The Raucous Royals

And the winner is...

2009-11-12T06:29:00.000-08:00

Ashley was last month's winner of Royal Affairs. Congratulations to the winner! I have emailed the winner and just need your mailing address.

This month's Raucous book of the month was supposed to be Booker prize winner, Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel. I am REALLY enjoying the book, but it's a long one so I have to push it to next month's giveaway. (I probably would have finished it by now if I didn't have a tiny baby insisting that milk comes before mommy's reading time. )

I am going to have a non-book giveaway for this month. Stay tuned for more details....

All newsletter subscribers are automatically entered to win the giveaway.

The Beast of Gevaudan

2009-11-02T16:42:00.000-08:00

If you look out your window tonight you will see the full moon shining brightly. It is only on a night like tonight that cursed men transform themselves into a savage half-wolf, half-man called a werewolf. Over 200 years ago, the local residents from a small French providence fell victim to one such creature. Here is their story…

In 1764, in the mountainous area of Gevaudan, France, a young girl was tending to her flock of cattle when out of the bushes sprung a large wolf-like creature with a long tufted tail and sharp fangs. The girl’s dogs fled the scene, but her cattle attacked the beast with their horns saving the girl’s life. (All the cows that I know wouldn’t care less if a human was getting mauled, but it is a known fact that French cows are a bit more rambunctious than your average American cow.)

A few days later, another girl was not so lucky and her father found her mutilated body with her throat slashed and claw marks covering her body. Over 100 mysterious murders soon followed all resembling an animal attack with some victims even showing signs of a sexual assault. At the time, wolves were believed to be possessed by the devil so a horny wolf prowling through the quiet hills of France was nothing to take lightly. The wolf hysteria soon reached its height when a young boy survived an attack from the beast with a very different tale to tell. In his account, the wolf in question stood upright like a man and had wolf-like traits. It wasn’t long before talk of a werewolf spread across France and became known as ‘The Beast of Gevaudan.’

Rumors of the man-eating wolf soon reached the king’s ears and although Louis XV wasn't always so compassionate toward the local peasants, he wasn’t about to suffer international ridicule for tales of werewolves in an age of reason. Thus, the king began to throw a tremendous amount of resources into catching the beast hiring professional wolf trackers and a cavalry led by Captain Duhamel. But despite the numerous wolves killed….the attacks continued. Louis soon hired the Van Hesling of wolf hunters, - Francois Antoine, Lieutenant of the Hunt. Antoine managed to kill a very large wolf reportedly over 130 pounds and was declared a hero. He had the beast stuffed and rotting away, but weeks later…the attacks began again. Finally, a local farmer named Jean Castel offed the beast with a silver bullet through the heart and was declared the true hero. (It’s from this story that Hollywood borrowed the concept that only a silver bullet can kill a werewolf.)

Who was the beast of Gevaudan? Was it some sort of hybrid rabid dog or a man disguised as a wolf? Some believe it was a hyena brought over to France in a royal menagerie. Others believed it be a wild baboon. And others believed it to be a werewolf sent by god to punish the providence’s sinners. In a recent History Channel documentary, criminal profiler, George Deuchar and cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard battle it out with competing theories. George believes only a man could be so savage while Ken taps away at his computer pulling up youtube videos of prehistoric wolf-like beasts that could have roamed the countryside. In the end, they “solve” the mystery by agreeing that they were both right. Their concluding theory is that the beast was most likely a hyena trained by Jean Castel to attack humans and was shot by his master when becoming the town savior became more rewarding than terrorizing the residents. They prove this theory by shooting silver bullets into wads of blubber and showing how inaccurate silver is if you want to kill an angry hyena. Their tests conclude that the beast must have been in close range to be killed with a silver bullet and therefore must have either trusted a man with a rifle pointed at him or was one very stupid hyena.

I found all two hours utterly fascinating despite the distracting reenactments of snarling wolves and mutilated bodies. Still, I must warn readers that my skeptical husband watched ten minutes and accused me of suffering from new mother sleep deprivation and suggested that I really should get out of the house. But who wants to leave the house when werewolves might be lurking around the corner?

Sources and Further Reading:
History Channel, The Real Wolfman
Thompson, Richard H. Wolf-hunting in France in the reign of Louis XV: the beast of the Gévaudan, Lewiston: New York, Edwin Mellen Press, 1992

Raucous Book of the Month: Royal Affairs: A Lusty Romp through the Extramarital Adventures that Rocked the British Monarchy

2009-10-20T16:51:00.001-07:00

In the raucous book of the month, Royal Affairs, Leslie Carroll takes readers on a lively tour through some of history’s busiest boudoirs. Everyone enjoys a good love story, unfortunately kings and queens could rarely choose a mate for love. Royal marriages were usually arranged to secure stronger alliances and a few heirs in the royal nursery. Rarely, did a happily-ever-after occur when the bride stepped off the boat. Carroll reminds us that it was the love affairs that happened outside of the marriage that provide a glimpse into a king or queen's true desires and reveal the kind of paramour that could command royal attention.

I especially enjoyed Carroll’s conversational writing style. I felt like I was sitting down for tea with a gossipy friend spilling the dirt on the latest rumors. Royal Affairs would also make the perfect gift book for the attention deficit reader (like me) because you can read it in parts and skip around to your favorite royals. And although this book falls into the adult genre, give it to that history loving teen on your Christmas list (or that teen who does not know yet there is a history lover inside of them).

Although the entertainment factor is high for this book, I must add that Royal Affairs is not just another frivolous romp through British history. Behind the bodice ripping is some real history. In each section, Carroll raises questions on how these dalliances changed the course of history. What if Mary Queen of Scots had not been such a dullard when choosing men? What if Charles II had divorced his wife and chosen a more fertile bride? What if Henry VIII had never met Anne Boleyn? From the Angevins to the Windsors, Carroll’s meticulous research uncovers the men and women behind the dutiful monarchy and will have you contemplating why some behind-the-scenes affairs got center stage in our history books and some did not.

When I finished Royal Affairs, I found myself comparing how a king behaved toward his queen vs. his mistress or how a dutiful queen behaved when not wearing the crown. Edward IV may have honored and loved his wife Elizabeth Woodville, but it was Jane Shore that captivated him through the years. Henry VIII respected his first wife Catherine enough to stay married to her for over twenty years until the magnetic Anne Boleyn flashed her sultry eyes. And Elizabeth I may have wed herself to England, but only Robert Dudley knew the secrets in her heart. Luckily, matrimonial bliss gets its say in Carroll’s companion book, Notorious Royal Marriages available in stores soon.

All newsletter subscribers are automatically entered to win a signed copy of Royal Affairs this month. If you are not a newsletter subscriber then you can subscribe here.

In non-royal news, John Anthony Beccia IV finally came into this world (sideways!) on October 21st weighing 9 pounds, 11 ounces. I am trying desperately to get caught up on posts, but some of my planned October posts may get pushed into November.

How Columbus was like a 7 year old brat

2009-10-11T00:00:00.000-07:00

How Christopher Columbus got his own holiday might be one of the seven wonders of history. I confess that I have a bit of a bone to pick with Chris. My disenchantment goes back to my third grade history report in which I sentimentally droned on about what a fabulous guy he was, only to find out later I had been fed a pack of lies.

Smarty pants
Let’s start with the story we know and love. In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue from Spain to the islands of the Caribbean while looking for a sea route to the Indies. No, he didn’t believe the earth was flat. No one thought the earth was flat. But Columbus also certainly didn’t expect to hit the Americas instead of his desired destination. Unfortunately, when anyone tried to tell him he hadn't arrived in the Indies, the naysayer ended up with their tongue cut off.

