F-YEAH HISTORY

The men of the French Naval Brigade march on Macquarie Street, Sydney, 1915

Source: Australian National Maritime Museum.

15th-century miniature showing Queen's Isabeau's 1435 funeral cortege on the Seine, from the chronicle of Martial d'Auvergne Isabeau of Bavaria (also Elisabeth of Bavaria-Ingolstadt; c. 1370 – 24 September 1435) was Queen of France as the wife of King Charles VI, whom she married in 1385. She was born into the old and prestigious House of Wittelsbach, the eldest daughter of Duke Stephen III of Bavaria-Ingolstadt and Taddea Visconti of Milan. Isabeau was sent to France when she was around 15 or 16, on approval to the young French king who liked her enough to marry her three days after meeting her.

The last letter of Mary Queen of Scots 'At 2am on Wednesday 8 February 1587, Mary Queen of Scots picked up her pen for the last time. Her execution on the block at Fotheringhay Castle was a mere six hours away when she wrote this letter. It is addressed to Henri III of France, brother of her first husband.' - Courtesy of the National Library of Scotland's manuscript collections. (NLS reference: Adv.MS.54.1.1)

Translated text can be found here.

A collection of images of Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir 

The National Assembly taking the Tennis Court Oath (by Jacques-Louis David) The Tennis Court Oath (French: Serment du jeu de paume) was a pivotal event during the first days of the French Revolution. The Oath was a pledge signed by 576 of the 577 members from the Third Estate who were locked out of a meeting of the Estates-General on 14 June 1789. The only person who did not sign was Joseph Martin-Dauch, a politician who would not execute decisions not sanctioned by the king. They made a makeshift conference room inside a tennis court located in the Saint-Louis district of the city of Versailles, near the Palace of Versailles.

The skeletons of two women who died violently were discovered at Téviec, buried under a "roof" of antlers and decorated with necklaces made of shells Two skeletons of women between 25 and 35 years of age, dated between -6740 and -5680 BP Mesolithic. They died a violent death, with several head injuries and impacts of arrows. The two bodies were buried with great care in a pit half in the basement rock (underlying or country rock) and half in the kitchen debris that covered them. The tomb is protected by antlers. The grave goods include flint and bone (mainly wild boar) and funeral jewelry which is made of marine shells drilled and assembled into necklaces, bracelets and ankle rings. Some of the bone objects have engraved lines. They were recovered in 1938.

Read more

Chert arrowhead, Late Neolithic (Rhodézien), 3300-2400 BCE, France

Apache revolver - Curtius Museum, Liège Les Apaches (French: [a.paʃ]) were members of a Parisian Belle Époque underworld subculture. Apaches were so called because their alleged savagery was compared with that attributed by Europeans to the Native American tribes of Apaches.

General Raevsky leading a detachment of the Russian Imperial Guard at the Battle of Saltanovka The Battle of Saltanovka (French: Bataille de Mogilev) was a battle of the 1812 French invasion of Russia.

The Russian 2nd Army, led by Pyotr Bagration aimed to join main Russian army under Barclay de Tolly after the French forces took Mogilev and blocked Dnieper river crossing. Bagration sent general N.N. Rayevski against 5 French divisions led by Louis Nicolas Davout, who was between the 2nd Army and Barclay's main army. The French Corps had over 28,000 troops present, including 3 infantry divisions under generals Compans, Dessaix and Claparède and a numerous cavalry under generals Bordesoule and Valence, but only a fraction of the French Corps was engaged in this battle. Meanwhile, the Russians engaged around 20,000 troops.

A 1791 British caricature of an attempted mediation between Catherine (on the right, supported by Austria and France) and Turkey Cartoon shows Catherine II, faint and shying away from William Pitt, who appears as Petruchio, and Don Quixote on horseback (a lean and scarred George III whose authority has been usurped by Pitt), seated behind Pitt are the King of Prussia and a figure representing Holland as Sancho Panza, Selim III kneels to kiss the horse's tail; a gaunt figure representing the old order in France and Leopold II render assistance to Catherine by preventing her from falling to the ground.

Attack and capture of Fort St. Philip on the island of Menorca, 29 June 1756, after the naval battle The Battle of Minorca (20 May 1756) was a naval battle between French and British fleets. It was the opening sea battle of the Seven Years' War in the European theatre. Shortly after the war began British and French squadrons met off the Mediterranean island of Minorca. The French won the battle. The subsequent decision by the British to withdraw to Gibraltar handed France a strategic victory and led directly to the Fall of Minorca.

