: The Terror
If you think of a shipwreck, it’ll likely be the most famous shipwreck in the world; the RMS Titanic. She holds the peacetime records for largest loss of life, largest ship ever wrecked to remain on the ocean floor, and has inspired more artistic works than any other ship. The loss was dramatic in every… Read More Creepy History: The Other Titanics
The coronation of King Charles III approacheth. The event is being hailed as a once-in-a-lifetime event given that it’s been seventy years since the last one, but we should remember that as the longest-reigning British monarch Elizabeth II’s reign is the exception rather than the rule. Her coronation in 1953 was in fact the fifth… Read More Breaking Down Pomp and Circumstance II: The Coronation
You are about to come with me on a journey into a wild rabbit hole. It started while perusing the list of survivors on the RMS Titanic, as one does, and discovering the survival of one William Wright. Wright was a crewman aboard the Titanic and his position was described as ‘Steward of the Glory-Hole’.… Read More Queer Culture, Stewards, and The Titanic’s Glory-Holes
The Wonder (2022) is a period drama set in Ireland, 1862 in a community recovering from the Great Famine. Based on the book of the same name by Emma Donoghue, the film follows English nurse, Elizabeth Wright, as she is instructed to closely watch over Anna O’Donnell, a young girl who hasn’t eaten since her… Read More The History Behind: The Wonder (2022)
On April 18th 1912, the RMS Carpathia arrived in New York City to disembark seven hundred passengers. The seven hundred were not their own. They were survivors of the RMS Titanic which had sunk six days earlier after striking an iceberg during its maiden crossing to New York. The sinking had generated incredible media coverage… Read More “Where Manhood Perished Not”: The Surviving Men of the Titanic
Mummies have fascinated popular imagination since the days of their earliest discoveries. Fictionalised accounts of mummies coming back to life have been a staple of the horror genre since 1827 with the publication of ‘The Mummy! A Tale of the 22nd Century’ in which the mummy of Cheops (an actual Egyptian pharaoh) was reanimated. Unlike… Read More Creepy History: The Curse of the Pharaohs (Tutankhamun Edition)