Go ahead and make me
His voyages were also not as harmonious as my history books led me to believe. After weeks of being lost at sea, his crew begged him to turn around, but Columbus refused. The desperate crew soon came to the conclusion that it would just be better for everyone if they threw Columbus overboard. But there was one problem. No one but Columbus knew the way home and their captain’s last dieing words were not going to include directions. Everyone believed that they would die. So you can imagine the rejoicing when the crew landed in the Caribbean. That’s when the fun began.

Mine, Mine, Mine
As soon as Columbus’s crew got off the boat, they slapped down a Spanish flag claiming the unknown territory. Unfortunately, the land already belonged to some confused Native Americans of the Arawak tribe. According to Columbus’s log, the Arawaks thought Columbus’s crew were straight out of heaven accept they couldn’t quite understand why angels stunk so much and why they were wearing so much darn clothes. Then, they became even more confused when the angels turned out to be no-good thieves.

Indian Givers
We first must understand how the Arawak culture worked. The natives sort of remind me of my grandmother (god rest her soul). I would say, “nice necklace grandma” and she would immediately insist that I have it. Tell her you like her cookies and she would send you home with every last crumb. The Native Americans demonstrated the same generosity. If you complimented anything they owned, then they would immediately give it away. But there was a catch. The Indians would give things away….but then they would expect them back. To them, humans didn’t own things. Columbus saw things a bit differently. Once someone gave you something (or you stole it), it was yours to keep. He called the natives “Indian Givers”, (a phrase we still use today), and couldn't understand why they would want their gifts back.

Yuck, Cooties!
And what did the natives get in return for their generosity? Columbus’s crew gave some very special gifts to them in the form of measles, tetanus, typhoid, influenza, pneumonia, dysentery, whooping cough, smallpox and pork chops. The last one was Queen Isabella’s idea. She knew a fattened pig was the perfect food source. Unfortunately, the pigs also spread trichinosis. All those poor Native Americans knew is that one minute they were living happily smoking their peace pipe with perfectly working bowel movements and the next they had a bad case of the runs and some wild pigs running through their homes. Fair? Hardly.

oooouuuuuu shiny things
By now, the honeymoon was over. The Indians soon had enough and attacked Columbus’s crew killing many of them. Columbus just got more men to come over and enslaved the Indians forcing them to mine for gold. Meanwhile, the Indians just couldn’t understand why Europeans got so worked up over shinny things. It would be like a bunch of aliens landing in New York and demanding large quantities of bobble head dolls. Sure, bobble head dolls are amusing, but they have no monetary value. To the Indians, gold was not currency, and certainly not something that they were willing to die for.

I know you are, but what am I
Columbus seemed to take a sadistic delight in the rape, pillage and murder of innocent people. The rape and pillaging part is generally scratched out of the history books because it makes a far less picturesque tale then the tiny ships of the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria merrily sailing across the ocean. Any Indian who didn’t give Columbus enough gold immediately had his hands cut off or was bled to death. By the time Columbus was done being a fabulously swell guy, 250,000 Indians had died. ok ok, we must remember that this was part of exploration and he did nothing more horrible than any other explorer of his time. But like my grandmother always said…. just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean you have to do it.

When you look at all the mayhem Columbus caused, you can’t help but wonder why school children everywhere still have to write reports on such a big jerk. But if there is one thing that the kids at home should learn from this blog it is this - the person with the most toys gets to write the history books and Columbus certainly brought back his share of new toys. His spoils included gold, slaves, chocolate, peanuts, potatoes, tobacco and possibly syphilis.**

Maybe Columbus' appeal to school kids is because he kind of acted like a spoiled brat. He didn't share. He spread countless germs. He bullied others. He is the kind of guy that we teach are children not to grow up and become. So why then do we honor him in classrooms across America?

** Some historians even argue that good old Chis spent his last days suffering from some itchiness. The other side of the debate is that Columbus did not bring back syphilis to Europe. Syphilis may have randomly mutated into a virulent pathogen at the end of the 15th century and the fact that it began to wreak havok on the population at the time of Columbus’s return home was mere coincidence.

Sources and Further Reading:
Hayden, Deborah. Pox: Genius, Madness, And The Mysteries Of Syphilis, New York, NY: Basic Books, 2003.
Christopher Columbus: Explorer of the New World. DVD. History Channel. 2005.
Cook, Noble David, “Sickness, Starvation, and Death in Early Hispaniola”, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Winter, 2002), pp. 349-386.

Five things you probably didn’t know about the Mary Rose

2009-10-09T09:27:00.000-07:00

I got this email this morning about the Mary Rose. Wouldn't you have loved to see Henry VIII's face when the ship sank?

1. The debate continues as to why the Mary Rose mysteriously sank off the Portsmouth coast in 1545. Four of the suggested possibilities are:
- Too many cooks and not enough skilled seamen on board.
- Poor communication and slow responses from an international crew.
- A hole made by a French cannonball in battle led to the Mary Rose taking water onboard.
- The Mary Rose was too top heavy and keeled over when changing course.

2.On 19th July 1545 Henry VIII was watching his fleet set sail to battle the approaching French and saw the Mary Rose sink. So did the wife of Vice Admiral Sir George Carew, who was on board – not surprisingly, she fainted.

Maybe it is my morbid curiosity, but I find facial reconstruction technology utterly fascinating. I think the guy to the right looks a little like Richard Gere minus the full beard. Maybe? ok I have had better calls.

3. Scientists have used Facial Reconstruction technology to illustrate the facial features of the crew of the Mary Rose from skulls found on board (shown above).

4. As well as iron bolts The Mary Rose was held together by thousands of wooden pegs – each one made by hand.

5. Celebrated Marine Artist Geoff Hunt researched the Mary Rose for 113 hours before he began his new painting of the ship, unveiled earlier this year. His research revealed that King Henry VIII’s flagship had one more fighting castle deck than had previously been thought, fuelling speculation that it was the ship’s top heaviness that may have led to her mysterious sinking (shown here).

Not too shabby of a painting eh? Here is some more info about the Mary Rose:

http://www.maryrose500.org/
www.facebook.com/MaryRose500?_fb_noscript=1
www.twitter.com/MaryRose500
www.youtube.com/maryrose500appeal
http://www.maryrose.org/
http://www.historicdockyard.co.uk/

Those gossiping son of a guns

2009-10-06T06:58:00.000-07:00

Are you sick of all the child birth posts yet? Ok, I promise this is my last one…maybe. When researching this subject, I was surprised to find many American idioms and words that originated in child birth practices. Here are a few of my favorite:

Son of a Gun
If you were a sailor’s wife in the 17th century then you might not want to give birth on the ship. To help the baby along the sailors would fire a canon believing the blast would help the baby come out faster. It’s from this tradition that we get the phrase “son of a gun.” Just imagine coming into the world to the sound of blazing canons.

Gossip
Throughout history, when a woman gave birth it turned into one big party where presumably everyone but the mother in labor had a good time. When Marie Antoinette gave birth to her daughter, everyone but the local butcher crowded into her bed chamber to wait for the blessed event. These women who gathered around the birthing mother chattering and sharing stories were called “God-sibs” or sisters-in-god and became the origin of the word gossip. When Louis XIV’s mistress, Louise de la Valliere gave birth, he appointed a male midwife because he new prattling women were less likely to be discreet.

Farmed out
Today when you use the term “farmed out,"you usually think of the labor forces used in other countries to manufacture the goods that were once made in America. The term actually has its origins in childbirth. Throughout the 17th and 18th century, wealthy English ladies would send their newborns out to live with a wet nurse in the country. This practice was called “farmed out.”

