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

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.

Art Weekend: Famous People in and Related to Art

I formerly declare this Art Weekend...blah, blah
blah....throw all the parties you want.

After doing posting for while you can expect that it would get moderately routine and that I would feel bored by it. Well, if you knew the person I am you can. So I announce that all through this weekend posts will be about art and all the famous people related.

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/

It's Late Portrait Lives Wednesday! Starring Marie Antoinette: Part 1

Marie Antoinette is the most famous person of the French Revolution. As many people know she didn't survive it.  She was to the French people of her time the image and icon of unfair extravagance as some poor french people starved. The media showed her as a sickly evil harpy in newspaper pamphlets, a queen who would stoop so low as to having lesbian relationships with her ladies-in-waiting, when the truth was nothing of the kind. The truth was that the press can cause horrible things to happen to innocent people, even Marie Antoinette, a high-status French Queen who was imprisoned by her people and executed by the guillotine.

aged just a few months old

aged  about 5

aged 7

aged about 12

aged about 14

aged about 17 by Drouais

Marie, Queen of France without a crown at aged about 18

mid twenties by Gautier-Dagoty 

I thought I could do this in one post but I can't 

so stay tuned for the last part tomorrow!

I know you can't wait and are disappointed.

But here a short video about her that will make up:

and Check out

To the Scaffold: The Life of Marie Antoinette

Click on the image or go to the Scaffold!

10 Misconceptions and Facts You Don't Know About Anne Boleyn

Henry VIII

It's so easy to obsess about Anne Boleyn. She is the most mysterious and questionable wife of all of the six of Henry VIII, who is the king you might recall I wrote before (see the post here).  There are so many fascinating facts and misconceptions about her, no wonder people are interested in her. 

Here is a little summary of her: She was the 2nd wife of Henry VIII of England who left his first for Anne because she could provide him with a heir.  The Catholic Church declared his marriage to Anne void and Henry separated England from the Church and declared himself as head of the Church of England. In this Church his marriage to Anne was legal and now Henry was able to receive a legitimate heir from Anne. However Anne was not able to give him a male heir. She was executed for adultery by the King. Henry went on to have six wives.

First are the 5 misconceptions:

1. Portraits of her are without a doubt accurately showing her.  

The coin showing Anne Boleyn.

The famous portrait of her

This is not true. Almost all of her portraits are debated and it is not even known if any of them actually portray her. The most famous painting is anonymous and is thought to be a copy of a lost original. It is the one pictured on the right. The only surviving official likeness of Anne is the badly damaged 1536 metal coin of her inscribed 'most happi'. Here are some of speculated portraits of her.

2. Anne Boleyn had an extra finger and in fact it was said by a contemporary she had "on her right hand six fingers."

This claim can be written off as a rumor by her political enemies because when her body was found in the Chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula it showed no deformities. 

3.  Anne was guilty of adultery.
Some have protested this, but the overwhelming evidence says to the contrary.

4. Anne was Henry's one true love.
Though it is a romantic theory, Henry VIII chose to be buried with the 3rd wife, his 'one true love.'

5. Anne Boleyn was ugly.
She was not ugly but just pretty. She had a long neck and dark hair and beautiful eyes she knew how to use.

Here are the facts about Anne you don't know:

1. Anne had a pet dog called Urian.
Urian was a greyhound which Anne had a brought from France.


2. Thomas Wyatt wrote a poem about her, here is a excerpt.
'Who list her hunt, I put him out of doubt,
As well as I may spend his time in vain.
And graven with diamonds in letters plain
There is written, her fair neck round about:
Noli me tangere, for Caesar's I am,
And wild for to hold, though I seem tame.'

3. Anne was feisty.
Enough said.

4. Princess Mary, later bloody Mary hated Anne and Anne hated her.
Here is a quote by the Spanish Ambassador that mentions their relationship:
'Your Majesty must root out the Lady and her adherents.... This accursed Anne has her foot in the stirrup, and will do the Queen and the Princess all the harm she can.  She has boasted that she will make the Princess her lady-in-waiting, or marry her to some varlet.' 

5. Anne Boleyn was mother of Queen Elizabeth I, often called the virgin queen.

Elizabeth I

If want more check out 
The Lady in the Tower: the Fall of Anne Boleyn by Alison Weir! Click on the Image.

Anne Boleyn

Sources:
-Lives of the Queens of England by Agnes Strickland
-Could the Real Anne Bolyen Come Forward: http://onthetudortrail.com/Blog/2011/02/07/would-the-real-anne-boleyn-please-come-forward/
-The Rise and Fall of Anglican Schism
 http://archive.org/stream/riseofschism00sanduoft/riseofschism00sanduoft_djvu.txt
-http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs/boleyn-poems.html
-http://englishhistory.net/tudor/annedesc.html
-Notices of the Historic Persons Buried in the Chapel of St. Peter Ad Vincula by Doyne Courtney Bell

Portrait Lives: Charles II of Spain

The King Charles II of Spain was born into his ancestral inbreeding. His closely related parents had celebrated his birth and certainly had not expected that Charles was going to be called 'bewitched' by his contemporaries. Maybe he was labeled this because of the physical and mental disabilities he was tortured by. He wasn't able to walk well until he was over nine and fought off countless diseases as he did. He also experienced many seizures throughout his lifetime.
Charles tried but he couldn't change those many developmental issues he had, neither could he his appearance which was supposed to be so 'ugly as to cause fear'. Without any heirs when he died he ended the Spanish Habsburg dynasty.

" The worst thing a man can encounter is something he can't control." ---anonymous

Charles Ready to Take Over the World at aged  about four by anonymous

Charles on a Rocking Horse aged abt.10 by S. Barnuevo

aged 14 by de Miranda

all dressed up with no place to  go aged 16 by de Mirand

aged 24 by de Miranda

aged 24 by de Miranda

Swelling? at aged abt. 37

 On 1 November 1700, just a few years less than forty he died, caused by his health condition decreasing when he was given a religious remedy to cure his impotence.



Every Wednesday Portrait Lives will now be posted!

Sources:

CHARLES II: FROM SPELL TO GENITOURINARY PATHOLOGY by
Ángel García-Escudero López, A. Arruza Echevarría, J. Padilla Nieva and R. Puig Giró
http://scielo.isciii.es/pdf/urol/v62n3/en_02.pdf 

Check out 

The Fall of the House of Habsburg by Edward Crankshaw!

Click on the picture. What if it was the only way to save the world?

Portrait Lives: Madame de Pompadour

Madame was a different kind a mistress of the king. She was a woman of humble origins, but by King Louis XV she was made something else; ennobled by the name Marquise de Pompadour and his mistress. She influenced the king immensely, and influenced the politics of 18th century France. Many artists were encouraged by her, in fact the king is reported saying "I don't have enough room in my Castle for everybody."
For 20 years she was influencing France when she died of tuberculous at 43. She did many things in her life; she was credited with the loss of Canada by the French.

They are no pictures I can find of her in her early life so I will start in her mid twenties.

As Diana, abt 25 by Nattier

abt. 31 by de la Tour

abr. 34 by Charles Andre van Loo

abt.35 by Boucher

abt.37 by Boucher

Writing with a Dog at abt. 43 by Drouais

Sources:
www.madamedepompadour.com: a great source for information about her, this is where the Louis XV's quote is from
The Houghton-Mufflin Dictionary of Biography, 2003: Pompadour, Jeanne Antoinette Poisson, Marquise de,