As the long reign of Catherine the Great wound down, she made moves to ensure the succession of her grandson, Alexander, but those were still incomplete by the time she died. Instead, it was her estranged son Paul who became emperor, and while his reign was not long, it was spiteful and much reviled by…
14. Catherine the Great
One of history’s great ironies is that one of Russia’s most successful periods occurred under the leadership of a monarch with not a drop of Russian blood. Catherine II, better known as Catherine the Great, was a minor Prussian princess whose fairly horrible mother set her sights on achieving notoriety through her daughter. Fortunately for…
13. Empress Anna of Russia
It feels safe to say that when Russians recall a leader’s reign as a “dark era,” we’re into some deeply, deeply dark events. Empress Anna, a niece of Peter the (Not So) Great, had survived many humiliations before Russia’s Supreme Privy Council elevated her to Empress; they thought she would be easy to control, but…
12. The Time The Dutch Ate Their Prime Minister
For the Dutch Republic, 1672 was a series of existential catastrophes that nearly saw the nation swallowed by France’s Louis XIV. But the internal push and pulls that culminated in the brutal murder and partial consumption of the man who’d run the place for a couple of decades actually began much, much earlier, when Martin…
11. Queen Camilla
The last couple of years have been a time of enormous change for the House of Windsor, the United Kingdom, and the 14 nations that comprise the Commonwealth, and we are so grateful to be joined by podcasting superstar and Royal watcher extraordinaire Kristen Meinzer to discuss. When Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8,…
10. Peter The (Not So) Great
Pausing from the messiness of Plantagenet England, Alicia takes us on a trip to the east to visit Mother Russia, circa 1700, where the Romanov Tsar Peter the Great was busily acquiring lands, founding cities, and reforming the institutions of a country that – largely through his efforts – would become a major player on…
09. Catherine of Valois
Alicia continues with our inexorable march to the Tudor dynasty with yet another French princess contributing to the Plantagenet – now technically Lancastrian – line of the English monarchy. Her marriage to King Henry V, grandson of John of Gaunt and great grandson of King Edward III, was cut tragically short when Henry died on…
08. John of Gaunt
It’s probably impossible to fully understand the events leading up to the Tudor dynasty without talking about perhaps the 14th century’s most singular figure – at least from a historical perspective. John of Gaunt was the third son of King Edward III, and through beneficial marriages, became extremely rich in both land and money. His…
07. Joan of Kent
While the 14th century wasn’t exactly a hotbed of feminist fervor in England, the place wasn’t without its powerful and intriguing women. Joan of Kent was one. Though her family was caught up in the armed conflicts that ended the reign of Edward II, once Edward III threw off the restraints imposed by his mother,…
06. Isabella of France
The War of the Roses was hardly the first period of civil war in England. In fact, Edward III’s father oversaw such a period long before Eddie III’s kids kicked off a few generations of bloody sibling rivalry. Interestingly for the age, Edward II’s wife, Isabella of France, had a starring role in ending his…