Travel
Before the 1300s, the word travel was derived from “travail” and was defined as painful exertion and suffering. It was often used in referring to the pain of childbirth. They just don’t call it labor for nothing!

Winner of The Raucous Royals giveaway

2009-10-06T06:20:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Kimberly of Kimberly Eve Musings of a Writer. Her article on Anne Boleyn was chosen as the winner of The Raucous Royals favorite royal contest hosted by Everything Tudor. You can read her article here:

http://kimberlyeve.blogspot.com/2009/10/writing-competitions.html

And here is another article on my favorite royal Elizabeth I
http://kimberlyeve.blogspot.com/2009/09/many-faces-of-elizabeth-i.html

Winner of The Midwife's Apprentice

2009-10-05T07:29:00.000-07:00

The winner of The Midwife's Apprentice is Kathleen. I have emailed the winner and just need your mailing address.

All newsletter subscribers are automatically entered to win the giveaway. If you are not a newsletter subscriber, then subscribe here.

Congratulations to last month's winner.

Raucous Royal of the Month: Lucrezia Borgia and her many Loves

2009-09-30T08:38:00.001-07:00

When you hear the name Lucrezia Borgia, many can’t help but think of the woman popularized in operas and fiction novels as the most infamous femme fatale in history. Rumors abound of the poisons, like La Cantarella, that Lucrezia was quick to dust upon her guest’s foods. In one colorful tale, Lucrezia had a poisoned ring with a hidden needle which she used to prick her enemies and secretly murder them.

Today, we know that the tales of poisoning are complete rubbish, but her family cannot be forgiven so easily. Born the bastard daughter of Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia), Lucrezia was surrounded by intrigue and decadence during the height of the church’s corruption. The year she was born, 1480, marked the flowering of Renaissance art and literature, but also a time where it was commonplace for Popes to have concubines and poisoning one’s enemies was considered a gentleman’s way of removing political obstacles. Machiavelli wrote of Alexander VI that he, 'never did or thought of anything but deceiving people. ' Machiavelli was especially fond of Lucrezia's diabolical brother, Cesare Borgia who would later become his role model for political ambition along with the poster child for syphilis.

Even by Renaissance standards, growing up a Borgia was like living a life straight out of the Godfather. Dinner guests had a habit of winding up dead and late night antics often involved a few debauched orgies. And just like true Renaissance godfathers, they epitomized Don Vito Corlione's mantra of “keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” At the time, Italy was broken up into a bunch of warring city states where the Pope had to form outside alliances quickly and deftly to stay in control. In the heart of these shifting alliances, Lucrezia became a valuable bargaining chip in the marital market. Unfortunately, Lucrezia’s husbands also came with expiration dates. Her family would hitch her to one man, but when the political alliance ceased to serve its purpose, they would find another match more suitable. This left Lucrezia with the helpless title of “pawn” and also made her a few enemies quick to spread rumors.

Bachelor #1
Though careful bribes, Alexander bought himself a pope’s hat in 1492 and soon began looking for a suitable match for his beloved daughter. Lucky bachelor #1 was Giovanni Sforza, a man twice Lucrezia’s age and a bit too dull to inspire much passion in his new wife. But Giovanni came with an alliance to the powerful Milanese family so Alexander threw enough ducats at him to help him forget Lucrezia's illegitimate status. A few years later, the doting father came to the conclusion that his daughter could do better and decided to divorce Lucrezia and Giovanni on the grounds that Giovanni was impotent. Although non-consummation, was commonly used to dissolve marriages, something about the title of "impotent" just rubbed Giovanni the wrong way. That’s when the mud slinging began. Right about this time, a nasty rumor began circulating that Alexander was sleeping with his daughter. No one can prove the rumor today but my guess is that being a veteran soldier, Giovanni might have been fighting his divorce with words instead of weapons.

No one could seem to come up with a solution to the mess until Giovanni’s buddy, Ludovico Sforza (il Moro) suggested that they hold a public performance where a few qualified men could judge Giovanni’s…ahh performance. We don’t know exactly what Lucrezia thought of this suggestion, but she did decide to run away to a nunnery. Eventually, Giovanni figured out that fighting the divorce was a worthless cause that would only end up with him broke or swimming with the fishes in the Tiber River. He conceded to the charge of impotence and let his next wife prove the contrary. (He went on to father a child by her).

Bachelor #2
Alexander next decided to form and alliance with Alfonso of Aragon. Although a bastard too, Alfonso came with the backing of his father, the King of Naples and the boyish good looks that made all the ladies swoon. Lucrezia did her fair share of swooning too and was soon expecting her first child with Alfonso. All would have ended happily if Alexander had not changed his mind yet again and decided that an alliance with King Louis XII of France would suit him better. He began negotiating with Louis to marry Lucrezia's brother, Cesare to a french princess—an alliance that was in direct opposition to Lucrezia’s marriage with Alfonso. At the time, Louis was attempting to gobble up Naples which made him no friend to Alfonso's Arogonese family.

In fear of his life, Alfonso headed for the hills leaving a 6 months pregnant Lucrezia behind. Lucrezia begged her father to assure Alfonso that he would not be harmed and the runaway newlywed returned to see the birth of his first son. But if Alfonso believed a promise from a Borgia, then he was a bit of a fool. One night, he was stabbed from behind on the steps of St. Peters. His half-dead body was dragged home to a distraught Lucrezia who nursed him back to health. While Alfonso was recuperating, Alexander appointed a guard to watch him, but the guard must have taken a coffee break because someone crept in and strangled Alfonso. Suspicious? Certainly. Many people assumed that Cesare ordered the killing with the blessing of Alexander. Lucrezia was so heart-broken that her father and brother had to send her away because they could not stand to hear her weeping while they were trying to whoop it up during all those lavish banquets.

Bachelor #3
Lucrezia's third marriage alliance was quite a coup considering that Alfonso d’Este, Duke of Ferrara (shown here), came with a pedigree that was well out of her league. Alfonso was the son of Ercole d’Este and had enough legitimacy to snub his blue blood nose at his new bride. At first, he was downright disgusted to marry Lucrezia and sent his spies to Rome to dig up some dirt. Unfortunately, his spies couldn't come up with much and Alfonso was forced to marry Lucrezia. Over time, Alfonso seemed to care deeply for Lucrezia despite the fact that their marriage was not exactly the paradigm of marital fidelity. He was rather fond of his prostitutes and Lucrezia had her share of dalliances while Alfonso was out cavorting with lowlifes.

Lucrezia's affairs
Lucrezia may have had an affair with the great poet Pietro Bembo (shown here). It is possible that Pietro’s love for Lucrezia was more of the chivalrous kind where he would never tarnish the object of his affection with base actions. It's also possible that he restrained himself because he didn't want to end up hanging from the rafters. Whether chivalry or true passion, their love letters would certainly make even the biggest cynic blush. Here is one of my favorites:

Bembo to Lucrezia:
The supreme cause which at the start did give
Things created their measure and their state
Willed me to love you and accept my fate
To manifest the faith whereby we live.
As virtues from that principle derive,
Ruler, moderator, sole joy innate
Whose face the fortunate may contemplate
Who seeling peace by grace abounding strive,
Yours is the radiance which makes me burn,
And growing with each act and gracious word
My joy in seeing you is never done.
Nor for my restlessness is there reward
Higher than yourself, wherefore I turn
To you, as heliotrope looks to the sun.

Lucrezia was also linked with Francesco Gonzaga (shown here), husband of one of her greatest rivals, Isabella d’Este. This affair seems more plausible given his over-sexual nature, but again cannot be proven. Francesco had a fondness for young boys, horses, and prostitutes that eventually ended with him having a bad itch in his nether regions. He broke off his affair with Lucrezia when the syphilitic pustules became a turn off.

