Indholdsfortegnelse for Issue 151 i All About History

It’s great to see that the wives of Henry VIII have been getting some renewed interest in recent months. This is, in part, thanks to the release of the musical Six, which is a comedy/pop music take on the stories of Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anne of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr. This, along with a number of excellent books that have sought to reexamine the lives of these women, such as Alison Weir’s historical fiction series, have offered up interesting new perspectives through which to appreciate these women and their lives. For me, the most misunderstood has always been Anne of Cleves, the supposed rejected wife. Her residence in England and life in the court of Henry VIII following their marriage hints at a more…

Located in the grounds of the Palace of Versailles on the Trianon Estate near Paris is the Petit Trianon, a smaller palace designed in the style of neoclassicism. During the Enlightenment, neoclassical architecture flourished across Europe. Harking back to the style of the ancient Greeks while prioritising scientific rationalism, neoclassicism provided the perfect balance that encompassed the values of the Enlightenment movement. The Petit Trianon was commissioned by King Louis XV as a place of privacy for his beloved mistress Madame du Pompadour, but she died before the palace was finished. The king decided to gift the building, which was eventually completed in 1768, to his new mistress Madame du Barry. Du Barry was a great patron of the arts and was an influence on the continuing use of neoclassical…

How has our understanding of what constituted the Enlightenment changed? Historians’ interest in the Enlightenment is actually quite recent, gathering pace only after the Second World War. Until then, understanding of the ‘what, when and where’ of the Enlightenment was quite simple. It was a movement of philosophers and men of letters committed to the application of reason to human affairs, and therefore hostile to established churches, in favour of toleration, and, in some cases, actively irreligious. Its period was the 18th century, with a ‘pre-Enlightenment’ in the late 17th century; it ended in the French Revolution. Its principal location was France, where the ‘philosophes’ led by Voltaire proclaimed a new age of lumières; but it had a significant outpost in Germany, where the philosopher Immanuel Kant defined Aufklärung by…

In the mid-15th century, at the height of his powers, the mighty emperor Pachacuti returned to Cusco to discover his wife-sister had bore him a new son. Although he had older legitimate sons, he sensed something special in this boy. As he raised him towards the almighty Sun, he proclaimed the boy Topa Inca Yupanqui. It was an auspicious occasion, one the emperor marked by offering vast quantities of gold and silver to the Sun god Inti, the oracles and the sacred stones known as the huacas. In the most extravagant festival the Inca had ever seen, he undertook an epic capac hucha ceremony, where a procession of children toured Cusco before being sacrificed. Years later, as the elderly emperor felt his vigour fade, he decided it was time to…

In 1807, after many years of campaigning by an ever-growing abolitionist movement, the British Parliament passed the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. While this did not free people who were already enslaved, it was the beginning of a process that would bring to an end Britain’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. British enslavers didn’t necessarily end their involvement immediately, however, so the Royal Navy was drafted in to hunt down ships still being used to transport this grim human cargo. Released from their commitments in the Napoleonic Wars, these navy ships gradually began to intercept vessels of all nations who were kidnapping men and women from West Africa and shipping them under horrific conditions to the Americas. These Royal Navy vessels became known as the West Africa…

In 1962, the world was stunned by the tragic death of Marilyn Monroe, a symbol of beauty and fame, who passed away at just 36. Her untimely demise has been attributed to her reliance on prescription drugs, a conclusion drawn from scientific analysis, though whether it was intentional or accidental remains a mystery. Over the years, her passing has captivated theorists and filled numerous books. Some biographers, like Norman Mailer, have conceded that their works and murder theories were financially motivated and held no merit. However, no matter how Marilyn died, it’s intriguing to ponder an alternative scenario: what if she had been rescued that fateful night? What different path might her life have taken? If Marilyn’s career had continued, what would it have looked like and for how long?…

22 January 1998 UNABOMBER CONFESSES After pleading guilty to all charges against him, American domestic terrorist Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, was sentenced to serve several consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. Kaczynski had begun a 17-year bombing campaign in 1978 in the hopes of bringing awareness to what he thought were the dangers of modern technology. His bombs, which were either mailed or hand-delivered, killed three people and injured 23 more. Kaczynski was eventually caught after sending his anti-technology manifesto to The New York Times. Upon its publication in September 1995, Kaczynski’s brother recognised the writing and reported his suspicions to the FBI. 15 January 1919 GREAT MOLASSES FLOOD At about 12.30pm nearly 9 million litres of molasses flooded the streets of the North End…

