Recent Posts

Cardinal Wolsey's Today in History

Cardinal Wolsey's musings on Tudor history, medieval history, early-modern history and anything else that takes his fancy

Ghosts of Kew Palace

Posted on Saturday August 15th, 2009 at 01:23 in george iii, kew gardens, queen charlotte, 17th century history, 18th century history, kew palace

Kew Palace is a striking terracotta Dutch-gable style house in the grounds of Kew Gardens, London.It was built in 1663 by a merchant and later leased by George III, who acceeded the throne in 1760.It is not really a palace at all, but takes the name ...
Captain Woodes Rogers where are you now?

Posted on Thursday January 15th, 2009 at 16:18 in caribbean, bahamas, bristol, robinson crusoe, naval history, nassau, daniel defoe, alexander selkirk, woodes rogers, 18th century history, pirates and piracy

Last week a $3m ransom was parachuted onto the deck of the hijacked supertanker Sirius Star, which had been captured by well-armed Somali pirates. No doubt the insurers considered this a reasonable price to retrieve the $100m cargo and crew. The pira...