Even the best laid plans for an assassination can go awry, as one of the most famous military commanders of the Middle Ages, Vlad III, realized when he attempted to cut off the Ottoman Empire at the head. The Night Attack at Targoviste came at the end of a particularly violent struggle between the …
Anka Obrenović, who was also called Ana, was self-confident and fearless. She loved her last name and luxury. Because of her love of Viennese fashion, she was nicknamed “Anka Pomodarka”. She was killed in 1868 in the Topčider forest during the assassination of Mihailo Obrenović, and it is little known that she tried to protect …
A tomb now suffices him for whom the world was not enough. — epitaph on the tomb of Alexander the Great Kings who conquer huge swathes of the known world before they are in their mid-thirties generally don’t die outside of battle, so it should come as no surprise that the rumors of poisoning began …
The murder of the queen had been represented to me as a deed lawful and meritorious. — Anthony Babington, executed for his part in the Babington Plot to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I of England It’s a strange turn of events that when assassinations are discussed, the discussion rarely includes the Hungarian Queen Elizabeth of Bosnia; …
Madagascar had a king. And then they didn’t. But maybe they still did. To this day no one is entirely sure. It begins with Madagascar’s Queen Ranavalona, who through bloody conquest managed to unite most of the island under her rule while also successfully keeping Europe at bay. The only problem was that to accomplish …
My Dear Heart: Do not be too sorrowful and upset on account of this letter. God’s will be done. Tomorrow at ten they will cut off my head and your brother’s, too. Today we pardoned each other with all our heart. Therefor I ponder this letter and ask you for everlasting forgiveness. If I have …
I have many sins and the merciful God will forgive me, but because I killed that woman with my own hand I’m afraid he will never! — Princess Ljubica on her deathbed. At the beginning of the 1800s Serbia began its heaviest push for independence from the Ottoman Empire. Two families dominated the fight on …
Whether Geraldine Marget Virginia Olga Maria Apponyi de Nagy-Appony knew what she was getting into when she agreed to the quickly offered marriage proposal of the eccentric King Zog I of Albania could be discussed ad infinitum. When they married she did not speak Albanian, nor did she know much about the country… or her …
“I am the wife of a Romanov interned at Alapayevsk, and I am also the daughter of the King of Serbia. As a relative of the Emperor, I have come to get news of him and ask to be allowed to see him.” Jelena of Serbia stood at the main gate of Ipatiev House in …
The richest man in the world, of all time, came from Africa. Many people know the story of Mansa Musa, the rule of the Empire of Mali, who spent so much gold during his journey to Hajj that the price of gold was devalued for several years after he went home. Lesser known is …
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