Tag Archives: Guest Post

Storms, Spells, and the Royal Bride: Why King James VI Blamed Witchcraft for His Delayed Queen, A Guest Post by Tony Riches

We tend to look back on sixteenth-century royalty through the lens of court intrigue and strategic marriages, yet history is often shaped by moments where personal challenge meets ideology. Few episodes illustrate this better than the violent origin of Scotland’s most infamous witch hunts. In August 1589, fourteen-year-old Princess Anna of Denmark married King James VI of Scotland… Read on

‘Catherine of Braganza’s Agency as Queen’ – A guest post by Susan Abernethy

Catherine of Braganza managed to exercise her agency as queen under difficult circumstances. Her first duty as Queen was to provide her husband with an heir and she made numerous attempts at treatments and pilgrimages to become pregnant. We have proof of a pregnancy and a miscarriage at least once, with two other pregnancies mentioned by Charles to… Read on

‘Living in An Uncharted Terrain: The Exile of Charles II’, A Guest Post by Caroline Willcocks

Why write about the Stuarts? Well, they were the Kennedys of the seventeenth century. Attractive, powerful, marked by tragedy. For a novelist, they are a glittering temptation of a subject. But the long, grinding years of exile cast a long shadow over their later history. Did that put me off? On the contrary, I have long been fascinated by the period… Read on

John Dee: A 17th Century Morality Tale: A Guest Post by E.M. Swift-Hook

John Dee: A 17th Century Morality Tale O what pity that such a man should fall into such a delusion! ~ Méric Casaubon If you visit Mortlake and wander into the St. Mary’s church, you will find a plaque that reads: Near this place lie the remains of John Dee MA, Clerk in Holy Orders 1527 ~… Read on

Coffee House Culture: A Guest Post by Toni Mount

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

‘Covent Garden: The 17th Century West End’—A Guest Post by John Pilkington

Author John Pilkington (@_JohnPilkington) writes about the colourful and seedy side of Covent Garden in the 17th Century.

The Institution of Marriage in 17th Century England: A Guest Post By Deborah Swift

The Institution of Marriage in 17th Century England By Deborah Swift My new book, A Plague on Mr Pepys, has at its heart a marriage. During my research for the book I had to look into attitudes to marriage in the 17th Century, and how these attitudes might affect my characters, Bess and Will Bagwell, when their marriage… Read on

Fake History & the Story of the Whipping Boy: A Guest Post by Leanda de Lisle

Fiction and other works of imagination have an insidious way of working their way into history. Stories that ring true, that look true, that appeal to our prejudices, become ‘fact’. It is a form of historical truthiness in which plays, pictures, and propaganda create a past that is accepted as the genuine record. I unearthed one example, which… Read on

The Seventeenth Century Lady

Thy source for the A-Z of 17th-century history!