Historical Fun

Fun Facts About King Charles II of England On This Day In History, May 29th 1630, King Charles II of England was born. Follow me on Twitter for daily Historical Fun and #OnThisDay tweets. https://twitter.com/HistoricalFun Ten Fun Facts About King Charles II of England 1) He was oft referred to as the Merry Monarch. Yep, that's completely true. Maybe because of his drunken debauchery, or his fondness to porking every hooker he could find, nobody knows. 2) Charles-Not-A-Spaniel had no legitimate children. Nope, not a one. When he died in 1685 (February 6th), the crown of England passed to his brother, James, who became King James-Is-Gonna-Screw-it-Up. Although no legitimate children, Charles II did have at least a dozen illegitimate kiddies by seven mistresses. Bastards. Although not the cool ones from Game of Thrones. But some of them were actual bastards. At least that's what James II called them. One son of Charles II, the Duke of Monmouth, tried to wrest...

On This Day, the 23rd of January 1570, James Stewart , not a very legitimate son of King James V of Scotland, and also Regent to his half-nephew, baby King James VI of Scotland, was assassinated.   What was most interesting about the assassination, was the method.   James Stewart, the Earl of Moray was taking a stroll down the main street in Linlithgow, you know, minding his own business, and planning to usurp the throne from his baby nephew, when James Hamilton killed him by way of bullet from a gun.   This was the first recorded instance of assassination by firearm in history.   Rumours that Lady Mondegreen was also shot and killed at the same time is a myth. It's all down to the mistranslation of a poem.   Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands, Oh, where hae ye been? They hae slain the Earl o' Moray, And Lady Mondegreen.   In the original Scottish, the poem goes:   Ye Hielands an ye Lowlands O, whaur hae ye been. They ha...

The Assassination of President James A. Garfield On This Day In History in, September 19th, 1881, James A. Garfield, the 20th President of the United States of America died.   President Garfield had only been president for four months when he was shot by Charles J. Guiteau on July 2nd.   Guiteau was pissed at Garfield for not giving him a job. He wanted to be rewarded for doing virtually nothing to get Garfield elected as president and thought he deserved the position of consul in Paris.   It may have been a perfect job for Guiteau if he could speak any French and had any experience of that type of job. But he didn't. It also didn't help that he was a complete nutter.   Virtually all of President Garfield's movements, with the exception his bowel movements, were published in the newspapers. Guiteau followed these movements with interest and also the ones in the papers, and used them to plan the assa...

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY - 1st of September   On the 1st of September, 1532, Lady Anne Boleyn gets well and truly wooed by King Henry-Of-The-Many-Number (VIII) of England .   He made her the Marquess of Pembroke. T'was a gesture that didn't quite get her to agree to bump uglies with him.   She is a true lady, and quite the manipulative one at that, and told the infatuated king that he may not wave his royal sceptre in her direction unless they are married and she is pronounced Queen.   It really was a loving relationship that would last forever. Not.   On the 1st of September, 1715, King Louis XIV of France finally kicked the bucket after a staggering 72 years on the throne.   It was the longest reign of any major European monarch, although not as long as the rain that has lasted over northern Scotland for the last thousand years.   On This Day in History, 1st September, 1979, Pioneer 11 flew/sailed/trundled/sped pa...

History Facts - August 30th 30th of August, 526, King Theoderic the Great, king of the Ostrogoths , a bird-like race of people who dressed in black and moped around all day with a depressed look on their faces, who lived in Italy, died of the Great Pooping, or, as it is better known, craps-a-lotta-blood. Or dysentery.   His 10-year-old son, Athalaric, took over, although it was his mother, Amalasuntha, who ruled as regent. Athalaric is known for his excesses. He drank a huge amount, ate even more, and wiped his nose on the crushed up remains of white hedgehogs. Oh, to be ten again. Those were great years.   On This Day In History, 30th of August, 1483, Louis XI, King of France, died.   He had various nicknames, such as The Cunning and The Universal Spider, because he was extremely cunning and devious, and because he had eight hairy legs.   At school he was known as Louis-You-Got-A-Huge-Snout, and Wets-His-Bed.   Both o...

