tywinllannister:

→ The myth of a woman.

marthajefferson:

history meme: 01/10 moments | Mozart and Beethoven meeting, 1787

The famous meeting would have occured in Mozart’s home in Vienna in March or April of 1787. The house is a rather famous one, with many great events in the history of music having taken place there (it was there that Haydn is said to have praised Mozart in front of his father, it was there almost a century later that Julius Epstein referred to Johannes Brahms as “the heir of Beethoven”, and there Mozart wrote his operas “The Marriage of Figaro” and “Don Giovanni” ). Exactly how the meeting went is unknown. Some believe that a young 16 years old Beethoven did meet Mozart and impressed the older composer with his budding talent, eliciting even a comment from Mozart to his wife Constanza “Remember that boy’s name. One day you will hear it often”. But others believe that Mozart was not impressed and actually rejected Beethoven as a student. And still others say they never met. 
But Beethoven did want to study composition with Mozart, and was unable to stay more than a few weeks in Vienna when he found out his mother was dying in Bonn, so they could never meet after 1787.

 history meme. seven pairings: queen victoria and prince albert.
She was an 18-year-old young woman who had just become Queen of England in 1837. He was her cousin and they married in 1840. Queen Victoria was most pleased with her new husband. She wrote to her uncle Leopold thanking him “for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me in the person of dear Albert. “He possesses every quality that can be desired to make me perfectly happy.” Berkshire historian Jane Walton says: “He had actually been her right-hand man, he had helped with all the business, he’d taken the load of monarchy off her shoulders to a certain extent. “He devoted himself to sorting out the Royal finances, so much so they could afford to buy Osborne House - a home of their own that was their private residence.” For 21 years they lived in close harmony and had a family of nine children, many of whom married into the European monarchy. Prince Albert died of typhoid at Windsor on 14 December 1861. Victoria was overwhelmed by grief and remained in mourning until the end of her life. Cliveden in Berkshire offered some peace and quiet during political difficulties, such as when the Second Reform Act was going through the House Of Commons in 1867. She would arrive at Cliveden with a 90-strong entourage and a huge portrait of Albert, which she positioned on an easel at the end of the bed she stayed in, and a smaller portrait by her pillow. Jane says: “The one by her pillow was actually a portrait of Albert sleeping, so when she woke up it was as if Albert was still there.” (x)

lucreza:

history meme | five assassinations ∙ archduke franz ferdinand (june 28, 1914)

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Bosnia, on their wedding anniversary set off a rapid chain of events. Austria-Hungary, like many in countries around the world, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the question of Slav nationalism once and for all. As Russia supported Serbia, an Austro-Hungarian declaration of war was delayed until its leaders received assurances from German leader, Kaiser Wilhelm, that Germany would support their cause in the event of a Russian intervention–which would likely involve Russia’s ally, France, and possibly Britain as well. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers collapsed. Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun. [x]

history meme. five assassinations: Julius Caesar, by Senators of Rome
15 MARCH 44BC. On the Ides of March, Julius Caesar entered the Senate. There he was stabbed to death by around forty senators, members of the ruling class and paragons of education and intellect in the society of Ancient Rome. Only twenty-one names of these conspirators, self-styled as “The Liberators”, survive history and nearly all of them staunchly defended the so-called sancitity of the Republic threatened, allegedly, by the quick rise to tyrannical power of Julius Caesar. However, the death of the “tyrant” had also led to the end of the Republic for which he was killed. Civil war broke out, with Mark Antony on one side and Octavian, Caesar’s legal heir, on the other. Eventually, Mark Antony fled to Egypt, where he would be defeated by Octavian. Octavian became Augustus, the first Emperor and founder of the Roman Empire, and ushered in the era of Pax Romana.

Anne Boleyn, 1501-19 May 1536

“No English Queen has made more impact on the history of the nation than Anne Boleyn, and few have been so persistently maligned.”

tywinllannister:

→An ode to Marie Antoinette//Beware the long personal post:

Marie Antoinette means a lot to me personally. and here is why:
 During this summer (2012) , I failed for the second time at my art school, and so I couldn’t re try there (it is the law) and I was devastated, I really felt like a failure, I hated myself, and I was truly depressed. One day I was on tumblr and saw a Marie Antoinette edit (from the 2006 movie) I had seen the movie ages ago, and hadn’t seen it since then. So I found it and rewatched it, that’s where my growing interest started. I’m an history lover, interested in Tudor history and Modern Times in general,I browsed the Marie Antoinette tag and discovered many interesting blogs such as vivelareine or tinylibrarian,  and decided to buy a book on the subject to learn more, I brought Fraser’s, which is a good read, and from then on  I understood much more about this woman who made history than all the cliché I had been served at school, tv, and society in general for all my years, I have read many more books since then, on her and her entourage…I would recommand Simone Bertiere’s biographie, personally it was my favorite. Marie Antoinette made me realize that I truly loved history, and that I had already read many historical books, and that maybe I could change paths and do better somewhere else, somewhere i belonged. I am now studying History at university and doing well. So in a way, she gave me back hope, and the confidence I had lost. So when I read in the Marie Antoinette tags things like ” she deserved what happened to her”, “insensitive bitch had it coming with that sentence (aka let them eat cake = something she never said , it is an historical fact) or when I read that redpassion says horrible allegations that she ruined Louis and probably aborted Sophie and that killed the baby,(…) I cannot contain my rage… If you type Marie Antoinette in tumblr or google, you will find mostly posts/articles about fashion/pretty things and let them eat cake related things. And yet she was much more than all those things that have nothing to do with her. People remember her for the flamboyant young girl she once was but always forget the poignant woman who tried everything to save her family, people remember her for the infamous “let them eat cake quote” which she never said when they forget that this woman when accused of the worst crime possible said ” I have not answerered, because Nature refuses to answer such a charge brought against a Mother; I appeal to all the mothers that are here”. The once queen of France is remembered as a frivolous young woman, associated since Coppola’s biopic with macaroons, champagne and pink color, cake, shoes and fashion, was actually a woman who went threw not only falling from grace, but had to endure humiliations, losing her king, her husband, the father of her children, was separated from her children and became a shadow of the picture media expose her as. She was a political help to the king in later years and did everything she could to preserve her people and what she believed to be right. Marie Antoinette was not without flaws, but she was not the insensitive and frivolous woman they want us to think she was. For me she will always be meaning of hope , for she opened my eyes and helped me in a most difficult time in my life.

animula, vagula, blandula
hospes comesque corporis
quae nunc abibis in loca
pallidula, rigida, nudula,
nec, ut soles, dabis iocos…

history meme ∙ (2/7) pairings ∙ hadrian & antinous

Hadrian had a close relationship with a Bithynian Greek youth, Antinous, which was most likely sexual. During a journey on the Nile he lost Antinous, his favourite, and for this youth he wept like a woman. Concerning this incident there are varying rumours; for some claim that he had devoted himself to death for Hadrian, and others — what both his beauty and Hadrian’s sensuality suggest. But however this may be, the Greeks deified him at Hadrian’s request, and declared that oracles were given through his agency, but these, it is commonly asserted, were composed by Hadrian himself. Antinous drowned in 130. Deeply saddened, Hadrian founded the Egyptian city of Antinopolis in his memory, and had Antinous deified – an unprecedented honour for one not of the ruling family. The cult of Antinous became very popular in the Greek-speaking world. (requested by anon)

history meme ∙ 5 Women: (1/5)  Adeline Virginia Woolf

Adeline Virginia Woolf (/ˈwʊlf/; 25 January 1882 – 28 March 1941) was an English writer, and one of the foremost modernists of the twentieth century. During the interwar period, Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a central figure in the influential Bloomsbury Group of intellectuals. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927) and Orlando (1928), and the book-length essay A Room of One’s Own (1929), with its famous dictum, “A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.” (x)

History meme:  3 men -  ALCIBIADES was an Athenian general (ca. 450-404 B.C.) who served Athens and its enemies alike and caused damage to every state that employed him.

Alcibiades was the son of a brilliant but unstable politician; wealthy, handsome, and aristocratic, he was brought up in the house of his guardian, Pericles, and groomed for a political career. He had every possible advantage and in addition possessed exceptional charm and ability as a conversationalist, thinker, and diplomat. Entering politics in the wartime atmosphere of the Peloponnesian War, he represented youth and became an intimate of the teacher of young men, Socrates. In 420 B.C., during an uneasy peace with Sparta, by clever tactics he drove Athens into an alliance against Sparta which failed completely and caused Athens to conduct an ostracism. Even in the permissive society of his day, Alcibiades became known for his extravagant and reckless behavior, and the distrust he aroused wrecked his career. In 415 B.C. he was the prime mover of the proposal to attack Syracuse and, together with Nicias and Lamachus, commanded the naval expedition to Sicily. He was soon recalled on charges of having profaned the Mysteries and of having mutilated religious statues (hermae) in a drunken spree on the eve of the fleet’s departure. Alcibiades escaped, reached Sparta, and became a Spartan military adviser. Once there, he fell into disfavor with the Spartan king whose wife he seduced. Subsequently he transferred his services to Persia and then to Athenian antidemocratic extremists, with whom he planned a coup d’etat in Athens. When he failed to obtain Persia’s aid, they discontinued to support him and seized power in Athens without him. After the Peloponnesian War, Sparta demanded his head, and he was assassinated while a fugitive in Phrygia. 

lauranoncrede:

The pass Cesare Borgia had made for Leonardo da Vinci