Lucrezia Borgia: Dumb Blond or Savvy Entrepreneur?
Because her family was so notorious for debauchery and violence (I have barely touched the surface of all the scandals), much of what we know of Lucrezia is seen only through the eyes of the men that manipulated her. But was she just an abused pawn in her family’s political gain? Recent research shows that Lucrezia had many entrepreneurial talents and amassed her wealth through many careful investments in land reclamation. Using her persuasive nature, she settled border disputes and unlike other women of her day, held the titled to her investments. Sure, she spent an inordinately long time washing her hair, but she also spoke 5 languages, was trusted to handle her father affairs while he was absent, became a great patron of the arts and supported many charities.

In 1519, Lucrezia Borgia died giving birth to her eighth child. Alfonso was so grieved that he fainted at her funeral. Lucrezia and Alfonso did come to share a mutual respect and understanding, but her greatest love may have been the family she obeyed despite her own heart.

Sources and Further Reading:
Bradford, Sarah. Lucrezia Borgia - Life, Love And Death In Renaissance Italy, New York:NY, Viking 2004
Bellonci, Maria. Lucrezia Borgia, New York:NY, Phoenix 2002.
Translated by: Shankland, Hugh. The Prettiest Love Letters in the World, Boston:MA, David R. Godine, 1987.
Diane Yvonne Ghirardo, “Lucrezia Borgia as Entrepreneur.” Renaissance Quarterly 61 (2008): 53-91.

Book giveaway

2009-09-29T17:10:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder that I will be picking a winner for for the Midwife's Apprentice on Thursday. Only newsletter subscribers are entered to win. Each drawing is open to US and International subscribers. If you are not a subscriber, then you can subscribe here.

I am doing my best to get this month's newsletter out by tomorrow, but I am having trouble getting oxygen to my brain lately. It might be a bit late this month...

The History of Cesarean Sections

2009-09-25T13:32:00.000-07:00

Its Origins
Contrary to the popular myth, there is no proof that Julius Caesar was born through c-section or that the operation was named after him. My guess is that the myth became so widespread because many ancient gods were believed to be cut from the wombs of their mothers. Julius Caesar would have certainly preferred a godlike birth, but it is highly unlikely given the fact that his mom survived his delivery. Some historians believe that the c-section’s origins can be traced back to a royal decree issued by Numa Pompilius in 700 BC called Lex Caesare. Lex Caesar stated that if a mother was dead or dying that the baby should be cut from her womb. Another theory states that the origin of the word is derived from the Latin verb caedere which means “to cut.”

Surviving a C-section
Today, c-sections rarely lead to the death of the mother, but before the 1900s, the odds of a woman surviving an infection and the hemorrhaging were slim to none. Often, a cesarean came down to a painful decision of who should live – the mother or the child. The Catholic church favored the child reasoning that a baby needed to be baptized. Even as late as 1930, Pope Pius XI decreed that doctors could not take a baby’s life to save the mother. We can imagine what a painful decision it would have been for a Catholic father forced to choose his unborn child over his wife.

The cesareans of the past also would not have involved the small “bikini cut” that we see today. Surgeons of the past carved a woman up like the Christmas turkey often making vertical cuts that extended as high as the ribs and resulted in the intestines spilling out. Some doctors cut diagonally. Others surgeons just made multiple cuts until they were able to pull the baby out by its feet.

Post-op procedures were not for the faint of heart either. During the Renaissance, a woman inserted a linen pessary of rose oil and egg yolk into her vagina three times a day. Rose oil does have healing properties, but it wouldn’t have done much to fight an infection. Another common procedure was to attach leeches to where a woman was cut or if she had given birth naturally to her perineum. And the popular panacea of bloodletting was also commonly used to reduce fever. (a subject for another day).

The other option
All of this may sound pretty horrific until you consider what was done in place of cesareans. When a baby was in breech and could not be delivered, doctors would perform an embryotomy in which they would take a long hook and tear out the baby piecemeal. Sometimes tiny shoulders and limbs were broken to get the baby out. When Catherine de Medici gave birth to twin girls, one of her baby’s legs had to be broken in order to get her out. (Both babies died.) Even more disturbing, if the baby was stuck with his head down then a craniotomy was performed in which the surgeon would drill into the fetal skull.

I am still terrified of c-sections, but I may not have the option if my recent ultrasound is correct. My doctor is predicting a 10 pound baby if I go full term and unfortunately I was cursed with those boyish tiny hips.

I am off to find a really bumpy road instead…

Sources and Further Reading:
Cassidy, Tina. Birth: The Surprising History of How we are Born, New York, NY: Altantic Monthly Press, 2006.Gelis, Jacques. History of Childbirth: Fertility, Pregnancy and Birth in Early Modern Europe, Polity Press, 1996
Images from the Wellcome Library

Battling hormones with good news

2009-09-18T10:28:00.000-07:00

I have been so cranky this week and crying over everything. Yesterday, I was convinced that when my supply of chocolate milk ran out (a pregnancy craving) that the world was a desolate and bleak place which no sane person would want to inhabit. But then look what I found....good news!

First off, Scandalous Women is soon to become a book. (said in my announcer voice) That's right...by 2011, history lovers can enjoy Elizabeth Kerri Mahon's site in a book store near you. So head over to Scandalous Women and congratulate one raucous writer of history.

Next, Kris Waldherr's beautifully illustrated tarot card deck has officially gone digital. So if you are wondering if you will find true love or financial success, just whip out your iphone and ask your personal psychic.

Lastly, and not quite as exciting...Enchanted by Josephine is having a drawing to win a free copy of The Raucous Royals. And if that doesn't make your heart skip a beat, then you should check out her historical fiction fest.

Fortune not on your side? No worries. Use your smarts instead. Head on over to Everything Tudor for another....yes another chance to win a copy of The Raucous Royals. Just write a short paragraph on your favorite royal.

A Women’s Curse

2009-09-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

On November 1, 1661, Spanish actors and musicians could be heard dancing a sweet and melodious ballet below Queen Marie Theresa’s window. Unfortunately, her husband Louis XIV and many of the courtiers could hardly appreciate the serenade while Marie Theresa was screaming, “I don’t want to give birth, I want to die! (1). Without much to dull the pain, many women of the time probably related to her plea. Throughout history, midwives and doctors have used various strange and sometimes lethal concoctions to ease the pain of child birth. Here are just a few of my favorite:

The Plant of Joy
The ancient Egyptians drug of choice was opium otherwise known as the “plant of joy.” Opium was derived from the sleep inducing poppy plant and with the correct dosage could pretty much knock a pregnant horse out. 16th century doctor, Paraclesis later combined opium with his own secret ingredients of crushed pearls, henbane and frog spawn and named it laudanum. By the 19th century, laudanum could be found in every major pharmacy packaged in its pretty glass bottle for dainty ladies to sip with their brandy. Today, opium is a derivative of the highly addictive painkiller, morphine. It’s typically given to patients in extreme pain, but would never be administered to a woman in labor unless she wanted her newborn baby to get an early start on drug addiction.

Willow Bark
The Greeks favored willow bark to ease child birth pain and although certainly not as powerful as opium, willow bark did relieve some pain. By the 19th century, chemists figured out that the Greeks were on to something and were able to distract the pain relieving component of willow bark called salicylic acid, known today as Aspirin. Most doctors today advise pregnant women not to take aspirin because it can cause placental abruptions and might actually delay labor.

