The past week has been rather lax. Maxing and relaxing. Chilling and willing. I have been getting some of my marks back, and I am doing better in school than I had ever done before. Something both puzzling and shocking, but I feel satisfied. Sigh. I feel like perhaps, I had found something that I am interested in. A new era has commenced.....and so did the Elizabethan era on this day 454 years ago in 1558.
Elizabeth was born on September 7,1533 to Henry VIII and his second wife, the Anne Boleyn. Unfortunately, Elizabeth was not the desired boy that Henry VIII fought tooth and nail to divorce his aging wife, the formidable Catherine of Aragon, to conceive. But she was every bit a Tudor, and Henry's daughter. She was a red haired, fiery tempered, pompous and vain woman, exactly like Henry.
But like I said, she wasn't born with the desired appendage. After the execution of her mother when she was not quite three years ago, she fell out of favour and bastardized by her own father. Though, he still maintained that he loved his little princess, hard to believe but true enough. Henry almost immediately married the blonde, demure Jane Seymour after Anne's execution. Jane Seymour died of childbed fever after giving Henry the desired boy, Edward VI.
Elizabeth and Mary both cared for their brother, but had some resentment between each other. The family didn't really reunite until Henry married his sixth wife, Catherine Parr and through her gentle guidance, Elizabeth and Mary were added to the line of succession should Edward die young. It would be Mary first, followed by Elizabeth.
Henry died in 1547, leaving Edward VI to take the throne at the tender age of nine. His council/Lord Protector effectively ruled the kingdom on behalf, and would do so until the age of majority. However, Edward VI died at the age of fifteen in 1553 and changed the line of succession to disbar his sisters and include his cousin Lady Jane Grey, a granddaughter of Henry's sister Mary. Jane was literally dragged kicking and screaming to the throne, as she did not want any part of it, but through the machinations of her greedy in-laws, the Dudleys, she was forced to claim the throne. Her "reign" lasted a total of nine days, when Mary triumphantly entered London and claimed the throne in her name and Elizabeth was at her side.
Much to the chagrin of Elizabeth, and Edwards fears founded, Mary attempted to turn the newly turned Protestant kingdom back to the old Catholic ways. She did in such a way, that earned her the unfair cognomen of Bloody Mary. A purported 300 heretics died from as a result of her religious edicts, but to be fair Henry and Elizabeth were no angels in this regard, it was almost de rigueur to root out heresy in one's kingdom. Mary became Queen in 1553, and after a series of phantom pregnancies and disappointing infertility, she did not reproduce an heir and died in 1558, declaring Elizabeth I, the Queen of England and one of the most well-known queens in history and thus beginning an era of the flourishing of art, literature, and science.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Monday, November 5, 2012
She is no Beta.
The weather is starting to cool down, and I am anticipating a rather stormy winter. An adequate punishment for leaving for two years, and not having to deal with it. Bad weather seems to follow me like a shadow. My classes are quite interesting, although stressful and I feel overwhelmed by the amount of information that I must absorb to do tests and exams well. My nerves usually get the better of me during exams and I persistently doubt myself in the middle and oft go with the second answer/wrong one. But my trials and tribulations do not come close to this historical figure of the day.
Queen Gudit/Judith of Damot (a region of modern Ethiopia)
There is no certainty about her dates of birth and death, but she was to be queen of Ethiopia at around 960 CE. The information about her have been largely gathered through oral tradition of story telling.
It is believed that Judith was a Beta Israel (an African Jewish person) or even possibly pagan Hebraic. Though, most scholars believe that she was an African Jewish woman.
Either way, she was believed to have seized the capital city/throne of Axum and proclaimed herself the Queen, and sought to end Christianity in her land. Therefore, many Christian churches, monasteries and lives in the process. Due to her uprisings, Beta Israel enjoyed many years of prosperity and independent rule from neighboring Christian Kingdoms.
A fascinating thing about Ethiopian Jews is that there were the most isolated Jewish diaspora, and therefore have many different traditions from a lot of other Jewish communities. There are many different theories as to how there came to be a major Jewish community in Ethiopia, there is a belief that the Agau tribe converted to Judaism early on, or Yemeni Jews traveled to Ethiopia and intermarried with the Agau tribe in the First Temple Period. So the community has been in Ethiopia for over 2400 years, for many reasons there are few left in Ethiopia and many now live in Israel citing the Law of Return.
Queen Gudit/Judith of Damot (a region of modern Ethiopia)
There is no certainty about her dates of birth and death, but she was to be queen of Ethiopia at around 960 CE. The information about her have been largely gathered through oral tradition of story telling.
It is believed that Judith was a Beta Israel (an African Jewish person) or even possibly pagan Hebraic. Though, most scholars believe that she was an African Jewish woman.
Either way, she was believed to have seized the capital city/throne of Axum and proclaimed herself the Queen, and sought to end Christianity in her land. Therefore, many Christian churches, monasteries and lives in the process. Due to her uprisings, Beta Israel enjoyed many years of prosperity and independent rule from neighboring Christian Kingdoms.
