This week, we delve into the man behind the Conquest of Istanbul, nee Constantinople. Who was Mehmed II, how did he come to ride his horse into “the city” as a conquering hero? We talk about all that, plus, a surprise Dracula cameo!
We’re finally talking about the Ottomans! But first, we set the scene for the rulers with a rundown of the rise of the Ottoman Empire. It changed the course of history, but it wasn’t an overnight rise. We walk through the early years and the rising threat to Byzantium and Western Christendom, before the triumphant capture of Constantinople by Mehmed II.
This week, we discuss Japan’s brief early history of female rule, both legendary and historical, and talk about how that all officially ended with the Meiji Restoration, leading indirectly to today’s possible succession crisis. Who run Japan? Not girls!
Emperor Akihito of Japan abdicated his throne on April 30, 2019. What are the implications for the Imperial Family and how does this tie into the context of Japan’s recent past?
We’re back and we are talking Baby Sussex, Baby Sussex’s name, and royal titles! We mean it, this episode might be our longest to date, but it’s full of everything you didn’t know you needed to know about royal titles, who gets them, and what they mean. It’s confusing, to say the least, with plenty of fun English spellings vs. pronunciations to trip us up! Plus, we catch up on five months of royal gossip and movie reviews!
Mary of Teck was perhaps England’s first modern Queen Consort, enduring the hardships right along with her subjects, including two world wars and a succession crisis. She was a constant to her husband and her family, and to the monarchy itself, showing that a successful consort can be a drama free consort. That she did it all absolutely dripping in jewels, well, all the better. She modeled wartime rationing at its sparkliest!
Elizabeth Woodville, Cinderella story? This week, we talk about England’s first “commoner queen” and her marriage to Edward VI. She’s got a bad reputation, but is it earned? Her politics and family connections were messy, but how much of that is due to a grasping woman trying to improve her station in life or to events beyond her control? Whatever the case, she became matriarch to an impressive royal lineage, not bad for a woman with few connections doing the best she could during the Wars of the Roses.
This week, we discuss Eleanor, the famous Lady of Courtly Love, Queen of both France and England, and mother and regent of the Angevin Kings. Trust us, Disney got this tale all wrong!
In 1840, a young man aimed a pistol at Queen Victoria as she rode in her carriage. Throughout the remaining 60 years of her reign, similar events happened no less than 7 more times. Why was her public trying to kill her? Were they just insane? Were they even trying to shoot her? This week, we discuss all of these questions and more, as we chart the rule of the Queen in the Victorian Era and into the 20th century, and all the new forms of terror and threat that brought.
400 years before Edward VI’s succession concerns, England faced the question of female rule for the first time, and the ultimate answer was very different. Matilda set a precedent for female power to be wielded in a less direct way, through male heirs or husbands, but her precedent was set through 20 years of civil war.
Sources:
She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth, Helen Castor