Do you have any historical figures who fascinate you?

[WilburIsSomePig]

Just watched a programme about Mary Queen of Scots. Well she had a real shady taste in men and made some rubbish decisions but my god the woman really did have a shite time of it. I have always been a bit obsessed with her so are there any historical figures that really capture your thoughts?

Not sure she's classed as a historical figure though...

Several already mentioned and I would add Arbella Stuart.

Kate Sheppard, the original suffragette (New Zealand gave women the vote in 1893).

OP I had a fascination with the Titanic too. I've still got dozens of books on the subject and despite what many people think of the film, I love that James Cameron did so much research to get actual events/known facts as accurate as possible.

MollyAir, Lady Jane Grey was a highly educated Protestant and so some people wanted her to take the throne rather than Mary I. To be fair to Mary, I don't think she wanted to execute Jane, who was still just a teenager at 16/17, but she had little choice when people kept rallying behind her even though Jane did nothing to encourage them.

Jack the ripper here too.
I'm fascinated historical disasters, Titanic, Fire of London, Black Plague.
Also fascinated with The Knights Templars, and DP loves The Knights Hospitallers.
Also love the Salem witch trials.

Alan Turing too
Marie Curie
Albert Einstein

All fighting their own personal battles to becoming outstanding minorities (gay/Autism; female; dyslexia) in their fields. It is worth pointing out that I am a physics graduate! Still alive, but Stephen Hawking too.

Dorothea Lang, American photographer

Mary Queen of Scots, since I was a child. My mother had a book about her, and there was a painting of her being led to her execution at a nearby museum that I was obsessed with as a weird kid.

I went to the Edinburgh exhibition a few years ago - still fascinated by her life.

Nefertiti all things egyptian fascinate me actually, they were so advanced for their time.

Catherine Howard, poor girl.

Convicts who were deported to Aus, I watched the Mary Bryant drama as a teen and it interested me ever since.

PrincessUnicorn The Great Fire happened during the period I'm most interested in but I hadn't gone into it in much depth until, a couple of years ago, the historian Kate Williams 'live-tweeted' it. Really brought it home to me how totally devastating and terrifying it must have been. Up until then it had just been 'something that happened' which led on to something else.

I think I do that sometimes with historical events. Because we have hindsight and know outcomes, it often all feels as if it was inevitable when, of course, for the people involved it was no such thing.

There's an excellent book on the Great Fire called By Permission of Heaven. If you haven't read it, I do recommend it.

Oooh and Salem witch trials too! And all things native amarican/ wild west. I blame frontierland at disney for that

Hah, well, as a historian who writes a blog, Facebook page and books about historical women, it's really REALLY hard to narrow it down! I'm glad lots of people like Mary Queen of Scots though as I have three books about her mother coming out in the next two years!

My personal top ten are currently:

1. Marie de Guise (obviously)
2. Henrietta Anne 'Minette' Stuart
3. Marie Antoinette
4. Lucile Desmoulins
5. Manon Roland
6. Catherine Parr
7. Catherine Howard
8. Margaret Tudor
9. Hortense de Beauharnais

10. Élisabeth de France 11. Mary Queen of Scots 12. Alan Turing 13. Prince Rupert of the Rhine 14. Louis Antoine de Saint Just 15. Françoise de Choiseul-Stainville 16. Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte de Bourbon, Madame Royale 17. Joséphine de Beauharnais 18. Charles II 19. Catherine de Valois 20. Jack the Ripper (I'm an actual Ripperologist, it's awful) 21. Athénaïse de Montespan 22. Anne Marie de Bourbon, Princesse de Conti 23. Marie Adélaïde de Savoie, Duchesse de Bourgogne 24. Lucrezia Borgia 25. Anne Boleyn 26. Empress Alexandra 27. All of OTMA but especially Grand Duchess Maria

Oops. I think I'll stop there! I'm guaranteed to buy every single new book on any of these people though and my bookshelves make my husband (who really isn't into history AT ALL) weep and fellow historians weep with sheer joy.

Queen Isabella and Edward II. Absolutely fascinating story of how she managed to leave England and raise an army against her husband, the king. I wrote my dissertation on her after becoming fascinated by that era, particularly Edward II and all his antics (Piers Gaveston for example), before any books had really been written on her. A couple have since, but she often seems to be overlooked, due to other more famous strong medieval and Tudor women I suppose, but I think it is such a shame she is often forgotten - such an amazing story! A sad ending for her though, although she did escape with her life, unlike Edward...

Sorry, could waffle on about this all day

I'm fascinated by Alice Keppel - she was Edward VII's mistress for years and also happened to be Camilla Parker Bowles great-grandmother. Her daughter had a fling with Vita Sackville-West, who is someone else I'm really interested in.

There's a brilliant book - Mrs Keppel and her Daughter - highly recommend it!

Prince Rupert of the Rhine - now there's someone I haven't heard of for a few years. Wasn't he a hottie in By The Sword Divided?

I haven't read it no, I will look for it thank you!!
My daughter recently learnt about it in year 1, and she was equally interested in it.

Yes! Lucinda Lacey in By The Sword Divided had the SERIOUS MEGA HOTS for him! ;D

Lots of mine have been mentioned.

What about Grey , PM who had a thing with Marie Antoinette and The Duchess of Devonshire.

Christ, I can't believe that I forgot Oscar Wilde! Good grief.

And Émilie de Sainte-Amaranthe.

(I have Aspergers, all of these people have been Special Topics Of Great And All Consuming Interest at one time or another.)

Can you please link to your fb page?

MmeG Do you have to buy all the books in French as well as the English ones?

MmeGuillotine I'm honestly not stalking you but I didn't realise you were writing about Marie de Guise.

I've been quite interested in her ever since I saw Fanny Ardant in Elizabeth - such a faithful portrayal . Since I knew Walsingham didn't murder her, I wondered what else they'd altered and read up what I could. Unfortunately, I didn't find many books that are specifically about her.

So that's quite a few books of yours that I'm now anticipating. I hope you write fast.

Matilda, who was almost the first queen. She is incredible but is often not recognised.

Countess, yes, but my French is near fluent so it's not a problem. I'm always haunting Amazon.Fr and buying all the out of print history books etc. ;)

Madame de Pompadour

Joan Hickson, it's here. :)