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Original poster

To ask which historical crossroads you wonder about?

423 replies

HoneyParsnipSoup · 13/12/2025 19:33

For me it’s wondering what would’ve happened had Catherine of Aragon had a son and Henry hadn’t divorced her. Country may well be totally different.

OP posts:
LeeshaPaper · 16/12/2025 13:47

Millytante · 14/12/2025 20:16

Indeed!
Out of all my family on both sides, via my 19th century-born grandparents (2 from Cork city, 1 from Spanish Point (by coincidence!), and 1 from Roscommon) and all Irish going back to the Ark, my Aunt Rita (the Cork city branch of this tree) stood out like a rare species in a text book.
She had jet black hair and eyes, and skin that'd be nut brown after five minutes between rain showers.
She looked nothing at all like my father and we all were of the belief that centuries ago a Spanish soldier had survived the wreckage of his ship on the West coast and though people didnt move around much in a very rural country, his blood had somehow got down to Cork.
(Unless one or two ships were wrecked off the south coast too? Cork harbour is treacherous at the best of times)
I know my aunt always scoffed at this shipwreck stuff.

I don't know enough about genetics to know if those popular DNA tests would locate Iberian traces in my own blood, if it is really my aunt Im ‘investigating’. Maybe historical foreign gene blips only show up here and there, and not across the entire descendant branch?

Anyway, it was always such a gripping and terrifying story for us kids.
Those poor Spanish soldiers though.
Philip II was such a so and so. (Serial bridegroom too. He’s like Zelig in European courts in the mid 16th century, no land-rich princess was safe, including Mary’s younger sister!)

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Was Aunt Rita's father definitely her father? Maybe the Spanish blood snuck in more recently than the Armada?

PinkPanther57 · 16/12/2025 14:11

Peregrina · 16/12/2025 09:18

I’ve always assumed the Queen must’ve known what Andrew was up to and she chose to turn a blind eye!

Going off topic here but ever since he was born, rumours circulated that he was the result of liaison between the Queen and Lord Porchester, her racehorse trainer. If he was such a lovechild, it might well explain the favouritism.

It’s very common in that situation. Was Porchester an intelligent man? Is it really true Phillip was repeatedly unfaithful?

38thparallel · 16/12/2025 16:50

Going off topic here but ever since he was born, rumours circulated that he was the result of liaison between the Queen and Lord Porchester, her racehorse trainer. If he was such a lovechild, it might well explain the favouritism.

God, that tired old chestnut.

PinkPanther57 · 16/12/2025 17:02

38thparallel · 16/12/2025 16:50

Going off topic here but ever since he was born, rumours circulated that he was the result of liaison between the Queen and Lord Porchester, her racehorse trainer. If he was such a lovechild, it might well explain the favouritism.

God, that tired old chestnut.

Agree, but all the Royal reporters will say he was her blind spot. Why? Was Edward also a blind spot? It feels like the other sibs got ‘tougher love’. The cliche is the youngest gets a free pass & is the favourite.

38thparallel · 16/12/2025 17:08

Agree, but all the Royal reporters will say he was her blind spot. Why? Was Edward also a blind spot.

Who knows? We certainly don’t. Reporters make up anything about the royal family that will sell papers.
If a newspaper suggested Wendy Leng’s last child was sired by Tony Blair not Rupert Murdoch then libel writs would fly hither and thither - but reporters can what they want about the royals with no fear of any come back.

PinkPanther57 · 16/12/2025 17:31

38thparallel · 16/12/2025 17:08

Agree, but all the Royal reporters will say he was her blind spot. Why? Was Edward also a blind spot.

Who knows? We certainly don’t. Reporters make up anything about the royal family that will sell papers.
If a newspaper suggested Wendy Leng’s last child was sired by Tony Blair not Rupert Murdoch then libel writs would fly hither and thither - but reporters can what they want about the royals with no fear of any come back.

True, but I mean those that have followed for decades & speak with some authority & without sensation in Times, at national festivals etc. It’s honestly puzzling.

Millytante · 17/12/2025 02:43

LeeshaPaper · 16/12/2025 13:47

Was Aunt Rita's father definitely her father? Maybe the Spanish blood snuck in more recently than the Armada?

Show quote history

Naturally, it was because her parentage was absolutely never in question that the theory of rogue Mediterranean blood corpuscles came up in the family.