The British failure to save Minorca led to the controversial court-martial and execution of the British commander, Admiral John Byng, for "failure to do his utmost" to relieve the siege of the British garrison on Minorca.

End of the Irish Invasion ; — or — the Destruction of the French Armada, caricature by James Gillray French warships, labeled Le Révolutionaire, L'Egalité and The Revolutionary Jolly Boat, being tossed about during a storm blown up by Pitt, Dundas, Grenville and Windham, whose heads appear from the clouds. Charles Fox is the figurehead on Le Révolutionaire which is floundering with broken mast. The Revolutionary Jolly Boat is being swamped, throwing Sheridan, Hall, Erskine, M.A. Taylor and Thelwall overboard.

The Expédition d'Irlande ("Expedition to Ireland") was an unsuccessful attempt by the First French Republic during the French Revolutionary Wars to assist the outlawed Society of United Irishmen, a popular rebel Irish republican group, in their planned rebellion against British rule. The French intended to land a large expeditionary force in Ireland during the winter of 1796–1797 which would join with the United Irishmen and drive the British out of Ireland. The French anticipated that this would be a major blow to British morale, prestige and military effectiveness, and was also intended to possibly be the first stage of an eventual invasion of Britain itself. To this end, the French Directory gathered a force of approximately 15,000 soldiers at Brest under General Lazare Hoche during late 1796, in readiness for a major landing at Bantry Bay in December.

Le Canard ("The Duck") photographed during its historic testing on March 28, 1910 The Fabre Hydravion was a French experimental floatplane designed by Henri Fabre, notable as the first seaplane in history to take off from water under its own power. Although called Canard (French: "duck"), this monoplane was not the origin of the term "canard configuration".

Siege of Sevastopol by Franz Roubaud The Siege of Sevastopol lasted from September 1854 until September 1855, during the Crimean War. The allies (French, Ottoman, and British) landed at Eupatoria on 14 September 1854, intending to make a triumphal march to Sevastopol, the capital of the Crimea, with 50,000 men. The 35-mile (56 km) traverse took a year of fighting against the Russians. Major battles along the way were Alma (September 1854), Balaklava (October 1854), Inkerman (November 1854), Tchernaya (August 1855), Redan (September 1855), and, finally, Sevastopol (September 1855). During the siege, the allied navy undertook six bombardments of the capital, on 17 October 1854, and on 9 April 6 June 17 June 17 August, and 5 September 1855.

Marie Madeleine Marguerite d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers, 1676, after her imprisonment, portrait by Charles LeBrun Marie-Madeleine-Marguerite d'Aubray, Marquise de Brinvilliers (22 July 1630 – 17 July 1676) was a French murderer. 

Marie-Madeleine-Marguerite d'Aubray conspired with her lover, army captain Godin de Sainte-Croix to poison her father Antoine Dreux d'Aubray in 1666 and two of her brothers, Antoine d'Aubray and François d'Aubray, in 1670, in order to inherit their estates. There were also rumors that she had poisoned poor people during her visits to hospitals.

She appears to have used Tofana poison, whose recipe she seems to have learned from her lover, the Chevalier de Sainte Croix, who had learned it from Exili, an Italian poisoner, who had been his cellmate in the Bastille. Her accomplice Sainte-Croix had died of natural causes in 1672.

In 1675, she fled to England, Germany, and a convent, but was arrested in Liège. She was forced to confess and sentenced to death. On 17 July 1676, she was tortured with the water cure, that is, forced to drink sixteen pints of water (more than 9 litres). She was then beheaded and her body was burned at the stake.

Her trial and the attendant scandal launched the Affair of the Poisons, which saw several French aristocrats charged with poison and witchcraft.

Portrait of a young woman, assumed to be Maria de' Medici, 1594 Marie de' Medici (French: Marie de Médicis; 26 April 1575 – 3 July 1642) was Queen of France as the second wife of King Henry IV of France, of the House of Bourbon. She herself was a member of the wealthy and powerful House of Medici. Following the assassination of her husband in 1610, which occurred the day after her coronation, she acted as regent for her son, King Louis XIII of France, until he came of age. She was noted for her ceaseless political intrigues at the French court and extensive artistic patronage.

Francs-tireurs and Allied paratroopers reporting on the situation during the Battle of Normandy in 1944 Francs-tireurs—literally "free shooters"—was used to describe irregular military formations deployed by France during the early stages of the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). The term was revived and used by partisans to name two major French Resistance movements set up to fight against the Germans during World War II.

It is sometimes used to refer more generally to guerrilla fighters who operate outside the laws of war.