Old Tom Parr

In Westminster Abbey, there lies the body of Old Tom Parr in an incredible place of honor resting in the hall of nobles and princes. Of these he was none; he was an oddity. He lived to be 152 years old.

That is right this old man told you to shut your mouth.

Born: 1483
Died: November 1635

No one is really sure how old he really was at his death but he prescribes 
"keep your head cool by temperance and your feet warm by exercise. Rise early, go soon to bed, and if you want to grow fat [prosperous] keep your eyes open and your mouth shut."1

1.Westminster Abbey: Thomas Parr 

; http://www.westminster-abbey.org/our-history/people/thomas-parr

2. Darwin Country: Parr, Thomas (1483-1635) 'Old Parr'; http://www.darwincountry.org/explore/001716.html

A Portrait Lives: Mary, Queen of Scots

I really haven't been consistent with my Portrait Lives, but I'll just do them whenever for now because I have been occupied, but I haven't forgotten!

Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots had a tragic life. She was imprisoned. One time by her own people and she fled to England where she was imprisoned, found to have plotted against Queen Elizabeth I and executed. These are just a few of the facts that make her such a tragic figure.

aged about 6

aged  about 13

aged about 15

aged about 17

aged about 17-18

in her early twenties

aged about 36

aged about 33

Her execution at aged 45

Sources: 

Cathlolic Encloypedia, Mary Queen of Scots: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09764a.htm

Portrait Lives: Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor.

The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, was one of a kind. He believed in peace and only entered war when necessary. He did what was necessary for Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Never the less, he was his ideal view of a Catholic emperor, which meant spreading Catholicism. He wanted to protect the religion, it was his primary goal and was show as such when it was unanimous he would be elected to the emperor position.

Now a Portrait Lives:

He was Born in 1500.

aged about 7

aged about 2

aged same

aged about 19

aged about 30

Aged

About 33

aged about 37

aged about 48

aged about 50

aged 50s

He died in 1558 at 58.
His last words were "Ay Jesus (!)" He was probably hoping heaven would receive him.

Sources:
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor: http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/charles5.htm
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor: http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/bic1/ReferenceDetailsPage/DocumentToolsPortletWindow?displayGroupName=Reference&jsid=73b339808e43d9133d3f7d01e6b6b599&action=2&catId=&documentId=GALE%7CK3404900201&u=dist214&zid=b25b1ff5bf4088b84760dea566efa922, a long url.

Check out

The Reign of Charles V.

You might notice his chin, that's because of his families' years of inbreeding.

King James I of England and his Lover George Villiers: Quotable.

George Villiers

James I

King James nicknamed George fondly 'Steenie' because he had a handsome visage like angel-faced St. Stephen.  It was no wonder that contemporary people said that they were lovers, they lovingly stroked each other in public (among other things).  In the 17th century, homosexuality was taboo especially among kings. George Villiers was a favorite of King James I of England, who succeeded Elizabeth I as the first of the Stuart Dynasty in 1603. The King made George Earl of Buckingham, while other Scottish people hated him.
Scots attacked the Earl's house. Villiers had somehow caused Brits to damage Scottish homes so the Scots took it upon themselves to make damages on his home in St. Martin's Fields. His home was called the Glass House and it looked similar to Hardwicke Hall. The people did a very good job on damaging his Glass House, and the Earl complained to King James. King James then said to George Villiers, the Earl of Buckingham:

Hardwicke Hall

"Steenie, Steenie, those who live in a glass house should be careful how they fling stones." 

Check out

King James VI of Scotland, I of England

by Antonia Fraser

James I by the sister of Jane Austen
Click the link and see what your missing!

Quote Source
1. Paraphrased from Familiar Short Sayings of Great Men by S. A. Bent
Other Sources:
-Thy Dear Dad and Husband, The Gay Love Letters of King James I & IV, Excerpts from My Dear Boy: Gay Love Letters Through the Centuries (1998), Edited by Rictor Norton; http://rictornorton.co.uk/kingjame.htm
 -Fuel Magazine: the Coal Operators National Weekly Volume 7, page 583; http://books.google.com/books?id=ZsgcAQAAMAAJ&dq=fuel%20Magazine%20volume%207&source=gbs_book_other_versions 
-King James IV; http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usbiography/monarchs/jamesvi.html

5 Facts You Didn't Know About Pocahontas.

She is commonly referred to as a Disney character who saved John Smith (in the movie, not exactly in real life). She was much more than that. She was a real historical person who faced hardships.

1. She was baptized with the name 'Rebecca.'

2. There is a portrait of her (right)

3. She died at about 22.

4. She was married two times.
5. When she died she left her husband John Rolfe a widow, he may have died after an Indian attack. 