HISTORY FACT - AUGUST 29th ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY - 29th of AUGUST.   29th August, 1350, an English fleet under the command of Edward III , and his son, the Black Prince, who wasn't black, defeated a Castilian fleet at the Battle of Winchelsea.   The Castilian fleet was under the command of a soldier of fortune. If you have a problem, and no one else can help, and you can find him, maybe you can hire, Don Carlos de la Cerda.   29th August, 1475, the Kingdoms of England and France signed the Treaty of Picquigny , stating there would be an everlasting peace for both kingdoms. Which lasted about five minutes. 29th August, 1484, Pope Innocent VIII, who wasn't entirely innocent , as he approved the hunting and execution of a whole bunch of witches, became Pope.   Are you a witch?   Yes.   BURN YOU WITHCY WITCH WHO DOES WITCHY THINGS.   Did You Know: When a new Pope is elected, all the Cardinals have to take a ...

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY 22nd MARCH On this day in history in 1322, Thomas, Earl of Lancaster , and Earl of Leicester, and Earl of Derby, and Earl of Lincoln, and Earl of Salisbury, died as a result of a serious case of Off-With-His-Head.   Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, was also Baron of Halton, and Lord of Bowland. Yep, he had quite a collection of Earldoms and Lordships. He was also the cousin of King Edward II.   All families have their problems. I have a cousin I don't particularly like. And although Lancaster's relationship with his Kingly cousin started off okay, it went downhill fast.   In no small part to the Earl of Lancaster rebelling against the rule of the King of England. Lancaster preferred to ally himself with the King of Scotland instead.   Lancaster would learn the hard way that you shouldn't vex the King of England. His rebellions failed. He was captured. Torture was also involved. Something to do with pokers and bottoms. But ...

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY MARCH 21st On this day in 1152, King Louis VII of France had his marriage to Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine annulled.   King Louis VII, or Louis the Younger, as his daddy was kingy before him, and that dude was called Louis as well. It was a very popular name for Kings of France and members of boy bands back in the day.   Louis VII of France had married his Queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine when he was seventeen. Some say it was out of love of the beautiful young duchess, however, it wasn't. She was rich. Rich beyond the king's wildest dreams.   She came with the fortunes of the Duchy of Aquitaine and her money would put Donald Trump to shame.   However, fast forward fifteen years, and the King and Queen of France hit a stumbling block in the road. Girls. They were all girls. Eleanor couldn't give the King of France a son. Only one thing to do. Get rid of the witch and find another, younger, model to take her place. ...

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY MARCH 9th On This Day in 1566, David Rizzio was murdered in the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburg, Scotland. David Rizzio was the private secretary to Mary, Queen of Scots.   Historical Fun presents A Humorous History account of the Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots David Rizzio, as the name might suggest, was not actually Scottish. He was an Italian from an ancient and noble family. Rizzio was not much liked by Lord Darnley, the husband of Mary, Queen of Scots. Some put Darnley's dislike of his wife's private secretary down to the rumours that David Rizzio had got Mary up-the-duff. It was these rumours that made Lord Darnley angry. In fact, very angry. On the 9th of March, 1566, Darnley, along with a few of his trusted bestest-buddies, entered his wife's chamber. And that is not a euphemism. They had overpowered the Queen's guards, stormed into her tiny bedchambers, and insisted she hand over the sneaky little Italian. ...

The Long and Winding Journey of How Edward The Confessor became King Of England     It wasn't an easy journey and took a lot of effort.   Edward's father, Ethelred-I-Need-To-Prepare-Some-More, was king. But he abdicated in favour of an invading Cnut.   Not a misspelling. I'm pretty sure he was called worse back in the day.   It was actually Sweyn Forkbeard, the Cnut the Great's father, who seized the throne from Ethelred The Unready, Edward The Confessor's father .   Have you noticed how difficult it is to make jokes out of the names of Kings back in the day?   As a result of the new change in leadership in England , Ex-King Ethelred-The-Unready, Edward-Not-Yet-A-Confessor, Alfred-Brother-Of-Edward (keep an eye on him), and the sister with the weird name, fled into exile to Normandy.   There went a bit of back and forth for the next few years.   Sweyn...

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY - March 2nd   On This Day in 1484, The College of Arms is incorporated by Royal charter by King Richard III.   A year later and Richard-The-Turd became the last English King to die in battle.   Richard-For-The-Third-Time-I-Didn't-Kill-My-Nephews died at the battle of Bosworth Field in 1485 after a series of serious blows to his head.   Well, at least one of them was pretty serious. In fact, he had eleven wounds in total, eight of them to the head. Someone had some serious anger issues they had to deal with.   On This Day in 1825, Robert Cofresi was defeated in combat and captured by the authorities. Cofresi, although not well known, was one of the last successful Caribbean pirates, even putting the infamous Blackbeard to shame.   On This Day in 1882, Queen Victoria survived an assassination attempt by Roderick McLean at Windsor.