Did you know?

by **Fluff** » Thu Dec 30, 2010 10:10 am

Michel de Ruyter and the Eendracht (Unity) still brought shudders to the English Court in 1676. During the Dutch-Anglo wars he had managed a most dearing feat. In june 1667 he sailed up the Medway at Chatham with a broomstick flying above his sails because he was "cleaning up the English". They recaptured the ship Eendracht previously taken from the privateer Cornelis Evertsen the Younger in 1665 and also took the Royal Charles. It was a devastating & humiliating blow to the English fleet for the Admiral York had never thought that a foreigner could come so far inland, despite several warnings from the extensive English spynetwork. It brought the war to a swift end on favourable terms for the Dutch.

To this day the coat of arms of Charles Rex that was on the back of the Royal Charles is kept on display in our national museum in Amsterdam as one of our most prized and patriotic possessions, with Admiral De Ruyter being one of those national heroes that still capture the imagination.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_the_Medway

by **Mirtel Hardwick** » Fri Feb 11, 2011 6:39 pm

Did you know what exactly your characters would see if they were to set foot in the dressage arena at the King's Mews?

This is a nice video about it and a short demonstrations of some of the moves you would see the courtiers performing in the King's Mews;, in the video the moves are performed by the white Lippizzaner stallions and Andalusians. It really is amazing how gracefully horses can move.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY3wmWT- ... re=related

by **Charles Blount** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 12:25 am

I came across an interesting factoid when reading ‘Restoration London” by Liza Picard. She stated that it was the custom “The coachman of a Countess was obliged to drive bear headed , come rain or shine : to make his mistress’s rank unmistakable to hoi polloi, a bald headed man was preferred, his scalp gleaming wetly in the rain.”

We all know now what to get Countess Atherstone for Christmas

by **George Hardwick III** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 1:31 am

Fascinating

by **Owen Langland** » Sat Feb 12, 2011 5:30 am

Careful, Charles, we might accidentally get her the anatomist recently mentioned in street gossip. He was bald, right?

by **Hope** » Wed Feb 23, 2011 10:13 pm

'A New Dictionary of the Terms Ancient and Modern of the Canting Crew' is a dictionary of English cant and slang by a compiler known only by the initials B. E., first published in London circa 1698

You can read quite prettily here:
http://www.archive.org/stream/newdictio ... 3/mode/2up

The first page is amusing in promoting the book as:
'Useful for all sorts of people (especially foreigners) to secure their money and preserve their lives; besides being diverting and entertaining, and wholly new.'

~
Although Francis Grose's colloquial definitions was first published in 1785, it's also diverting and entertaining

'Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue' and can be read at Gutenberg http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/5402/pg5402.html

And look - it has the definition for Blackguard!

BLACK GUARD. A shabby, mean fellow; a term said to be derived from a number of dirty, tattered roguish boys, who attended at the Horse Guards, and Parade in St. James's Park, to black the boots and shoes of the soldiers, or to do any other dirty offices. These, from their constant attendance about the time of guard mounting, were nick-named the black-guards.

by **Hope** » Sat Apr 16, 2011 7:13 am

Lookie here

Perhaps this should be the King and Queen of May's first formal appointment

MAY FESTIVAL OF THE CHIMNEY-SWEEPERS.--The chimney-sweepers of London have also singled out the first of May for their festival; at which time they parade the streets in companies, disguised in various manners. Their dresses are usually decorated with gilt paper, and other mock fineries; they have their shovels and brushes in their hands, which they rattle one upon the other; and to this rough music they jump about in imitation of dancing. Some of the larger companies have a fiddler with them, and a Jack in the Green, as well as a Lord and Lady of the May, who follow the minstrel with great stateliness, and dance as occasion requires. The Jack in the green is a piece of pageantry consisting of a hollow frame of wood or wicker-work, made in the form of a sugar-loaf, but open at the bottom, and sufficiently large and high to receive a man. The frame is covered with green leaves and bunches of flowers interwoven with each other, so that the man within may be completely concealed, who dances with his companions, and the populace are mightily pleased with the oddity of the moving pyramid.