1 MONTICELLO CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA, USA Drawing from the Classical Revival movement of the Enlightenment, Monticello was famously the home of United States Founding Father Thomas Jefferson. It was built between 1768 and 1809, with a bulk of the construction being completed in 1784 when Jefferson left for France to be America’s representative there. Here he was exposed to the revival of interest in ancient Roman architecture that had swept through the Continent and began his plans for expansions and revisions to Monticello. The mansion we see today is the result of those plans with its 35 rooms, each a different shape, its massive gardens and central octagonal dome, which was the first of its kind in America. The site passed through several hands following Jefferson’s death, leaving behind debts that…

Making art is one of the defining characteristics of humanity and as far back as we can look we find people creating patterns and images. But decoding what that art means is often not a simple task because it can have many layers and contain secrets obvious only to the creator. Sometimes the artist deliberately hides something in their work that will only be noticed after prolonged study or which is apparent only to those that know where to look. The reasons why secrets were placed in artworks vary from symbolism, to jokes, to revenge, to accidents. Studies show most people spend around 30 seconds looking at a piece of art in a gallery – but a second glance might reveal a detail we never expected. Here are some great…

Southeast Asia is dotted with ancient, often abandoned sites of earlier civilisations. These range from B-52-bombed temples of My Son in the Vietnamese mountains to the magisterial Buddhist stupa Borobudur, surrounded by the smoking volcanoes of Java. There are countless individual religious sites, some more than a millennium old, peppering the region’s forests and mountains. The biggest are the cities of Angkor, in Cambodia, and Bagan, in Burma. Both were abandoned and suffered the encroachment of the elements. This has given them an aura of being lost cities in exotic locations, the sort of places that serve as backdrops to a Lara Croft or Indiana Jones movie. But these ruined cities are not sets for Western movies. They represent the pre-modern civilisations of Southeast Asia, which still resonate for local…

POMPEII Director: Paul WS Anderson Starring: Kit Harrington, Keifer Sutherland, Emily Browning Country: Italy Year: 2014 Can love overcome an erupting volcano? Probably not… VERDICT: While the story is fictional, the key event sticks largely to the science NEW SPECIAL AVAILABLE NOW…

The legacy of Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII’s fourth wife, is one of paradoxes. To some historians, she is the discarded and unwanted wife. To others she is the lucky one. Despite the fact that her disastrous marriage only lasted around six months, Anne came out of the other side relatively unscathed and as one of the wealthiest women in England. The life she built in England was extraordinary, particularly when you consider the fates of her fellow wives, and she was able to be independent and self-reliant to an extent, a remarkable achievement for a woman of her time. LIFE IN THE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE Born in 1515 in Düsseldorf in the Duchy of Berg, which was part of the powerful Holy Roman Empire, Anne was the child of…

The Battle of Chaeronea was one of the most decisive in the ancient world – it decided the fate of Greece. The country’s future rested on two of its hitherto greatest military powers: Athens and Thebes. The result of Chaeronea was, however, to be a crushing victory for Macedonia that kept all of Greece compliant to Macedonian will for the next 15 years – this in turn allowed Alexander to embark on his unprecedented conquest of the Persian Empire in 334 BCE. For such an important engagement we, frustratingly, do not have much surviving source material on it; our best sources for the period are lost and we are left with only summaries and anecdotes. What is more, the historians of Alexander, of which there are many, tend to rush…

GLADIATOR II Scott offers up a new swords and sandals spectacle for the mob Certificate: 15 Creator: Ridley Scott Cast: Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal Released: Out now Avoiding major spoilers for this film as best we can, we begin 16 years after the events of Gladiator (2000) and follow Hanno (Mescal), a young commander of Numidia who sees his wife killed in battle against the Romans. Having been taken as a prisoner of war, he is sold into slavery. He seeks revenge on the Roman commander of that battle, General Acacius (Pascal), the husband of returning character Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), both of whom are growing uncomfortable with the bloodlust of dual emperors Geta (Joseph Quinn) and Caracalla (Fred Hechinger). Working his way up behind them all is gladiator…

Henry VIII is said to have provided these delicious treats with their peculiarly quaint name. The story states that he named them after Anne Boleyn, at that time the maid of honour to Catherine of Aragon. So enamoured was Henry VIII with these cakes that he ordered the recipe should be hidden away, made only for him. It was only in the 1700s that the recipe was leaked to John Billet, a baker, whose cakes quickly became incredibly popular. The exact truth of this story remains unknown, nonetheless it has become part of the legend of this British classic. Ingredients • 150g flour• 50g caster sugar• Butter• Water• 100g full-fat cream cheese• 2 tbsp ground almonds• 2 Eggs• Zest of 2 lemons METHOD 01 Add the flour, caster sugar and…