Monarchies · Science · People

Scientists at Southern Methodist University in the United States link the difficulties Henry VIII's wives had in carrying children to the presence in the king's blood of a particular antigen, belonging to that group of peptides on red blood cells which, w

Scientists at Southern Methodist University in the United States link the difficulties Henry VIII's wives had in carrying children to the presence in the king's blood of a particular antigen, belonging to that group of peptides on red blood cells which, when present in a man&

London · Monarchies · Science · People

Heredity and syphilis as possible causes of the mental disorders of Henry VIII

Could Syphilis Have Been the Cause of Henry VIII's Foul Temper? By the age of fifty Henry VIII was almost immobile, though legends were still told of his former prowess and might. Standing 186 centimetres tall, by the end of his life the king weighed 180 kilograms and

Bedroom with two beds, green fern-pattern wallpaper, a bay window, a polished wardrobe and framed portraits on the walls.

NB! · Archive · Moscow · Mores · People

Interiors of Andropov's flat on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, photographed in 1984

Andropov's flat at 26 Kutuzovsky Prospekt. The photographs were taken in 1984, after the death of the General Secretary

Monarchies · People

Marshal Ney, who persuaded Napoleon to abdicate, switched sides and was sentenced to be shot

Prince of the Moskva Michel Ney Tries to Win Back Napoleon's Favour. Brave soldier, triumphant victor, eminent commander and darling of France, Marshal Ney was the very man who had persuaded Bonaparte, his patron, to abdicate the throne, and had himself taken a seat on the military council

Art · Monarchies · People

Vigée Le Brun travelled across Europe without her husband, with her daughter, governess and an assistant

Incidentally, Marie Antoinette's court portraitist Vigée Le Brun took a lively interest in everything happening in the world, not only at Versailles, and travelled willingly. Moreover, she was a unique woman for her time, who journeyed across Europe on her own, without a male escort: her husband remained

Art · Museums · Mores · People

Jusepe de Ribera painted the bearded Magdalena Ventura for the Viceroy of Naples in 1631

The great wonder of nature, Magdalena Ventura of the town of Accumoli among the Samnites, commonly called the region of Abruzzo, in the Kingdom of Naples, aged 52 years. And it is noteworthy that at the age of 37 she began to grow hairy and sprouted a beard so thick

Archive · London · Mores · People

Funeral of Admiral Nelson on 9 January 1806 and the boat-shaped hearse

At the funeral of the national hero Admiral Nelson on 9 January 1806, I was struck by the sumptuous hearse in the form of a boat, drawn by 6 black horses: the procession made its way from the Admiralty to Saint Paul's Cathedral. On the cornice of the

Archive · Monarchies · Observations · People

The legend of Fyodor Kuzmich and the words about escaping to America attributed to Alexander I

The legend of the elder Fyodor Kuzmich, under whose name Alexander I supposedly lived in hiding in Siberia, is not the only evidence that the Emperor was terribly weighed down by the burden of the crown and longed to be rid of the duties of power, to run away. A

Aristocracy · Books · London · People

Identifying the Princess Radziwill whom Baroness Trumpington met in Waitrose

In the autobiography of Baroness Trumpington, Jean Alys Barker, a prominent English political figure who sat in the House of Lords for 37 years and in her day held ministerial office, there is the sweetest episode in the whole history of memoirs:. “A few months ago I was doing my

NB! · Aristocracy · Mores · People

Baroness Trumpington (1922–2018)

Architecture · Faith · Museums · People

Russian hermit Timofey Prokhorov built a church on a Munich dump from war rubble

A temple to the union of East and West, built by the Russian hermit Timofey Prokhorov) (1894-2004) on a Munich rubbish tip from the wreckage left by the war. In 1943 Timofey Vasilyevich was carried off by the Germans from the town of Shakhty, after which the Mother of

Archive · Observations · Society · People · Humour

The first Russian theorist of economics, Ivan Tikhonovich Pososhkov, a Muscovite peasant's son who lived at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries and is known for his remarkable work "The Book of Poverty and Wealth, That Is, a Declaration of Whence…

"The post is a hole hewn by foreigners, through which they see plainly all our affairs of state and of trade." And therefore the post "must be abolished as soon as possible. The Russian people know nothing of foreign goods or of their prices, so let the