Monarchies · Mores · People

Death of Agnès Sorel in 1450 and the Arrest of Jacques Cœur, Accused of Poisoning Her

On 9 February 1450 Agnès Sorel died of puerperal infection. But a rumour was put about at once that she had been poisoned, and the poisoner was named as Jacques Cœur. Which is odd, since Agnès was the patroness of the royal financier: she secured him good commissions and shielded

Portrait of Agnes Sorel in a dark laced dress and sheer veil, with one breast bare, her name inscribed at the top.

NB! · Monarchies · Mores · People

Agnes Sorel, her influence over Charles VII and a beauty noted by Pope Callixtus III

The low-born courtesan Agnès Sorel was called a common whore, yet even Pope Callixtus III remarked on her extraordinary beauty. She went about in frank attire, bared one breast and twisted Charles VII round her little finger

NB! · Architecture · Monarchies · Heritage · People

Jacques Cœur, industrialist and financier to Charles VII, peers out of a false window in his astonishing mansion at Bourges

Jacques Cœur, industrialist and financier to Charles VII, peers out of a false window in his astonishing mansion at Bourges. Cœur minted gold écus and kept the king's mistress, Agnès Sorel, supplied with treasures

NB! · Observations

Sic transit gloria mundi

Sic transit gloria mundi. It never hurts to be reminded

NB! · Monarchies · Museums · Mores · Society

The beard token introduced by Peter the Great in 1705, confirming payment of the beard tax (30 to 100 roubles) with the words "The money has been taken"

The beard token introduced by Peter the Great in 1705, confirming payment of the beard tax (30 to 100 roubles) with the words "The money has been taken". Peter died on 8 February 1725, yet the tax was abolished only in 1772

A man in a blue scarf works on a part beside an inlaid cabinet topped with vases, while a second craftsman stands nearby.

NB! · Architecture · Art · Heritage

Cabinetmakers restore a seventeenth-century cabinet in a restoration workshop

In the restoration workshop. Cabinetmakers restore a seventeenth-century cabinet

Aristocracy · Observations · People

The biography of François-Camille of Lorraine is not so simple; at any rate, the modern vicissitudes of its circulation give cause for alarm about the memory of this nobleman

Quite by chance I discovered that the Russian-language Wikipedia and a multitude of secondary sources on the Runet maintain that Louis de Lorraine, Prince of Lambesc (1692-1743), had one son, Louis-Charles of Lorraine, who inherited his father's title, and five daughters: Jeanne, Louise, Henriette, Camille

NB! · Aristocracy · Faith · Art

The stout gentleman in a sumptuous fur mantle with a crimson lining is Abbé François-Camille of Lorraine, who lived in the eighteenth century and belonged to the ducal house of Guise, a cadet branch of the House of Lorraine

Monarchies · Mores · People

On 7 February 1770, Louis XV formally asked for the hand of Marie Antoinette on behalf of his grandson, Louis XVI

On 7 February 1770, Louis XV formally asked for the hand of Marie Antoinette on behalf of his grandson, Louis XVI. The wedding took place some months later, and by proxy at that, which is to say in the absence of the groom! Then the 14-year-old Marie Antoinette

Coming Up · Archaeology · The East · Museums · Education · Saint Petersburg

Hermitage lecture hall holds lecture series on Khorezm, next one on 12 February

The Hermitage Lecture Hall has launched a lecture series, “The Desert Castles of Khorezm”. Those of you in Saint Petersburg, do drop in for a cup of tea. Khorezm is a millennia-old Asian oasis, where excavations have uncovered settlements lost in the sands, irrigation works and necropolises. The next

NB! · Archaeology · Monarchies

The inscription on the stone records the conquests of Harald Bluetooth and serves to commemorate his parents, Gorm the Old and Thyra

NB! · Archaeology · Monarchies · Heritage · People

The great rune stone raised by Harald Bluetooth, gatherer of the Danish lands and baptiser of Denmark, that venerated tenth-century ruler after whom Bluetooth was named

Alexandr Radayev