A fascinating thing about Ethiopian Jews is that there were the most isolated Jewish diaspora, and therefore have many different traditions from a lot of other Jewish communities. There are many different theories as to how there came to be a major Jewish community in Ethiopia, there is a belief that the Agau tribe converted to Judaism early on, or Yemeni Jews traveled to Ethiopia and intermarried with the Agau tribe in the First Temple Period. So the community has been in Ethiopia for over 2400 years, for many reasons there are few left in Ethiopia and many now live in Israel citing the Law of Return.
Friday, November 2, 2012
Some things are better left inbred!
It hath been a long time since my previous post. I have been in a flurry of activity since that time, between traveling, working, and schooling. Now I feel as though I can release my breath and write again. The past several months have been a definite wild ride. Ending my life in England was but an easy one, though much to my own chagrin I had become accustomed to some of the English idiosyncrasies and vernacular. Something my friends definitely poke fun at me for and are trying to exorcise out of me. Now I am back in school, something at my age that I had hoped would be done. I am happy to be back in a way, however, the stress of school and midterms have overwhelmed me, such that I had neglected many aspects of my life. Midterms are finally over. Thank goodness, as I feel human again and take care of the neglected ares of my life.
On this day in history about 312 years ago, the death of Charles II of Spain had started the War of the Spanish Succession.

Charles II was born on November 6, 1661, a very long awaited male heir to the throne of Spain. His parents were uncle and niece, Philip IV of Spain and Mariana of Austria. Charles II was unfortunately a very intellectually limited and suffering from many undesirable traits, as a result of centuries of inbreeding, something that Spanish Habsburgs are well-known for. Instead of having 8 great-grandparents, he had 6, instead of 16 great-great grandparents, he had 10, and even worse, instead of having 32 great-great-great grandparents, he had only 10. So much for keeping it in the family.
As a result, poor Charles (contemporarily known as Charles II the Hexed/Bewitched) was very limited and prone to fits of aggression. His jaw was much longer than his teeth giving him an exaggerated piranha look (look up Habsburg jaw, a problem found in Marie Antoinette as well), an extremely long tongue which made it difficult for him to talk and it was hard for him to walk. He was treated as a babe in arms, until the age of 10, and his tutors did not want to overtax him with schooling or education affairs, so he was largely left uneducated. His mother acted as his regent for much of his reign. Due to Charles' limitations, he was never an effective leader of his country, his mother served as regent for many years, as had his capable illegitimate half-brother John of Austria. Though few had any expectations of him, he was still expected to marry and reproduce.
His first wife, a particularly beautiful French princess, was Marie-Louise of Orleans, a niece of Louis XIV. Charles married her in 1679 in a glittering ceremony. It is very likely that Charles was impotent and could not reproduce, much to Marie Louise's sadness, she died at the age of 26 in 1689.
His second wife, Maria Anne of Neuberg, was chosen for her family's history of fertility, but she too remained childless.
As the American historians Will and Ariel Durant put it, Charles II was "short, lame, epileptic, senile, and completely bald before 35, he was always on the verge of death, but repeatedly baffled Christendom by continuing to live." (Will and Ariel Durant, The Age of Louis XIV (1963))
Charles II died at the age of 38 on November 1, 1700, thus igniting the War of Spanish Succession (which I will continue in the next blog post)
On this day in history about 312 years ago, the death of Charles II of Spain had started the War of the Spanish Succession.
Charles II was born on November 6, 1661, a very long awaited male heir to the throne of Spain. His parents were uncle and niece, Philip IV of Spain and Mariana of Austria. Charles II was unfortunately a very intellectually limited and suffering from many undesirable traits, as a result of centuries of inbreeding, something that Spanish Habsburgs are well-known for. Instead of having 8 great-grandparents, he had 6, instead of 16 great-great grandparents, he had 10, and even worse, instead of having 32 great-great-great grandparents, he had only 10. So much for keeping it in the family.
As a result, poor Charles (contemporarily known as Charles II the Hexed/Bewitched) was very limited and prone to fits of aggression. His jaw was much longer than his teeth giving him an exaggerated piranha look (look up Habsburg jaw, a problem found in Marie Antoinette as well), an extremely long tongue which made it difficult for him to talk and it was hard for him to walk. He was treated as a babe in arms, until the age of 10, and his tutors did not want to overtax him with schooling or education affairs, so he was largely left uneducated. His mother acted as his regent for much of his reign. Due to Charles' limitations, he was never an effective leader of his country, his mother served as regent for many years, as had his capable illegitimate half-brother John of Austria. Though few had any expectations of him, he was still expected to marry and reproduce.
His first wife, a particularly beautiful French princess, was Marie-Louise of Orleans, a niece of Louis XIV. Charles married her in 1679 in a glittering ceremony. It is very likely that Charles was impotent and could not reproduce, much to Marie Louise's sadness, she died at the age of 26 in 1689.
His second wife, Maria Anne of Neuberg, was chosen for her family's history of fertility, but she too remained childless.
As the American historians Will and Ariel Durant put it, Charles II was "short, lame, epileptic, senile, and completely bald before 35, he was always on the verge of death, but repeatedly baffled Christendom by continuing to live." (Will and Ariel Durant, The Age of Louis XIV (1963))
Charles II died at the age of 38 on November 1, 1700, thus igniting the War of Spanish Succession (which I will continue in the next blog post)
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