Part of the joy of history is how resonant it often is. Imagine an ambitious if dysfunctional family with some minor claim to nobility in some far off backwater rising to power – to the highest office in the land – on the strength of a charismatic son known as much for his professional acumen…
61. Leopold II of Belgium, the Congo Free State, and Villa Leopolda
Long a vassal state to its much larger neighbors, Belgium only became independent in 1830, at which time it decided that what it really needed was a (constitutional) monarchy! Its first king, Leopold I, earned the gig by virtue of being born a Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld prince who had cultivated his relationships with Europe’s royal houses during…
60. King Umberto II and Queen Marie-Jose of Italy and the Fall of the House of Savoy
One of the outcomes of the 20th century’s two world wars was the widespread abolition of monarchies across Europe. Some of these events were brutal, as in Russia, but others, like Italy, happened bloodlessly and through the popular will. After a long reign that saw the Kingdom of Italy enthralled by Benito Mussolini’s fascist dictatorship,…
59. Queen Ranavalona I, The Mad Queen of Madagascar
If you worried that royal houses had gotten a little too genteel by the 19th century, the story of Ranavalona I of Madagascar will disabuse you of that pretty quickly. Seizing the throne in 1828 after the death of her husband, King Radama – despite not being the rightful heir to it – she immediately…
58. Elizabeth and Leicester, Part Two
When she assumed the throne in 1558, she made it clear to the members of her court that they shouldn’t plan to have their wives or female companions around the place. She intended to be singular as she consolidated power, but perhaps she had another motive as well; by banishing the wives, Robert Dudley, newly…
57. Elizabeth and Leicester, Part One
While Queen Elizabeth I of England famously never married, her close relationship with Robert Dudley began when the two were small children together in the court of Henry VIII. Elizabeth was a princess who was downgraded to a lady after her mother, Anne Boleyn’s, death. Robert was the grandson of an advisor to King Henry…
56. The William Shakespeare Mystery (Trashy Divorces Crossover)
It’s a big week for Tortured Poets, so we decided to take a long look at history’s most famous one: William Shakespeare himself. Alicia explores the mystery around the true identity of the author of some of the world’s most famous pieces of literature. Was it really the actor from Stratford-upon-Avon penning Romeo and Juliet,…
55. The Tortured Tudor Poet: The Love Letters of Henry VIII to Anne Boleyn
As Taylor Swift launches her latest era with The Tortured Poets Department, Alicia dives into her favorite era: Tudor England. We explore the 17 surviving love letters that King Henry VIII penned during his courtship and early relationship with Anne Boleyn in the latter half of the 1520s, particularly noting that for quite a long…
54. Elisabeth of Wied, First Queen of Romania, and Literature’s Carmen Sylva
However much ‘protocol’ may attempt to intervene, the truth is that eccentricity is a trait that even royals have. This is certainly the case for Elisabeth of Wied, a German princess who became Romania’s first queen, wife of Romania’s King Carol I. Politics in Europe were extra complex in the latter half of the 19th…
53. King Pedro I of Portugal and Inês de Castro
The fourteenth century was full of challenges to marital bliss, especially for nobles. Travel was complicated, especially during times of war, but royal houses still needed to cement alliances through marriage – often among woefully young princes and princesses who, again, were separated by vast distances and perhaps had never met. So it was for…