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She was about 15 and beautiful, while he was over 50 and the future emperor of the Roman Empire. In 38 CE (dates vary) Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus —known to history as Claudius— married his second cousin, Valeria Messalina. This was...

Thomas Cranmer served as the first Protestant Archbishop of Canterbury from 1533 to 1555 and was one of the prime architects of the English Reformation during the reigns of Henry VIII of England (r. 1509-1547) and Edward VI of England (r...

Thomas Becket (aka Thomas á Becket) was chancellor to Henry II of England (r. 1154-1189) and then archbishop of Canterbury (1162 to 1170). Thomas repeatedly clashed with his sovereign over the relationship between the Crown and Church, particularly...

The Declaration of Pillnitz was a joint statement issued on 27 August 1791 by Leopold II, Holy Roman Emperor (r. 1790-1792) and King Frederick William II of Prussia (r. 1786-1797). The declaration appealed to all European powers to unite...

David I of Scotland reigned from 1124 to 1153 CE. Taking over from his elder brother Alexander I of Scotland (r. 1107-1124 CE), David continued to consolidate the kingdom of Scotland as a single nation, built castles and monasteries, and...

The Knight’s Revolt (1522-1523) was a military action led by the German imperial knight Franz von Sickingen (l. 1481-1523) and encouraged by the knight and writer Ulrich von Hutten (l. 1488-1523) launched to restore the status of the imperial...

James II of Scotland ruled as king from 1437 to 1460. Succeeding his murdered father James I of Scotland (r. 1406-1437), James inherited the throne as a child. The first part of his reign witnessed intense rivalries between rival barons...

The Pilgrimage of Grace is the collective name for a series of rebellions in northern England, first in Lincolnshire and then in Yorkshire and elsewhere between October and December 1536 CE. Nobles, clergy, monks, and commoners united to...

Odo of Bayeux (d. 1097 CE) was the bishop of Bayeux in Normandy and half-brother of William the Conqueror (r. 1066-1087 CE). After the Norman conquest of England in 1066 CE, Odo was given vast Anglo-Saxon estates and made, as the Earl of...

Everyone is aware of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but few realise that these were just one find in a region which continues to yield hundreds of finds significant to our understanding of lives in the first centuries CE, the Jewish revolts and the...