Women
Queen Magrethe I, Pt. 2
One of my favorite things about writing this blog is the conversations I have with my readers about the subjects of my posts, or in fact about history in general. This morning I got a sidebar to the life of Queen Margrethe I from textile maven Julie Holyoke, who is my cousin by marriage and…
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Queen Margrethe I and the Kalmar Union
At this point our trip to Norway back in June seems like a distant memory, and some of the stories I planned to share with you seem equally vague. But one story resonated with me too strongly to ignore: Queen Margrethe (1353-1412), the first great ruling queen in European history. Like many ruling queens in…
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From the Archives: Joan of Arc and the French resistance
More than once in the last few years, I’ve stumbled across stories in old issues of the Chicago Tribune that caught my imagination even though they did not deal with my current project. This headline from May 13, 1945, grabbed my attention: “FRANCE HONORS JOAN OF ARC AS ‘FIRST PARTISAN’. “ The piece began “The…
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