Emperor Meiji the Great Got Off To A Rough Start

In the early years of the Meiji Reforms, Mutsuhito aka Emperor Meiji was paraded across the country quite often – 271 times in the first decade of his reign – in order to connect him with his subjects. Before the propoganda campaign, many did not even know that they had an emperor. Erwin von Bälz, a German physician who came to Japan to teach Western medicine, noted in his diary in 1880 that it was distressing to see “how little interest the populace take in their ruler.” People had to be coerced to celebrate Mutsuhito’s birthday: “Only when the police insist on it are houses decorated with flags. In default of this, houseowners do the minimum.”

Meet Prince Konoe, a Japanese politician who was born to aristocratic privilege yet was wildly popular with the masses. A highly educated man, his translation of an Oscar Wilde essay to Japanese was banned for being dangerous to public order – yet he served as Prime Minister twice. Keep reading

A Visual History of Italian Reunification

I had some fun putting together a slideshow of paintings and engravings done around the time of the Risorgimento, or “the Resurgence” which show the history of how Italy became a single kingdom, under local rule, in the course of just 22 years and three Wars of Independence. 

“Paul Georg von Möllendorff 穆麟德 (17 February 1847 in Zehdenick, Prussia – 20 April 1901 in Ningbo, China) was a German linguist and diplomat. Möllendorff is mostly known for his service as an adviser to the Korean king Gojong in the late nineteenth century and for his contributions to Sinology. Möllendorff is also known for having created a system for romanizing the Manchu language.” - Wikipedia page

Coronation Exhibition in Buckingham Palace celebrating the 60th anniversary of Her Majesty The Queens Coronation on July 25, 2013 in London, England. The exhibition, ‘The Queens Coronation 1953’, brings together an unprecedented array of dresses, uniforms and robes worn at the historic event. In addition, paintings, objects and works of art relating to the Coronation are also on display.

Fath Ali Shah (1834-1772 AD)

Fat′h Ali Shah was the son of Hossein Qoli Khan Qajar, brother of Agha Mohammad Khan. He was governor of Fars when his uncle was assassinated in 1797. Fat′h Ali shah’s real name was “Bābā Khān" but he was crowned as Fat′h Ali Shah. He became suspicious of his chancellor Hajji Ebrahim Khan Kalantar and ordered his execution. Hajji Ebrahim Khan had been chancellor to Zand and Qajar rulers for some fifteen years.

Much of his reign was marked by the resurgence of Persian arts and painting, as well as a deeply elaborate court culture with extremely rigid etiquette. In particular during his reign, portraiture and large-scale oil painting reached a height previously unknown under any other Islamic dynasty, largely due to his personal patronage.

Fat′h Ali also ordered the creation of much royal regalia, including coronations chairs, “Takht-e-Tâvoos" (Persian: تخت طاووس‎) or Peacock throne and “Takht-e-Nāderī" (Persian: تخت نادری‎) or Naderi throne, which was also used by later kings, and the “Tāj-i-Kīyānī" (Persian: تاج كيانى‎), or Kiani Crown, a modification of the crown of the same name created by his uncle Agha Mohammad Khan. This, like most of his regalia, was studded with a large number of pearls and gems.

In 1797, he was given a complete set of the Britannica’s 3rd edition, which he read completely; after this feat, he extended his royal title to include “Most Formidable Lord and Master of the Encyclopædia Britannica."[1]

Tamar of Georgia (circa 1160-1213)

Art by Jacquie Jeanes (tumblr, website)

Tamar (თამარი) was the first woman to rule the nation of Georgia.  She was proclaimed heir apparent and co-ruler by her father George III in 1178. Despite significant opposition from the aristocracy, Tamar was crowned king* after her father’s death in 1184.   

