‘Royal Mistress’ by Patricia Campbell Horton follows the story of Barbara Villiers from her adolescence, her passionate relationship with her first love, Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, through her marriage to Roger Palmer, her notorious reign as Charles II’s long-term mistress, through Charles’s marriage to Catherine of Braganza, her rivalry with Frances Stuart, up to her becoming Duchess… Read on
The Lost Case for Murder, 6 February 1685 by Stephen M. Carter In today’s social media-filled world, conspiracy theories and fake news spread like a wildfire that burns truth in its path. Therefore, when we look back at history we do so with envy. Surely, the facts are the facts? Especially when later writers repeat the same accounts,… Read on
Hear ye! Earlier this evening, historian Paul Lay was the first speaker in the Cromwell Museum’s Winter Lecture Series and gave a really fascinating talk about the West Indies during the time of the Cromwellian Protectorate, with figures such as Admiral William Penn and Robert Venables. I’m honoured to have been asked to be the second speaker in… Read on
On 25th November 1120, the White Ship sank in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy, France—an event which led to the drowning of the heir to the English throne, William Adelin—triggering a time of brutal civil war which came to be known as the Anarchy. Today I’m speaking with Charles Spencer, historian and author of the… Read on
In England, under Oliver Cromwell’s Puritan regime, drunkenness was considered an ungodly sin but, at the time, as for centuries before, ale or beer were the safest drinks. Water might be a more godly drink but the danger of swallowing disease-causing agents with every mouthful was understood, even if microbes wouldn’t be discovered for another two centuries. Therefore,… Read on
Mistresses: Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles II, written by historian Linda Porter and published by Picador in 2020, is the second book on the Stuarts of the seventeenth century by Dr Porter, the first being, Royal Renegades: The Children of Charles I and the English Civil Wars. Porter previously wrote several books on Tudor history,… Read on
Acclaimed historical fiction author Anna Belfrage kindly invited me on a blog event entitled, ‘Glory and Gore: The Dichotomy of the Glorious 17th Century’, and I’m honoured to have been the first guest in her line-up! Other authors of works set in the seventeenth-century will be posting in the forthcoming days and I’ll be adding links to them… Read on
I bought this book a few years ago when Penguin started publishing these small, and very affordable, black books. I bought several, including this book by a Spanish priest and author, Baltasar Graciàn, who lived from 1601 to 1658. Honestly, I’d never heard of him before. Other reviews I read were somewhat disparaging, opining that it was Machiavellian.… Read on