During my sister’s pregnancies, I came to realise that I was being very annoying; repeatedly saying to them “just be thankful it’s the 21st Century” – not taking into account that for anyone who hasn’t been reading the records I have, this is not exactly a self explanatory statement. I think my sisters took it to mean…
Author: HistoricalHoney
Who were the Plantagenet’s? – Historical Honey
Those brilliant Archaeologists at Leicester University (along with the determination of an eccentric enthusiastic named Philippa) revealed at a press conference on 4th February that the human remains found beneath a city centre car park are ‘beyond reasonable doubt’ those of the last Plantagenet, King Richard III. For a royal dynasty who ruled for almost four…
Will Shakespeare As A Teenager
In his new Elizabethan thriller, The Queen’s Man, Rory Clements sends his hero John Shakespeare home to Stratford-upon-Avon. The year is 1582 – a momentous year for the Shakespeare family. When William Shakespeare was eighteen years old, he got twenty-six-year-old Anne Hathaway pregnant and married her. Whether he did so because he loved her or…
Weird History: The Mystery of Major John Andre
Many people may have heard the tale of Major John Andre (he was captured, tried and hung during the American Revolution). After all the time that had passed, the story of Major Andre was still talked about when I was young. But…I have seen something of Major Andre that I guarantee very few in this…
Did Victorian Prudery End Female ‘Slavery’ Down The Mines?
I love a man who’s passionate about principles. From the perspective of a romance novelist, they make the best heroes and it’s Victorian philanthropist Lord Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftsbury who’s the inspiration for the passionate reformist MP hero of my latest Choc Lit release ‘The Maid of Milan’. Lord Anthony Ashley-Cooper. Source: en.wikipedia.org Not only…
Weird History: Ten Facts You May Not Know Happened…
Here at the Hive, we are obsessed with absurd and downright weird facts of the historical variety. Recently, we regaled you with the tale of the the American town who hung an elephant. We also shared the curious, creepy urban myth of ‘Spring-Heeled Jack’. Our commitment to blow your minds with weird historical facts is…
What makes Katherine Swynford such an intriguing subject?
Katherine Swynford lived more than seven hundred years ago. Why is it that, so long after her death, she continues to captivate readers of history and historical fiction? In her own time she was a woman of little importance. Kings and princes, after all, frequently took lovers. Why is is that Katherine has kept such…
Never Mind Valentine’s Day! I’m Going To A Monkey Parade
As some of you may have noticed, it was Valentine’s Day a few days ago. With its heart-shaped chocolate boxes and love bugs, it seems to have the ol’ Marmite effect on people: you either love it or you hate it! So, as Cupid puts down his arrow for another year and the roses start…
The Regency Lady Vs The Modern Day Gal
Always wondered how a lady of the Regency Era might have spent her day? Fear not, because we have the solution: an itinerary of a Regency woman’s daily toil…yes toil! It was hard going; she didn’t have lunch until 3! And to make matters more interesting…we have compared it to how YOU live now! TimeRegency WomanModern Woman7amBe woken…
King John of Bohemia and the Battle of Crécy
The Battle of Crécy is well known from the English point of view. Edward III’s force destroyed the largest and best-equipped army in Europe, that of King Philip VI of France, with extraordinarily few losses on his part. However, the list of those lost on the French side is long and illustrious. The most exalted…