The decline of the neighboring Seljuqids created a power vacuum in the region and Tamar built on the successes of her predecessors to expand the Georgian Empire.  At its zenith, the Georgian Empire including large parts of present-day Azerbaijan, Armenia, and eastern Turkey.  With this prosperity, Georgia entered a cultural golden age.  Tbilisi, Georgia’s capitol, became a center of trade with a diverse mix of Caucasian, Byzantine  Persian, and Arabic cultures.  Romantic poetry thrived and it was during this period that Shota Rustaveli composed Georgia’s national poem “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin.”  Tamar was a devout Christian and eventually canonized by the Orthodox Church.  During her reign, a number of cathedrals were built in the region.    

Tamar married twice.  Her first husband, Prince Yuri of Novgorod, was chosen by the Georgian court and the marriage ended in divorce.  After the divorce, Yuri attempted a coup but was quickly defeated.  Tamar chose her second husband, Prince David Soslan of Alania.  David was an excellent military commander and he became one of Tamar’s closest advisors.  Together they had two children, George and Rusudan, both of whom eventually ruled Georgia.

Like her father, Tamar named her oldest child co-ruler while he was still a teenager.  George IV ruled for only ten years after Tamar’s death.  The Mongols were on the move and they attacked Georgia in the 1220s, leaving George IV severely wounded.  Tamar’s daughter Rusudan took the throne after George IV’s death in 1223, but she lacked her mother’s skill and good fortune.  Georgia fell, first to the Khwarezmians, then to the Mongols.  Several of Tamar’s descendants attempted to hold Georgia together but for the bulk of the next 700 years, Georgia existed as a province or vassal state of some larger empire: Mongol, Persian, Ottoman, Russian, or Soviet. 

*A number of queen regents were crowned king to signify that they were rulers rather than consorts.  Other examples include Hatsheput of Egypt and Maria Teresa of Austro-Hungary. 

Louise Marie-Thérèse also known as The Negroid Nun of Moret (16 November 1664 - 1732 in Moret-sur-Loing) was a French nun, the object of a gossip story in the 18th century, where she is pointed out as the daughter of the Queen of France, Maria Theresa of Spain.

The Black Nun of Moret, Louise Marie-Thérèse (1664–1732) was a Benedictine nun in the abbey of Moret-sur-Loing. She was called the “Mauresse de Moret", and a portrait of her exists in the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève in Paris. The research done by the Société de l’histoire de Paris et d’Ile-de-France, published in 1924 by Honoré Champion éditions, concluded that this pastel portrait was painted around 1680 by the same hand which painted the series of twenty-two pastel portraits of Kings of France, from Louis IX to Louis XIV, between 1681 to 1683 on the initiative of Father Claude Du Molinet (1620–1687), librarian of Sainte Geneviève abbey. No less than 6 memorialists have devoted paragraphs to her: she is mentioned in the memoirs of Madame de Maintenon, the Grande Mademoiselle, Madame de Montespan (whose so-called memoirs were written by Philippe Musoni years after Montespan’s death), Duke of Saint-Simon, Voltaire and Cardinal Dubois (who is probably not the author of his own Memoirs).

Shortly after the death of the French Queen Maria Theresa of Spain in 1683, wife of Louis XIV, courtiers pointed out this woman as the black daughter the Queen allegedly once gave birth to.

La Grande Mademoiselle tells that the child could be of the black page Nabo, of whom the Queen was very fond. The adultery thesis is not considered likely, as the Queen was a very pious woman, and there is no knowledge of even the slightest mistake of hers. It would be very difficult in Versailles to have a liaison and even to give birth in secret. Every Royal birth happened in public, in the Queen’s bedchambers, with all courtiers present as witnesses. The little princess Marie-Anne was born (16 November 1664) with a dark skin caused by cyanosis, and died shortly after birth (26 December 1664). Some say that the baby remained black, and had been changed with a dead girl, to avoid scandal. According to Madame, wife of Louis XIV’s brother, her husband said that the child was not black at all but very ugly. In any case, although the story about the black daughter of Maria Theresa is unconfirmed, it was still persistent and believed by many.

(Source: BBC News)

Bed attributed to  Louis Delanois

Louis XV era

Former Lagerfeld collection

From New France, especially from the Saint Laurent region, the Great Lakes, and the Mississippi valley, objects and furniture from Native Americans were brought to France. Most of them were diplomatic gifts exchanged when an alliance was formed or spoils of war.

