To wonder which ‘history facts’ aren’t true.

[LeslieKnopefan]

I understand that history isn’t always true and the further we go back in time the harder it is know what the truth is and what is simply made up.

However I recently posted that I thought it was true that Marie Antoinette hair turned white overnight after her best friends head was paraded in front of her and that I only realised it wasn’t when I told a mate who pointed out it couldn’t be true.

So which history facts that people think are true are known to be lies?

While the Ancient Egyptians themselves weren't black as previously suggested by some historians they did have some black Pharaohs. This was because over the course of history they were conquered by the Nubians who were black.

Can I just say best read of the day! Loving some of these. The most recent theory I read was that Edward VI was not a sickly child and in fact swam in the river every day. I was always told he was ill and frail.
Don't get me started on historic fiction being quoted as fact.

I think it was probably fortunate Edward VI died when he did. He was an extremist religious nut. I think he would have made Mary I look like Mother Teresa.

oh wait , wait I have a good one, I may have read it somewhere so it's not original.

Captain Oates never heroically left the tent on the Antarctic expedition, saying 'I may be some time'.
IN fact he was slowing down the expedition and they were sooo hungry, that they killed and ate him.
They made a porridge out of the bones for the dogs..(geddit 'Porridge Oates' boom boom)
Then they made sure he was portrayed as a hero as they felt so bad about eating him..

Wow, that’s a pretty revolting idea you have there, dull. Do you have a shred of evidence to back it up? Or are you just piling more bullshit ideas on to the pile of rubbish we’re trying to pick apart here?

Um, justabout, I think the entire point of dull’s post is that it’s bullshit. Kinda the point of the thread...

This is Anne of Cleves and herstory.

www.historyextra.com/period/tudor/anne-of-cleves-henry-viiis-most-successful-queen/

She was tall.

Gregory did study history and was a lecturer. To me Chaucer gives a better view of medieval history than Aquinas.

I agree with you LRD re Starkey.

Perhaps Henry was as tall as 6ft and more, but it's very doubtful, he was an enigmatic figure though. He suffered greatly from obesity in his forties and for such an energetic youth this was seen as a catastrophe. I'm sure he also suffered from depression. The 3rd Duke of Norfolk, Thomas Howard, was described as tall, uncle of Boleyn sisters.

It’s not doubtful Elendon and you have not produced a single scrap of evidence to back it up even though you’ve been asked to repeatedly.

Completely agree with you bundles. Everything I've read about him backs that up. At 14/15 he was already set on a religious cleansing. Mind you, if we wait o lan this thread someone will be here to tell us he was a moderate.

Oh, ok. Apologies to dull! I thought it was the other way around and she was saying the fact we all know about the “may be some time” is untrue.

I thought the point of the thread was to discuss erroneous “facts” and I certainly never heard the above put forward as a fact...

" she was saying the fact we all know about the “may be some time” is untrue. "

how is it a 'fact' that 'we all know'? Because somebody said so....

C'mon I thought the women (men) of Mumsnet were a bit more intelligent than this..

I think the ‘porridge oates’ bit kind of gave us a clue.

Nope, Bundles, see above. I knew because I’ve seen comments from
dull before. In a moment she’ll be trotting out the old “I’ve seen smarted people down the market flogging lighters than in the universities”.

well tbh i have Iwasjustabouttosaythat..:) , and nothing that you say is going to convince me otherwise, as nicely illustrated by your response to my little tale of Captain Oates.

That there were only 300 Spartans at the battle of Thermopylae.

Gregory did study history and was a lecturer.

No. Her doctorate is in 18th century English literature.

'The Celts' certainly never existed - the name was made up by the Greeks or Romans, I forget which, taken from one tribe they encountered, whatever is meant by 'tribe'. That does not mean that there were not a lot of peoples around in Britain and further afield speaking related languages from a family we now call Celtic with a large amount of common culture. Whether they felt they had any communal identity is up for debate, as is the extent to which they would ever cooperate. Their cultures collapsed into the modern countries we know of as Wales / Cymry, and Scotland under the pressure of the west Roman collapse. And arguably invasion from Anglo Saxon and other people (another bunch of many different peoples who similarly had no overall identity).

Francis Pryor emphasises the continuity of those peoples we call celtic in the British area possibly since the ice melted, but many others dispute that and the recent re-build of 'Cheddar Man' would suggest not. I don't know enough about it. Neither does anyone else really so I have an excuse !

Britain is not a nation of immigrants as some argue. I welcome immigration. But many parts of Britain until more recently, was not that genetically mixed. Exception being Shetlands with Vikings, and in some areas with French and German. Many past immigrants came to Britain but were confined to fairly small areas of Britain.
Wales in particular until recently was full of what could be called genetically indigenous people.
We do not have to deny facts to argue against racists.

No, dull, nothing illustrated here. If it were anyone else I would have thought it just a pointless and unnecessary diversion from what was an interesting discussion. I would dearly love to believe you were just joking. Sadly, if anyone can be bothered to look up your posting history I think they too will assume you’re trying to back out gracefully now.

Iwasjustabouttosaytaht....

yes it was a joke.....
funny that you took it so seriously though..

Does anyone know much about Vlad the Impaler? I was watching a doco last night that said all of the horrible stuff we know about him was made up and that he’s become something of a national hero in Romania in recent times. I’d never heard that before. Anyone care to weigh in?

crunchy, that’s true. Interesting info on this via a study on British genetics by the Wellcome Trust which also touches on the Celtic myth.

Their report says that ‘celts’ are actually various different non-Anglo Saxon sub groups rather than a homogenous group.

www.nature.com/articles/nature14230.epdf?referrer_access_token=FX9EFOpARRqnkmYsgPQVlNRgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0MiE0_B2kFTYAb64eH_EPxJeiJzg7Mfl6MEBC6p_EUzUhn20X4WGsMhORPh_wQWF0XWfuvis22UqrLNVuhlijqXTxOXx-26amOZUjUE9AICb6rmgfHsaiIJ8VHXb98SGrxxgHYB3IsskK4hoXswvV2YR1G8jDQxRC8Ej9ZnS4YR5mgRWthzdAocXlEhd1KMsQQ%3D&tracking_referrer=www.bbc.co.uk

Well, dull, most people learn from past experience. Apologies in this particular case.

Just searched dull’s posting history and am at a loss to see what the problem is?

Bundles, If you can be bothered scroll down to the Reiki thread. If you still can’t see a problem then we’ll have to agree to disagree.

And I’m sure this will be deleted in 3, 2, 1...