Ivan the Terrible was the infamous sixteenth-century ruler of the Duchy of Muscovy. He paradoxically was both an unhinged tyrant and the man who founded the Russian state. Ivan succeeded his father as grand ruler of the Duchy of Muscovy or Moscow when he was just three years old in 1533. Over the course of […]
Ivan The Terrible’s Many Wives Suffered Horrific Fates Read More »
When one thinks of the Middle Ages, they are often confronted by a dour landscape of peasant drudgery punctuated by the occasional castle or small town. In many instances, knights or lords inhabited these castles and acted in an autocratic manner outside the boundaries of what we would view as traditional law and order today.
The Horrific History of the Oubliette Read More »
The medieval world was full of tales of supernatural and magical occurrences. Many of these stories were later collected by antiquarians in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, individuals like the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, each of which collected and recorded these centuries-old folklore tales before their memory was forgotten entirely. England has its
Who Were the Green Children of Woolpit? Read More »
During the medieval period through the Tudor era, executions were common in England. Kings like Henry VIII executed thousands of his subjects, including two wives. Queens like Mary I (who earned the nickname Bloody Mary) burned protestant heretics at the stake. Even royalty wasn’t safe from a swift and brutal death. For example, Charles I
Jack Ketch: One of History’s Bloodiest Executioners Read More »