Brought by missionaries, governors, sailors, or soldiers, these objects were offered to the King of France or gathered by nobles in “cabinets de curiosités”, collections which aimed to reunite objects considered as ‘strange’ or ‘exotic’.

The Royal collection was conserved in the royal “cabinet des curiosités” in the 16th century, and later in the Jardin des Plantes created in 1626 by Louis XIII. Others could be found in Versailles, for the education of the princes.

In June 1170,  Henry II was crowned the Young King at York. This was a breach of Canterbury’s privilege of coronation, and in November 1170 Becket excommunicated those who had crowned King Henry. Becket continued to excommunicate his opponents in the church, the news of which also reached Henry.

Upon hearing reports of Becket’s actions, Henry is said to have uttered words that were interpreted by his men as wishing Becket killed. The king’s exact words are in doubt and several versions have been reported. The most commonly quoted, as handed down by “oral tradition”, is “Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?”

Whatever Henry said, it was interpreted as a royal command, and four knights, Reginald fitzUrse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy, and Richard le Breton, set out to confront the Archbishop of Canterbury.

On 29 December 1170 they arrived at Canterbury. According to accounts left by the monk Gervase of Canterbury and eyewitness Edward Grim, they placed their weapons under a tree outside the cathedral and hid their mail armour under cloaks before entering to challenge Becket. The knights informed Becket he was to go to Winchester to give an account of his actions, but Becket refused. It was not until Becket refused their demands to submit to the king’s will that they retrieved their weapons and rushed back inside for the killing. Becket, meanwhile, proceeded to the main hall for vespers. The four knights, wielding drawn swords, caught up with him in a spot near a door to the monastic cloister, the stairs into the crypt, and the stairs leading up into the quire of the cathedral, where the monks were chanting vespers.

Several contemporary accounts of what happened next exist; of particular note is that of Edward Grim, who was himself wounded in the attack. This is part of the account from Edward Grim:

via

Read more about Thomas Becket and his relationship with King Henry II here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/middle_ages/becket_01.shtml

David and Bertie

On this day, 10th December, 1936, a constitutional crisis in the British Empire was caused by King-Emperor Edward VIII’s proposal to marry Wallis Simpson, an American socialite who was divorced from her first husband and was pursuing a divorce of her second.

The marriage was opposed by the governments of the United Kingdom and the autonomous Dominions of the British Commonwealth. Religious, legal, political, and moral objections were raised. As British monarch, Edward was the nominal head of the Church of England, which did not allow divorced people to remarry if their ex-spouses were still alive; so it was widely believed that Edward could not marry Wallis Simpson and remain on the throne. He was succeeded by his brother Albert, who took the regnal name George VI.

King Frederick VIII of Denmark and Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. 

Doña Urraca by Carlos Múgica y Pérez (1857), Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Urraca of León and Castile (1079-1126) was the only Spanish woman of the medieval period to rule on her own.  

Romanov Matryoshka Doll.

Two Grisaille Panels, 1320–1324 French; Paris, from the Chapel of Saint-Louis, north aisle, royal abbey of Saint-Denis Pot-metal and white glass, silver stain

Each 23 1/2 x 15 1/4 in. (59.7 x 38.7 cm) The Cloisters Collection, 1982 (1982.433.3,4)

@credits

Traditionally thought to have come from the Cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris, this pair of grisaille panels is now attributed to the Chapel of Saint-Louis at the royal abbey of Saint-Denis. Their distinctive feature, the inclusion of the small fleurs-de-lis, which sprout, budlike, from the stems of the foliage, is unique to these panels and to four other related examples—a detail that may well indicate that the glass was created for a royal foundation. The most likely candidate is Saint-Denis, the royal necropolis, where a nave chapel dedicated to Louis IX—who was canonized as Saint Louis in 1297—was completed by 1324. The rebuilding of the abbey church began shortly after Louis ascended to the throne and continued throughout most of his reign (1226–70).