The gift of myrrh
You have probably heard the Christmas story of the three wise men who visited the baby Jesus bringing gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. What is still up for debate is whether the myrrh was a gift for Jesus or Mary. Myrrh has long been used as a pain killer because of its soothing effects on inflamed tissues.

Grease the Wheel
Medieval midwives probably win the award for wacky pain killers. They often used oily substance like the grease of a duck or hen to ease the mother's pain and speed the baby’s passage into the world. Sometimes they even injected olive oil into the pregnant woman’s rectum. If baby’s first medieval slip n’ slide didn’t work than they would try screaming into the women’s vagina to coax the baby out.

The veil of pain
Things got a little dicey by the 14th – 17th period for midwives who were often accused of witchcraft when trying to ease a new mother’s pain. In 1591, James VI ordered a new mom and her midwife executed for witchcraft because they had taken a pain relieving concoction. (Granted, the concoction happened to contain dug up remains of various corpses...but ease up James!) At the time, the Church taught that childbirth was part of the sins of women blaming it on Eve and her forbidden fruit. bla bla bla. Women were expected to endure the pain and accept their lot in life. For this reason, the stoic Isabella I gave birth under a veil because she didn’t want the midwife to see her in pain. If you have ever been in labor than you probably know that by the end you don’t care if you are half-naked.

Chloroform a’ la reine
By the 1800s, James Young Simpson was the first to use diethyl ether during child birth. Simpson then experimented with chloroform and found that just knocking the woman out cold was the way to go. Women would inhale the fumes, drift into la la land and then wake up to find a baby in their arms. Sounds ideal, right? Maybe for the mom. Both ether and chloroform passed to the baby so there must have been some groggy babies being born.

Queen Victoria was the first royal to give her official stamp of approval to chloroform assisted births. Soon, taking chloroform during labor became so fashionable with the upper class that it was named Chloroform a’ la reine.

Today, many women choose natural child birth and experience the same gut wrenching agony as women of the past. I have a lot of respect for these women, but I am just not that brave. If all goes well, I will be thanking modern science and my beloved epidural in a few weeks. But it does make me wonder….what will we use 100 years from now to ease child birth pain. Will we laugh at epidurals as archaic? Maybe by then, men can give birth instead?

Notes:
(1) Fraser, Love and Louis XIV, 77

Sources and Further Reading:
Cassidy, Tina. Birth: The Surprising History of How we are Born, New York, NY: Altantic Monthly Press, 2006.
Gelis, Jacques. History of Childbirth: Fertility, Pregnancy and Birth in Early Modern Europe, Polity Press, 1996

Going Back to School - Renaissance Style

2009-09-10T07:45:00.000-07:00

It’s that time of year when we kiss our little ones goodbye in front of that big, yellow school bus armed with new clothes, books, and hopes of higher education. Many parents are thrilled. The teachers have their work cut out for them. 400 years ago, minister and educator, Hezekiah Woodward complained, ‘now the parent doth just nothing, the master must do all, look to the child’s books and manners both.’ (1) Teachers today might argue that not much has changed. Education and manners may start at home, but our teachers are responsible for turning our offspring into model citizens.

In honor of the teachers that work so hard, here are just a few of history's peculiarities on educating children.

School Supplies
500 years ago, children didn’t trek off to school with piles of books, but they did have their handy hornbooks (shown above). Originating in the 15th century, a hornbook consisted of a wooden or metal paddle with a piece of parchment paper pasted on it demonstrating the alphabet or a lesson. They sometimes had a hole in the handle so they could hang from a child’s belt. It may seem counter-intuitive to arm a child with a learning device that doubles as a weapon-like paddle. Wouldn’t they just start smacking each other over the head during breaks? Probably not. It is a proven fact that Renaissance kids were far more behaved probably because they feared things like eternal damnation instead of being picked last for kick ball.

D is for Death
Pictorial alphabets created by Hans Holbein are a perfect example of how children might be taught their letters. One such pictorial alphabet was the Alphabet of Death where young children could learn their letters in the company of ghouls and skeletons. The message was clear: better learn your alphabet kids because death might be just around the corner. Cheery stuff.

If the death alphabet wasn’t your thing then you might be lucky enough to own a copy of the "The New English tutor...to which is added Milk for Babes" featuring illustrated poems ‘On Judgement’ or 'On Hell'. The book even included extra bonus illustrations of a naked Pope with each of his body parts marked as a vice. These were some of the first info graphics of their day. It’s no wonder that most affluent children were reading by the age of 4.

Discipline: Forget the time outs
Children were not given much credit to behave like little angels because it was believed that most of them were inherently evil.

Erasmus wrote;
“Nature has given small children as a special gift the ability to imitate; but the urge to imitate evil is considerable stronger that the urge to imitate the good.” (2)

The solution to keep them on a godly path was simple. Whack em' silly! In 16th century Cambridge, most schoolmasters would not be caught dead without their hymn book and birch rod. Teachers also had a funny way of warming up for the school year. Often, a poor boy was brought in from the village so that the teacher could beat him to prove that he was ready to handle his real students. Other 16th century forms of punishment included boxing the boy’s ears, forcing them to kneel on sharp wood, or the perennial favorite of wearing a fool’s cap.

Yet although beatings and humiliation were common, many schoolmasters rebelled against the stereotypical monster out of a Dickens novel. Many 16th century scholars believed that gentle admonishing was more effective than the rod. In The Education of young Gentlewomen, the author recommended that discipline be done with, ‘mildness than with vigour’ and further labeled beatings as “beastly.”

The royal whipping boy
But what if you were lucky enough to be royalty? Were you still punished with the rod? In 17th century England, a tutor was never allowed to spank a royal derriere because royalty was anointed by god and therefore could not be touched by mere mortals. Instead tutors had to find a substitute bottom to take the licks. Enter the whipping boy, an occupation long forgotten although the term still survives today. The whipping boy’s main job was to sit next to the royal pupil and take a few thumps every time the royal prince or king screwed up. Close friend and whipping boy, Will Murray got a beat down every time Charles I messed up his lessons. Sometimes whipping boys were even used by grown men. Henry IV’s ambassadors, D’Ossat and Du Perron served as his whipping boys when he adjured his Catholic faith. D’Ossat and Du Perron were forced to kneel before pope Clement VIII and be beaten over the shoulders with a switch in lieu of their king. But don’t feel too bad for the whipping boys because they often landed in cushiony jobs. Will Murray later became the Earl of Dysart. (1) D’Ossat and Du Perron later became cardinals.

So if your kids come home from school today complaining about homework and boring history (gasp!) remind them that at least they don't have to look at naked pictures of the pope all day or wear a fool's cap when they get an answer wrong.

Notes:
(1) Charlton, p. 192
(2) Charlton, p. 101
(3) 'Parishes: Petersham', A History of the County of Surrey: Volume 3 (1911), pp. 525-532.

Sources and Further Reading:
Hornbooks
Charlton, Kenneth. Women, religion and education in early modern England, Routledge, 1999.
Holbein's Alphabet
Robinson, Tony, The Worst Children's Job in History, Macmillian Children's Book, 2004.

The sexiest drink in history: Coffee

2009-09-01T00:00:00.000-07:00

Satan’s drink
Coffee originated in Ethiopia in the 9th century, but it didn’t become popular in Europe until 1600 where it had a most controversial start. Believing it to be "Satan's drink", Pope Clement VIII’s priests petitioned him to ban coffee, but Clement took one sip and declared, “Why, this Satan’s drink is so delicious.” (1) Thereafter, Clement christened coffee as the drink of choice and Europeans fell in love with their java.