Links/Sources/More Information:
John Rolfe (1585-1622): http://www.virtualjamestown.org/jrolfe.html
Pocahontas: http://www.powhatanmuseum.com/Pocahontas.html

Thomas Chatterton: Poet and a Fraud

I may be inconsistent in posting but you can be sure that I will post on Saturdays, just to let you guys know.
I am like half asleep now but let's do a post! (talking partly to myself and partly to you)

Unusual Death: Thomas Chatterton

Thomas Chatterton was a poet whose gifts are largely unnoticed, he would sit and write and read all day when a child. He was a child of the eighteenth century and also was a fraud.

A representation of his death by Henry Wallis.

Poetry gives poets the opportunity to paint the world in their own image, though Tom chose to write in the guise of another.  He said that the were by Thomas Rowley who was a fifteenth century poet and monk. Yet even though he was proclaimed a fraud, the brilliancy of his poetry is unanimous. A modernized snippet from exclassics.com of a poem of his:

"[Look in his gloomed face, his sprightly there scan;How woe-be-gone, how withered, forewarned, dead!Haste to the church graves, accursed man!Haste to the coffin, the only bedroom bed.Cale, as the clay which will grow on thy head,Is Charity and Love among high elves;Knights and Barons live for pleasure and themselves.]"

You must notice how beautiful flowing his poetry is, but when you read it closely you can see a little of the depression he suffered. He had stopped eating, depression had overcome him. When he was offered food, he said he was not hungry, in truth he had not eaten in three days.  He returned to his attic where he had once written marvelous poems, now he was poor in money and in happiness. He carried with him a bottle...of arsenic. He drank it then tore his literary remains. He was only seventeen.



Yet you might not know that he is a Romantic poetry icon, a poem by John Keats was dedicated to him, and he is the subject of novels.


Sources:

1911 Encyclopedia Britannia: Thomas Chatterton: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Chatterton,_Thomas

Special Collection Department: Forging a Collection: Thomas Chatterton and the Rowley Forgeries: http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/exhibits/forgery/rowley.htm

How Dick Turpin was Found.

Yep, Dick is definitely a murderer.

Dick Turpin was the focal point of a legend. He was supposed to be handsome and the center of a story full of romance. But this was not how it happened. He acted as a fictional hero a popular William Ainsworth novel and other famous fictitious accounts, and soon fiction mingled with fact and 'eclipsed' his real life. He wasn't and isn't a murderer and robber anymore in the public eye, and this could act as the time of glory he never had. However, you have me to set you straight.
So here is the daunting account of his arrest and subsequent death.
Dick was a highwayman (a person who robbed people by force on roads) and a murderer of a man who threatened to turn him in. He was a wanted man by the police and disguised himself as John Palmer.  And there is where the fun part comes in.

The "letter being returned, unopened, to the Post-Office... because the brother would not pay the postage of it."(1) Then by sure coincidence Mr. Smith saw the letter, see Mr. Smith had taught Dick to write and knew in fact that John Palmer was actually Dick Turpin. He told the authorities and Palmer alias Turpin was hung.

Sources:
1. Richard Turpin: http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ng193.htm
2.Dick Turpin: http://www.stand-and-deliver.org.uk/highwaymen/dick_turpin.htm

Quiz and Battle on History

Here is something fun I made up on the top of my head (in a rush). A battle between me and you on a Quiz on History! Beware, I am competitive!

It is 7 questions. If you get 0 right I win. You get more than 4 questions right I just lost by a little. You get more than 6 right I lose by a long stretch. You get the 7 right...which is unpractically impossible...anyway I lose.

Afterwards you can highlight next to the right of the questions to see the answer.

Ok, here are some more rules:

You can't look them up.

Try to do your best (because you're gonna need it).

1. Where was the skeleton of King Richard III found? C

A. buried in a popular place in London.  B. buried in a yard in Oxford  C. buried in a parking lot


2.  What image in the Sistine Chapel absolutely revolutionized painting? B

A. Delphic Sibyl

B. Creation of Adam

C. Expulsion of Adam and Eve

3. What medical conditions was suggested that Lisa might have in Mona Lisa? C.
A. Pregnancy and blindness
B. Scoliosis and Limb Paralysis
C. Tumor and a lump






4. Who was the one of the first child actors or actresses? E. At least that I know of.
A. Nelly Gwynn
B. Shirley Temple
C. Isa Bowman
D. Susanna Centlivre
E. Master Betty

from Arm Chair General

5. Who is this? (on the right) B.
A. Marat

B. Robespierre

C. George Washington

D. Guy Carleton

6. What did Michelangelo do when a critic said that there were too many naked people in the Sistine Chapel? A.

A. He drew him in Hell in the last judgement with a snake biting his privates

B. Slapped him

C. Made him disappear

D. Was above anger, he drew him in heaven with wings in the last judgement.

7.  Whose last reported words were "we are running on north and south?" C.

A. James Garfield

B. JFK, Jr. 

C. Amelia Earhart

D. Robert Lee

So did I win or did you!?