XelaM · 17/12/2025 06:47

brunettemic · 15/12/2025 11:52

For me it’s mostly WW2 stuff. If we hadn’t won the Battle of Britain, if the US hadn’t entered the war, or D-Day had failed. Not necessarily just would we have lost the war, but would it have gone on and on, would we be “Germany” now etc etc.

I think Hitler's biggest mistake was Dunkirk. Why didn't he destroy the British when he had the chance?

Also, had Japan attacked Russia instead of USA the outcome of WWII would have been very different.

LeftieRightsHoarder · 20/12/2025 08:55

Arlanymor · 14/12/2025 01:05

If Khrushchev hadn't backed down during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

I love and respect Khrushchev for that reason. The USA had missiles close to the borders of the Soviet Union, so there was no reason why Cuba shouldn’t have missiles too.

Kennedy was prepared to risk inflicting nuclear war on the whole world, and Khrushchev gave up his status, potentially putting his life at risk, in order to prevent that. Khrushchev was the better man. I thank him for that.

Peregrina · 20/12/2025 09:00

I love and respect Khrushchev for that reason. The USA had missiles close to the borders of the Soviet Union, so there was no reason why Cuba shouldn’t have missiles too.

And people can correct me if I am wrong but the part of the story we don't hear is that USA had missiles based in Turkey pointing to the USSR, and that they made an agreement to withdraw them.

Dustyfustyoldcarcass · 20/12/2025 09:06

Great thread! Off to have a think. Will be back to read. Very interesting to look back to both hundreds of years and in recent ones. Feels like we have had a lot of recent 'turning points' of late.

I agree about the condoms and DT, but you could say that about anyone!

5MinuteArgument · 20/12/2025 11:41

Lenin dying in 1924. Total disaster for the Soviet Union and the world.

5MinuteArgument · 20/12/2025 12:52

LeftieRightsHoarder · 20/12/2025 08:55

I love and respect Khrushchev for that reason. The USA had missiles close to the borders of the Soviet Union, so there was no reason why Cuba shouldn’t have missiles too.

Kennedy was prepared to risk inflicting nuclear war on the whole world, and Khrushchev gave up his status, potentially putting his life at risk, in order to prevent that. Khrushchev was the better man. I thank him for that.

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Yes, Khrushchev never got enough credit for that.

chickenwings2 · 20/12/2025 22:00

Princess Diana didn’t die

PigeonsandSquirrels · 20/12/2025 22:39

If Harald Hardrada had won instead of William the Conqueror.

JudgeJ · 20/12/2025 22:50

5MinuteArgument · 20/12/2025 12:52

Yes, Khrushchev never got enough credit for that.

Show quote history

I believe that there were so many agreements etc behind the scenes about which we've never heard that brought about the Soviet climbdown.

NostalgiaWhore · 20/12/2025 22:53

If Gavrilo Princip had missed.

Ricebaffle · 20/12/2025 23:03
  • If enslavement of Africans had never occurred. If The West had not plotted and killed leaders of resistance against colonialism.
  • If King Leopold had not killed 15million Congolese and got away with it.
  • If America or Australia had never been “discovered”
  • If the Wright bothers had not flown successfully
  • If Princess Di had not married the King
LeeshaPaper · 22/12/2025 09:44

NostalgiaWhore · 20/12/2025 22:53

If Gavrilo Princip had missed.

I mentioned this up thread, I think you'd enjoy "Time After Time" by Ben Elton. This premise is the plot of the book.

KnickerlessParsons · 22/12/2025 11:37

What if James and Lily Potter hadn’t died to save their son, but that Harry had died instead?

Dolamroth · 22/12/2025 12:09

PigeonsandSquirrels · 20/12/2025 22:39

If Harald Hardrada had won instead of William the Conqueror.

That would have been pretty interesting. He was a fascinating character and very widely travelled.

Elsvieta · 22/12/2025 12:13

The Nazis win the war

Black death doesn't happen

Henry VII is killed at Bosworth Field and Richard III remains king

The Normans lose the Battle of Hastings

America doesn't gain independence and remains a British colony

Gunpowder Plot succeeds

Britain stays Catholic

Elizabeth I dies before 1558 - who would have been monarch then? I don't even know

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