Coffee Contraceptives
But despite the pope’s endorsement, coffee continued to have its detractors. A German scholar visited Persia in 1637 and found that the people used it as a contraceptive. He concluded that they couldn’t possibly be wrong and preached against the consumption of coffee.

By the late 17th century, coffee had stirred even more debate. Coffee houses in England had become increasingly popular places for men to gather amongst fellow coffee lovers and debate the hottest issues. Now, instead of spending their time whoring about in their local tavern, men were gossiping, reading, daintily sipping and acting like…well, girls. Their wives decided to put a stop to these effeminate, caffeine-induced gatherings. In 1674, they petitioned Charles II to close coffee houses down arguing that it caused impotence. In a pamphlet titled The Women’s Petition against Coffee they presented their case against the “Excessive use of that Newfangled, Abominable, Heathenish Liquor called COFFEE.” King Charles II (who had never been a coffee lover) agreed and closed them down. But you know what happens when people suddenly don't get thier coffee....they get positively rabid. Soon, an outcry from the public forced Charles to reopen the coffee houses and coffee drinking continued.

By the 18th century, the coffee debate swung to the opposite end of the sexual debate. In 1771, a French doctor named Bienville preached that coffee caused nymphomania. He further argued that coffee paired with romantic novels was a recipe for hysteria. A typical scene at Starbucks would have been a breeding ground for the crazies.*

So who was right? Does coffee rev up your sex drive and ability to conceive or does it squelch a man’s fertility faster than wearing a tight pair of briefs on a long bike ride?

Scroll down for answer....

This really never gets old...

at least not for me....

a few more scrolls....

It turns out that those desperate housewives and the Persians were not as crazy as we might think. Although coffee won’t necessarily make a man love needlepoint or cry over Beaches, recent research does show that coffee, wine and nuts contain chemical called phytoestrogens which lowers male fertility and mimics the female sex hormone oestrogen. So if you are trying to conceive then I guess you might want to lay off the bean.

*Actually, come to think about it...there are a lot of crazy, homeless people at Starbucks. Why don't they go home and drink their coffee?

(1) Pendergrast p. 8

Sources and Further Reading:
Pendergrast, Mark. Uncommon Grounds, The History of Coffee and How it Transformed Our World, Jackson, TN: Basic Books, 2000.
Lee Allen, Stewart. The Devil's Cup: A History of the World According to Coffee, New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2003.
The Women’s Petition against Coffee
How beer, wine, coffee and nuts can ALL 'lower a man's fertility'

Napoleon Bonaparte and The Teenage Girl Who Won His Heart

2009-08-27T06:57:00.000-07:00

Catch me today over at Enchanted by Josephine for a guest post on Betsy Balcombe.

Illustration Friday: Drink with Caution

2009-08-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

Here is my contribution to Illustration Friday’s theme: Caution. This is a page from my next book, I Feel Better with Mustard on my Head, (due out in 2010) which will illustrate history’s wackiest medical cures. I promise to wait for the book’s release before maggots, mud and mummy powder dominate this blog, but I did want to share with readers one of my favorite medical tools of the trade –Uroscopy (the study or urine).

The first pregnancy tests

Gardening meets science
Egyptians used urine to diagnose pregnancy by having the female pee on barley and wheat seeds. If the seeds grew then the patient could expect a little sprout of their own. Supposedly, barley seeds indicated a boy and wheat indicated a girl. Scientists today know that the estrogen in a pregnant woman’s urine would make the seeds sprout faster.

In the yellow
By the 10th century, physicians had become experts on predicting pregnancy by studying urine’s color, smell, cloudiness and taste to predict pregnancy. What color is a pregnant woman’s urine? A “clear pale lemon color leaning toward off-white” was a sure a sign that baby was on its way. (1) Some medieval doctors mixed wine with urine to see how it would react. Although lemon color urine is not a good indicator of pregnancy, they were on to something with their wine and pee cocktail because alcohol reacts with certain proteins in urine. Stories also indicate that medieval doctors were not as wacky as we might think. In one example, the Duke of Bavaria got a little sick of his doctor sniffing his bodily excretions so he decided to put him to a test: he swapped his urine with a pregnant woman. The physician soon proclaimed that a miracle was eminent—the duke was to give birth.

The Honey Urine Test
Physicians throughout the middle ages and into the 16th century accurately diagnosed diabetes by tasting the sweetness of urine. It was usually the job of an apprentice to do the swilling, but sometimes (presumably when they weren’t in the mood to taste urine), they would pour it in the sand and see if ants were drawn to it. (Ants love sugar.) As discussed in a previous post, I highly doubt Henry VIII suffered from diabetes when his doctors were so well-versed on detecting it in his urine. Today, we know that one of the symptoms of diabetes is sweet urine.

Your future is clear
Some medieval doctors took the pee gazing one step further and even claimed they could predict a patient’s future by their pee. These fortune-telling pee experts were often given the derogatory label of - “piss prophets". Piss prophets even claimed that they could tell whether a girl was still a virgin. Supposedly, A virgin had clear urine and a non-virgin's urine was cloudy. The piss prophets were attacked as charlatans in Elizabeth I’s reign and soon fell out of favor by the seventeenth century. Still, we should give these strange pee experts some credit. Today, we know that cloudiness in urine is a sign of an infection and is one of the many symptoms of gonorrhea. Unfortunately, you can also get cloudiness if you eat a big meal or drink milk which is high in phosphates. Imagine getting accused of being loose just because you drank a glass of milk before your medieval virginity test?

Quiz time: that’s not apple juice:
In the 1600s, a physician named Christian Franz Paullini stated boldly that “ with the aid of feces and urine, it is possible to cure, from head to foot internally and externally, all disease, no matter how severe of poisonous is may seem to be.” (2)Throughout history, urine has been used as a cure-all for everything from stomach aches, rheumatism, gout, ear aches, wounds and even madness.

See if you can guess which of the following urine cures actually worked:

A. Drinking urine to cure madness
B. Peeing on wounds to sterilize them
C. Drinking urine for an upset stomach
D. Curing athletes foot by peeing on yourself

Now scroll down for the answers....

Keep scrolling you fool.

If you are ever caught out in the wilderness with a gaping wound you may need to know this…

A: Mad as a pregnant donkey: Maybe
In ancient Greece, physicians treated madness by making their patients drink donkey pee. If the donkey happened to be pregnant, they were actually giving them the same medicinal benefits as our modern birth control. Many modern birth control pills contain estrogen that is derived from….yes horse and donkey pee. Although, you could argue that estrogen might just make a mad person weepy instead of violent?

B: Nature’s antiseptic: Yes
After battles, surgeons would pee on a soldier’s wound before attempting to sew it back up. This may have been somewhat beneficial because urine is completely sterile when it first leaves the body. It would certainly beat cleaning a wound with dirty water.

C: Bottoms up! No
If you were a doctor in medieval times, you wouldn’t be caught dead without your handy physician’s guide, Rosa Anglica. Along with ridiculous cures such as surrounding small pox patients with the color red, the Rosa Anglica also advised drinking fresh mourning urine to treat dropsy and stomach aches. There is currently a whole new-age movement that swears by drinking urine to restore the natural flora in your stomach. But until they package this cure in a bottle with a pretty label, I am going to stick to my Tums.

D: The pioneer pedicure: No
Our grandparents from the turn of the century had an ingenious way of curing athlete’s foot. They simply soaked their tootsies in a pail of fresh urine. Today, some bright people still pee on themselves in the shower to stop the itch. (Just think what is going on in your gym). Urine does contain urea which kills germs but the amount of urea in your body won’t make a difference nor does urea kill the fungus that causes Athlete’s foot.

So how did you do?