Check out 

National Geographic Almanac of World History, 2nd Edition

by Various
Don't you wanna support printed books? just click.

All the Shocking Secrets of the Mona Lisa.

Gone are the days where you are fooled by false colors!
This is the true Mona Lisa.

Not only is the Mona Lisa the most secretive painting, it is also the most famous.
Who knew paintings could keep secrets?

Somehow Mona Lisa's mysterious smile is her most attractive feature. The stare of this painted woman is never the less creepy, though, people
have said  Mona Lisa follows them with her eyes.

This is what happens when you become a
famous painting

Throughout the centuries, daunting facts have been discovered about the Mona Lisa.

I have listed all
the discoveries I know of below:

She has no eyebrows.
I always thought they were invisible. They were actually worn down by time.

There is an earlier version.

The Other Earlier Version

This version may or may not have been created by da Vinci. It is a younger and way less detailed Mona Lisa.

Her smile used to be wider.
But time made her unhappy.

There is a code of numbers and letters in her eyes.
I don't what that means Leonardo was doing, but it freaks me out. Leonardo is not and was not James Bond., so why? 
Can you see the letters and numbers in the left picture? Actually you can't, they're microscopic. 

Sources:

'Solved: Why Mona Lisa doesn't have eyebrows' by Richard Holt: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3668700/Solved-Why-Mona-Lisa-doesnt-have-eyebrows.html
The real-life Da Vinci Code: Historians discover tiny numbers and letters in the eyes of the Mona Lisa: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1337976/Real-life-Da-Vinci-Code-Tiny-numbers-letters-discovered-Mona-Lisa.html

The Mona Lisa Foundation: http://monalisa.org
Contribute to them. I don't know them but I bet they would really appreciate it.

Digital scans reveal Mona Lisa secrets: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/oct/22/artnews.france

Check out 

Mona Lisa: A Life Discovered by Dianne Hales

She was really a man all along!

 Just kidding, click on the picture.

I couldn't resist putting this here

The Immortality of Early Modern Art

Random Art Facts
Maybe I am going a little off topic here, but I love early modern art....and I am intent on proving to you why you should love it too.
Early Modern = (1450-1800)

Almost all of these types of paintings have hidden symbols which when you recognize uncovers a different story.

Those paintings also capture a moment in time. Like a camera taking a picture of a child, that child may never be ten again and that time of childhood bliss may never be captured again. This moment by a camera or a painting has become something of fragile immortal purity.

Here's some examples:

This woman on the left was Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly in 1526. She was to be never in such extravagance again in her life. 

This is a picture of the peak of her wealth. In the 16th century wealth is wearing gold, a valuable metal, and fur. She was the mistress of the King Francois and was using her high status to elevate her family's position at court.

But then the king died, and the new King Henri and his mistress, Diane, came along. She was 'humiliated in ever way' by Diane and dismissed from the graciousness of the king's court. She was to die unknown and forgotten.

• Vermeer's work on the right is a classic example of symbols in early modern art.

This woman is standing on 'earth' and looking at a crystal ball symbolizing heaven. Underneath her is the apple of original sin and near it a snake. A snake is commonly a symbol of Satan. Thus this serpent Satan is struck down by the cornerstone of the church, Christ. Most Catholics in the Netherlands at the time when Vermeer lived had to pray in their home. Or those Catholics had to face the wrath of the then Protestant Netherlands.

Sources:

'Anne de Pisseleu d'Heilly' in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 9, Slice 7

   http://www.gutenberg.org/files/35398/35398-h/35398-h.htm. 

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

I have looked on the Met Museum website and they have fantastic paintings in the public domain so I have drawn my examples from there.

Check out

Renaissance Art (Beginner's Guides) by 

Tom Nichols 

Click on the the picture and surf the world of renaissance.

Portrait Lives: Marie Antoinette: Part 2

Marie Antoinette has too many portraits to put in just one post.

profile at aged about 26

aged  about 28

aged about 30 with her children

aged about 32

aged about 33

aged about 36

aged about 37-8 in prison

aged about 38

her death, on her way

her death, more, Marie is like oops i stepped on your foot.

After a bad haircut, she was executed at a quarter after 12 pm in a white gown, whites are easily stained so it was never worn again.

Sources: 

My mind, 

Remembering Marie-Antoinette: The Martyr, the Whore, and the Icon: http://www.uta.edu/modl/cultural-constructions/200705/html/kilgore.html

Marie Antoinette: http://blogs.bu.edu/guidedhistory/historians-craft/marieantoinetteinthepubliceye/