Of all the wives of Henry VIII, Katherine Parr may be the one most interesting to modern women and quite possibly the most intelligent. Brilliant, charming, politically astute, and deeply educated,
The once formidable Oxford Castle saw sieges, standoffs, and one very good escape story. Now it’s barely there. It stood on Castle Street. Today, you’re left with a mound and St.
Godstow Abbey: lost treasure or just a ruin? I assumed it was gone. It isn’t. About four miles outside Oxford, the remains of Godstow Abbey sit quietly by the Thames. What’s left
Witches have been around for centuries. They can be traced back to the Book of Exodus in the Old Testament, where the line “thou shalt not suffer a witch to
Medusa is one of the most recognizable faces in art, and one of the least consistent. She starts as a monster. Then she turns into a victim. Then a symbol.
Everyone “knows” what happened to the Great Library of Alexandria. It burned, and with it went the knowledge of the ancient world. That part may be true. The problem is,
It’s hard to imagine Florence, the Cradle of the Renaissance, without its avaricious, venial, and culture-conscious first family, the Medici. Crowned or uncrowned, they largely ruled the city-state, or schemed
English history is often dressed up as a dignified procession of crowns, parliaments, and weighty decisions. Strip that away and it starts to look more like a long-running feud documentary.
Everyone remembers the Hundred Years’ War for Henry V at Agincourt or the Black Prince cutting a glamorous, chivalric figure. That’s the highlight reel. But the real architect of the
Edward I, the “Hammer of the Scots,” was not a romantic king. He was feared, admired, methodical, and exacting. A ruler who preferred order to emotion. And yet, his marriage