Post a minor historical figure who you find fascinating

C’est la VoR

C’est la VoR

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Lady Jane Rochford
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Sister in law to Anne Boleyn and stalwart of the Royal household who narrowly escaped the chop after Anne was executed for treason. She allegedly saved her own neck by testifying against Anne *and* her own husband, who were both executed. Then she was exiled for a time, but wormed her way back into court in time to serve under Anne of Cleves, who she famously made fun of for her sexual naivete, and later Katherine Howard, for whom she helped facilitate ilicit meetings with Thomas Culpepper, which ultimately cost both women their heads on the same day.

The definition of a messy bitch who lived for drama! If she was alive today she’d totally be the fan favourite on a Real Housewives franchise…
 
Imagine reading all the letters from the royal women banished to castles like pawns. They almost always had great influence in the courts and we'll never get to fully appreciate it.

She would not have been minor, but try reading on her: I'll nominate Bertrada of Laon, a Frankish Queen and mother of some high pitched queen called Charlemagne and his own manly daughters.
 
Emma of Normandy - Queen of England (twice), Denmark and Norway, Queen Mum (also twice), commissioned her own tell-all history book in which she wrote her embarrassing first husband Aethelred the Unready out of history (relatable) and made it abundantly clear her son Harthacnut was her favourite (I don't care for Edward the Confessor). Also tried to organise a coup TWICE, once leading to her second favourite son being KIDNAPPED, BLINDED WITH A HOT POKER, and MURDERED. She denied she was involved in either, obviously. In regards to the second attempted coup, her chronicle is like 'I can't believe somebody wrote a letter inviting the King of Norway to invade and depose the King, and then signed my name at the end?! So weird! Who would do that?!'

Also, wore a lovely hat:

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Jack Saul. A sex worker in Victorian England who featured in not one, but TWO homosexual scandals, one including a gay brothel that was rumoured to have been visited by Queen Victoria's grandson and other members of the aristocracy at the time, which is probably why he was never prosecuted - he knew too much :disco:
 
Colin Powell

Defended a war to support a party that would eventually disown you and exasperate a pandemic that kills you
 
Just reading up on the widely despised and short-lived Roman emperor Elagabalus, who appears to have been the very definition of a DEMON TWINK :disco:

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Marcus Aurelius Antoninus "Elagabalus", born Sextus Varius Avitus Bassianus, c. 204 – 11/12 March 222), was Roman emperor from 218 to 222, while he was still a teenager. His short reign was conspicuous for sex scandals and religious controversy.

Later historians suggest Elagabalus showed a disregard for Roman religious traditions and sexual taboos. He replaced the traditional head of the Roman pantheon, Jupiter, with the deity Elagabal, of whom he had been high priest. He forced leading members of Rome's government to participate in religious rites celebrating this deity, presiding over them in person. He married four women, including a Vestal Virgin, and lavished favours on male courtiers thought to have been his lovers.

One of his most notable male lovers was Hierocles", an ex-slave and chariot driver from Caria. Elagabalus delighted in being called Hierocles's mistress, wife, and queen. The Augustan History claims that Elagabalus also married a man named Zoticus, an athlete from Smyrna. He is also believed to have regularly prostituted himself in taverns and brothels, regularly wore makeup and wigs, preferred to be called a lady and not a lord, and supposedly offered vast sums to any physician who could provide him with a vagina.

Amidst growing opposition, at just 18 years of age he was assassinated and replaced by his cousin Severus Alexander in March 222. The assassination plot against Elagabalus was devised by Julia Maesa, his own grandmother, and carried out by disaffected members of his own Praetorian Guard.

Elagabalus developed a reputation among his contemporaries for extreme eccentricity, decadence, zealotry, and sexual promiscuity. This tradition has persisted, and among writers of the early modern age he suffered one of the worst reputations among Roman emperors. Edward Gibbon, for example, wrote that Elagabalus "abandoned himself to the grossest pleasures with ungoverned fury".[8] According to Barthold Georg Niebuhr, "the name Elagabalus is branded in history above all others" because of his "unspeakably disgusting life".
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Oh it's gotta be the legendary TYPHOID MARY for me :disco:

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Poor cow felt fine and just wanted to cook for people, but in a comedy twist kept giving everyone typhoid. For DECADES

Mary Mallon (September 23, 1869 – November 11, 1938), commonly known as Typhoid Mary, was an Irish-born American cook believed to have infected between 51 to 122 people with typhoid fever. The infections caused three confirmed deaths, with unconfirmed estimates of up to 50. She was the first person in the United States identified as an asymptomatic carrier of the pathogenic bacteria Salmonella typhi.[1][2] She persisted in working as a cook and thereby exposed others to the disease. Because of that, she was twice forcibly quarantined by authorities, eventually for the final two decades of her life. Mallon died after a total of nearly 30 years in isolation.[3][4] Her popular nickname has since gained currency as a term for persons who spread disease or other misfortune, not always aware that they are doing so.
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en.wikipedia.org

Mary Mallon - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
straightorbroken said:
Imagine reading all the letters from the royal women banished to castles like pawns. They almost always had great influence in the courts and we'll never get to fully appreciate it.

She would not have been minor, but try reading on her: I'll nominate Bertrada of Laon, a Frankish Queen and mother of some high pitched queen called Charlemagne and his own manly daughters.
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This is the second post I read (by you) about Charlemagne being a queen! Who knew that you’d be into herstory! :disco:
 
Whil I’m a history junky, I’m awfully ignorant when it comes to the royals’/celebrities’ characters and deeds. However, The Romanovs book that I read a couple of years ago gave an interesting insight into that messy house. I’d love to read something similar about The Habsburgs, The Bourbons and the English royals.
 
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