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See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Do you have any historical figures who fascinate you?

198 replies

WilburIsSomePig · 09/04/2015 21:18

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?

OP posts:
TheCountessofFitzdotterel · 10/04/2015 11:57

I knew your French would be up to it, it's just the cost I was worried about Grin

MmeGuillotine · 10/04/2015 12:00

LadyGlen, I was intrigued by Fanny Ardant's interpretation as well, although it's sadly not accurate - she wasn't QUITE so much of a badass, alas. I was pleased as punch to be commissioned to write her biography as it's the first fresh look at her entire life since the 1970s! It's due to be published next August so I'd better get back to work! ;)

I went up to Edinburgh to do some research at the start of last month and had such a great time visiting places associated with Marie and her daughter. I should have a post about Falkland and Linlithgow Palaces going up on my blog at some point over the weekend in fact! Wink

JoanHickson · 10/04/2015 12:03

How could I forget the Queens of Ancient Egypt? Also King Tuts Dad. I am not great at spelling, Ackanaten.

Hapchetchut
Cleopatra
Nefratiti

MmeGuillotine · 10/04/2015 12:04

Countess, I get my husband to buy the really prohibitively expensive ones for me for my birthday/christmas. There's one living on top of our wardrobe right now in fact, that I'm not allowed to touch until October! Grin

AlpacaLypse · 10/04/2015 12:04

How have we managed to reach 79 posts before anyone mentions William Marshal?!

I will admit to being influenced by reading slightly too much Elizabeth Chadwick though.

LadyGlen · 10/04/2015 12:16

MmeG That's excellent, I'll definitely look out for your posts.

Incidentally if anyone is interested in Rupert of the Rhine and hasn't yet read Charles Spencer's biography, I noticed that it is on Kindle at 99p for the next 5 days. It's a good read, although there are a few inaccuracies, IIRC.

WilburIsSomePig · 10/04/2015 12:18

Thomas Becket is another interesting chap. I would add that I wouldn't necessarily like the people that fascinate me.

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zen1 · 10/04/2015 12:27

King Carlos II of Spain. I saw something about him on a programme once which lead me to want to find out more. I felt dreadfully sorry for him being the product of all that inbreeding amongst the Habsburgs.

GoblinLittleOwl · 10/04/2015 12:40

Anne Boleyn
Elizabeth 1
Richard 111
Aphra Behn
Alfred the Great

Halsall · 10/04/2015 12:40

Dickens. He fascinates me but, as Wilbur just said, I too would have loathed him in RL.

He's a complete conundrum psychologically - a trailblazer in sticking up for the poor, the exploited, abandoned children, and yet he behaved with appalling cruelty to his poor wife (imagine some of the threads she could have started on AIBU/Relationships Sad).

I've read (and own) just about every biography there is, and got seriously drawn in when Claire Tomalin published her book 'The Invisible Woman', about the young actress Dickens left his wife for. I'm a sucker for a mystery and that whole relationship was kept almost totally secret for years, until little snippets started to escape in the 20thc. He destroyed all their letters, all the evidence of any relationship, so thoroughly that no-one knows for sure whether she had a child (although there's anecdotal evidence). The real breakthrough was a tiny little diary he kept, virtually in code, which he lost. It was found years later and from that, it was revealed that he'd lived with Ellen Ternan under an assumed name.

Totally gripping.

OK, I'll shut up now

WilburIsSomePig · 10/04/2015 12:41

Have just been reading up about him Zen, poor, poor man. :(

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hollyisalovelyname · 10/04/2015 13:22

Elizabeth 1 - her father Henry VIII was obsessed with having a male heir.
She didn't bother having an heir at all.
She didn't marry.
Why?
There HAS to be more to the story.

SprungHasSpring · 10/04/2015 13:26

Queen Victoria

hollyisalovelyname · 10/04/2015 13:27

Roland are you a history teacher in U.K. or Ireland

StrangeLookingParasite · 10/04/2015 14:19

Reading a biography of Catherine de Medici at the moment. An extraordinary life, though very tragic, with outliving nearly all of her children.
Also Lucy Dillon de la Tour du Pin Gouvernet, whose biography I read recently as well. She lived through the most extraordinary times.

