Books · Monarchies · People · Saint Petersburg
Within ten days of Catherine II's accession to the throne, she had invited Denis Diderot to come to Russia. She even proposed that he move the publication of the "Encyclopédie", which kept running into bans in France, to Riga or Saint Petersburg. But Diderot did not
NB! · Monarchies · People · Humour
Archive · Books · Monarchies · Society · Saint Petersburg
"There is no power on earth more absolute than that of the sovereigns of Russia: throughout their empire their will is the only law; obedience the only morality. Yet we shall see their pitiable condition, and how their power, having overstepped every limit prescribed to men, has destroyed itself
Art · Monarchies · Humour
Prince Charles in an engraving 400 years old? Anonymous engraver, after a drawing by Hendrik Goltzius, c. 1600.
Cinema · London · Monarchies · Humour
It is not often that a grandfather hands the throne to a grandson rather than a son. But George II and George III are precisely such a case. True, if George III quite conventionally passed the baton to his son, George IV, the latter was succeeded by his younger brother
NB! · Aristocracy · Monarchies · People · Humour
The younger sister of the King of the Belgians, 61-year-old Astrid, Princess of Belgium and Archduchess of Austria-Este, is learning a new trade. Should the need arise, we shall find her a post in Moscow's public transport
Aristocracy · The East · Monarchies · Heritage
The first award for women in the history of Persia, the Order of the Sun for ladies, نشان آفتاب, Nishan-i-Aftab, was established by the fourth Shah of Iran of the Qajar dynasty, Naser al-Din, in 1873. The badge and the star of the order are made in
NB! · Art · Monarchies · Observations · Paris · Humour
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Architecture · Art · London · Monarchies · Heritage
189 years ago in London the medieval Palace of Westminster, the ancient residence of the English kings, burned down. The painter William Turner, like most Londoners, watched the fire to the very end. The palace, where Parliament had sat since the sixteenth century, was almost completely destroyed. Turner got into
Monarchies · Science · Education · Paris
Charles V of France reads, seated on his throne; beside the books on the table stands an armillary sphere, an astronomical instrument for determining the coordinates of celestial bodies. Charles V made a considerable contribution to the development of astrology. He opened a faculty at the University of Paris to
Books · Monarchies · Mores
Jean Froissart describes the horrors of the “Bal des Ardents” of 1398, when a spark set alight costumes and masks made of linen soaked in pitch. Charles VI, dressed as a wild man, managed to save himself by hiding beneath the skirts of the Duchess de Berry; one or two