Ancient Rome transitioned from a monarchy to a republic in 509 B.C., after its seventh king, Tarquin the Proud, was overthrown in a palace coup triggered by his son, Sextus Tarquinius, who violated a young patrician woman named Lucretia, driving her to take her own life and unleashing widespread indignation. However, the monarchists did not […]
Kings
Posted inMiddle Ages
The Tower of Nesle: The Medieval Scandal That Led to the Revival of the Salic Law, Barring Women from the Throne
Alexandre Dumas, the renowned author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, lived a life nearly as eventful as his characters. Among other things, he fought several duels, both with swords and pistols, one of them against the writer Frédéric Gallardet, who accused him—rightly—of having appropriated his theatrical drama The Tower of […]
Posted inAntiquity
Three Brothers-in-Law Dominated the Near East in the 6th Century BC, Until Cyrus the Great Changed History
In the 6th century BC, the Near East was dominated by three powerful kingdoms: the Median Empire of Astyages, the Neo-Babylonian Empire of Nebuchadnezzar II, and the Lydian Kingdom of Croesus. These three great kings were related by marriage: Astyages had married Arienis, sister of Croesus, while Nebuchadnezzar II had married Amytis, daughter of Astyages, […]
Posted inMedieval Archaeology
Discovery of a Medieval Latrine Confirms the Location of the Last Anglo-Saxon King’s Residence depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry
Recent archaeological findings have shed new light on a long-standing mystery about Harold Godwinson, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England. A collaborative study conducted by the Universities of Newcastle and Exeter has identified the location of a previously lost royal residence in Bosham, West Sussex. This site, depicted in the famous Bayeux Tapestry, has been […]
Posted inAge of Exploration, Travel
Herzgruft, the Crypt in Vienna Where the Hearts of the Habsburgs Are Preserved
Saying that the heart of the Habsburgs is in Vienna may sound like a poetic expression to embellish a historical fact, but it can be taken literally if one visits the Church of the Augustinians, part of the Hofburg Imperial Palace. There, in a small chapel dedicated to Our Lady of Loreto, the Loretokapelle, lies […]
Posted inMedieval Archaeology
The Graves of the Lombard Kings from 7th Century Discovered in Pavia, Italy
In the heart of Pavia, west of the city and along the route to Piedmont and the Alps, lies a historic site that is rewriting the history of the Lombards in Italy. During the 7th century AD, King Aripert I decided to build a dynastic mausoleum at this location, marking a turning point in the […]
Posted inAge of Exploration, Culture
Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, the chronicles of the Korean kingdom spanning five centuries, are the longest uninterrupted ones of a single dynasty in history
In 2006, the Seoul government announced that the Guksa Pyeonchan Wiwonhoe (National Institute of Korean History) had undertaken the digitization of the Joseon Wangjo Sillok, that is, the “Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty”, 1,893 books distributed across 888 volumes written in Chinese characters. These chronicles document the successive reigns of the monarchs of that […]
Posted inAncient Rome
The Debated Historicity of the Overthrow of the Roman Monarchy and the Birth of the Republic
Traditionally, the history of Rome begins with its founding by Romulus, a descendant of the exiled Trojan Aeneas, and the establishment of a monarchy under which seven kings succeeded one another. The last of these was Tarquinius Superbus the Proud, who was overthrown in the 6th century BCE after his son assaulted a patrician woman […]
Posted inHistory
The oldest reigning dynasty in the world is the Imperial House of Japan, descended from a shaman queen
If we were to ask what is the world’s oldest active monarchy, most readers would probably say the British without giving it much thought. That would be an incorrect answer. We need to shift the focus to the Far East because that is where Japan is, whose kōshitsu, or Imperial House, has been at the […]
Posted inAntiquity
Sardanapalus, the Depraved Assyrian King Who Inspired Writers, Musicians, and Painters—Did He Really Exist?
There are historical figures who, for various reasons, transcend their status to become paradigms of something; in the case of the Assyrian king Sardanapalus, an archetype of corruption, debauchery, and decadence, something that art and literature have repeatedly depicted in famous works. However, many doubts surround his figure: Did he really exist? Did he truly […]
