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Original poster

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:
UnoPan · 10/04/2015 21:52

Yes to Alexander The Great. Just absorbing how he and the Macedonian/Hellenic army conquored the known world..by the time he was 29 yo. At that age I still wasn't sure how I wanted to wear my hair.

weebleswillwobble · 10/04/2015 21:53

No, silly me - I mean Margaret Beaufort not MofA.

PoppyAmex · 10/04/2015 21:55

Henry the Navigator, Portuguese Prince essentially responsible for discovering half the world as we know it.

TirNaNog100 · 10/04/2015 22:11

Mary Queen of Scots

Anne Boleyn
Anne Frank
And Anne Shirley (she's real to me)

Lady Jane Grey
Maud Gonne
Padraig Pearse
Napoleon

TirNaNog100 · 10/04/2015 22:15

And Sylvana:
Michael Collins also; go brath

Nibledbyducks · 10/04/2015 23:32

Elizabeth Woodville, she seems to me to have been very brave.

Nikola Tesla, sooooo many questions....

purdiepie · 11/04/2015 00:04

Jesus of Nazareth.

OneEyedWilly · 11/04/2015 00:06

Marie Antoinette.

For some reason I just can't get enough information about her and I get totally obsessed whenever I see/hear anything remotely related. I was totally devastated last year when I visited the Louvre only to find her wing was closed. I just feel her treatment was really unjust and cruel, she's sort of a weird anti-hero to me..

Also Elizabeth I and Boudica really capture my imagination. Both are strong, red-headed historical figures that we can never really know the true thoughts of. I am a redhead who had a shit time of it as a child, so I really clung to those two.

sabrina00 · 11/04/2015 00:15

Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man. Saw some pictures of him in a book when I was far too young to handle it, scared the shit out of me to the degree I had to desensitise myself to it, and spent a long time reading up on it as a result and I now know far too much about it for my own good. Fascinating man; I'd have loved to have met him.

HildaOgdensCoffeeTable · 11/04/2015 00:24

Jesus - what a DUDE

Scott of the Antarctic

Can't think

PomBearWithAnOFRS · 11/04/2015 00:31

Eleanor of Aquitaine Grin Girl Power doesn't even begin to describe her!
There's a lovely book called something like "She Wolves; Women who ruled England before Elizabeth" that has four fascinating biographies in it, of Matilda, 1102-1167, Eleanor of Aquitaine 1124-1204, Isabella, 1295-1358 and Margaret, 1430-1482.
I admired them all, but Eleanor just caught my imagination more somehow.
Then there was Aelflaed, daughter of Alfred the Great who was a lady pirate after her husband was killed. She borrowed her father's fleet and went out into the north sea and fought the Vikings, then marched on Wales iirc at the head of her dead husband's army. For fighting men to follow a woman, in those days, was amazing, and she did a damn good job of leading them too.

Pameron · 11/04/2015 01:04

Leonardo da Vinci.

TheTravellingLemon · 11/04/2015 08:28

Pombear if you ever fancy reading fiction about her, you should try Sharon Penman. She does a great trilogy

When Christ and his saints slept
Time and Chance
The devil's brood.

In fact, I love most of her books, so read them all please Smile

lionheart · 11/04/2015 08:38

Amelia Earhart, Abbess Hildegard of Bingen.

Eleanor sounds fascinating.

fanjodisfunction · 11/04/2015 09:16

She wolves is a great read and Helen castor the writer did four programmes in it, highly recommend it.

Taytocrisps · 11/04/2015 13:26

Michael Collins

Great to know there are so many history fans on MN. Most of my friends have little or no interest in history.

I've spent the last year reading books (fiction and non-fiction) about Word War I.

I'm also planning to look up some of the less obvious names listed here. Lots of potential reading Smile

Is there a history thread?

debbriana · 11/04/2015 13:30

Seneca the young. That man has changed my life.

Andrewofgg · 11/04/2015 14:24

Pandora37 Juana's may have been convenient for the men round her but still genuine. The Habsburgs were seriously inbred.

dingalong · 11/04/2015 15:26

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Muskey · 11/04/2015 15:55

I have come back to this thread after thinking about it a bit more

Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeck knowing that you were a fake and facing a death penalty if/when you get caught really scary but a bit of an ego trip as well

Also the bloke in charge at isandwanda (Rouks Drift) again very scary and an ego trip all rolled into one

Guy Fawkes

Neville, Austin and Joesph Chamberlain

BeaufortBelle · 11/04/2015 17:16

Who do you think Wink
The Unknown Soldier
Cnut
King John
Catherine de Medici

Tizwailor · 11/04/2015 17:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

YonicScrewdriver · 11/04/2015 17:51

Tayto there is a History Club!

YonicScrewdriver · 11/04/2015 17:54

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/history_club

For those still looking!

MoanCollins · 11/04/2015 19:39

What happened to Mary Queen of Scots 3rd husband Bothwell was awful. He fled the country after she was deposed. He was caught in Norway, and a girl he had jilted in favour of Mary had him arrested.

He was imprisoned in Dragsholm Castle where he was appallingly tortured, tied to a pillar and chained up in a space so tiny he couldn't stand up properly and went mad, left in his own filth for ten years. When he died his body was just left to mummify where it lay. Unimaginable cruelty.