ref: http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/spe/spe20.htm

by **Fluff** » Sun Apr 24, 2011 8:45 pm

A profile of an officer of the Life Guard in 2011:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/ ... -line.html

by **Mercy** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 4:32 pm

Childbirth has always been a painful and difficult thing, but lets all raise a glass to Mrs Greenhill! A woman of our time who was a true baby making machine!

Born 1615, she had 39 children with her husband William Greenhill, and gave birth to her last child, London surgeon Thomas Greenhill, in 1669 at the age of 54.

by **Fluff** » Sat Aug 20, 2011 5:23 pm

That deserves more than a glass. I offer a bottle of champagne to the poor woman =D>

by **Gawain Tredegar** » Sun Aug 21, 2011 12:04 pm

Truly a feat. *raises a toast*

by **George Hardwick III** » Tue Dec 06, 2011 2:37 am

Since it is currently relevant, to myself at least, Did you Know...

The Queen of Poisoners was a real queen, her name, Catherine de Medici. She was fond of brewing her own potions and then testing them on indigent subjects who were given royal 'favours'. She then recorded their deaths in detail. One of her favorite means of dispatch was diamond dust.

Diamond Dust:
Diamond, when powdered & swallowed causes death not because it is poisonous, but the pieces of diamond which are sharper like glass pieces (in fact knives with diamond edges are used to cut glass ) cut the inner walls of the small intestine causing excessive internal bleeding & death is due to loss of blood.

The french euphemism for poison in 17th century was 'Poudre de succession[ (Inheritance powder)

White arsenic trioxide As2O3, was a highly favored poison, for it is odorless, easily incorporated into food and drink. Symptoms of arsenic poisoning begin with headaches, confusion, explosive diarrhea, implosive diarrhea, and drowsiness. As the poisoning develops, convulsions and changes in fingernail pigmentation called leukonychia may occur. When the poisoning becomes acute, symptoms may include diarrhea, vomiting, blood in the urine, cramping muscles, hair loss, stomach pain, and more convulsions. The organs of the body that are usually affected by arsenic poisoning are the lungs, skin, kidneys, and liver. The final result of arsenic poisoning is coma to death

Signora Toffana provided a popular service for the ladies in Naples at the end of the 17th century. She sold them 'Aqua Toffana', an interesting and expensive liquid they were instructed never to ingest themselves. It was sold as a complexion aide. Ladies were told to apply it to their faces, necks and breasts before meeting their husbands. Signora Toffana was executed in 1709 for the murder of 600 men. The 600 rich widows presumably walked free.

In the 1680s, the Affair of the Poisons scandal broke in Paris. A former midwife turned witch was hawking potions to the nobility and in some cases, more lethal wares as well. When it was discovered that the king's mistress was feeding him one of the witch's love philtres, the scandal broke. The witches name was Madame Voisin.

The Vish Kanjas were apparently reared from infancy on minute doses of strychnine. By the time they were in their teens their tolerance would have been massive and contact with their body fluids, fatal. So that their kiss could kill. It produces some of the most dramatic and painful symptoms of any known toxic reaction. For this reason, strychnine poisoning is often used in literature and film. A severe nausea is seen, which may include vomiting due to the bitter taste, convulsions affect all the muscles growing quicker and more intense.The face becomes cyanosed, with dilated pupils and prominent eye balls. The mouth may also froth. These symptoms are all due to spasms of the facial muscles. The body may be seen arch-shapes. The person is conscious and the mind is clear until death. There is an immense reflex excitability. Even a small stimulus like light, noise or movement of the body may throw it into a spate of convulsions. Death usually occurs due to asphyxia as respiration is affected by muscle spasm.