There ’s a cause Eleanor of Aquitaine is a legend .
As you (my adoring fans)probably already know, I am a little fiend when it comes to history knowledge (and all thejuicy gossipandfeudsone learns about when one cracks open a history book). Lucky for all of us, I’ve found a constructive outlet for all my newfound knowledge: this gloriouspost series, where I get to share my messy, fun, and totally random collection of history facts with all of you. So, without further ado, here are eight history facts I’ve recently learned that I feel the need to share with you in this beautiful month of April:
1.The real-life Rhaenyra Targaryen: England’s first female ruler, Empress Matilda, predates its first official queen (Mary I) by some 400 years, but she never got the title of capital-Q Queen.
2.The American Civil War started and ended at the same man’s house — kind of.
3.ThoseOrcas attacking boatsin the Strait of Gibraltar are hardly the first ‘killer whales’ of their ilk. InHistory of the Wars,the historian Procopius wrote about a whale called Porphyrios, who spent over50 yearsharassing “Byzantium and the towns about it"and terrorizing seafarers.
4.An accidental discovery uncovered our earliest-ever reference to a “red herring” from a book of Jester’s jokes discovered in Scotland in 2023.
5.Abraham Lincoln may have had a dream predicting his own assassination three days before it happened.
6.In the Second Battle of Panipat, thelast Hindu emperor of India, Hemu, was on the brink of defeating the Mughal Empire when a chance arrowpierced his eye. Thinking he was dead, his army “panicked, and dispersed.”
7.With the knowledge that Winston Churchill had a distinct sweet tooth, the Nazi Party onceattempted to assassinate him via exploding chocolate bar.
8.And finally: At age 14, a young Eleanor of Aquitaine became “the richest and most desirable heiress in Europe,” and “the greatest heiress in the known world.” By birth, she was the Duchess of Aquitaine in her own right; and she went on to marry not one but two kings (one of whom was Empress Matilda’s son, Henry).