StrangeLookingParasite · 10/04/2015 14:21

King Carlos II of Spain. I saw something about him on a programme once which lead me to want to find out more. I felt dreadfully sorry for him being the product of all that inbreeding amongst the Habsburgs.

Oh the horrible Habsburg jaw - the degree of consanguinity they allowed was just ridiculous, total family tree collapse.

Mrsjayy · 10/04/2015 14:23

I saw a programme on history channel some historian suggested Elizabeth I was maybe transgender or had a condition of the genitals Confused

MmeGuillotine · 10/04/2015 14:35

I love Lucie de la Tour du Pin! Her memoirs are so darned JAUNTY and a great help when researching novels set in ancien régime France.

I've spent the last week wrestling with a chapter describing Catherine de' Medici's wedding, complete with courtesans dipping their breasts in goblets of wine and offering them to the male guests and all manner of shenanigans.

Lemonylemon · 10/04/2015 14:44

According to my Dad who knew one of Dickens' grandchildren, Dickens treated his children appallingly, too.

Mme Guillotine - I have checked out your fb page - it's really interesting!

RJnomore · 10/04/2015 14:47

There was some theory going about recently Elizabeth had died as a teenager and been replaced math a young beautiful man, thus not marrying and th slightly masculine look in late portraits.

I'm quite fascinated by jacquetta Woodville, what a life. And the courage to marry for love, despite the fuss it called, then propel her daughter onto the throne.

Also Anne askew, the only woman to be tortured in the tower, why was her faith so strong? She could have stopped, been quiet and gone back to a pretty comfortable life, so what persuaded her she was so correct - enough to die a horrible death still convinced?

StrangeLookingParasite · 10/04/2015 14:49

The thing I felt most when reading the Lucie biog was the whole 'come here, no go away, no come here, go away' of living in France at the time. Such extremes of rooster then feather duster!

Fontella · 10/04/2015 14:50

Another vote for Eleanor of Aquitaine
(1122 - 1204)

Incredible woman in any age, but given the times she lived in, makes her 100 times more remarkable still.

She Inherits the duchy of Aquitaine making her one of the richest and most eligible brides in Europe. She marries the King of France (Louis VII), gives birth to two daughters ... divorces him, then marries Henry of Anjou who just happens to be the next King of England and one of the great ones too,(Henry II) who was 11 years younger than her at just 19 - she was 30 at the time.

That didn't stop her bearing him eight children - 5 sons and three daughters - 7 of whom survived to adulthood, one of whom went on to become King Richard the Lionheart, and the other, the infamous King John, making her wife of two kings and mother of two more!

She helped rule Henry II's vast empire, conspired against him with her sons, was imprisoned by him, outlived her younger husband and several of her children, dying at the ripe old age of 82 which was practically unheard of back in those times.

She was also, by all contemporary accounts, stunningly beautiful, could ride and rule like a man and could probably have fought like one too, had she been called upon to do so. She was educated to a level far beyond most women (even the wealthy and powerful ones of the day), spoke several languages, was articulate, clever and politically savvy.

zen1 · 10/04/2015 14:55

I found this very depressing.

fanjodisfunction · 10/04/2015 15:16

I think Elizabeth 1st didn't marry or have children because it would destroy her reign. Women were not trusted, by her becoming a virgin (so believe she wasn't) she placed herself above everyone.
Who would she have married? A prince or king from another country? And have this country tagged on to another and maybe amalgamated into the same country. Or a nobleman from England who would have more and more power, especially if she was to fall pg and have to go into confinement. She saw what happened to Mary queen of Scots, and her own sister who tried to marry and have children.
For the stability of her nation and to keep the power she sacrificed herself.

Trenzalore · 10/04/2015 16:57

Richard lll

George lll

Queen Victoria and Albert.

Emporer Caligula.

Vincent Van Gogh.

I watched the Mary programme too. Fascinating. Her husband found in the garden with a servant. It alluded to him being effeminate. hmm?

Also watched on BBC a series about the Normans. great stuff.

Next week the Plantagenets.