Physician examining urine flask from the Wellcome Library

Notes:
(1) p. 610, Enger
(2) p.18, Janos

Sources and Further Reading:
Magner, Louis. A History of Medicine. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis, 2005.
Janos, Elisabeth. Country Folk Medicine, Tales of Skunk Oil, Sassafras Tea, and Other Old-Time Remedies. Gilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 1990.
Blank, Hanne. Virgin: The Untouched History, New York, NY: Bloomsbury, 2007.
Eldon, Enger, Et Al Concepts in Biology' 2007 Ed.2007.

For the British readers

2009-08-17T10:44:00.000-07:00

The new season of The Tudors has started in the UK and I got an email asking if there is one location to find all of the "Historical vs. Hollywood" posts in order. REMINDER: These posts contain spoilers.

Here they are:
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4
Episode 5
Episode 6
Episode 7
Final Episode part 1
Final Episode part 2

I will put up a permanent link on the left hand side shortly...

Happy Birthday Napoleon!..a dancing Elmo was the best I could do

2009-08-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

Today marks the birthday of Napoleon Bonaparte. Later this week, I will be guest blogging at Enchanted by Josephine on the teenage girl that won Napoleon’s heart at St. Helena – Betsy Balcombe. In the meantime, head over to My Napoleon Obsession for a special birthday post.

Why does Napoleon have Elmo's body?
I have been trying to honor Boney’s B-day by giving my 20 month old a reenactment of Napoleon’s life. So far, the best casting I have found is Elmo as Napoleon (he moves when you press his hand and Napoleon’s should never sit still) and Dora the Explorer as Josephine. (if only Dora had Josephine’s fashion sense). She enjoyed my little play until Marie Louise (played by a stuffed cow) kicked Dora off her plastic, purple throne and stole Elmo away. But alas....you are never too young to enjoy a good love story. When she gets old enough, I will give her Sandra Gulland’s Josephine trilogies. Let’s just hope I have not ruined it for her by then.

Alison Weir podcast on Anne Boleyn

2009-08-12T19:11:00.000-07:00

Here is an interesting podcast from Alison Weir on why Anne Boleyn got such a raw deal.

Amazing Grace - Could you survive a voyage on a Slave Ship?

2009-08-06T08:40:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if it is the pregnancy hormones shrinking and expanding my brain, but I recently had a strange memory of my childhood. I was about 8 or 9 and walked in on my mother and father having a disagreement on whether I should be allowed to stay up late to watch the miniseries Roots. My dad wanted us to watch it. He had grown up in a rural area of Mississippi and actually witnessed a lynching. He was afraid that Black American History would be a subject skimmed over in my classroom. (he was probably correct). My mother had grown up in an affluent all-white area and thought the series was too graphic for an eight year old. (She was probably correct too) My dad eventually won and my siblings and I cuddled close together night after night to watch Roots on our dial controlled/antenna TV.

Well, I had not seen Roots since I was a child, so I recently decided to watch it again. Right about the time that the slave traders cut off Kunta Kinta’s foot, I remembered why I had not watched it in all of these years. The miniseries is really gut-wrenchingly sad. And the scenes on the slave ships would make even a nonhormonal person weepy. Since some of my favorite royals invested in the slave trade including Elizabeth I, Charles II, and James II, I wanted to know if conditions were really as bad as the Hollywood version. I found they were a lot worse.

The smell of death
If you were to step onto a slave ship in the 18th century, you would first be hit with the unforgettable smell of sea salt, human excrement, sweat, tears, and most horrific of all…. death. Death on a slave ship was inescapable. The mortality rate was as high as 25% on some slave voyages with many dieing of disease and dysentery. Others jumped overboard or hung themselves with their cotton shirts preferring suicide to their confinement. Many starved themselves to death. If a slave did survive the voyage, they could barely walk once they reached their destination (usually the Americas).

If you could breath at all...
The design of a typical slave ship looks too grotesque to be real. Slaves slept packed in rows and were emerged in complete darkness. In 1788, an act passed in Britain decreed that each male slave had six feet, sixteen inches of square feet. Each female had five feet sixteen inches. Boys had five feet, fourteen inches and girls had four and a half feet by twelve inches. Worst of all, slaves had only two feet of breathing space above them to block out their neighbor’s screams. We can imagine that if you got seasick then it would be on yourself and your neighbor.

Working on a Slave Ship
Not that we should have much sympathy, but the crew didn’t exactly have cruise ship living conditions either. They were often given the same food as the slaves, worked excruciating long hours and were physically abused by their captains. Captain Colley of Liverpool even beat his cook to death with an iron rod. I guess he wasn’t happy with his meal.

Fine Dining on a Slave Ship
The food consisted of a barely palpable ration of rice, farina, yams and bran with very little water. If you are of African American descent then there is a good chance that you struggle with high blood pressure. You inherited high blood pressure from your ancestors because the only slaves that survived were those who had an ability to retain salt.

Dancing on a Slave Ship
The only relief from this confinement was when the slaves were brought on board to be examined by the doctor or get some exercise. Men, women and children were shackled to a long chain attached to a ring on the deck. Often, they were forced to sing and dance to exercise their limbs. Hypocritically, captains also forced slaves to recite Grace before meals in a religion that meant nothing to them. One of these captains was Reverend John Newton who ordered that Grace be said twice a day on his slave ship. He was later to become an abolitionist and is best remembered for writing the popular hymn, Amazing Grace.

Here is a beautiful rendition of Amazing Grace sung by Leann Rimes.

Slavery Remembrance day will be celebrated this year on August 23rd to commemorate the uprising of enslaved Africans on the island of Saint Domingue (modern Haiti) in 1791. Visit the International Slavery Museum to lean more.

Sources and Further Reading:
Kleinman, Joseph & Kurtis-Kleinman, Eileen. Life on an African Slave Ship, San Diego, CA: Lucent Books, 2001.

Parliament and British Slave Trade 1600-1807

International Slavery Museum

Art from the International Slavery Museum

And the winner is...

2009-08-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

The winner of The French Mistress by Susan Holloway Scott is Alyson. I have emailed the winner and just need your mailing address. Congratulations to last month's winner.

Read the interview

I am a little behind on my reading this month so I am not sure what August's Raucous Book of the Month will be yet. To be disclosed soon...

All newsletter subscribers are automatically entered to win the giveaway. If you are not a newsletter subscriber, then subscribe here.

Raucous Royal of the Month, Cecilia Gallerani (1473 – 1536)

2009-07-30T07:03:00.000-07:00

When the Italian court poet Bellincioni first laid eyes on the Leonardo da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine he declared;

“…the more living and beautiful Cecilia shall appear in the eyes of generations to come, the greater will be thy glory! For long as the world endures, all who see her face will recognize in Leonardo’s work the close union of Art and Nature.”(1)

Bellincioni’s praise stands true today, but who is the woman who went on to become Mona Lisa’s greatest rival? Although some debate continues about the sitter’s identity, most art historians have identified the woman as Cecilia Gallerani, the beloved mistress of the duke of Milan and Leonardo’s greatest patron, Ludovico Sforza(shown here). Cecilia was only a teenager when she sat for this painting, but had already secured her status as a student of classical studies, a poet, musician, singer and renowned beauty.

As the dress of the painting indicates, Cecilia Gallerani was not of nobility, but her father held several prominent positions at court. Ludovico had Cecilia installed in a suite of rooms in the Castello of Milan and court gossip indicated that he intended to make her his wife. Unfortunately, legitimizing their affair would have severed any strategic alliances for Milan and the smitten duke was not willing to let his heart rule matters of state. Instead, he married the equally alluring Beatrice d’Este, Duchess of Ferrara in January of 1491 (shown below)(2).

Ludovico most likely expected Beatrice to be another acquiescent wife and turn a blind eye to the affair, but his new wife proved far too spirited to tolerate any competition. Beatrice was so jealous of Cecilia that she even refused a magnificent gold robe from her husband because his mistress had once worn a similar robe. Debate still exists on whether Leonardo ever painting Beatrice’s portrait but we might infer that Beatrice refused such an honor because it had already been tainted by the memory of the great Maestro painting her rival.(3)

After many jealous tirades, Ludovico ended his affair with Cecilla, but continued to provide for her and their son Cesare. He arranged a prominent marriage for her with Count Lodovico Bergamini and provided a sumptuous trousseau along with a villa near Cremona. It was here that Cecilia continued to entertain some of the most learned minds until her death in 1536.

We are left with a curious letter that reveals Cecilia’s modesty in her later years. In a letter to Beatrice’s sister, Isabella d’Este, she tells Isabella that the portrait painted by Leonardo, “was painted when I was still at so young and imperfect an age. Since then I have changed, altogether, so much so that if you saw the picture and myself together, you would never dream it could be meant for me!” (4) Cecilia’s beauty may have not held the test of time, but her portrait certainly is a testament to Leonardo’s genius.

Sources:
Cartwright, Julia. Beatrice d'Este: Duchess of Milan 1475-1497, London: J.M. Dent & Sons, Ltd, 1910

Notes:
(1) Cartwright, Kindle Location: 1129-35 or p. 53
(2) It is still not know if the portrait of Beatrice d'Este is truly her.
(3)Cartwright, p. 91
(4)Cartwright, p. 54

Let Them Eat Hair Garnishes

2009-07-23T05:27:00.000-07:00

(I am on the countdown to my next book deadline so I am recycling a old guest post this week....)

We tend to associate the potato more with Ireland and England than we do with France and that may because the humble spud had a very rocky start with French Parisians. Although already widely accepted in England, the potato did not come to France until around 1600.(1) Still, no respectable royal would dare to eat the strange, dirty, lumpy looking spud. The potato became so feared that in 1619 it was banned from Burgundy, France because it was rumored to cause leprosy. It all made perfect sense to 16th century scholars. A potato looked like leprosy so therefore it must cause leprosy.(2)

The leprosy spud finally got an image makeover in the 18th century with the help from a potato propagandist and French chemist named Antoine-Auguste Parmentier. Parmentier threw some fabulous parties and invited the French upper class to taste his potato creations. At one of these parties, Parmentier gave Louis XVI a bouquet of potato flowers. Knowing his wife's proclivity for putting vegetables in her hair, Louis thoughtfully placed one delicate, purple sprig in Marie Antoinette's pouf. Thereafter, the potato may not have become a fashion accesory, but it did become the new, hot foot delicacy among the upper class.

The potato then went on to feed the French peasants and everyone loved their queen and...lived happily ever after. Ok not exactly. Unfortunately, it took a few bread shortages, a nasty revolution, and some beheaded monarchs for the government to finally see the potato's full potential for feeding the rest of the starving country. In 1794, a year after Marie Antoinette was beheaded, the queen's beloved flowerbeds in the Tuileries were plowed over to make way for the purple blossoms that would feed a nation and become one of France's biggest exports.

Notes:

(1) Some historians have blamed the slower populations grown of France in the 18th century to their dependence of grain while other countries had the starchy potato to fall back on. In reverse to France’s grain dependency, reliance on the potato backfired in Ireland during the Great Potato Famine.

(2) This was at a time when walnuts were eaten to treat headaches because they looked like a brain and eating the brains of another animal would make you smarter.

Sources and further reading:

Langer L. William, "American Foods and Europe's Population Growth 1750-1850." Journal of Social History 8.2 (1975): 51-66.

Salaman N. Redcliffe, The History and Social Influence of the Potato, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1985.

James IV's Flying Alchemist

2009-07-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

Since the first caveman flapped his wings like a bird, men have dreamt of flying. This dream has led to many fools jumping off precipitous cliffs decked in bird feathers. Everyone has probably heard the Greek myth of Daedalus and his son Icarus who lunged from their tower prison wearing feathers held together by wax and twine. All would have gone smoothly if Icarus had quit the horseplay, but when do you ever see a flying boy listen to their dad? That naughty Icarus flew too close to the sun, melted his wings and fell into the ocean. The lesson was clear: aim to high and you just might find yourself plummeting to your death. The Italian Mathematician, Giovanni Battista Danti didn’t quite learn this lesson and was convinced a few feathers and some determined flapping would make him fly like superman. Unfortunately, his attempts only landed him on the roof of Saint Mary’s Church.

Other men claimed to be more successful. In the middle ages, a monk named Elmerus was rumored to fly from the top of a tower in Spain. Supposedly, the great astronomer and mathematician, Regiomontanus invented a mechanical eagle which flew across the channel to greet Charles V. These tales seem unlikely, but there were some inventors who may have realized the dream of flight.

The Flying Chariot
In the 13th century, scientist and philosopher Roger Bacon was rumored to have designed a "flying chariot.” Bacon believed that a copper globe would rise upward if it were filled with something lighter than air. In essence, Bacon understood the mechanics of hot air balloons five centuries before his time.

The Flying Maestro
Leonardo da Vinci's treatise on the art of flight is probably the most famous example of early aviation studies. For over sixteen years, Leonardo worked under the patronage of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan. (Ironically, his official title was not the duke’s painter but “the duke inventor”).

Along with art commissions, Leonardo designed military equipment such as crossbows, catapults, lightweight bridges, cannon, armored vehicles, and poured his genius into fantastical flying machines (shown here). But Ludovico seemed unimpressed with Leonardo’s flying machines and worried more that the great Maestro would kill himself before completing the bronze equestrian monument to honor his father. We still don’t know for certain if Leonardo ever built his flying machines, but a few years later there was one man brave enough to take the plunge…

The Flying Bird Man
John Damian was a surgeon in France before moving to Scotland around 1507. He then began his career as alchemist to James IV with the promise that he would discover the philosopher stone—the elixir to life. Damian’s experiments merely required copious amounts of aqua vitae, an aqueous solution of ethanol (aka whisky). Damian failed to discover the elixir to life, but must have got plenty drunk trying…or at least drunk enough to jump off the west parapet of Stirling Castle in a hen suit.

Predictably, Damian’s tale does not end well. His makeshift hen wings carried him for about a half a mile until he descended ignominiously into a pile of dung and broke his leg. Many historians have argued that because his flight did not end with him falling to his death in the rocks 75 meters below Stirling Castle, he was technically the first man to fly….or at least the first man to hang glide in a hen suit.

Damian never attempted another flight, but he did claim that he knew the reason for his failure. He should not have used hen feathers because they were obviously attracted to dung. I find this entirely plausible considering that hens are not too bright. Unfortunately, the theory only got him laughed out of the aviation business by everyone at James’ court. Damian then spent his final years with the far more rational goal of turning base metals into gold. We can guess how that turned out.

Sources and Further Reading:
The Times: Was 16th-century Scots alchemist the first man to fly?

The Daily Mail (London, England), The Flying Scotsman First; Leap of Faith: Abbot John Damian Threw Himself from Stirling Castle Bumpy Landing The Possible Route of the Abbot's First Flight, September 6, 2008.

Macdougall, Norman. History Today, The Kingship of James IV of Scotland - 'The Glory of All Princely Governing'?, Volume: 34 Issue: 11 November 1984 Page 30-36

Wells, George. The War in the Air. BiblioLife, 2008